From improving heart health to boosting mood, dark chocolate is often praised for its many health benefits. But what if you didn’t even have to eat it? A new study suggests that simply inhaling the aroma of dark chocolate before and during a workout could help improve exercise performance. Here’s everything you need to know about the surprising findings.
Can Sniffing Dark Chocolate Before Gym Enhance Your Performance?
According to a study published in Frontiers in Physiology, simply inhaling the aroma of dark chocolate before and during a workout may significantly improve muscular endurance, allowing people to perform more repetitions without consuming any calories.
As reported by Hindustan Times, researchers recruited 23 resistance-trained young men to examine how different scents affected performance during a leg-extension workout to failure.
After fasting overnight, the participants completed the exercise under three different conditions. Before each set and between sets, they inhaled one of three scents for 30 seconds: 90% dark chocolate, 60% milk chocolate, or water.
The results showed that participants who smelled 90% dark chocolate completed an average of 18 more leg-extension repetitions than those in the control group, which is roughly the equivalent of one additional full set.
Those who inhaled the aroma of 60% milk chocolate also performed better, completing an average of nine more repetitions than the control group.
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Here’s All You Need To Know About This
But how can simply smelling dark chocolate improve workout performance? Researchers say the exact biological mechanism is still unclear. However, they believe the aroma triggers the cephalic phase response, the body’s natural reaction to the sight or smell of food, which prepares it for eating.
According to the study, the aroma of 90% dark chocolate improved performance mainly by reducing hunger and increasing feelings of fullness. Researchers believe this greater sense of satiety may have helped participants push through more repetitions during their workout.
However, Marie-Eve Mathieu, PhD, a researcher at the Université de Montréal who was not involved in the study, cautioned that the improvement was modest. She also noted that the study was small and included only young, experienced male lifters, so more research is needed to determine whether the findings apply to women or other types of workouts.
Also Read: 5 Benefits Of Eating Dark Chocolate You Probably Didn’t Know About
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FAQs
Can smelling dark chocolate improve workout performance?
A recent study suggests that inhaling the aroma of dark chocolate before and during a workout may help improve muscular endurance and allow people to perform more repetitions during resistance training.
Do you have to eat dark chocolate to get the benefits?
According to the study, participants experienced improved performance by smelling dark chocolate alone. However, more research is needed to confirm these findings.
How does the smell of dark chocolate affect the body?
Researchers believe the aroma may trigger the cephalic phase response, the body's anticipatory reaction to the sight or smell of food, which could influence appetite and exercise performance.