In reality, exercising on some days can be a chore. Some mornings you’re all fired up and ready to burn those calories, other times, you need the push or encouragement to get off your bed let alone out of the door. Sometimes it’s not even that, it’s that you’ve hit a brick wall of a sort whereby you start your workout routines and find out you’re burning out faster than usual, getting fatigued before you even get halfway into it. All of these go to show that energy is key for your body to go through the exercise process to hit its maximum potential. Irrespective of the intensity of the exercise, your energy level must be great all through to avoid premature fatigue and exhaustion.
Imagine having something you can take before you hit the gym which would help you reach your goal? That would be nice right? Great!
Say hello to “pre-workout”!
Pre-workout supplements, or as casually called “pre-workouts”, are multi-ingredient dietary substances used to increase motivation and energy before the workout and endurance through it. They usually come in different forms like capsules, liquid, powder, bars, or tablets. This article here expounds a bit more on this, providing a general overview of these supplements.
How Does It Work?
Generally speaking, some form of food or supplements chosen with care before embarking on a task like a journey, or even a super busy day can be one of the best decisions you would have made that day.
Without having to pay so much attention to your body while exercising, whether as someone keeping fit for health sake or as an athlete, you notice that energy levels deplete quite fast during these workout sessions. To delay this feeling, you need to store up ahead.
You are advised to take your supplement about 30 minutes before the beginning of your session. This will give your body time to absorb the extra carbohydrates that it will provide. The glucose raises your blood sugar levels in a good way to give you more energy for the workouts session.
Pre-workout engages the body by using stimulants which increase blood flow, heart rate, energy, and focus. These all come together and help you exercise harder and with more vigor to get the best results from the training session.
How to Choose Your Pre-workout
With the many options and choices available, making the right choice can be difficult. It however doesn’t have to be as challenging as that. You don’t even have to be a professional to get the basics right.
Here are a few pointers on how to choose right.
Ingredients – this can never be overemphasized. Know the contents of what you are about to ingest.
The number of servings – now value comes into play, check the cost per serving to have an idea of what you get to spend per year.
Price – this is somewhat tied to the number of servings. This helps you determine if it’s a good deal for your pocket.
Packaging – be sure the packaging prevents moisture, and light as this can damage the content. Keep out of the reach of children and airtight.
Ingredients In High-Quality Pre-workouts
It cannot be overemphasized that you always have to read your product labels. Thankfully, products like Nuclear Armageddon pre-workout supplement
make this a walk in the park. You should know things to look out for; ingredients that will help you get better results and those to stay away from completely.
The rule of thumb is; the simpler the better. This is especially true when you’re just starting. When you start seeing scientific names that would cost you a tooth and tongue biting to pronounce, you want to be careful.
However, there are certain key ingredients worth looking out for that will be beneficial to your journey. Oh, and they have been researched extensively too.
Let’s quickly look at some of these.
Caffeine
Quite easy to pronounce right? Similar to the effect of your morning cup of coffee, this well-known ingredient is best known for supercharging your alertness, focus and energy levels. It will also your improve pain threshold, burn fat, and help support vigorous work for longer periods.
Beta-alanine
The body naturally makes this but is also added to pre-workouts to help control muscle fatigue and generally keep fatigued at bay for longer. It achieves this by increasing levels of carnosine in your muscles.
BCAAS
These help fuel the body and reduce the amount of protein breakdown happening in the body. They are essential amino acids that the body doesn’t produce naturally. They are however very important because they fuel your muscle for the long haul.
L-citrulline
This is the natural form of citrulline found in watermelon and known as nitric oxide booster. It helps maintain and boosts normal blood flow to muscles.
Creatine
Ready to be your fastest and strongest self? Be sure to have creatine in your supplement. This aids your muscles in making and distributing ATP and so increases immediate energy levels during exercise for an overall great performance.
There are many more ingredients asides those basic ones above like taurine, matcha, beetroot, etc.
Benefits of Pre-workouts
It increases exercise efficiency
It improves mental alertness and focus.
It boosts energy for the workout session.
The effect of resistance training, especially on body mass is increased.
It boosts endurance performance, which is like a core skill in workouts.
It helps reduce muscle soreness and damage.
It can also facilitate weight loss and muscle growth by boosting metabolism and delaying the onset of hunger.
It reduces protein breakdown.
You stand to enjoy some or all of these by choosing a pre-workout that fits your desired goal. You can get a detailed overview here https://www.menshealth.com/uk/nutrition/a26075019/pre-workout-complete-guide/.
Possible Side Effects of Pre-workouts
Most of the possible side effects are mostly due to underlying health challenges that a consumer might have. This is why it is important to be familiar with the ingredients contained in your pre-workouts and to also get oneself checked regularly to be sure you are as fit as a fiddle and able to ingest some of these things.
Some of the side effects which might occur include:
- Nausea
- A headaches
- Vomiting
- Sleeplessness
- Bloating and diarrhea from artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohol
In Conclusion
A pre-workout can certainly help you have a better workout process and outcome. Do well to take all-necessary precautions like ensuring a balanced nutrition, correct training routines, allowing time off to heal, and of course a good sleep.
Your pre-workout will work with all of these to your advantage. Also remember, all of that good stuff in the ingredients to look out for shouldn’t be consumed excessively because it’s possible to also overdo the good.