Forget pre-workout supplements—scientists say a whiff of chocolate might do the trick instead.
A study found that inhaling the scent of chocolate before lifting weights might help you do more reps, even on an empty stomach.
The findings, published in Frontiers in Physiology, add to growing evidence that the brain—not just muscles and metabolism—plays a major role in athletic performance.
Exposing participants to chocolate odors right before and between sets “significantly increased their overall training volume” without participants reporting that the workout felt any harder, senior author Mohamed Nashrudin bin Naharudin, an assistant professor at the University of Malaya, said in a press statement.
Scent of Chocolate Makes Exertion Easier
Inhaling the scent of chocolate before and during resistance training increased performance while reducing perceived effort, the study found.
Researchers recruited 23 moderately trained, healthy men in their early to mid-20s and split them into three groups: one exposed to the scent of dark chocolate, one to milk chocolate, and a control group exposed to water. All participants fasted for at least 10 hours before performing sets of leg extensions.
Smelling dark chocolate containing 90 percent cocoa added around 18 more repetitions to participants’ leg extensions. Participants also reported feeling less hungry. Those who smelled milk chocolate with 60 percent cocoa increased repetitions by about nine, but did not report changes in hunger or fullness.
Darker Chocolate Had the Bigger Effect
Smelling food can create an expectation of eating it.
Your brain associates the smell of dark chocolate with a filling food, so smelling it may make you feel less hungry, Nashrudin bin Naharudin stated. Conversely, the sweeter smell of milk chocolate may act as a pleasant reward, making the workout environment more enjoyable and encouraging people to do more repetitions without directly reducing hunger. Because the study didn’t measure hormones or brain activity, the researchers say more work is needed to pin down the mechanism.
While chocolate is a strong and widely recognized reward, the researchers believe other familiar foods linked to satiety might have similar effects. They emphasized that the smell must be familiar and appealing to trigger the psychological and physiological responses that aid performance.
Psychological Effects of Scents
The effects observed are most likely related to psychological factors like motivation or mood, rather than direct physiological changes, Denise Chakoian, a Rhode Island-certified fitness trainer and owner of Core Cycle and Fitness LaGree, who wasn’t involved in the study, told The Epoch Times
“Smell has a direct connection to areas of the brain involved in emotion, memory, and motivation,” she said. “A familiar scent like chocolate can put someone in a more positive mindset before they even start exercising.”
That shift alone, she added, may help people push through a few extra repetitions.
“In this study, participants didn’t report feeling like the workout was harder, which suggests perception played an important role,” Chakoian noted, adding that this doesn’t mean there weren’t physiological changes—but the psychological effect may have been the bigger driver.
“It’s a good reminder that our brains influence physical performance more than we often realize,” she said.
Chakoian added that scent-based tricks aren’t a replacement for good nutrition, sleep, or training, but could be a useful extra tool, particularly on low-energy days when mental fatigue is more likely to cut a workout short.
Part of a Broader Pattern
This isn’t the first time researchers have linked scent to performance. A systematic review examined how scents like peppermint, ammonia, lavender, and citrus affected different types of physical activity.
For example, peppermint was linked to increased alertness and endurance, ammonia was used to stimulate alertness during high-intensity sports, lavender was thought to promote relaxation, and citrus scents were associated with improved mood and motivation.
Two studies included in the review showed positive effects on precision, with one finding that the scent of jasmine improved bowling scores by 26.5 percent. Another found that peppermint made dart players more consistent, and one study even found that the scent of lavender improved participants’ balance.
Chakoian said these findings point to a potential role for scent-based “tricks” to help people overcome mental barriers or fatigue during workouts, although more research is needed before making broad recommendations.
