To paraphrase the nice American author, Mark Twain, “An excessive amount of of anything is bad, but an excessive amount of pre-workout is barely enough.” Twain originally selected whiskey because the beverage of selection, but there’s a superb likelihood he’d find the humor within the near-obsession some modern-day “fitness” enthusiasts have with potent pre-workout concoctions.
Judicious use of a pre-workout can definitely result in higher intensity sessions that last more and deliver a greater muscle-building, fat-burning stimulus. Nevertheless, all pre-workout formulas are designed with different ingredients in numerous doses, so “one scoop” of something isn’t all the time comparable to “one scoop” of one other mixture.
Credit: Dragon Images / Shutterstock
Knowing what you’re taking, how much, and, more importantly, how your body reacts to those ingredients is important to get the very best results. Before you begin your next training session with a high-potency pre-workout, here’s easy methods to know the possible uncomfortable side effects you may encounter.
Editor’s Note: The next information is supposed to be informative in nature, but shouldn’t be taken as medical advice. The content presented shouldn’t be intended to be used as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. It shouldn’t be an alternative to consulting a professional medical skilled.
Pre-Workout Side Effects
Most Common Pre-Workout Ingredients
Pre-workouts are technically a general category of supplements made up of various mixes with quite a lot of ingredients. Nevertheless, some similar varieties of ingredients are likely to pop up across different formulas.
Stimulants
Possibly essentially the most well-known and, for some, most desired, sort of ingredient is an easy stimulant to bolster physical and mental energy. Caffeine, tyrosine, yohimbine, and theacrine are among the most typical sources of stimulants.
Credit: Ihor Bulyhin / Shutterstock
While nearly all of pre-workouts contain some type of stimulant, there are lots of non-stimulant pre-workout mixes that will be just as effective while omitting key energizing ingredients.
Blood Flow Enhancers
Many pre-workouts contain ingredients designed to enhance blood circulation throughout the body. This may also help to enhance “the pump” while training and should increase endurance. Common nitric oxide boosters, sometimes called “NO2 boosters,” include arginine, citrulline, and betaine (to not be confused with beta-alanine, which is an unrelated ingredient with different effects).
Endurance Support
Many pre-workouts improve your physical endurance during a training session. This may either occur physiologically, by improving your body’s capability for sustained output, or by decreasing your sense of fatigue so that you essentially “feel less drained” as a workout progresses. Common endurance boosters include highly branched cyclic dextrins (which are literally a carbohydrate source moderately than a particular complement) and beta-alanine.
Advantages of Pre-Workout
When it’s time for a pre-workout to deliver results, many formulas knock the ball out of the park. Pre-workouts are popular largely because they’re effective. Listed below are among the most noticeable advantages.
Increased Energy and Alertness
Whether by stimulants, improved blood flow, or other mechanisms, pre-workouts typically get you “fired up” headed right into a training session. This will be useful for those who train after a tiring day at work, for those who’re dragging in a slow gear before your first repetition, or for those who head right into a workout when your mental focus is lower than 100%.
Increased Power and Strength
Pre-workouts can have a direct impact in your strength output during a given workout. (1) By helping to recruit more muscle units, exciting your central nervous system, or improving your muscles’ ability to contract, pre-workouts may help to maneuver more weight for more reps. Over time, this may contribute to greater strength gains and muscle mass.
Improved Blood Flow
Many pre-workout formulas increase total-body circulation. This improved blood flow may help with general alertness and energy, greater motivation to coach, increased physical endurance, and an improved muscle pump. The pump, specifically, has been related to a greater muscle-building stimulus. (2)
Enhanced Endurance
The flexibility to perform longer workouts without decreasing output has been a time-tested recipe for improved fitness, strength, and performance.
Credit: Drazen Zigic / Shutterstock
Many pre-workouts help to enhance endurance during a training session, either by decreasing your body’s sense of fatigue or by encouraging a sustained power output. This will be achieved either with improved recovery between sets or with higher fueled performance at a better intensity.
