Pooping makes you a better racer

According to a recent study published in the journal Sports Medicine and Health Science, it starts with giving a s*** – literally: Defecating before a race can actually lead to significantly better, faster, smarter decisions on the course.

The study involved 13 elite triathletes who underwent a psychological assessment of cognitive function and executive control known as Stroop test, If you’ve never taken one, check it out – you’ll likely be surprised how difficult it is to force your brain to say the colors instead of the words.

In this study, triathletes were asked to come in for three sessions. In the first session, participants took the test without defecating beforehand. A week later and under the same, tightly controlled set of nutritional and environmental circumstances, the test was administered an hour after defecation without the aid of a magnesium oxide laxative. In the third session, the Stroop test was administered one hour after defecation and 13 hours after the ingestion of a magnesium oxide laxative. Each test was separated by a week to give participants time to return to their baseline.

Most (69%) of the participants performed better on the Stroop test after defecation, and 100% of participants saw improvement after magnesium-induced defecation. As the authors note, “the result of this study suggests an unexplored causal link between the state of the rectum and cognitive performance.”

Professor Chia-Hua Kuo, one of the study’s authors and an exercise physiologist with the University of Taipei in China, says the findings were unsurprising in that they supported results from a previous study his group had conducted that showed improved cycling performance and blood distribution to the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain where decisions are made) after defecation.

Perhaps the more interesting element here is how the findings also comport with the ancient wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine, which has long viewed this region as one of three primary energy centers in the body, called dantain. In that tradition, this area, called the lower dantian or jing, is believed to be one of the seats of life force energy in the body and related to higher states of consciousness.

In Ayurvedic traditions, the anus is part of the muladhara or the root chakra, one of seven important zones in the body that must be kept in balance for full health. The sacral chakra, a little higher up in the lower abdomen, also overlaps with the jing; while dantian and chakras are different, the point is, both traditions view this region as an important energy center in the body.

In western medicine, however, “this area has not been studied significantly and there’s very little documentation of the region,” says Kuo, who is currently a visiting scholar at William and Mary University in Virginia.

Particularly in the context of endurance sports, this region can shed light on how the body conserves and uses energy when under stress.

“When you do exercise, especially long-distance exercise, your brain is going to be sending high amounts of commands to the muscles,” Kuo explains. “Whether or not you can sustain muscle contraction is not really depending on whether your muscle has wrung out the energy, it’s whether your brain is able to challenge your muscle.”

For this reason, he says “the brain is the number one organ that determines your performance and decides how long you can persist your muscle contraction.”

In the conventional view of the brain, its domain starts and ends at the skull and is completely contained in the head. However, the study also showed the high concentration of nerves in the lower intestine and rectum; in a figure published with the study, the lower digestive tract lights up even brighter than the heart or brain, meaning the nervous system has important real estate there.

These scans show what centuries of Chinese traditional medicine have taught –  that “our spirit is not only inside the skull, but also in other parts. And the rectum is also part of the brain,” Kuo says.

This is why when making a big decision, you’re often told to “go with your gut.” That visceral feeling you get in your lower belly or the urgent need to discharge some dung when you’re really stressed out isn’t psychosomatic – it seems there truly is a direct connection between the butt and brain.

Kuo notes that resource allocation is part of the puzzle here; when your digestive system has food to process, your brain will divert blood and oxygen to those organs to help break down the food and create more energy for the body to function efficiently. This digestive process can divert resources from other muscles, which is why you might feel sluggish after a heavy meal. (Food coma, anyone?)

When you’re exercising, your brain has to figure out how to supply adequate resources to both the working muscles and the digestive system to function effectively. This becomes more challenging when you’re exercising heavily; the brain shunts blood from the digestive system to those working muscles. This is why your grandmother always kept you out of the swimming pool for 30 minutes after lunch – you can end up with stomach cramps or a side stitch when the digestive system isn’t getting enough blood to complete its work.

It’s also why sometimes, when a competitor is giving their all, their bowels will evacuate involuntarily – the body jettisons the extra cargo to divert more energy to those muscles that are working so hard. Talk about leaving it all out on that field.

Taking that one step further, the theory Kuo was looking to prove is that when you further reduce demands on that region of the body by voluntarily voiding before your race, your body will have more energy to spend on cognition and exercise intensity. Ergo, if you poop before you start, chances are you’ll be able to make better decisions and move faster.

But why did the team look at triathletes specifically? Turns out, the lead author of the article, Dr. Wei Chen-Chan, also coaches the Chinese national triathlon team— his proximity to willing participants enabled the researchers to conduct the study.

The takeaway here is simple: If you want to perform better, drop a deuce before your next race. Kuo recommends aiming to evacuate your bowels about 60 to 90 minutes before the start for maximum effect.

In fact, these findings extrapolate to just about any endeavor that involves some component of brain capacity – if you want to be better at it, poop first.

If you have difficulty defecating on demand, experiment with different food and drinks with laxative effects – a cup of hot coffee upon waking, for example, is a reliable way for many to stimulate the bowels. Some might consider adding a magnesium oxide supplement the night before to help ease the go in the morning. Avoid laxative drugs, as they can have some gnarly side effects – if you are regularly experiencing constipation, it’s best to check with your health care provider.

Butt, in the end, the advice is simple: Go before you hear “on your mark, get set…” and you should be good to go. Clearing out your bowels as much as you can about an hour before you start racing means you’ll likely have a better, faster race.

And for race organizers: If you want to see course records fall, consider adding a few more port-a-potties near the start line.