Pre-Workout Supplements: How To PROPERLY Use It To Boost Performance (Avoid Side Effects!)

Pre workouts are a popular go to product when it comes to enhancing performance and giving you that extra boost you need during a tough workout. It's also one of the most well researched supplements within the fitness industry, with several studies backing its effectiveness in terms of increasing training volume and boosting muscular endurance while reducing your levels of perceived effort during your workout, which all theoretically leads to better muscle growth in the long run. However, despite the growing popularity of pre workouts, there seems to be a lack of information out there regarding how exactly to use it to maximize its effectiveness while minimizing any potential side effects. Therefore, in this video I'll discuss just that by taking a look at the following points. But before we do so, it's first important to understand what makes pre workouts work in the first place. And the truth is, although there's a variety of common ingredients included in your typical pre workout which each do have some evidence supporting their benefit and is something I'll likely cover in a separate video. And the main ingredient responsible for the majority of the positive effects of pre workouts and the one ingredient you should be most concerned about is caffeine, which is why the majority of this video will be directed towards caffeine. So on that note, let's start with how often you should take your pre workout. Although the positive benefits and energy boost provided by pre workouts may tempt you to take it before every single workout, it's likely best that you don't. The this is because multiple studies have shown that habitual pre workout intake can quickly cause you to be tolerant to the effects of caffeine. Meaning that the more often you take it, the more you'll have to continuously increase the dose of your pre workout in order to feel the acute benefits it provides during your workout. And in fact, research has found that eventually you'll even reach something called an insurmountable tolerance to caffeine, which means that increasing the dose of your pre workout will no longer enable you to overcome your tolerance to it. Simply meaning that when you've reached this point, ingesting a pre workout will essentially be useless aside from any placebo effect it may provide. So what should you do instead? Well, multiple studies examining the effect of pre workouts on workout performance have actually found that it seems to provide a greater benefit for lower body workouts than upper body workouts, which is likely because lower body exercises in general are just harder and require more perceived effort than upper body exercises. And and since pre workouts reduce your perception of effort, it gives you the extra boost needed during strenuous leg days, which otherwise may not be as necessary during upper body days. Therefore, to avoid quickly becoming tolerant to the effects of your pre workout, it would be wise to only use it during your lower body workouts where you feel you need the extra boost as doing so will help prevent the benefits of your pre workout from diminishing throughout the weeks. In addition, if you've been relying on pre workout for a while and have become noticeably tolerant to its effects, then it would be wise to take at least a week or two off of any caffeine or gradually lower than increase your dose over time in order to resensitize your body to its acute effects. Now as for how much of your pre workout to take in order to maximize its benefits, this will depend mainly on two things your current body weight and your current habitual caffeine intake. Most of the research in support of caffeine's ergogenic effect on performance use a dosage of roughly 3-6mg of caffeine per kg gram of body weight and is therefore likely a good range to stay within for most people. However, research also indicates that the closer your habitual caffeine dose is to your pre workout caffeine dose, the less consistent the beneficial effects will become. So for example, if you already consume 200 milligrams of caffeine through various sources throughout the day, then intaking 200mg of caffeine as a pre workout won't provide as great of an effect when compared to someone who's used to a lower daily consumption of caffeine, meaning that you should first consider how much caffeine you already intake on a daily basis when figuring out the optimal dose of your pre workout, as you'll likely need a higher dose if you already consume quite a bit of caffeine regularly. But regardless, it's important that if you're not consuming any caffeine or anything close to 6 milligrams per kilogram per day, or you find yourself sensitive to caffeine in general, then it's wise not to triple or quadruple your caffeine consumption immediately just to hit the recommended dosage. Instead, I'd suggest starting even below this range and building your way up as needed and decreasing the dosage if you experience any negative side effects. For example, one scoop of a typical pre workout often contains around 200 milligrams or so of caffeine. So initially starting out with 3/4 of a scoop or even just half a scoop of your pre workout and building your way up as needed would be an effective and safe way to find your sweet spot. Now as for when exactly to take your pre workout, taking it too early prior to your workout will cause its effects to diminish shortly after you start your workout, whereas taking it too late means you won't feel its full effects until later on in your workout. So given that most of the research out there indicates that taking it 30 to 45 minutes before your workout is best, which is on average the time it takes for caffeine to reach a peak level in your bloodstream and is when you'll feel its effects the most, I suggest sticking with that. Just make sure that you also consider consider the time it takes to get to your gym and any warm up protocols you do before your workout, as it's best to have the pre workout fully kick in for your working sets rather than during your drive to the gym or during your warm up. In addition, given that caffeine has a half life of roughly three to five hours, the time of day in which you take your pre workout is something you should consider as well if you want to minimize any potential side effects. For example, one 2013 paper from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine compared the effects of caffeine on sleep when ingested three hours or six hours before sleep. The researchers found that when compared to a placebo, moderate caffeine ingestion 6 hours before sleep reduced total sleep time by 41 minutes and caffeine ingestion 3 hours before sleep reduced total sleep time By 63 minutes. And in both conditions it also took subjects more than double the time to fall asleep and significantly reduce their sleep quality. Simply meaning that if you don't want your pre workout to affect your sleep, which in itself is extremely important for muscle growth and recovery, it would be best to refrain from taking it too close to your bedtime.

So to sum up the video, here are the main points. Just keep in mind though guys, that using a pre workout is by no means necessary and shouldn't become something that you have to rely on just to get your workouts done.

In fact, personally, during my first several.

Years of training I never used any pre workout and I only use it now when I need that extra little boost. As I always try to emphasize, although supplements can help, they comprise a very small piece of the puzzle and the majority of your results will be seen with implementing a proper training and nutrition plan. And if you're looking for a complete evidence based plan that combines all the research I do into an easy to follow program designed to effectively efficiently transform your body. Then simply head on over to built with science.com forward/courses where you can view the four programs I have up and choose the one that best suits you. Anyways, that's it for now. For those who haven't already, I'd really appreciate it if you gave me a follow on Instagram where you can stay updated with what I'm doing and see a lot of the informative content I post there on a more regular basis. And as always, if you enjoyed this video, please don't forget to give it a like leave a comment down below and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. Thank you everyone for the support and I'll see you next time.