If we believe the marketing surrounding athletic performance enhancing supplements, miracles occur all the time. Only a few dollars worth of their latest magic bullets are what is keeping you from spectacular athletic success! Or so the promotions say.
The fact that products of questionable abilities continue to be marketed indicates that many of us have indulged at least a few dollars in such promises. Looking at this market for athletic performance enhancement calls for some critical thought.
The Good, the Bad, and the Meh
As a regular consumer of performance enhancing supplements, I can attest to the usefulness of many products. Electrolyte replacement and digestible sugar forms, consumed during prolonged exercise, have fueled my workouts for years.
Was there a standout product that catapulted my stats into elite realms?
Marketing notwithstanding – no. I am just an athlete trying to improve and remain competitive.
Is it all just hype?
Thankfully, also no.
- Products provide at least some of what they advertise – even if it is only a placebo effect. (If you believe it helps you, it can.) If products do not work at all, sales will not support the product.
- The scientific research that accompanies products can support, however tenuously, product claims. As with ANY scientific research, the validity of any conclusions should be critically evaluated. If it sounds too good to be true, …
- Whether a product will work for a given athlete or event comes not from hype, but from the oldest of scientific procedures – trial and error.
Athletic Performance Miracles Anyone?
Who gets to achieve those astounding results of athletic performance using these products?
The answer, unsurprisingly, tends to be the elite performing athletes. Those gifted individuals with freaky genetics that provide them with physical capabilities well above the more modest abilities of most of us.
Training and supplements take an athlete only so far. That really high end performance is reserved for those with the necessary physiology to eke out those small percentage but significant gains.
This is not to say that those of us with more common physiology cannot improve using aids. The gains may just be less dramatic.
Personality Profiles
Physiology to the side for the moment, who can best benefit from the marginal gains of these performance products?
Surprisingly, success may be influenced by your personality. Are you the type of person that is self-motivated or do you need influence from outside to accomplish tasks?
The self-motivated type of personality has been described as having an internal locus of control. Such personalities are characterized as exerting power over their lives, as opposed to an external locus of control in which individuals view things outside of themselves as exerting control over their lives.
If you are waiting for that magical transformation of performance to come just from the enhancements you buy, you will likely be disappointed.
To Illustrate the Point
An apocryphal story I heard years ago concerned a pro cycling race in which two competitors were racing in the mountains during summer. A dropped water bottle by one rider left him short, while his competitor continued to drink from his own bottle. As the contest continued, the rider missing the bottle started to fade and eventually lost the race.
After the event, the winner shared that he had run out of water at about the same time as the other rider, but he continued to simulate drinking because he knew the effect it would have on the other rider.
An internal locus of control guided influence over an external locus of control. Who says psychology in sports cannot be fun?
Realistic Expectations
In review, nothing miraculous will happen in your athletic performance if you use marketed enhancements. Improvements in performance can be anticipated but do not be disappointed if that new sports drink has all the ergonomic effects of water.
Experiment with different products. Not for the miracles that are promised but for the usefulness of each formulation.
Surviving the Heat
Living in the Southern California desert, I am always interested in products with a balance of salts, sugars, and sometimes protein to help me survive workouts in the heat. As new formulations come to market, I will experiment to find out if there is any benefit for me.
Different products work best for different people/physiologies. Try some to find out what works best for you. If there was just one best product, there would only be one on the market.
Seek the things that work for you and always take sales pitches with a grain of salt. No pun intended. I think.
“Bad instructors teach you what to think, worse ones teach you how to think, but the good ones teach you how important it is to learn to think for yourself.”
― Vincent H. O’Neil
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