SHOULD YOU BE TAKING A PRE-WORKOUT SUPPLEMENT?

I personally love a bit of an energy- kick for my workouts after taking a pre-workout. I tend to take pre-workout in cycles, so I have periods of when I take it quite frequently, and then periods of time when I don't use it for months. I will explain later in this article why I do this.

Some people love pre-workouts, but it's not a supplement for everyone or every workout. Let's look in to some of the pro's and con's:

 

Beneficial effects pre-workout may have on your training and results:

• Enhance your energy and endurance

Many pre-workouts contain caffeine, including the Women's Best one I use. Caffeine stimulates the nervous system which helps you feel more peppy and energetic. Beta Alanine, which also is found in many pre-workouts is and amino acid that promotes strength, power and endurance.

• Boost your strength
 and pump

Ingredients like creatine and Beta-Alanine will help boost your performance so that you get more out of your workout and L-Arganine gives you a pump through it's conversion to nitric oxide (NO).

• Assist in muscle maintenance & growth

Many pre-workouts contain amino acids which support protein synthesis. Also, with the extra power for your workouts you can train harder and elevate your muscle mass results. Ingredients like L-Arganina also boosts growth hormone levels which assist in increased muscle mass and fat-burning.

• Increase fat releasing, calorie burning and aid in weight loss

If you train harder, you burn more calories, and the effect of muscle maintenance and growth also supports greater fat loss. The more muscle mass you have the quicker your resting metabolism rate will be. This simply means, that you will be burning more calories (and fat) even at rest if you have more muscle on your body! Alongside that, ingredients like Citric Acid benefits fat burning by helping the body to process fats and carbohydrates.

• Enhance concentration, focus and mood 

Ingredients like L-Tyrosine help relieve stress and depression, burnout, anxiety, and mental fatigue. It also improves alertness and enhances cognitive performance.

 

Side effects of pre-workout

Pre-workouts also have some side-effects that it's important to be aware of

• Stressful on your adrenal glands if not used correctly

If you take pre-workout make sure you cycle it as your body will after some time get used to it's effect. This means you will inevitably require higher and higher doses to feel the effects. This can put a lot of stress on your adrenal glands and even with time lead to adrenal fatigue. So make sure that when you start feeling like you need to have a larger dose- you have a break instead. Also, to avoid stress on your adrenal glands, do not mix your pre-workout with other stimulants like coffee or Redbull.

• May make you feel a tingly, weird sensation (which some people don't like)

Beta-Alanine has a side effect of a tingly, pins-and-needle like feeling. This is completey harmless but may feel uncomfortable to some 

• Can make some people feel nauseous/ jittery or anxious

Some individuals may feel nauseous or jittery due to their pre-workout so be aware of this. If you are an anxious person, also be aware of that stimulants like coffee and pre-workouts may elevate stress-levels.

• Trouble sleeping

If you train late afternoon or night time- pre-workout may not be for you. Use it for your morning/ early day training sessions to avoid this.

• Understand what you are taking

Have a look in to the ingredients of your pre-workout. Read one of my previous article that goes through the ingredients in my Women's Best pre-workout. CLICK HERE

 

Tips for when using pre-workout

Tip 1: Use the recommended dosage. Never double up your dose- if you feel like doing this- have a break instead :)

Tip 2: Never mix your pre-workout with another stimulant like coffee.

Tip 3: Use in cycles. Remember to have breaks from your pre-workout to not gfatigue your adrenal glands. whenever you feel like you need more than one dose- have a minimum two week break.

 

Where I get my sports supplements from to supplement my healthy, active lifestyle: www.womensbest.com.au

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