10 Potential Side Effects
For all of its potential advantages, a pre-workout also has the potential to deliver some uncomfortable side effects. No lifter should reasonably expect all gain for no proverbial “pain” within the gym, whether it’s a difficult set or a useful complement. Listed below are essentially the most common, though definitely not guaranteed, potential issues from using a pre-workout.
CNS Burnout
Your central nervous system (CNS) is actually the best way your brain communicates with, and prompts, your muscles during exercise. Your CNS can turn into more stressed when training intensity or volume is increased, which may negatively affect overall recovery and performance. (3)
Because pre-workouts allow you train train harder and longer — with greater intensity and potentially more volume — chances are you’ll be in danger over overstressing your CNS with excessive use.
Impaired Sleep
Perhaps essentially the most “obvious” potential drawback of a stimulant-laden pre-workout is interrupted sleep and potential insomnia. That is primarily a problem with stimulant-heavy pre-workouts (those which include caffeine or other stimulants of their formula), particularly in the event that they are taken within the afternoon or evening.
For instance, taking a pre-workout around 5 p.m. for an afterwork training session is far more more likely to cause sleep problems than a pre-workout taken at 7 a.m. for an early morning workout. Nevertheless, individual sensitivities and total every day caffeine intake (from coffee, tea, soda, etc.) is usually a factor.
Nausea
Sometimes easy hard training can result in nausea. Many experienced lifters have needed to go to the “puke bucket” during high-rep squats, but potent pre-workout formulas might turn even a mean workout right into a sour stomach fiasco.
Whether it’s resulting from an overload of stimulants, an excessive workload, or simply a mixture of assorted ingredients swirling around your gut, a powerful pre-workout could leave you feeling queasy, which might ultimately interrupt your training session. Some research suggests this is definitely one of the crucial common uncomfortable side effects some lifters experience after taking a pre-workout. (4)
GI Upset
Just like nausea, some lifters may experience gastric distress (upset stomach and/or bowel issues) after taking a pre-workout, often resulting from high-dose stimulants or related ingredients. This may severely interrupt a training session, often derailing a workout before it’s even begun. In extreme cases, it might be severe enough to force a lifter to desert a workout entirely.
Attenuation
While stimulant-based pre-workouts will be highly effective for improving strength, power, and endurance, they may also deliver steadily diminishing results if utilized in excess. The body can develop a tolerance to stimulants, including caffeine, making their helpful effects less impactful over time. (5)
To make sure maximum impact, aim to make use of a pre-workout not more than every other day, moderately than every workout. In case you continuously eat significant amounts of caffeine during a daily day, consider cutting back or using a pre-workout even less continuously. This could allow the formula to deliver a more noticeable profit. (6)
Dehydration
A notable, but relatively easily preventable, side effect of pre-workouts is dehydration. By prompting a more difficult workout, some lifters may turn into more depleted during a high intensity training session via increased sweating and the lack of basic nutrients. (7)
Credit: Ground Picture / Shutterstock
This may increasingly not necessarily be accounted for with sufficient intra-workout hydration. Dehydration can result in an overall decrease in power and endurance, making the workout counterproductive.
Headache
One other possible side effect of pre-workout, which could also be noticeable sooner moderately than later during some sessions, is an easy headache. Many pre-workout ingredients increase overall blood flow which will be helpful to muscular performance, but can be contraindicated in a one that is already experiencing hypertension. (8)
In case you’re currently coping with hypertension, double-check your pre-workout formula for ingredients which can exacerbate the difficulty similar to arginine, citrulline, and other purported “nitric oxide boosters.”
Increased Heart Rate
Pre-workouts may increase a lifter’s heart rate, either relatively directly through stimulant-based ingredients or by supporting a high degree of coaching intensity. In lifters with hypertension or other cardiovascular risks, an increased heart rate may present a possible danger.
While exercise, in itself, may raise an individual’s heart rate, the addition of a pre-workout may bring it to inappropriate or unexpected levels.
Skin Response
A comparatively minor side effect, but no less distracting, is a “tingling” or itching skin sensation after taking a pre-workout. This will be particularly common in formulas which contain beta-alanine — a complement typically related to a “flushing” of the skin.
