The “PRE-WORKOUT” Powders and Supplements

There is a pre-workout craze going down all over the internet of late, largely due to the overwhelming marketing of Mike Chang’s programs and supplements.

As many of you familiar with my approach could imagine, I am not going to be too “pro” the use of THESE kinds of supplements, and I’ll explain why below.  This is not to say they may not be useful to some people…it is only to say they are not my style.

I am absolutely fine with the use of supplements to enhance overall health, or for medicinal use.  However, the pre-workout formulas usually contain substances that are not so much about health-enhancement, as compared to temporary performance enhancement.

The main ingredients I’m often seeing, that have varied only slightly over the course of decades now, are these:

-sugars

-creatine (became huge in the late 90’s)

-caffeine

-nitric oxide precursors (since the mid-2000’s or so)

The sugar and caffeine, along with other stimulants either made in a lab or herbal, have long been staples of the pre-workout formulas.  Most of these kinds of powders were simply variations of these two main ingredients for countless years, with some gimmicky new twists added to enable greater marketability and promotion.

SUGARS

Sugars are needed for anyone who exercises vigorously.  As the workout formulas evolved, and carbs were to be avoided more and more, artificial sweeteners became all the rage and continue to be.  There has been a lot of controversy about aspartame, so many manufacturers have stopped using it in their products (though plenty of companies have not eliminated it) and other sweeteners are also being used such as acesulfame potassium and occasionally stevia, the latter has made for a decent more natural, plant-derived sweetener.

CREATINE

Creatine came on the scene in the late 90’s, and various kinds of creatine were later developed to compete with the standard and most-studied, that of creatine monohydrate.  This supplement has largely been determined to be safe to consume.  In the early days it was “cycled,” and “loaded,” whereby larger and larger amounts would be taken to achieve the effect, and for only certain periods of time (such as six weeks) to obtain the desired results.

It works.

The problem is, the strength gains it offers go away quickly once the supplement is stopped.

And, it is often touted as being a “natural” supplement, since it if found in meat products.

However, the creatine in all supplements that I know of is not derived from any meat sources.  It is made in a lab, from what boils down to base molecules that are often tied to industrial chemicals.  Often coming out of China as well.

Not that there’s anything really bad about this.  A lot of supplements come to us this way, some of which can have beneficial applications.

But for the most part, there is a misunderstanding about the “naturalness” of creatine, and a lot of marketing on the subject skews the truth about it either via omission, or via manipulative explanations.

CAFFEINE

Caffeine has long been a part of workout formulas, or, if the manufacturer wants to keep the word “caffeine” off their label to be able to satisfy potential customers who are adverse to caffeine, herbal substances are often used but that have no less naturally occurring caffeine that enable the same boost and jump that a cup or two of coffee would.

There are also other stimulants used, and most of them have been established to have thermogenic fat-burning effects when taken.  …But that are also habit-forming addictive substances.

So we will always know that when we use creatine or caffeine, that the effects obtained from each are temporary and perhaps somewhat “artificial,” as I will say; since I prefer to use neither in an effort to obtain more steady, reliable, and longer-term results.  I would say more “natural” results, since I won’t be depending on anything more than health-enhancing nutrients and food supplements, components my body needs regardless, to achieve my goals, as compared to a temporary performance-enhancer.

In other words, my body will never have a creatine or caffeine “deficiency.”

But it will always have need for the nutrients and foods I use instead.  Such as supplemental magnesium and whey protein, the former having a documented deficiency issue on a large scale according to one specialist, and the latter being a food that supplies me with nutrients my body would need regardless of working out, but which then benefits from even more efficiently when I am working out.

NITRIC OXIDE ENHANCERS

Supplements such as the isolated aminos arginine and citrulline, as well as beetroot are used to allegedly help assist with greater nitric oxide production in the body.  This has become the “fad” of late, and remains controversial.  Although the science is getting closer to helping the body produce nitric oxide through supplementation, from my perspective the results again are only temporary…giving most athletes only a short sensation of greater “pump” from their workouts, and I do not see any reason to be taking anything to attempt to activate this mechanism in the body in order to obtain greater muscular results or lower body fat abs.  Mainly because most of these supplements are again somewhat artificially inducing the effect.  Yes, we may be able to take in the food source of beetroot to get results, but I’m not seeing enough evidence yet to prove the desired effect is there, nor that it would be healthy and appropriate to take large amounts of beetroot on an on-going basis just to attempt to get this “jacked” sensation, or more vascularity.  The jury is also out on whether or not either can enhance erections, since the pathway again is similar to the action of popular prescription erectile dysfunction drugs.

And as a side note, extra arginine has been reported to increase the activity of the herpes virus in the body, both the genital and more common mouth simplexes that up to 80% of the population contends with, causing outbreaks more readily.

I believe there are medicinal applications for isolated amino acids like arginine or even creatine.  I just would not use them for athletic performance enhancement, or more specifically, to try to obtain lower body fat abs.

Tim, aka FacelessFatloss.com