On the morning of June 1, 2011, Michael L. Sparling took the recommended dose of the workout booster Jack3d before doing a drill with his Army unit.

During the workout Sparling collapsed, and several hours later he died at a hospital of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.

Sparling had purchased the Jack3d in a GNC store at Fort Bliss in El Paso. Despite a warning issued by the FDA in April 2012, the powder is still available in GNC stores across the country as well as online.

Now, Sparling's parents are suing GNC as well as USPlabs, the developer and marketer of Jack3d. The Sparlings are claiming that GNC and USPlabs misleadingly marketed Jack3d and did not warn consumers about its potential health risks.

A stimulant contained in Jack3d, dimethylamylamine (DMAA), has been linked to several deaths recently. In 2011, DMAA was identified in the toxicology reports of two soldiers’ deaths. It was also found in the body of Claire Squires, a British woman who died while running the London Marathon in 2012. Jack3d has since been banned in England.

Products containing DMAA, like Jack3d and OxyElite Pro, are commonly marketed as workout boosters. But in its warning letter last April, the FDA noted that firms that produce these supplements have failed to demonstrate the safety of their key ingredient, DMAA.

At the time of the letter, a spokesman for GNC said the company disagreed with the FDA's conclusion and was "unaware of any scientific or medical evidence which calls the safety of DMAA into question."

The lack of DMAA regulation troubles many in the medical profession.

"[DMAA] is a pharmaceutical-grade product which is being directly introduced into the supplement marketplace with absolutely no regulatory oversight," Dr. Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told the New York Times.

Last month New York State Sen. Jeffrey Klein called for DMAA to be banned from all sports nutritional supplements in the state. Klein labeled DMAA as "possibly the most dangerous, lethal and unregulated performance-enhancing drug on retail shelves today."

"The FDA is still taking a wait-and-see approach, still looking at it, still investigating it. I think we have to act now," Klein told reporters in January. "We're putting young people and people who are interested in sports, people getting sort of a quick fix at risk each and every day."

Klein's concern with the FDA's inaction is not unique to him. Steve Mister, the chief executive of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, told the New York Times that the FDA needed to be more clear about how it views DMAA.

"It is incumbent upon the F.D.A. to make a decision as to whether it is a legitimate and safe dietary ingredient,"Mister said.

This is far from the first time USPlabs has gone to court to defend or protect its product. In December, it reached a $2 million settlement with consumers in California court while also agreeing to make warning statements larger and easier to understand.

In October, USPlabs sued the owner of a supplements store in Reno, Nev., who described Jack3d as an "amphetaminelike compound" that “speeds up your heart rate” and could "possibly" cause death. The lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in Dallas, was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

If you're looking for ways to boost your workout regimen this holiday season, the solution may lie in those people closest to you.

A recent study done at Kansas State University determined that people can be more motivated at the gym if they are working out in a group setting. The researchers based their study on the idea of the Köhler Effect, which states that weaker individuals often perform better when working in a group setting rather than on their own.

For their study, the researchers gathered 58 female college students and told them to ride a stationary bike for as long as they could. The researchers gave the college students a virtual partner via a computer screen, telling the women that this partner rode longer than they did during her pre-trail ride. When the two women rode together, researchers found that the college students lasted an average of 40 percent (nine minutes) longer than when they had ridden alone.

When the college students were told that they and their virtual partner were on a team, and that their score would be based on who stopped first, on average the college students increased their individual time by a staggering 160 percent (11 minutes).

"We were pleasantly surprised by how big the motivation gains were," Brandon Irwin, one of the study's authors, told Wired, "but I think the most interesting thing was that for the partners who were the weak link in the group, the fact that their motivation wasn’t only greater than in the other two groups but it actually increased over time."

Irwin and other researchers are still determining the best way to apply their findings. A common idea is to look into developing some sort of virtual workout partner, which Irwin described as "similar to matchmaking software for romantic relationships online." In other words, as long as people had a smartphone, they could find a partner and hit the gym.

But until that happens, we'll have to settle for other real, live human beings as our partners.

(H/T to Wired)

By DualFit.com

Whether you've been a vegan for a couple of years or you're a newbie, there are many delicious meals for you to choose from. Here are three easy recipes to try at home:

Traditional Mexican meals are known for their animal-based additives. Try this mouthwatering recipe minus the meat.

INGREDIENTS
1 lime, sliced up
8 small corn tortillas,
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large, avocado (peeled and diced)
Vegan cheese (shredded)
Vegan sour cream
3 cups vegetable broth
3 cups jarred tomato salsa
Lightly salted and ground black pepper
Vegetable oil for frying

DIRECTIONS
Heat olive oil in saucepan, over medium high heat.
Add in salsa and gently stir for 10 minutes.
Add in the broth and lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Pour vegetable oil into the frying pan. Pour about a 1/4-inch of oil and bring to medium-high heat.
Once the oil is hot, add tortilla chips and fry until it is lightly crisp. Then set aside the tortillas in a plate. Make sure you line it with paper towels to drain the oil.
Then add in the pepper and salt to the soup.
Then pour soup into bowls and place the sour cream, avocado, shredded cheese, and tortilla chips. Then serve the meal with lime wedges.

If your salad choices seem to be a little dull and tired, here's a scrumptious fruit salad.

