‘It’s bordering on exploitation’: how pseudoscience is duping football
Cryotherapy chambers and other practices have little evidence behind them, says top performance director
TL;DR
- Professional football is being misled by pseudoscience, with many coaches, staff, and players falling for unproven methods promising quick gains.
- Practices like cryotherapy chambers, commonly found at elite training grounds, have very limited evidence supporting their use for recovery or injury prevention, and may even hinder muscle adaptation.
- Supplementation beyond essential vitamins like D and C should be needs-based and targeted to specific deficiencies, not a general practice to 'hack' performance.
- Kinesiology tape, often worn by players, is described as a placebo with no evidence of impact on injury prevention or performance outcomes.
- Roberts calls for football to prioritize science-based decision-making and employ qualified staff to critically evaluate new products and trends, moving away from 'anti-science' and 'anti-intellectual' tendencies.
- The core of athletic performance and recovery relies on sleep quality and nutritional quality, which are often overlooked in favor of unproven methods.