Surprise, surprise, some ergogenic aids work differently for us than they do for the guys.
Research on female college athletes shows that more than 65 percent of them use some type of supplement at least once a month. I don’t know what the percentage is among performance-minded women outside of the collegiate ranks but based on my experience I’ll say it’s as high if not higher.
I am obviously not anti-supplement, since I use a few ergogenic aids like branched-chain amino acids, caffeine, and adaptogens myself. But I think it’s important for women to recognize that just as women have been traditionally understudied in sports science in general, we have been very understudied in the realm of ergogenic aids. Based on what we know about how women respond differently to strategies like intermittent fasting (previous Blog) and ketogenic diets, we should also take a closer look at how we might respond (or not) to sports supplements.