INGREDIENTS (4 servings)
2 kiwis, peeled
2 bananas
2 sweet oranges
1 sliced lemon (or lime)
1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
1 large pink grapefruit, peeled, sliced and seeded

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees
Toast seeds for 10-15 minutes
Squeeze lime or lemon
Chop up all fruit into small pieces and place into a large bowl
Add seeds
Slice up bananas
Then toss the salad gently and serve with sprinkled blackberries or raspberries on top

Just because you're a vegan doesn't mean you have to give up your favorite meals and desserts.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup quick oats
1 cup of veggie spread
1/ 1/4 cup flour (unbleached)
1/2 – 1 cup sugar
8 cups of sliced and peeled apples (10 apples)
Plus ...
9 x 12 inch glass cake pan
A large mixing bowl
A sharp knife
A vegetable peeler
A sturdy pastry blender with flat blades
Your hands

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix sugar and apples then spread evenly in a baking pan
Mix in the veggie spread with flour
Cut up contents into small pieces while blending with the flour with a pastry blender
Mix in brown sugar, the oats, cinnamon and salt
Mix up all topping ingredients together until the mixture is crumbled up with your hands
Spread out the topping over apples evenly
Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes
Upon completion, cool the desert on a rack for 30 minutes before serving
Serve with warm with ice cream (non-dairy)

More From DualFit.com:
-- Why Too Much Sitting Is Bad For Your Health
-- Food That Boost Your Immune System
-- Interview: Fitness Competitor Kristen Sesak
-- HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training

The scene is the Women's Sports Foundation's 33rd Annual Salute to Women in Sports. It's at Cipriani Wall Street, and the event feels even more special in 2012, exactly 40 years after the passage of Title IX. The ballroom is decorated, the red carpet is out, and the athletes are ushering in. As the Olympic soccer star famous for her feet and forehead, Alex Morgan, walks across the carpet, a woman calls out to her, "Hi, Alex, look at this," and shows her a picture of her daughter wearing a Morgan jersey. "She wants to be you so badly."

A little further down the carpet, Jordyn Wieber is calling to her mom, asking her to take a picture of her, Gabby Douglass and 2008 all-around champion Nastia Liukin as they pose in their dresses. The ladies of the U.S. rowing team grasp their gold medals proudly. Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long waves at those watching from the side of the carpet, and Missy Franklin attempts to figure out what kind of dress she's wearing by asking an interviewer to look at her tag for her.

Meanwhile, Women's Sports Foundation founder Billie Jean King walks down the carpet, looking at the athletes who have become inspirations to young girls now, seeing the effect of what she started so many years ago, seeing how her strength, her courage, paved the way for all of this -- for the awards and the dresses and the red carpet and the fans. But mostly, for the athletes, who were inspired by Billie Jean King's courage and are now inspiring those who watch them.

As the Women Sports Foundation's current president, Laila Ali, stands in the center of the red carpet and looks at all of this proudly. The athletic achievements of these women are incredible. But Ali is just as proud of what it means for the young girls to see their role models not only excelling in what was once a male-dominated-sports universe, but also feeling proud of themselves and who they are while doing it.

And that shows through as these women work the red carpet -- they're wearing fancy dresses and their hair is done, and they're walking in heels (or at least attempting to walk; some are wobbling slightly) but they exude an equal amount of confidence when they're out competing in their uniforms and cleats.

"I say this a lot, but young girls out there need to be educated about the fact that the celebrities they always see on magazines, they have trainers," Ali says. "They have airbrushing. They have all these things. And you just shouldn't strive to be that way. That's why it's so great for young girls out there to look at these athletes."

Ali turns her head toward those surrounding her on the carpet and says, "You can see right here that these athletes come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are lean. Some of us are bulkier or more muscular. But we're all beautiful, confident women."

And for many of these women, that confidence came from sports. They've learned how to embrace who they are, and take what they have, take something that someone else might consider a flaw, and use that to further their game. For five-time Olympic swimming medalist Missy Franklin, who smiles as she autographs items for parents on the side of the carpet, growing up a head above everyone in her grade wasn't something that was easy to deal with.

"I've always been this tall and it was really hard growing up," says Franklin, who is 6-1. "I mean, it makes you different. It makes you stand out."

It wasn't until she started swimming that she realized just how much of an advantage that height was.

"I realized it was a gift," Franklin says. "It helped me succeed at what I love to do. And so I grew to absolutely love it now. It's just the best. I wish I were even taller."

For three-time Olympic medalist Mary Whipple, it's the opposite end of the height spectrum. The 5-3 1/2 (and she says she takes that half inch "very seriously") coxswain says that when she's around her teammates, she doesn't feel short -- even though almost all of her teammates are over 6 feet. She says the confidence her teammates have about themselves transfers over to her.

"I feel like I'm 10 feet tall when I'm around them because of our confidence," Whipple says. "They're much taller than the norm, and yet they put their shoulders back and embrace it. I love them and they love themselves. And so for me, being short -- well, I can work that, too."

Ali says that the heart of solving the problem of body image for young girls is to abandon what others might consider societally normal, and instead focus on what makes you happy.

"I've always been very confident," she says. "If there's something about myself that I want to change, I do the work that it takes to get that way. You have to not be too hard on yourself -- everyone has a different shape and build. You know, I weigh 180 pounds and most people are like, 'oh my God!' But I feel fine!"

Morgan, who was named Sportswoman of the Year for team sport, agrees. She says soccer has taught her a lot about life in general -- how to be patient, how to listen, how to step up when she needs to. And it has taught her to love herself.

"It's important for women to feel confident in their own body, whether they have broad shoulders or big calves, or whatever," Morgan says. "I have big calves and I love showing off my legs because of it. So whether your body is athletic, or skinny, or big-boned, it doesn’t matter. You should love it no matter what.”

That’s the kind of confidence and influence that Morgan, who the WSF named Sportswoman of the Year for a team sport, brings with her everywhere she goes.

It's what defines the spirit of women's sports and these female athletes.

It's what continues to inspire the future faces of women's sports -- and it's why in ten years, the girls out there who want to be Alex Morgan so badly right now will be the ones on this very red carpet, being told by the mothers out there how badly their daughters want to be like them.