Supplements for athletes without doping: what provides an advantage and is compliant with regulations

The WADA Prohibited List is updated once a year, and the version for 2026 came into effect on January 1. This is the first thing to establish before any discussion about supplements: a document from two seasons ago no longer describes the current state of affairs. The second is more difficult. A product may have a clean label and a prohibited substance inside, and the consequences are borne solely by the athlete, not the manufacturer or the store. Below you will find what meta-analyses say about individual ingredients: at what duration of effort the effect has actually been demonstrated, which popular supplements lack data support, and how to check a product before it enters the body.

KEY INFORMATION
• 94 out of 634 tested supplements, or 14.8%, contained undisclosed anabolic steroids (Geyer et al., 2004).
• The principle of strict liability: the content of the sample matters, not the athlete's intent.
• CBD is excluded from the ban, THC remains prohibited in competitions.
• Beta-alanine was helpful for efforts lasting 60-240 seconds and was not helpful for efforts below 60 seconds.

What is the WADA prohibited substances list and how often does it change?

It is a mandatory international standard of the World Anti-Doping Program, updated annually after consultations. The version for 2026 is effective from January 1, 2026 (WADA, Prohibited List 2026). The edition from two seasons ago is no longer a reliable source.

The document is divided into three parts. Throughout the year, in competitions and outside of them, categories from S0 to S5 and methods M1-M3 are prohibited: substances not approved for use in humans, anabolic agents, peptide hormones and growth factors, beta-2 agonists, hormonal modulators, and diuretics. The prohibition of stimulants (S6), narcotics (S7), cannabinoids (S8), and glucocorticoids (S9) applies only in competitions. Beta-blockers (P1) apply to selected disciplines.

The start period begins at 23:59 on the day before the competition and lasts until the sample collection is completed. In the 2026 edition, among other changes, blood collection for non-medical purposes and anti-doping control is prohibited, the permissible dose of inhaled salmeterol is 100 µg over 8 hours, and the ban on cell therapies has been expanded to include cell components, including mitochondria and ribosomes. You can check the status of a single substance in the database Global DRO, maintained jointly by national anti-doping agencies.

What is the athlete responsible for if a banned substance is found in their sample?

For everything. The principle of strict liability from Article 2.1.1 of the World Anti-Doping Code states that to establish a violation, intent, fault, or negligence does not need to be demonstrated. The mere presence of a banned substance in the sample is sufficient. This is the most important sentence in the entire article.

The supplement manufacturer bears no sporting consequences in this regard. The store does not either. The athlete bears them, even if the substance was not on the label and they had no reason to suspect it. The degree of fault only affects the severity of the penalty according to Article 10, and only if the athlete can demonstrate how the substance entered their body. Simply stating, 'it must have been the supplement' is not enough: one must indicate a specific product and usually present the analysis result of the sealed package from the same batch.

The principle applies to everyone competing in events governed by the Code, including amateurs in mass races organized under the auspices of a sports association. From our experience in handling inquiries, it appears that at the amateur level, the risk seems abstract, even though this is where supplements are most often purchased without checking anything.

How often are supplements found to be contaminated with banned substances?

More often than the labels would suggest. In an international study, a laboratory in Cologne analyzed 634 non-hormonal products purchased in 13 countries from 215 suppliers. Anabolic-androgenic steroids not disclosed on the packaging were detected in 94 of them, which is 14.8% (Geyer i wsp., Int J Sports Med 2004).

Newer data is worse for high-risk products. A Dutch team examined 66 products identified as high risk, purchased from 17 online stores. Undeclared doping substances were found in 25 of them, which is 38% (Duiven i wsp., J Sports Sci Med 2021). This is not the percentage for the entire market, but for products advertised with hormonal or fat-burning effects.

The market's response is batch testing programs. Informed Sport declares analysis of each batch before allowing it to be sold, for over 285 banned substances in sports. NSF Certified for Sport lists 280 substances and audits each production batch. Kölner Liste is based on analysis at the CePreDo center at the sports university in Cologne, conducted at least once a year, and it itself states that no laboratory tests a product for all substances on the WADA list.

Czy kannabidiol jest dozwolony w sporcie, a co z THC?

Cannabidiol is the only exception in category S8. The list for 2026 explicitly mentions it in the exemptions column, while all other natural and synthetic cannabinoids, including tetrahydrocannabinol, remain banned in competitions. The exemption for cannabidiol has been in effect since 2019.

