Fitness & Exercise

Feel the Post-Workout Burn -- Less

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And, in fact, there is already one animal study that shows that, on it's own, elevated HSP may not make much of a difference at all. In preliminary research presented at the ACSM conference in May, doctors from Georgia State University in Atlanta used heat to increase production of HSP in mice. While they clearly documented elevations in HSP, it did not appear to protect the mice against exercise induced injury - or speed their recovery afterwards.

Although the company who makes PrePair provided WebMD with toxicity studies on mice showing the supplement was proven safe, and says thousands of products sold have yielded no reports of adverse effects, Gotlin believes this is not enough proof to offer a blanket guarantee of safety to all fitness buffs who use it.

"I would need large-scale human trials before I would take this supplement, or recommend it," says Gotlin.

Talbott is more certain of the safety aspect and says he would recommend the product. However, he tells WebMD, "I'm just not sure if raising heat shock proteins has been proven to make a significant difference in our fitness activities."