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If you’re training regularly and are serious about getting the maximum results from your efforts in the gym, chances are that sooner or later you’re going to be asking yourself if you need a pre-workout supplement to help you to continue making progress.
We’ve put this page together to help you know if, and when you may wish to consider using a pre-workout supplement, what you can expect from using one, and how to go about choosing the right one for you.
Here’s what our own experience of using pre-workout supplements has taught us…
You Probably Don’t Need A Pre-Workout …
At least not yet anyway if…
You’re just starting out on your workout journey and you’re moving forward steadily and gradually increasing the weight and reps in the gym…
Or you’re an endurance athlete and your times and distances are steadily improving using your existing nutrition plan…
And you’re staying focused and motivated during your workouts.
In other words, you don’t need a pre-workout as long as you’re staying focused, motivated, and making progress without one.
You May Need A Pre-Workout…
If your gains have begun to slow down and you’re finding it a little difficult to remain motivated and focused to work out.
This is a vicious circle, progress begins to stall, leading to a drop in focus and motivation, which leads to a further lack of progress, and so on, and so on.
In this situation, sometimes taking a week or two off from training to give your body some time to rest, recover and grow while increasing your food intake slightly can do the trick.
However, this is when you may want to start thinking about using a pre-workout to kick-start your gains, and a good time to start looking into pre-workout supplements, checking them out, to see which one will best serve your individual needs.
You More Than Likely Need A Pre-Workout…
If your diet is on point, you’re training hard using proper form, getting plenty of rest between workouts and you just can’t seem to make any progress no matter how hard you’re trying.
This is probably going to happen at some point to most people, you’ve gone as far as you can without using supplements, your gains have ground to a halt and you need some help.
So if you find yourself…
- Struggling to complete workouts
- Finding it difficult to remain focussed and motivated to train
- Lacking in endurance
- Lacking in strength and energy
- Not performing as well as you know you should be
- Having to decrease instead of increasing weight, reps or circuits
- Seemingly going backwards rather than forwards
We highly recommend enlisting the help of a good pre-workout supplement at this stage.
What Are Pre-Workout Supplements Designed To Do?
Simply put, pre-workout supplements are designed to help perform better during workouts.
They do this by boosting your energy and strength levels, increasing your mental focus and motivation, and allowing you to train harder for longer by reducing muscular fatigue.
In other words, they help you to push yourself further both physically and mentally to successfully complete tougher and more demanding workouts.
Do You Need A Pre-Workout To Build Muscle?
No, you don’t need a pre-workout to build muscle.
If you’re eating and training properly as well as getting adequate rest you’ll build muscle.
Where pre-workouts come in handy in this case is by allowing you to train harder in the gym and break down your muscles to stimulate them into growing back bigger and stronger.
That’s the first half of the story.
Of course to fuel this growth you will need to follow your workouts with a good whey protein supplement to kickstart the recovery process.
But a pre-workout alone won’t build muscle.
Do You Need A Pre-Workout To Lose Weight?
While you don’t need a pre-workout supplement to lose weight, they can help you train harder for longer which leads to more muscle growth stimulated and more calories burned, which in turn can lead to weight loss.
The same is true if your training is more cardio-focused, a pre-workout will help you perform harder for longer and burn more calories, and lose more weight as a result.
What’s The Best Pre-Workout To Go For?
This is going to depend largely on you and what your training goals are.
Some pre-workouts are heavier in stimulants than others and so your tolerance to these stimulants is going going to play a part in selecting the best pre-workout for you.
Also, if you’re a heavy coffee drinker, you should consider the amount of caffeine as too much can have a serious effect on your health and can lead to insomnia, hallucinations and even seizures.
So, in our opinion it’s best to go for a pre-workout with a lower caffeine content per serving to begin with and take things from there.
Around 150 g of caffeine is a good place to start.
Next, go for one that’s got a decent amount of creatine per serving, as close to 5g as you can get, however, 3-4 g will do nicely.
Note: Some pre-workouts contain dextrose or some similar fast-acting carbs to help with creatine uptake by causing an insulin spike. This doesn’t work for everyone and there’s a far better, and in our opinion healthier, way to go about it. Read more about it here…
Then you want to look at how much beta-alanine there is in each serving, here try and get as close to 2.5g as possible.
The citrulline malate content should be around 3g per serving.
And around 1g of taurine per serving is good too.
Bear in mind that these figures are based on the individual recommended serving sizes when taken separately.
Stacking supplements together can enhance the effects of each one individually so high-quality pre-workout powders with slightly lower amounts of each ingredient are incredibly effective.
What’s The Best Pre-Workout For Beginners?
Here’s why…
Firstly, we’ve used it before on a number of occasions and have always been very happy with the results…
And secondly, it tastes great and there are no unpleasant side effects from it.
Here’s an overview of what’s in it…
- 150mg of Caffeine per perving
- 1600mg of clinically-studied CarnoSyn Beta-Alanine per serving
- 1500mg Micronised Creatine Monohydrate
- 1000mg Arginine Alpha-Ketoglutarate per serving
- Zero grams of Sugar, Calories, or Carbohydrates per serving
- Proudly manufactured in Europe in a GMP certified facility
As you can see it’s got everything you need in dosages that aren’t going to leave you feeling ‘stimmed out’.
Instead, you get everything in optimum amounts to help enhance your performance and energy levels, while reducing muscle fatigue and improving endurance as you train.
You’ll also notice that it has the creatine you need for strength and muscle gains, without any sugars or simple carbs.
C4 Original also comes in a range of great-tasting flavours and we’ve never known anyone to have an energy crash or experience any other unwanted side effects from using it.
This is a fantastic pre-workout supplement for beginners, and just as good a choice for more advanced athletes too. Read our full review here.
A Quick Tip On Dosing Your Pre-Workout…
Pre-workout supplements, like protein powders, come with a measuring scoop included.
The problem is that these scoops are more often than not pretty inaccurate as you can read about here.
So, we strongly recommend weighing out your pre-workout powder using a set of cheap digital scales to ensure you’re getting the correct dosage and avoiding any unnecessary side effects due to overdosing.
Click here to check it out on Amazon…
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Thanks for reading and we hope you found this ‘do you need a pre-workout’ article helpful.
Don’t forget to check out this page for our full list of the best pre-workout supplements in the UK.
See you in the next one…
