The Grind: Supplement Risks Every Athlete Should Know
Athletes are taught to keep going.
One more rep. One more mile. One more season of early mornings and late nights. That commitment is the foundation of every great career—but when the goal is "the next level," the pressure to improve can also make shortcuts look like part of the work.
Right now, that pressure is everywhere. College seasons are in full swing, and the World Anti-Doping Agency has already published its 2027 Prohibited List, which takes effect January 1. The rules are moving. The products on the shelf are moving faster. That's why the supplement risks for athletes deserve a harder look than a label, a gym recommendation, or a five-star review can give them.
Three Athletes, One Pressure
Picture a college linebacker trying to get stronger before the season. He's lifting consistently, following his nutrition plan, and still feels behind. Someone at the gym recommends a supplement that promises faster gains. He doesn't realize one of its ingredients is prohibited under NCAA rules. He wasn't trying to cheat. He was trying to compete—and may have put his eligibility at risk.
Or a gymnast who is already training intensely and feels she needs to lose the last five pounds to look or perform a certain way. A diet supplement promises quick results. The label looks convincing, and the product is easy to buy. But the pressure to change her body may be affecting her health, her recovery, and her relationship with food.
Then there's the cyclist preparing for a major event. He's close to a personal best and wants to shave a few seconds off his time. A supplement promises more energy and sharper performance. In a sport where small margins matter, it can feel like a reasonable choice—until he asks what is actually in the product and whether it's allowed.
These are not stories about athletes who don't care about the rules. They're stories about people who care deeply about their goals and may not have the information, support, or time to make a safe choice.
What the Label Isn't Telling You
Supplement contamination isn't a fringe problem. In 2025, Sport Integrity Australia tested roughly 200 supplements bought online and found that more than one in three contained substances banned in sport—and in most of those cases, the banned substance wasn't listed on the label at all.
The categories most likely to test positive read like a map of our three athletes: muscle builders, fat burners, and pre-workouts. That study sampled the Australian online market, not the U.S.—but these products are sold globally, and the lesson travels.
Here's the part most athletes don't hear: dietary supplements don't go through FDA approval for safety or effectiveness before they're sold. A product's availability, popularity, or confident marketing does not prove that it is safe or permitted.
And the rules don't bend for good intentions. The NCAA is explicit that there are no NCAA-approved supplements, that its banned list is not exhaustive, and that student-athletes take supplements at their own risk. Under the WADA Code, athletes face strict liability—meaning you're responsible for any prohibited substance found in your sample, whether you meant to take it or not. "It wasn't on the label" is a reason. It isn't a defense.
Where a Sports Pharmacist Comes In
This is exactly the gap a sports pharmacist is trained to close. A pharmacist reads a supplement label the way we read a prescription—ingredient by ingredient, interaction by interaction.
That means catching what a quick scan misses:
Ingredient synonyms. Banned substances don't always appear under the name on the prohibited list. Bitter orange extract, for example, naturally contains octopamine, a stimulant prohibited in competition.
Proprietary blends. When a label lists a "blend" without amounts, nobody—including the athlete—knows the actual dose.
Medication interactions. Stacking a high-stimulant pre-workout on top of a prescribed ADHD medication, or a "fat burner" on top of anything that affects heart rate, is a clinical question, not a shopping decision.
Current-season compliance. Lists change every January. A product that was a reasonable choice last season may not be this one.
A pharmacist-reviewed supplement audit puts all of that in one place. Third-party certification programs like NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Sport can meaningfully lower risk—but no certification can remove every risk, and certification doesn't answer whether a product interacts with what you already take.
Athletes should check with a qualified sports dietitian, sports pharmacist, team medical staff, or their sport's governing body before using a supplement. Tools like USADA's Supplement Connect and Global DRO are a strong place to start. Want a quick gut-check on what's already in your bag? Run it through our Supplement Safety Scorecard.
Before You Take It: Five Questions
Before the pressure makes the decision, ask:
What's actually in this—and how much? If you can't see the dose, you can't judge the risk.
Is any ingredient, or any of its other names, prohibited in my sport this season?
Has this product been batch-tested by an independent third party?
Does it interact with any medication or supplement I already take?
What am I really trying to fix? Sometimes the answer is sleep, fueling, recovery, or programming—not a capsule.
For athletes like our gymnast, there's a sixth question worth asking out loud: Is this pressure about performance, or about my body? That's a conversation for a sports dietitian, physician, or counselor—not a supplement label. If food or weight has started to feel like a fight, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders is a good place to start.
The Game Behind the Game
The answer isn't to shame athletes for wanting to improve. The grind is real. So are the expectations placed on them. The answer is to make trustworthy guidance part of the training environment—alongside coaching, recovery, nutrition, and honest conversations about body image and performance pressure.
That's what clean sport actually looks like on the ground. Not a list of rules handed down once a year, but a care team that helps athletes get better without gambling on what's in the bottle. Here in Inglewood, with LA 2028 on the horizon, that's the standard we're building toward—for Olympians and for the high school athlete with the same dream.
The next level should never require an athlete to gamble with their health, eligibility, or future.
Sometimes the strongest move is not taking the supplement. It's asking the question before the pressure makes the decision for you.
Hockaday Rx is a sports pharmacy and wellness practice based in Inglewood, California, helping athletes and active people perform, recover, and stay well—clean. Learn more about our approach.
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