Smell Chocolate, Lift More? Science Says Yes: Milky Way News

EARTH, Laniakea Supercluster—Your nose might be the most underrated muscle at the gym.

A new study from the University of Malaya found that sniffing chocolate before and between sets of leg extensions helped lifters crank out more reps, and dark chocolate beat milk chocolate. The results were published July 9 in Frontiers in Physiology. So while the pre-workout aisle is packed with neon powders, caffeine bombs and "proprietary blends," the research suggests chocolate you smell but never eat could be a simpler performance booster.

The team recruited 23 moderately trained men in their early to mid-20s. Each man fasted for at least 10 hours before his sessions. In a randomized, double-blind crossover trial, each one smelled three liquid samples on different occasions: 90% dark chocolate, 60% milk chocolate and plain water. Then he did leg extensions until exhaustion.

Compared with water, dark chocolate added about 18 reps and milk chocolate added about nine. Ratings of perceived exertion climbed as the sets went on but didn't differ between the three smells.

"Seeing a substantial increase in repetitions without the athletes feeling like they were exerting themselves any harder is a fascinating psychobiological outcome," Dr. Mohamed Nashrudin bin Naharudin, the study's senior author and an assistant professor in the university's Faculty of Sports and Exercise Science, said in a Frontiers news release.

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The two chocolates seem to work in different ways. Before exercise, the dark chocolate scent lowered participants' appetite ratings, while the milk chocolate scent mainly made the sniffing more pleasant.

"The dark chocolate scent serves as a learned cue for a rich, bitter, and highly satiating food, which essentially tricks the system into an anticipatory state of fullness," Naharudin said.

"Conversely, the sweeter milk chocolate scent acts more like a hedonic reward cue, enhancing training volume by creating a highly pleasant sensory environment rather than by shifting basic metabolic hunger signals."

Still, hold off on swapping your leg-day protein shake for a candy bar just yet. The sample was small and included only young men. The researchers didn't measure blood hormones or brain activity, and the smells may not have been equally strong.

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But for the chocolate haters out there, don’t fret. It may not be the only scent that works.

"We don't think chocolate is entirely unique, though it is a food cue with incredibly strong, universally recognized reward associations," Naharudin said.

Which means the real performance booster may not be chocolate at all, but whatever your brain has learned to treat as a reward.