Ready to go the gym?
Sure Oh hold up, first…
I gotta take my PREWORKOUT.
It’s called orangutan superman.
It has so much BCAAs bro.
BLAAAAARGGHH!
I CAN FEEL IT COURSING THROUGH MY VEINS!!
Uhh, the label says it takes about 30 minutes to kick in…
*BLAAAAAAAH* (show placebro shirt) Alright, I’m back once again to upset the
poor ol supplement industry, that makes billions while selling you unregulated powders by the
way.
But at least, the blueberry flavor is pretty dang delicious.
And this time, I’m tackling a supplement that I’m not necessarily against people
taking, but boy does it have to dial back just a bit as far as how great it actually
is.
Let’s get straight to it, we’re talking about preworkouts!
For those you new to the world of fitness supplements, a preworkout is a supplement
often taken before exercise.
Thus the name, PRE-WORKOUT.
It is often marketed as a performance booster for strength workouts as well as endurance
like cardio, but on the lowlow, marketers know it’s almost 100% used by our fellow
lifting bros and broettes.
Preworkouts can indeed give this extra JOLT of energy and bro-like sensation that undoubtedly
make people feel like they can push out a few more reps, go heavier, or train a bit
longer.
Now, that all sounds grits and gravy, but again, the problem isn’t so much that preworkouts
do not make you feel more energetic, but sometimes it goes too far in what it advertises.
And my job as your friendly neighborhood, trying-to-be-unbiased-with-helping-you-with-your-fitness-goals
PictureFit, if I can save you from needlessly spending your money, then that makes me happy
and hopefully Zendaya returns my phone calls.
But, what exactly is my gripe with preworkouts?
Well, I’ll break it down in four key points.
Let’s get right into it.
The first point is that a lot of the stuff added into a preworkout, although can be helpful,
actually does not rely on the time you take them to be effective.
You’re likely to find ingredients in your preworkout like BCAAs, creatine, and beta-alanine.
BCAAs, very important amino acids that are directly connected to muscle protein synthesis,
which plays a significant role in muscle growth.
Creatine, one of the most studied substances in exercise performance, known for providing
additional energy, particularly in intense and anaerobic training.
And beta-alanine, a precursor to carnosine production, which buffers acid buildup in
skeletal muscle to allow for increase training duration at high intensities.
Again, great ingredients but taking them before your workout doesn’t really do anything.
BUT MR PICTUREFAT, SO WHAT IF IT DOESN’T MATTER WHEN YOU TAKE IT.
IF IT HELPS THEN THAT’S GOOD THING.
Truuuue, but that’s only if you’re taking them on a regular basis, like daily.
Unless you’re on a masochistic plan of working out every single day, which I’m not totally
against, then you’re not taking a preworkout on a daily basis, which might make these ingredients
less effective.
And usually, preworkouts have lower than recommended dosages, even for ingredients that do have
an effect before your workout, like citrulline, all the while charging you much much higher
prices than it would cost to get these ingredients separately.
But of course, this is not exactly common knowledge to the average gym goer and best
believe, supplement companies know that.
But what’s worse than charging you more for good ingredients, is charging you anything
at all for bad ingredients.
And that’s point number 2.
I don’t really wanna say “bad,” but more so just ineffective.
Again, playing on the general lack of knowledge in supplements, there’s a lot of things
included in many preworkouts that simply do very little.
This includes things like conjugated linoleic acid, glutamine, a wide variety of unproven
plant extracts, and…
BCAAs.
More on BCAAs later.
In the scientific research, these aforementioned ingredients have yet to show any meaningful
benefit in the realm of general exercise performance regardless of the time of consumption.
The data simply does not support them being of any use.
Again, companies are probably relying on you not knowing this and would appreciate if you
just stare at their complex ingredient label thinking you’re getting your money’s worth.
After all, who doesn’t like a little bit of complexity, it makes us feel sophisticated.
Special.
