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Pre-Workouts Guide For Dummies: 5 Common Ingredients In Pre-Workouts

Pre-Workout: Guide For Dummies

Basically, pre-workout is something you take before exercise to boost your energy, strength, or endurance.

Before I became a nutrition and fitness enthusiast, I had no idea pre-workouts exist. I don't even know what a pre-workout is. 

I usually take nothing before my exercise, just willpower. But with willpower, I only managed to run 2, probably 3 minutes. But that's because I hate running. 

Some people take strong coffee before workouts, some eat light meals. It is a form of pre-workout. Meals or food might not be very suitable for cardio because it's uncomfortable running or dancing with undigested food in your stomach.

Pre-workouts made a lot of difference, to me at least. 

I usually exercise in the evening, after work. So I need an energy boost and I can really feel the difference. 

I had more energy, I can run more, lifts heavier weights, and do more repetitions.

Related: Best Pre-Workouts For Woman and Best Pre-Workouts For Man

Here Are 5 Common Ingredients In A Pre-Workout: 

1. CAFFEINE

Primary purpose: Energy

Remember you have to stay up late for whatever reason and you chug coffee like nobody's business for an energy boost? 

It's the same with caffeine in pre-workouts.

It is an effective performance booster in both endurance exercise and short bouts of maximal exercise (e.g., sprints). And important to note that doses will vary from person to person. 

If you are a coffee drinker, you are going to need more to get you up. If you aren't, well... you won't. 

You have to experiment so you can figure out what works best for you.

But if you are sensitive to caffeine, you might have palpitations, headaches, and jitteriness.

Related: Symptoms of Caffeine Sensitivity

2. BRANCHED-CHAIN AMINO ACIDS (BCAAs)

Primary purpose: For an anabolic (building) environment

BCAAs—leucine, isoleucine, and valine—are key when it comes to regulating protein metabolism, increasing protein synthesis, and suppressing protein breakdown. 

It is important that you get the right ratio of leucine to isoleucine to valine. You are looking for 2:1:1, respectively. 

BCAAs give you some immediate protection against the catabolic (muscle breakdown) environments produced when exercising. 

It may also help decrease muscle soreness the following day so you can get back to training hard faster.

Related: 10 Best BCAA Supplements

3. BETA-ALANINE

Primary purpose: Increased muscular endurance

This is another ingredient that can help improve your overall training volume. Meaning it gives you the ability to keep your intensity up for longer periods of time. 

In other words: more weights, more repetitions, and more gain!

With beta-alanine, you will most likely experience a tingling sensation. Don't worry, what you are experiencing is called "paresthesia," and it is completely normal.

Related: What is Beta-Alanine And How It Works?

4. CREATINE MONOHYDRATE

Primary purpose: Explosive strength

It is involved in the ATP-ADP cycle. Creatine is the ingredient that is going to help most with your lower-rep workouts. 

Simply put, it helps saturate your muscles with the energy source needed to produce a fast, big energy pump required for those really big lifts.

In other words, if you do heavier weights with lower reps, creatine is the best source of energy. 

Related: Benefits of Creatine Monohydrate

5. BONUS INGREDIENTS VASODILATORS

Primary purpose: Increase blood flow

What's the purpose of all this if your blood vessels are constricted and won't be able to deliver all these effectively?

Vasodilators like L-arginine, L-citrulline, and beetroot increased nitric oxide levels in the blood, leading to an increase in blood flow, which can stimulate the always-desired "pump."

With so many pre-workouts in the market, you have to know what do you want for yourself. 

Do you just want an energy boost or do you want more strength? 

As with any fitness supplement, you must know what you want to achieve your fitness goal.

Personally, I like caffeine-based products. The energy boost is amazing but the downside is you have to drink a lot of water and there is always the risk of not being able to sleep at night. I usually take it half an hour before my workouts. 

I used these fat burners as a pre-workouts (weight loss + energy).


I love this. It taste better than hydroxycut. The energy is not as powerful as hydroxycut but it has more complete ingredients as both pre-workout (beta-alanine included) and fat burner (caffein, L-carnitine, CLA, antioxidant blend etc)


Comments

  1. I would say this is very good article From beginning to end.Thanks for sharing this post. If you are looking for Pre Workout Supplement to boost your energy body then visit BigFlex.

    ReplyDelete

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