Steve Howard A pre-workout or often called a muscle building booster is an all-in-one formula, composed mainly of stimulating ingredients for allow you to increase your energy to support intense and lasting efforts.
What is a pre-workout?
As its name suggests, it is a product that is consumed before a workout to avoid the risk of fatigue and increase the effect of alertness and concentration for more performance.
In general, a pre-workout is rich in caffeine, a natural psychotropic substance known for its stimulating effects (1) but also in amino acids that can promote congestion and endurance such as arginine (2) and L-Citrulline Malate (3). We can also find L-Carnitine, an amino acid that can promote the transport of fat for energy and therefore contribute to weight loss and fat (4). Some boosters also contain creatine, an amino acid known for its ability to increase strength and performance on short, intense efforts such as bodybuilding (5) such as My Energy Pump from MyMuscle or C4 Original from Cellucor.
A pre-workout is therefore a product intended to give the best of yourself! For people sensitive to caffeine, there are caffeine-free pre-workouts such as Pump Xplode Powder from Olimp Sport Nutrition or AMI-NO Xpress from Scitec Nutrition. For people wishing to avoid the consumption of creatine before a session, there are of course creatine-free pre-workouts such as Black Blood CAF + from BioTech USA or Amino Energy from Optimum Nutrition.
Why take a pre-workout booster?
As seen above, a pre-workout booster can help you achieve more intense and lasting efforts while fighting fatigue. If you’re tired or in a calorie deficit while on a dry diet, consuming a booster can increase your energy level so you can be more focused and performing during training.
Be careful, however, to control your caffeine intake from all sources so as not to experience side effects linked to too much consumption of this stimulating substance: nausea, palpitations, cardiac accelerations …
Should we consume it at the start of each session?
A pre-workout should not be taken at the start of each session and especially when it contains stimulating substances such as caffeine. This is because the human body gets used to it very quickly and may no longer feel the effects as the sessions progress. In this case, the booster will not give you anything more. We advise you to use it a maximum of 1 to 2 times a week so that you can feel all the benefits at each session! If you use it every time, take a break for 1 to 2 weeks to resume later.
