RIVALUS (pronounced rival·us) was founded in Canada by Dr. Darren Burke (PhD), a nationally ranked athlete turned university professor and research scientist. In his laboratory Dr. Burke studies the effects of dietary supplements on body composition and athletic performance in humans. His papers are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals distributed around the world.

Dr. Burke, CEO & Founder is surrounded by discerning athletes, some of them Olympic-calibre. They are students in his classes and subjects in his studies. For years, they all told him that there was no dietary supplement either athletes or their coaches could feel comfortable using; no company whose products had been adequately tested on athletes and proven to be safe and effective.

The solution was obvious: With his well-equipped laboratory and team of leading experts, Dr. Burke had everything he needed to research, develop and test the type of dietary supplements that these truly discerning athletes and their coaches demanded, but had been unable to find. So RIVALUS was created and with it a new code of industry standards and ethics was born.

There are many good sport nutrition products on the market today but only a small number have actually been tested in a “true” human subject experiment using accepted scientific practices.

Often times products are labelled as “Scientifically Tested” or “Clinically Proven” when in reality only isolated ingredients from the formula have been studied and usually in a different species such as a mouse.

There are also agencies offering services that will “independently” test supplements to confirm if the ingredients inside the bottle actually match the label. This is a good first step in improving this industry for consumers; however, this only determines if the product sample as shipped to the testing facility actually matches the label and does nothing to confirm if when ingested by a human is actually “Safe” or if there is any validity to the claims of performance or “Effectiveness” as indicated by the company in its advertising. Remember, this is only a test of the one bottle sent to see if the label matches the ingredients. It is not a random sample of the product sitting on shelf. Products being sold with the same label might be very different than the one bottle sent for label verification.

It is important to understand the products, research the company selling the products you like, confirm the “science” claims being made by the company, and ask questions. Dr Burke is an athlete and a scientist, so he created RIVALUS so that athletes and coaches could have the “Performance Peace of Mind” they were seeking in selecting Sport Nutrition Supplements.