Even better if they have some TOP SECRET energy blend where they don’t tell you what dosages
is included of each ingredient you’re getting cause, booom… complexity.
Or maybe so they can charge you more.
We’ll never know.
And there’s definitely a lot more needless stuff that are shoved into a preworkout, and
if you’re a bit savvy on reading ingredients as well, please share in the comments some
of the very strange ingredients you’ve seen!
For everyone else, be smart about your money and reconsider whether you wanna buy a product
that shoves a bunch of stuff in it that doesn’t do much of anything.
Now, on to the third point: what makes a preworkout REALLY tick falls almost entirely on one single
ingredient that even your grandma takes on a regular basis, and that is… caffeine.
Caffeine, the most widely used stimulant in the world, is almost guaranteed in all preworkout
supplements minus the ones that advertise to contain no stimulants.
And that’s because, as mi-ma might know from cranking out PRs on the knitting rack
after her morning Folgers, caffeine has a time-dependent ergogenic, energy-boosting
effect by inhibiting the sleep-inducing effects of a brain-related substance called adenosine.
Without caffeine, you will likely have no idea if your preworkout did a single thing,
and that my friends, don’t sell very well even with all the other fun complexities.
And I know this is probably beating a dead horseradish at this point, but supplement
companies are banking on you to not really know that.
But now you do!
And the final point I wanna make ties it all together with a neat little bow, and I did
touch on this somewhat already, is that there’s simply better and less expensive ways to get
all the good ingredients.
Caffeine, kind of straightforward.
Why pay such a premium to get the most important ingredient when many caffeine products, like
good ol tea, coffee, or just straight up caffeine supplements, are so much cheaper, minus Starbucks
of course.
But just like you normally would, be wary about how much caffeine you take ‘cause
tolerance will be very different from person to person.
A hundred milligrams might totally kick your butt while 300 milligrams for mima means falling
asleep before she finishes knitting your second mitten.
In terms of the other ingredients, the same applies, they are fairly cheap on their own
and it’s better to just target the ones that do actually help, like creatine and beta-alanine,
and not waste money on things that don’t, like glutamine and CLA.
And then there’s things like…
BCAAs.
For the eagle eyes out there, you probably noticed that I included it in the list of
good ingredients as well as the bad.
I’m not gonna dive too into it in this video, but I do have another video about it which
I’ll link in the description.
But the main thing about BCAAs, short for branched chain amino acids, is that its effects
are almost always better when included with other essential amino acids, which are not
found in preworkouts, but in a much better supplement we all know as protein powders,
like whey.
Purchasing protein supplements or just getting enough protein in general, is usually more
than enough to get all your BCAAs and other essential amino acids, and once again, helps
your poor little wallet.
And that’s the main takeaway.
Save your money.
Either spend it on things that are actually worth your time and money or just spend it
on more important things, like supporting picturefit by clicking that join button down
there, hehe.
No but really, your support will be very very appreciated.
But, before you toss out your preworkouts, remember, this is only one person’s opinion,
mine.
I totally get why people like taking preworkouts, and no lie, I like taking it from time to
time too.
I get that it’s super convenient to get a bunch of energy in one scoop.
I get enjoying the feeling you might get just from taking it.
I get that it can taste pretty delicious.
And if those are important things to you, then you should probably just keep taking
it, or at least finish whatever you have left.
But for those of you that are still up in the air about preworkouts and are a bit more
concerned with needless spending, then I hope this video helped you further along with your
decision.
But please, let me know what you think.
Is it worth taking even with all of the points I made or might I be missing something that
still makes it worth it?
Let me know in the comments.
Other than that, if you enjoyed this video, please give it an ENERGETIC thumbs up and
share it with your caffeine loving friends.
Subscribe for more.
As always, thank you for watching and GET YOUR PREWORKOUT PROTEIN!
And if you have questions about anything else that seems a bit questionable in terms of
being worth spending you money on or even a type of fitness strategy that seems sketchy
and you want me to take a closer look into it, please share that in the comments as well.