What Is Pre Workout? What Does Pre Workout Do?
Pre workout is categorized as a dietary supplement which is consumed prior to any physical workout, its core purpose is to enhance athletic performance of the consumer. Apart from enhancing athletic performance, pre workout also contributes to improving focus, energy, endurance, and strength with the help of some key ingredients like caffeine, amino acids, creatine, and beta-alanine. Pre workout supplement is consistently consumed by athletes, body builders, and many fitness enthusiasts to optimize their performance and fetch out better results from their workout sessions.
Is Pre Workout Bad For You?
This is a kind of question that will probably keep appearing for all kinds of supplements and not only for pre workouts. Some people may experience a few side effects related to digestion, weight gain, mild reactions, minor headaches, and minor anxiety issues after consuming pre workout supplements, but those side effects appear only when the dosages of certain ingredients are consumed more than the recommended intake:
1. Indigestion: Many pre workouts consist of sodium bicarbonate which can cause indigestion if it is consumed more than 0.3g of per kg of body weight. However, many pre workout supplements do not have this much amount of sodium bicarbonate in them per serving, but if you do find any pre workout supplement that is providing more dosage than what is recommended above, we suggest you to not take it.
2. Weight gain: Creatine, is among the most popular ingredient that enhances the capacity for high intensity workout and is found in mostly every pre workout supplement out there. Creatine dosage at loading phase is usually recommended to be 5 grams, four times per day for 5 to 7 days and 3 – 5 grams, four times per day for 5 to 7 days in maintenance phase. A moderate level of weight gain can’t be avoided when you are consuming creatine, as it’s the tendency of creatine to retain water in the muscles, but this kind of moderate weight gain is not something that you should be alarmed about, because you come back to your natural weight once your muscles release the water.
3. Mild reactions: Beta alanine and niacin (vitamin B3), another two very commonly found ingredient in almost every pre workout supplement. Beta alanine helps in enduring the workout sessions for longer duration by reducing the formulation of lactic acid in muscles during workout which helps in continuing the workout for a little bit longer, it is recommended to consume beta alanine between 4-6 g per day to receive potential benefits. Niacin assists in the process of metabolism as it is the crucial ingredient for cellular level of metabolism, recommended dosage for niacin is 16 mg in men and 14 mg in women but it also causes mild reactions like skin flushing effects. While these mild reactions don’t necessarily cause any harm, but still it can be little uncomfortable for some people so for those individuals it is advised to opt for a pre workout that does not have niacin or to stay under the recommended dosage that are mentioned above.
4. Minor headaches: Citrulline, an amino acid which is found in many pre workout supplements, helps increase the blood flow in the muscles and the process of building muscle. Ironically citrulline is also the reason why some individuals experience minor headaches, because this amino acid also increases blood flow in small blood vessels of our brain. 6 – 8 grams is the recommended dose for citrulline, and most of the pre workout supplements provides smaller dosages. To avoid any minor headaches, you should consume citrulline in a recommended dosage by reading the product label.
5. Minor anxiety issues: One of the primary ingredients that is found in every pre workout supplement is caffeine. Caffeine has proven to be an excellent stimulant that enhances muscle strength and decrease the level of fatigue while performing any exercise. However, there could be many side effects that occurs when we consume too much caffeine, like headaches, anxiety, insomnia, and minor anxiety issues but caffeine also has a lot of benefits. Many pre workout supplements comes with high caffeine dosage – 500 mg per serving size, a standard serving size for pre workout supplements is usually 10-30 g. The only way to minimize the side effects of caffeine is to minimize the dosages of caffeine, however caffeine dosing varies for every individual as it completely depends upon how much dosage an individual can tolerate.
Repfuel Sports BONFIRE provides you with the right amount of Beta alanine, Citrulline, niacin, caffeine, and other ingredients to ensure you receive maximum benefits without any discomfort. We make sure that we provide our consumer with the authentic and right supplementation. BONFIRE is specifically formulated to enhance the pump and performance matrix to give you the best workout of your life.
How Long Does A Pre-Workout Last?
Effects of pre workout supplements is directly proportional to the half-life of the ingredients. Mostly, these ingredients last for about 4-6 hours, this means that, pre workout has the capacity of lasting up to 4-6 hours, but most likely you’ll experience the effects for only up to 1-2 hours.
Pre workouts consist various ingredient that can have a lasting effect on our body with different time duration.
Two of the most researched ingredients among those ingredients are caffeine and arginine.
As observed through many pre workouts supplements, both caffeine and arginine take up to 60-90 minutes to kick in.
Arginine is responsible for widening our blood vessels and increasing the blood flow in our system. Many research suggests that arginine has a half-life of somewhere between 30 -120 minutes, which depends upon the individual and the dosage that they are consuming. However, half-life of caffeine is for around 5 hours. Research has concluded that it takes up to 1 hour for caffeine to kick in or show the acute effects in our system and has the capacity for lasting up to 1.5-9.5 hours, which again depends upon the individual and the level of tolerance they have for caffeine.
So, to sum it all up in short form it can be said that due to diverse half-lives of ingredient like caffeine and arginine, most of the pre workouts will have a lasting effect from 30 minutes – 2 hours. But as we have talked about different half-lives for relevant ingredients it can be said that effects of pre workout can vary from person to person.
Basically, how long does a pre workout last depends on these factors:
1) Quantity of the ingredients you are consuming in a serving
2) Quantity of servings you are having in a specific time duration
3) Body mass - Higher body mass individuals will be requiring a higher dosage to experience the effects of pre workout, your body mass also contributes to the rate at which your body will metabolize the ingredients and absorb them in the bloodstreams, which eventually affects how long the pre workout will last and the intensity of the effects.
4) Activity level - our metabolism accelerates while performing high level of physical activity which helps in faster absorption of the ingredients that are present in pre workout which will eventually shorten the lasting effects of pre workout supplement.
5) How sensitive your body is towards caffeine - Individuals who are more sensitive towards caffeine will experience a stronger and faster effects of pre workouts as compared to individuals who have a higher tolerance to caffeine, this also impacts the effects of pre workout as individuals who are sensitive towards caffeine will take a longer time to metabolize caffeine which will eventually increase the effects of pre workout, but people who have a high tolerance towards caffeine will metabolize the caffeine at a much faster rate which will eventually shorten the effects of pre workout.
Learn More About How Long Does Pre Work Out Last?
Bottom line
Although all these side effects are relevant, however they only occur when any specific ingredient is consumed more than the recommended dosage, but if you are getting these side effects even after consuming the recommended dosage then it’s best for you to opt out of pre workout supplements or take professional advice before choosing one.
