Improved Athletic Performance

Keen athletes and sports people should find the following information of more than passing interest. Although not widely known in the West, velvet antler in the form of pantocrin has been an essential part of Russian athletic training programmes for decades. In fact, the success of Russian athletes has been attributed to its use during Olympic training sessions.

In 1969, studies were carried out in Vladivostok to evaluate the traditional use of velvet in physical tests of stamina and endurance. In an experiment supervised by Dr Taneyeva, the test subjects began cycling on an ergonometer, which is a fixed bicycle with a workmeter attached. The men were then stopped and given either pantocrin or a placebo, and checked again two hours later. The pantocrin group showed a much greater increase in the total work achieved.

In another experiment, again designed to test the endurance properties of velvet antler, fifty young men ran a three-kilometre race. The group that had been administered pantocrin thirty minutes before the race were considerably faster on average than the placebo group.

Studies similar to those of Dr Taneyeva, carried out in 1974 by Drs Yudin and Dobryakov, showed the performance of average healthy athletes improved considerably after being administered pantocrin. While control athletes on an exercise cycle performed 15 kg/meter of dynamic work, those given pantocrin increased this dramatically to 74 kg/m. Improved performance in running and weight-lifting were also documented.

Not only a tonic for the body, velvet antler is also a powerful tonic for the mind as Dr Taneyeva discovered in 1964 when it was demonstrated that the mental capacity of young men improved significantly when they were given pantocrin before sitting down to a mathematical test.

The success of Russian athletes who have demonstrated a significant increase in endurance and muscular strength, has attracted the attention of sports doctors and trainers around the world who are seeking safe and natural alternatives to synthetic steroids. A fitness expert from the United States, John Abdo, who hosts a nationwide television fitness show, visited the Institute of Physical Culture in Moscow in 1989 to investigate Russian training routines. He came away convinced that deer velvet was a key factor in improving athletic performance; a non-toxic remedy for promoting strength, endurance, and swifter recuperation from injury.

Dr Arkady Koltun, Chairman of the Medical Committee for the Russian Bodybuilding Federation, is one of the foremost Russian researchers into anabolic agents that can improve the performance of athletes. Working with kayakers, weightlifters, body-builders and power lifters, Dr Koltun found that deer velvet actually increases muscular strength—a property which is termed myotropic. He also found that it had potent nerve strengthening, or neurotropic properties and is beneficial in treating infectious diseases, fatigue and hypertension.

Further research into velvet as an effective nutritional supplement for athletes during their training programmes is proving remarkably successful. A study at Otago University in New Zealand, designed to test the effect of deer velvet on athletic performance, was carried out in 1998 during a ten week project. Twenty four physical education students participated in this double blind trial, where neither the athletes nor the trial co-ordinator knew which treatment each group was receiving. The group taking the velvet showed almost twice the improvement of the group taking a placebo in the amount of work they were able to do in a strength test. Interestingly, the extra strength was discovered to come from improved muscle activity rather than increased muscle size.

Dr Suttie, responsible for the scientific control of the study, noted that the group taking deer velvet had a similar level of body protein and fat as the control group, as shown by a sophisticated DEXA scanner.

Contrary to popular misconception, the study showed that improving muscle strength does not necessarily require increasing muscle size. Scanning showed no bulking up of muscles, which suggested the positive results were due to an improvement in the muscle dynamic activity of the students taking deer velvet.

In another study at the University of Otago designed to more closely investigate velvet’s influence on building endurance and helping to repair injured muscle tissue, both vital issues for the competitive world of international sport, thirty athletes ran downhill on a treadmill to induce tissue damage in their thighs. Blood samples were then taken to measure the level of creatine kinase, a substance found in the bloodstream used as an indicator of muscle tissue damage. Those athletes who had been on a two week course of New Zealand velvet powder previously showed significantly reduced levels of creatine kinase in their blood.

Athletes taking the velvet also reported recovery from muscle soreness 24 hours earlier than the subjects receiving a placebo.

A growing number of athletes are discovering the benefits of deer velvet as a safe and legal performance enhancer.

Hamish, who recently became the world’s champion triathlete, said, "I really believe it helps my training, energy and endurance. I feel better and recover faster when taking velvet. I’m sure taking velvet has the potential to give me the incremental improvement all athletes strive for."

Others taking part in trialing New Zealand deer velvet are also excelling in their chosen sports, such as Jannene Harker, World Champion Surf Life Saver who says, "My strength in the gym has increased... I have noticed a significant increase in not only the weight I am moving but on the eccentric phase of muscle contraction.

"Since taking deer velvet I have felt a sustained strength on the blade that has been missing in recent years. I can only put this down to deer velvet. I can definitely recommend deer velvet to anyone wishing to compete in sport or maintain a healthy lifestyle."

Another veteran who takes velvet daily is top golfer Bob Charles. At the British Open two years ago he said along with healthy eating habits and vitamins, two deer velvet capsules a day kept him feeling young. "I don’t feel a day over 30," he said. "I’m 60, going on 30."

By naturally boosting muscular strength and endurance, along with its excellent amino acid composition and mineral content, velvet antler may well be the future athlete’s nutritional supplement of choice.

Reprinted with permission from:
Velvet Antler - Nature's Superior Tonic by Alison Davidson,
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