Smelling chocolate helped men complete more reps without feeling more tired

Simply smelling chocolate helped men complete more leg extension repetitions without making the workout feel harder, with dark chocolate producing the strongest effect. The researchers think familiar food aromas may influence appetite and motivation by making the brain anticipate eating. Smelling chocolate helped men complete more reps without feeling more tired.

According to a new study published in Frontiers in Physiology, exposure to chocolate aromas before and during resistance exercise helped participants complete more repetitions without making the workout feel more difficult. "Exposing moderately trained men to chocolate odors right before and between sets of resistance exercise significantly increased their overall training volume without increasing their perceived exertion," said senior author Dr. Mohamed Nashrudin bin Naharudin, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Malaya.

"Seeing a substantial increase in repetitions without the athletes feeling like they were exerting themselves any harder is a fascinating psychobiological outcome." Testing Chocolate Scents During Exercise The study included 23 healthy men in their early to mid-20s who were moderately trained. Researchers separated them into three groups and exposed each group to one of three samples: liquified dark chocolate containing 90% cocoa, liquified milk chocolate containing 60% cocoa, or water as a control. "We know olfaction is powerfully wired into the brain’s appetite and emotion networks, but surprisingly, no study has systematically looked at the three-way interaction between smell, appetite, and actual resistance exercise capacity," said Nashrudin Naharudin.