The practical difference is stark. Cannabinoids are not banned outside of competitions, and for the THC metabolite in urine, there is a threshold of 150 ng/ml, raised in 2013 from 15 ng/ml specifically to avoid penalizing for use outside the competition period (USADA, Marijuana FAQ). However, the threshold is not a safety margin that a manufacturer can promise anyone.

Here lies the trap of products with cannabidiol. Full-spectrum extracts inherently contain trace amounts of other hemp phytosubstances, including THC, and the declaration on the label does not replace batch testing. We have noticed that in inquiries about oils, the topic of competition participation rarely comes up, even though it determines whether a batch-certified isolate is the only reasonable choice. We described how such products perform in tests in the text about CBD i testach narkotykowych.

In what effort does creatine actually improve performance?

In short and maximal efforts. A meta-analysis of 69 studies involving 1937 individuals showed that creatine monohydrate combined with resistance training improved squat performance by an average of 5.64 kg, bench press by 1.43 kg, and peak power in the Wingate test by 47.81 W (Kazeminasab i wsp., Nutrients 2025).

In aerobic endurance, the same supplement does nothing. A review of 13 studies in trained individuals yielded a collective result of -0.07 with a confidence interval including zero (Fernández-Landa i wsp., Sports Medicine 2023). The authors state directly that monohydrate proved ineffective in endurance efforts in this population. A marathon runner and a sprinter get two different results from the same powder.

The regulatory status is simple: creatine has never been on the WADA list and is not there in 2026. The ISSN position describes monohydrate as safe in doses up to 30 g per day used in studies for even five years (Kreider i wsp., JISSN 2017). There is no creatine in the u Bucha store, so treat this section as information, not an offer; details are described in the text about kreatynie.

At what effort does caffeine work and how much was administered in studies?

The strongest and most repeatable evidence concerns aerobic endurance. The ISSN position describes it as a form of effort where the benefit from caffeine is moderate to large and most consistent across studies (Guest i wsp., JISSN 2021).

In strength and power, the effect exists but is small. A meta-analysis by Grgic and colleagues reported a standardized mean difference of 0.20 for strength and 0.17 for power, with the lower body result not reaching significance (JISSN 2018). A broad overview of 21 meta-analyses summarized this with the statement that the effect size of caffeine is usually greater for aerobic effort than for anaerobic effort (Grgic i wsp., BJSM 2020).

In studies, the most common dosage was 3-6 mg per kilogram of body weight, about 60 minutes before exercise. At 9 mg/kg, the frequency of side effects increased without additional benefit. Caffeine is not banned: it is listed in the Monitoring Program 2026, and the note to the list explicitly states that substances from this program are not considered prohibited. The threshold of 12 µg/ml in urine, valid until the end of 2003, is no longer in effect. How much is really needed is discussed in the text about kofeinie przedtreningowo.

At what duration of effort does beta-alanine work?

Between one and four minutes. A meta-analysis of 15 studies involving 360 people showed improvement for efforts lasting 60-240 seconds and a weaker effect for efforts longer than 240 seconds. For efforts shorter than 60 seconds, there were no benefits at all (Hobson i wsp., Amino Acids 2012).

The median improvement was 2.85% with a median total dose of 179 g of beta-alanine spread over weeks, as the effect comes from the accumulation of carnosine in the muscle, not from a single dose. A larger meta-analysis of 40 studies and 1461 participants confirmed that the duration of effort differentiates the outcome, and the improvement is more related to endurance than to the actual sports result (Saunders i wsp., BJSM 2017). The overall effect was 0.18, which is not much.

This translates to a narrow window of applications: 400 and 800 m sprints, 100-200 m distances in swimming, 2000 m on a rowing ergometer, repeated entries in combat sports. A 60 m sprinter and a marathon runner are outside this window. A common side effect is paresthesia, which is a temporary tingling of the skin on the face and hands.

What do nitrates from beet juice provide and who do they not help?

They work moderately in the general population and cease to be effective in trained individuals. A meta-analysis of 80 studies yielded a pooled effect of 0.174, but in the subgroup of well-trained endurance athletes, it was 0.021 with a p-value of 0.745, meaning it was indistinguishable from zero (Senefeld i wsp., MSSE 2020).

This reverses the typical narrative about beet juice as a supplement for top cyclists. The authors write that nitrates have limited usefulness for individuals with very good aerobic capacity who have already optimized other training elements. An earlier meta-analysis of 47 studies showed the same pattern differently: the benefit appeared in exhaustion tests and disappeared in time trials (McMahon i wsp., Sports Medicine 2017).

