What do powerlifters sniff before lifting

As a powerlifter, having greater oxygen flow is key to success! The more oxygen you breathe in, the more oxygen flows in your bloodstream. And, the more oxygen in your bloodstream, the more energy that your muscles have.

With more energy in the form of oxygen, your muscles contract harder and produce greater amounts of force. As a powerlifter, this is important because you want to be able to exert as much force as possible during your lifts! Not only that, but having highly oxygenated muscles can help reduce muscle soreness. Second, sniffing ammonia smelling salts increases your breathing rate. Breathing rate is the number of times you complete a full inhale and exhale in a certain amount of time.

Having a high breathing rate has several side effects on the body, including making you more alert and focused. Like we mentioned above, being more alert and focused allows you to drown out nerves and negative feelings.

As a powerlifter in competition, being more focused on the task at hand helps you call upon your strength reserves when you need them most! Lastly, sniffing ammonia smelling salts activates your fight or flight response. Also known as an acute stress response, fight or flight usually activates when you encounter a scary, stressful, or unfamiliar situation.

For example, if you are about to take a challenging exam or make a terrifying public speech, your body goes into fight or flight mode. It causes your heart rate to spike and your body to increase its output of the adrenaline hormone.

As a result, you might feel your heart pounding, start sweating, or feel a huge boost of energy. Your body goes into fight or flight mode thanks to human evolution. Millions of years ago, our human ancestors were far more vulnerable to dangerous and life-threatening situations than we are today.

Because of the imminent dangers, their bodies were equipped with fight or flight mode to detect potential threats in the environment. When fight or flight mode went off, it signalled that there was some potentially dangerous threat in the area and that they should get out of the situation.

It aroused them so that they would become aware of it, then it would boost their energy so that they could get out of the situation as fast as possible. It goes off when you are in a situation where your brain interprets that there is a threat to your life. Even if the threat is not totally valid, it still goes off! As a powerlifter, that fight or flight response can come in handy! And, thankfully, sniffing ammonia has been shown to activate it in your brain. When it goes off, that extra adrenaline pumping through your system can help take your lifting to the next level!

It gives you a rush of energy that you can harness and put into your lifting. Therefore, if you have high levels of the hormone running through your system, you will be able to lift heavier weights than you would without it! Feeling any less skeptical about ammonia smelling salts now?

Even though some research shows that sniffing smelling salts can help improve athletic performance, can the credit go to the ammonia itself? Or, is this just another case of the placebo effect? However, the treatment actually has no active substance and therefore has no real treatment effect.

Placebos are commonly used in scientific drug testing experiments. For example, a scientist might be studying a new drug that is used to treat headaches. The scientists splits a group of test subjects in half. The first group of subjects takes the new drug, and the second group takes the placebo. The new drug and placebo look exactly the same, and neither of the two groups knows that the second group is taking a placebo.

After taking the medication, the scientist then asks all of the subjects if their headache improved. A post shared by Michelle michiiikim. An international survey among powerlifters in showed that out of the 3 lifts, ammonia is most commonly used on the deadlift and more specifically on second or third attempts.

Meaning, its use among powerlifters is typically reserved for when stakes are high. Does this mean you should be sniffing ammonia while lifting? Much like how some lifters prefer metal music and back slaps while others prefer a mellow environment and soft music, it just comes down to what gets you in the zone. Your gym partner may love the effects of ammonia while you may be repulsed by them. How you react after a whiff of ammonia can really only be answered by being open to trying it out for yourself.

Just make sure you have a trustworthy person around to show you how to use it responsibly. Ammonia products are relatively cheap and accessible and a quick Google search will give you several options, but for your convenience, here are 3 commonly used products used among lifters:. Smelling salts are considered safe for adults and have been shown to have little to no adverse effects because the concentration of ammonia is too low of a dose to be toxic with occasional use.

Be mindful that inappropriate use can burn your airways and may cause very watery eyes. Ammonia inhalants should be always kept at least 4 inches away from your nose and away from your eyes. Time the inhalation as close as possible to the moment you lift the weight as the effects are short lived and will wear off relatively quickly.

While ammonia is allowed for use as a stimulant in powerlifting competitions, depending on what federation of powerlifting you compete in, there may be a rule regarding when you sniff it. The International Powerlifting Federation IPF specifically asks that ammonia not be used within the view of the public. Many lifters choose to sniff smelling salts, which are made mainly from ammonium carbonate.

This chemical is combined with water and ethanol, to provide an easy way to consume them, either in capsules that you break open, or powder form in a bottle.

Historically, smelling salts were made up of a combination of ammonium carbonate and perfume. Ammonium carbonate is the active ingredient that makes smelling salts work, and perfume was added to make them smell not so horrible. During these past times, smelling salts were used to wake up people that had passed out. Either way, the main ingredient has always been ammonium carbonate.

Today, we have the ability to make this chemical in laboratories, but in the past, we actually got ammonium carbonate from the hooves and horns of deer! In the present, the production of smelling salts is much more simple. Scientists create the ammonium carbonate in a lab and combine it with water and ethanol. Source Source. As I mentioned earlier, smelling salts give you adrenaline.

According to a professor from the University of Washington, most humans can lift up to times their body-weight. Fear of injury, pain, and fatigue all limit your strength. This is where adrenaline comes in. Getting a surge of adrenaline from smelling salts, or from anything for that matter, causes you to forget about fear and pain for a short time, by going into fight or flight.

Once you get past these worries, you can lift an incredible amount of weight. To put it simply, your body and muscles are capable of doing a lot more than you would ever think, but fear and pain limit this hidden strength severely.

Smelling salts give you adrenaline, which allows you to overcome these fears and feelings, and lift a lot of weight. How can you compete when other lifters are able to overcome their pain, fatigue, and subconscious fear of injury? You will be lifting more weight with ammonia, which in turn does end up making you stronger. This might get complicated, so stick with me. Ammonia gas, which is the key component in smelling salts, is toxic in large amounts.

When ammonia gets into your nose, it irritates your nerves. Through a large chain of events, this causes your breathing rate to increase, which causes your heart rate to increase, which jump starts your sympathetic nervous system. As you learned earlier, this fight or flight effect is responsible for supplying your brain with adrenaline.