Acute Effects of Ammonia Inhalants on Strength and Power Performance in Trained Men

Abstract

Bartolomei, S, Nigro, F, Luca, G, Gabriele, S, Ciacci, S, Hoffman, JR, and Merni, F. Acute effects of ammonia inhalants on strength and power performance in trained men. J Strength Cond Res 32(1): 244-247, 2018-The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of ammonia inhalants on lower body power and maximal isometric strength in trained men. Twenty experienced resistance trained men (age = 26.7 ± 3.7 years; body weight = 80.59 ± 9.0 kg; body height = 179.5 ± 5.7 cm) were tested for counter movement jump power (CMJP), maximal force, and peak rate of force development (pRFD20) expressed during an isometric midthigh pull (IMTP). Assessments were performed using either an ammonia inhalant (AI), a placebo (PL), or no inhalants (N). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures was used to compare strength and power performance between the different trials. A significant (p < 0.01) increase in pRFD20 was detected following the use of AI. No significant effects of trial were noted for CMJP and IMTP maximal force (p = 0.251 and p = 0.075, respectively). Results of the present study showed a potential ergogenic effect of AI on rate of force development (i.e., explosive force output), with a trend toward an improvement in maximal force production. The mechanism of action may be related to the stimulatory action of AI often reported by athletes as a "psyching-up" effect. The positive effect of AI on the rate of force development may represent an advantage in sports requiring high rates of force production.

Effects of Ammonia Inhalants in Humans: A Review of the Current Literature Regarding the Benefits, Risks, and Efficacy

“…In conclusion, regarding previous research, the highest significant pRFD (3,39) and cardiorespiratory changes (17,39) were observed from 7.5 to 15 seconds after AI inhalation, which agrees with the 15-30 seconds time window of the cardiorespiratory responses described earlier in this article. Therefore, it seems that the timing of inhalation before performance may be considered as the most important variable when assessing the effects of AI inhalation on enhancing performance.…”

“…The following 2 conference abstracts and 1 master's thesis were focused on determining the influence of AIs on anaerobic power. The first study (49) investigated anaerobic mean power (MP) and peak power (PP) production using the 30-second Wingate test (with In accordance with the presented results from various performance tasks, it may be suggested there are no ergogenic effects of AI inhalation on maximal muscular strength (3,39,43,55). Moreover, no effects were observed on muscular endurance performance (43) or in various explosive strength performances using either slow (2,3,33,44) or fast stretch-shortening cycles (2).…”

“…In addition, because of the lack of peer-reviewed articles, a manual search from the reference list of all retained articles was performed until April 2020. Despite these efforts and generous search criteria, the search procedure only resulted in a total of 4 peer-reviewed studies (3,39,43,55). Therefore, to increase the breadth of this review, we also included 6 conference abstracts (2,32,33,44,49,59) and 1 master's thesis (17).…”

A Comparison Between the Squat and the Deadlift for Lower Body Strength and Power Training

“…As suggested by Hoffman (2014), the execution of the mid-thigh pull may be affected by the participants explosive intent. In particular, the pRFD may be negatively influenced by a poor technique or by a submaximal activation at the beginning of the pull (Bartolomei et al, 2018b).…”

Repeated Menthol Mouth Swilling Affects Neither Strength nor Power Performance

“…Improvements in strength and power performance have been associated with other aromatic compounds. For instance, low concentration ammonia salts (smelling salts) are commonly used by weightlifters to enhance performance [ 9 ], despite an equivalence of findings within the literature [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Ingestion of capsaicin, the botanical compound responsible for chilli’s heat, has also been shown to improve resistance exercise performance [ 12 ].…”