According to research, spinach should be banned for athletes

Popeye has never been wrong: Spinach is really linked with the muscles. This plant, despite being the best known, is not the only one allied to vigor. Spinach is part of a group of plants that contain the substance Beta Ecdisterone, a natural steroid hormone used since 1980 for muscle-building supplementation.

However, for many years, the effects of supplements were too weak to account for. Recent studies in mice, however, point out that their use can actually boost muscle growth.

Playback / Paramount

Human research, published in Archives of Toxiocology, finally proved the results. The tests involved 46 young men with the same strength training program. They were divided into 3 groups: those who received ecdysteroids, those who took a placebo and those who did not take anything.

All had at least one year of barbell training and should perform three exercises: back squat, bench press and deadlifts . The program lasted 10 weeks. "Our hypothesis was that we would see an evolution in performance, but we didn't imagine it would be so expressive, " Maria Parr of the University of Berlin's Institute of Pharmacy said in an interview.

Reproduction / High Astral

The first group received 200 milligrams or 800 milligrams of ecdysteroids per day, its members had a muscle mass increase of 1.5 and 2 kilograms respectively. The other two groups had no performance improvement. “We recommend to the World Anti-Doping Agency in our report to add Beta Ecdisterone to the banned list. We believe that if there is a rise in performance, that unfair advantage should be eliminated, ”said Parr.

The research team ensured that the supplements had no other anabolic substances, just pure ecdisterone. In addition, participants had no liver or kidney affected. As an effective supplement with few negative effects, it can stand out from the options available on the market and boom any training.

Reproduction / Natue

But, calm down, let's drop the i's: don't think spinach clogging will turn you into a bodybuilder . We Westerners ingest 1 milligram of ecdisterone daily at most. Bodybuilders, on the other hand, take doses a thousand times higher than that. It is also important to remember that the tests were done with few people, restricted to men; therefore we cannot say that all possibilities have been cleared.

So hold your horses and keep eating your vegetables!