Some research associates the beta-alanine response with an overstimulation of nerve endings, moderately than a symptom of acute allergic response. (9) Regardless, the skin flush could also be distractingly uncomfortable, despite being considered a “successful sign” that the complement could also be working.
Medication Interaction
Many dietary supplements carry the chance of potential interactions with prescription medications. Pre-workout formulas are not any different and must be approached with adequate consideration.
Several individual ingredients common to pre-workout mixes are considered “contraindicated” when taking key categories of medicines. For instance, NO2 boosters similar to arginine or citrulline could have an additive effect in people taking certain medications for erectile dysfunction. (10)
Similarly, the amino acid tyrosine (sometimes utilized in pre-workouts for improved mental focus) may interact with certain prescribed antidepressants and should result in increased blood pressure and related problems.
Pre-Workout with Care
Pre-workout formulas will be distinctly useful when used strategically. Nevertheless, like every complement, there are also potential uncomfortable side effects to concentrate on. Mistaking pre-workout formulas as being entirely risk-free can be a short-sighted error. Make sure that you already know what you’re taking and why you’re taking it. Once you might have those details sorted out, you’ll be higher prepared to anticipate and mitigate any potential uncomfortable side effects, resulting in greater results overall.
References
- Martinez, N., Campbell, B., Franek, M., Buchanan, L., & Colquhoun, R. (2016). The effect of acute pre-workout supplementation on power and strength performance. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 13, 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-016-0138-7
- Schoenfeld, Brad J. PhD, CSCS, CSPS, NSCA-CPT1; Contreras, Bret MA2. The Muscle Pump: Potential Mechanisms and Applications for Enhancing Hypertrophic Adaptations. Strength and Conditioning Journal 36(3):p 21-25, June 2014. | DOI: 10.1097/SSC.0000000000000021
- Zając, A., Chalimoniuk, M., Maszczyk, A., Gołaś, A., & Lngfort, J. (2015). Central and Peripheral Fatigue During Resistance Exercise – A Critical Review. Journal of human kinetics, 49, 159–169. https://doi.org/10.1515/hukin-2015-0118
- Jagim, A. R., Camic, C. L., & Harty, P. S. (2019). Common Habits, Hostile Events, and Opinions Regarding Pre-Workout Supplement Use Amongst Regular Consumers. Nutrients, 11(4), 855. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11040855
- Boulenger, J. P., Patel, J., Post, R. M., Parma, A. M., & Marangos, P. J. (1983). Chronic caffeine consumption increases the variety of brain adenosine receptors. Life sciences, 32(10), 1135–1142. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3205(83)90119-4
- Addicott, M. A., & Laurienti, P. J. (2009). A comparison of the consequences of caffeine following abstinence and normal caffeine use. Psychopharmacology, 207(3), 423–431. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1668-3
- Judge, L. W., Bellar, D. M., Popp, J. K., Craig, B. W., Schoeff, M. A., Hoover, D. L., Fox, B., Kistler, B. M., & Al-Nawaiseh, A. M. (2021). Hydration to Maximize Performance and Recovery: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Amongst Collegiate Track and Field Throwers. Journal of human kinetics, 79, 111–122. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2021-0065
- Cameron, M., Camic, C. L., Doberstein, S., Erickson, J. L., & Jagim, A. R. (2018). The acute effects of a multi-ingredient pre-workout complement on resting energy expenditure and exercise performance in recreationally energetic females. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 15, 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0206-7
- Liu, Q., Sikand, P., Ma, C., Tang, Z., Han, L., Li, Z., Sun, S., LaMotte, R. H., & Dong, X. (2012). Mechanisms of itch evoked by β-alanine. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 32(42), 14532–14537. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3509-12.2012
- El-Wakeel, L. M., Fouad, F. A., Saleem, M. D., & Saber-Khalaf, M. (2020). Efficacy and tolerability of sildenafil/l-arginine combination relative to sildenafil alone in patients with organic erectile dysfunction. Andrology, 8(1), 143–147. https://doi.org/10.1111/andr.12671
Featured Image: ME Image / Shutterstock