Pre Work Supplements Buying Guide
Many bodybuilders and weight lifters know about and use pre workout supplements. In fact, we’d rather forget our keys at home than our favorite pre. If you’ve used pwo’s like Olympus Labs Re1gn and Jym, you don’t need somebody to tell you why these are important when you’re throwing heavy weight around.
If you’ve just purchased your first gym membership and are new to exotic bodybuilding supplements, you will definitely need some insight. Many newbies are not keen and educated on weight lifting supplements because they immediately think of them as being banned or illegal substances.
Wrong. They’ve got nothing to do with those dangerous compounds.
What are pre-workout supplements?
“Pre-workout supplements” is an umbrella term for all the types of additives that offer a boost in energy, strength, and stamina. Once your body absorbs these, your workout will be a lot more efficient.
Apart from boosting your overall endurance and energy levels, some of them have an impact on your body’s power to burn off fat and enhance its capability to replace that with lean muscles.
There are many good pre-workout formulas with very effective ingredients – on the market. Caffeine, for instance, removes fatigue and keeps your brain alert, which will lead to better focus, as well as to a more efficient workout – overall.
Amino acids, too, are among the best pre-workout supplements. Not all of them qualify as such, of course. Here are some amino acids worth considering:
Citrulline malate (improves the effects of fatigue and leads to a speedy muscular recovery)
Taurine (reduces muscle fatigue and one of my favorite supplements)
Beta-Alanine (endurance)
Betaine (stamina)
Tyrosine (mind and muscle connection)
Out of the above listed pre workout ingredients, Citrulline is probably the most popular because 3-6 grams combined with Agmatine or KNO3 is probably the best pump supplement you can buy. High Volume comes to mind as the best pump supplement.
Other popular pre workout ingredients are, creatine, nootropics, L-Theanine, Teacrine and many, many others. These are usually found in stores specializing in gym supplements that help with energy, strength and endurance. Most of them come as a powder that you mix with water to make your pre workout drink. Most are usually ingested 20-3- minutes prior to working out.
How do pre-workouts work?
It’s simple: once you drink the pwo, the compounds and extracts will be released into your bloodstream. Depending on the efficiency of the tub of pre-workout you’ve purchased, the acute effects can last for a couple of hours and even up to 5-6 hours. That’s why it’s important to always read and follow the directions. Some pwo’s should never be taken close to bedtime.
Once they’ve been broken down into your body, they start stimulating it. Let the gains and PR’s begin. You should know that the vast majority of them work by hitting your blood stream with a huge jab of caffeine. If you have any cardiac problems, talk to a doctor before using any of these supplements.
Whilst caffeine is doing a number on your energy, the other compounds in the powder will start to stimulate your mind and fill your blood with nitric oxide. Unfortunately, the market is saturated with brands that cost a ton of money but do absolutely nothing for you. This is kind of important, so let’s expand on this in a stand-alone section.
What to look for in a good pre-workout
First of all, take a look at the price. Due to capitalist greed, most companies today manufacture sub par pre-workout supplements. You can tell them apart by looking at the price tag. If they’re extremely cheap, chances are, they’re under-dosed.
You should expect to pay some good money for pre-workout supplements, at least somewhere in the range of $30-$50. And even then, I recommend you stay away from the following things you’ll find written on the labels:
Proprietary blends – nobody ever knows what exactly how much of what are in the prop blends, and many bodybuilders and weight lifters speak against them because often times they’re very under-dosed or filled with things like creatine.
Too many ingredients (kitchen sink formulas) and outrageous claims from supp companies – you can rest assure at least half of those will have 0% effect on your workout. They’re there for marketing purposes, and unfortunately, many bodybuilders fall for it because they want over night gains, and think they’re going to become Ronnie Coleman or Dexter Jackson in the blink of an eye.
Too many stimulants – I think we can agree that it’s not much of a workout when you feel like your heart is about to explode in your chest. If possible, try to aim for pre-workouts that have a moderate amount of caffeine and other stimulants that can help with focus and mind muscle connection.
Pro Tip: Do not SOLELY rely on the advice of others when buying pre-workout supplements. What may be good for them might be bad for you. Supplement company Reps are in the business of selling their products. It’s their job to tell you that they have “the best pre workout”.
You can buy them at your gym, health and supplement stores – online and brick and mortar. GNC comes to mind when speaking of a brick and mortar supplement store and Amazon.com comes to mind when speaking of a reputable online store to buy pre workouts.
Be aware of some gyms that sell pre-workout supplements because it’s all about the money. You’ll see how cheap they are in comparison with other places. Moreover, you can’t really know how long they’ve been sitting on the shelves. Many pwo customers never think to look at the expiration date on the tub.
I recommend that you purchase your pre-workouts from reputable supplement websites that have good feedback. Do not get them from sites which don’t show the full listing of ingredients that go into the products they sell. Unless that company or website has great feedback from customers.
On the end-note, make sure you’ll be buying the product that is best for you, not because some high pressure sales Rep. talked you into it. At the end of the day, they just want your money and commissions from sales. If you’re a beginner, you won’t need all sorts of exotic stimulants to get you through your workout. Build up your tolerance slowly and don’t be that person who abuses pre workouts. If the tub says one scoop, take one scoop. Just because you don’t feel the stims doesn’t mean there aren’t other ingredients that shouldn’t be dosed at two scoops.
If you’re pwo isn’t working any longer or you can’t feel the stimulant effects, it might be time for a stim-break. How long of a stim break you need differs from person to person.
Concluding remarks:
It is true that pre-workouts are great, but due to the number of brands that have mushroomed all over the Internet, it’s quite hard to find the right one. It takes some research to ensure that you’ll end up with a product that will actually work as promised.
We hope that this brief guide to buying pre workouts was of some help in introducing you to the world of bodybuilding supplements. The notion is quite easy to understand, as is the way they work once ingested. Hopefully, you’ll find the right one to help make those gains. Making your own homemade pre workout is also an option. A caffeine tab, Citrulline and maybe a focus element is a very basic but effective homemade pwo.
Just make sure you pay attention to those crucial points I’ve outlined above.