Identificação do uso de recursos ergogênicos por atletas: abordagem quali-quantitativa por sexo e nível de desempenho

Abstract

In the sports and competitive sphere, physical and energetic ability, motor skills, and psychological skills are essential for athletes to reach their maximum potential in the competitive period. In this context, the search for alternatives that can accelerate physical performance has grown, as well as its use. The profile of ergogenic resource (ER) consumers tends to predominate for men. However, with the increasing female participation in physical exercise and sport, women have been engaged in the search for ER, and awareness and investigation of the potential impact of female sex hormones on exercise performance and metabolic demand should grow in parallel. The questionnaire developed was consisting of 65 questions distributed in 14 sessions through the Google Forms platform®. Later, social networks were used for dissemination. STUDY 1: The objectives of study one were: 1- to investigate the prevalence of use of ergogenic resources by athletes in Brazil; 2- to verify if there is an association between competitive level, gender, sports classification, and sports; and 3- to identify the reasons that lead athletes to seek ER and what the means of prescription. The results showed that athletes of higher competitive levels use more ER and that there is a prevalence of 62.8% of nutritional ergogenic resources (NER) use. Male, individual sports, and triathlon athletes were associated with NER use. The fight modality was associated with the use of pharmacological ergogenic resources (PER). The reason for using ER varied according to its classification. For NER and PER, the performance improvement had a higher percentage of reports, for biomechanical ergogenic resources (BER), recovery was the focus of athletes and for psychological ergogenic resources, the motivation had a higher prevalence. The selfprescription of ER had great participation in all the ER. STUDY 2: Study two had as objectives: 1- to investigate the prevalence of ER use by athletes; 2- to verify if there is an association between the use of ER, competitive level, sports classification, sport, and self-reported adverse effects during training and/or competitions in MC phases; and 3- to report the knowledge and perception of the performance of the athletes on the phases of MC. The results showed a prevalence of 52.4% in the use of NER. There was an association between tiredness/indisposition and the use of this resource. Regarding the level of knowledge of the athletes about the MC, 34.2% of the athletes cannot or may be able to identify the MC phase. During the follicular phase, self-reports of tiredness/indisposition and worsening performance in training and competitions were higher.