The dose-response study protocol looks like this: 140 ml of juice concentrate, or 8.4 mmol of nitrate, reduced oxygen uptake and prolonged time to exhaustion, while doubling the dose to 16.8 mmol did not provide any additional benefit. The peak concentration of nitrites in plasma occurred 2-3 hours after consumption (Wylie i wsp., J Appl Physiol 2013). Beet juice is not listed on the WADA list.

When does sodium bicarbonate improve performance and at what cost?

During high-intensity efforts lasting from 30 seconds to 12 minutes. This range is set by the ISSN position, summarizing studies that most often used 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight 60-180 minutes before exercise (Grgic i wsp., JISSN 2021).

The scale of benefits is moderate and decreases with the length of effort. A meta-analysis of 38 studies estimated the improvement at 1.7% with a dose of about 0.3 g/kg in a single one-minute sprint, with each tenfold extension of the test subtracting 0.6 percentage points (Carr i wsp., Sports Medicine 2011). The mechanism is the same as with beta-alanine, except that the buffer works outside the cell, not inside it.

The cost can be significant. In a study where 21 men took 0.3 g/kg, four reported gastrointestinal complaints, and after excluding them from the analysis, the ergogenic effect became statistically significant (Saunders i wsp., IJSPP 2014). Bloating, nausea, and abdominal pain can outweigh the benefits, which is why the protocol is tested during training, never for the first time before a competition. Sodium bicarbonate is not on the WADA list.

Which popular supplements lack supporting data?

Five names appear in advertisements more often than in positive study results. For each of them, studies exist, but the conclusions differ from what the packaging suggests.

The consensus of the International Olympic Committee from 2018 summarizes it briefly: among the hundreds of ingredients sold, only a few have good evidence of benefits, specifically mentioned as caffeine, creatine, selected buffering substances, and nitrates. The rest is not banned; it simply does not do what the advertisement promises. We wrote separately about one of these items in the text about L-glutaminie.

Which substances from the supplement market are prohibited and how to check a product?

Four groups most often end up in products: androgen receptor modulators, DMAA-type stimulants, growth hormone peptides, and substances not approved for use in humans. All are listed in 2026 and are often sold as dietary supplements.

The order of checking before purchase is simple. First, the status of each ingredient from the label in the Global DRO database, then the certificate of the batch testing program, and finally the batch number from the packaging matched with the database of that program. Caffeine and synephrine are in the 2026 Monitoring Program and are not prohibited substances, which is helpful when reading the composition of pre-workouts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Czy kreatyna jest legalna w sporcie wyczynowym?

Yes. Creatine monohydrate has never appeared on the WADA prohibited substances list and is not included in the 2026 version. The ISSN position from 2017 describes it as safe at studied doses up to 30 g per day. The risk pertains not to creatine itself, but to contamination of a specific batch of powder.

Can CBD oil be used before competitions?

CBD itself has been excluded from the ban since 2019, but THC remains prohibited in competitions, with a threshold of 150 ng/ml for the metabolite in urine. Full-spectrum extracts contain trace amounts of THC, so an isolate with batch testing is safer. The athlete is still responsible for the test result.

Does a batch certificate guarantee that the supplement is safe?

It does not guarantee safety, it only reduces risk. Informed Sport tests each batch for over 285 substances, NSF Certified for Sport lists 280. The Kölner Liste itself states that no laboratory tests a product for all substances on the WADA list. A certificate does not absolve the athlete of responsibility.

Do BCAAs make sense if I eat enough protein?

No. Wolfe in a 2017 review found no studies where oral BCAAs alone increased muscle protein synthesis in humans. An update from 2024 adds that the response to BCAAs is weaker than to complete protein providing all essential amino acids.

Czy kofeina jest monitorowana przez WADA?

Yes, but monitoring is not a ban. Caffeine is listed in the 2026 Monitoring Program along with nicotine and synephrine, and the note on the list states that these substances are not considered prohibited. The threshold of 12 µg/ml in urine, which was in effect until 2003, ceased to apply with the removal of caffeine from the list.

What to do if a supplement turns out to be the cause of a positive result?

Keep the packaging with the batch number. Demonstrating how the substance entered the body is a condition for reducing the penalty according to Article 10 of the Code, and without a sealed sample from the same batch, this can be impossible. Simply declaring that the supplement was to blame does not resolve anything.

You will find Vitamin D, magnesium, and omega-3 acids in daily supplementation versions in the section supplements in the u Bucha store.

This article is for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice. Before starting supplementation, consult your doctor, especially if you are taking medications regularly, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have a chronic illness.

Author: Michał Waluk · Opublikowano: 2026-06-22 · Aktualizacja: 2026-08-08