Protein powders, painkillers, and pleasure: Reasons for exercise and the use of dietary supplements and analgesics among recreational half-marathoners

The primary aim of the current study was to explore associations between reasons for running exercise and the use of nutritional supplements and analgesics among recreational half-marathoners. In a sample of 80 participants of the Venloop half marathon public running event, we determined the most important reason(s) for running exercise and assessed whether that reason is correlated with the use of analgesics and/or supplements. Further, we hypothesized that the degree of supplement use predicts the use of analgesics with running exercise. The most prominent reason for running was enjoyment and that did not correlate with either analgesic or supplement use. Overall supplement use incidence was high (93 %) but degree of supplement use did not predict the use of analgesics with exercise. We conclude that the widespread use of supplements is not analogous to using analgesics before/during a run. Nonetheless, recreational runners would benefit from more evidence-based information on safe and sensible use of both supplements and analgesics.