Your Guide To Taking Pre-workout Supplements
In recent years, pre-workout supplements have been extremely popular with fitness buffs or gym-goers. However, just like many protein supplements, not every pre-workout is the same. Moreover, not every pre-workout product best fits every athlete or gym-goer.
Each pre-workout product has a variety of ingredients in different doses with a variety of intended effects. Hence, it might be suited to various types of athletes with different body goals. Furthermore, whether you are looking to get a few more reps or want to get the most out of your cardio, taking a good pre-workout supplement can be advantageous.
Knowing Pre-workout Supplements
People consume pre-workout supplements to reach a single goal. And that is to make their workouts more effective. Moreover, there are many pre-workout supplements products available out there.
The name “pre-workout” literally means something you should do before a workout, match, or game. It is vital to know that an hour before training, you should focus on preparing your internal environment for intense mental and physical work. Hence, taking pre-workout supplements should improve your mind and body to maximize your workout performance.
It is vital to know that the word “improve” above might mean several things. In most cases, pre-workout supplements can provide you with the extra focus or energy you need. However, it can also provide you with some specific physical benefits.
For example, one fitness buff might benefit from an increase in force production or pain tolerance during an intense workout. Another might also benefit from an enhanced endurance that can help get the most out of a training session. Moreover, vasodilators and other ingredients in pre-workout supplements help increase your blood flow to muscle tissue, which boosts endurance and recovery.
What’s in Pre-workout?
The most common ingredients in pre-workout supplements are caffeine, leucine or BCCAs, beta-alanine, and nitric acid boosters like citrulline, arginine, or Nitrosigine (all of these help increase the “pump” feeling during some lifting exercises and increase your blood flow). However, new pre-workout blends containing new ingredients tend to come out every now and then.
These supplements can be split up into two groups: with stimulants and without stimulants. The stimulants include caffeine in varying doses. However, it might include other stimulants such as theacrine, yohimbine, guarana, and the like. Furthermore, many pre-workout supplement companies have developed stimulant-free variants for those who are sensitive to these kinds of ingredients.
If you are looking for a pre-workout supplement that can help you feel ready and amped up for action, plenty of products are available in the market. However, if you don’t want to feel that way, you still have some choices. Moreover, many pre-workout supplements contain only a little stimulant than a cup of coffee or tea. That is why it is best to read labels to know more about the ingredients.
Do Pre-workout Supplements Actually Work?
The effectiveness of taking pre-workout supplements depends on why you are taking them. Some people think that taking pre-workout supplements will make them stronger, bigger, and faster. This probably won’t do, but it can surely help get the most out of your workout. And if you get the most out of your workouts every time, this can certainly help you become stronger, bigger, and faster.
It is vital to note that these supplements are not designed to improve your physique or build muscle directly. These products give you the focus, energy, and endurance to perform your workouts, which helps you reach your body goals.
Many studies can prove that most of the ingredients can provide you with the benefit of improved endurance, strength, and muscle growth. However, those are subject to an individual’s workout and training history.
When Should You Take A Pre-workout Supplement?
You might see some gym-goers drink their pre-workout supplements as they are walking into the gym. This type of gym habit is one thing you shouldn’t follow if you want this supplement to be as effective as possible.
The reason behind this is that the active ingredients in your pre-workout supplements take time to settle in. It takes about 30 to 60 minutes before it reaches the peak levels in your blood. Hence, if you take it as you walk into the gym, the pre-workout supplements might not be that effective.
Suppose you take pre-workout supplements even earlier. Perhaps, 60 to 90 minutes, you will still have the focus and energy to survive an intense and long workout. As mentioned earlier, most pre-workout supplements have caffeine in them, and it takes about 3 to 5 hours before your body cuts the attentiveness of caffeine in your blood.
It is also essential to know what happens if you take pre-workout too late in the day, especially if you plan to exercise during the late afternoon or early evening. Since pre-workout supplements tend to have caffeine, taking these products too late might harm your sleep. This is something you need to consider since getting enough sleep is vital for helping you recover from your hard work in the gym.
Most people are wondering how often you should take pre-workout. Many choose to consume it before nearly every workout. However, the drawback to this is that because caffeine typically is addictive, you might become more tolerant of its effects. Hence, you might need to take increasing amounts of caffeine to get the same energy boost you had before developing some tolerance.
Because of this, many trainers and athletes recommend that you take pre-workout only for an important workout or training session, especially if those are intense workouts or sessions that focus on some large muscle groups like the back, legs, and chest.
To Sum It All Up
Pre-workout supplements can help you with having a better workout performance. This leads to improved strength, muscle growth, and endurance. Moreover, since pre-workout supplements are popular these days, you won’t have to worry about not finding one in the market.
