Sometimes you can get through your regular training routine without a sweat. Other times, it’s hard to find the motivation to push through to the end. If you’ve ever experienced this, you’re not alone. Even elite athletes find themselves not in the mood to hit the gym from time to time.
The difference between these two scenarios may be down to the supplements you consume before your workout. Rather than leaving things to chance, many gym-goers are turning to pre-workout products to maximize the benefit from every single training session.
Pre-workouts, when used correctly, give you a push in the right direction, making gym sessions easier and boosting the effectiveness of your workout. If you have never used pre-workouts or don’t know how to best incorporate a pre-workout into your routine, this guide will help you understand how pre-workouts can help you reach your fitness goals.
An Introduction to Pre-workout Supplements
Pre-workout supplements, as the name suggests, are supplements you take before your workout. These supplements use specific ingredients to target issues that may arise during your gym sessions, such as fatigue or lack of motivation. They are also used to boost energy and metabolism, improve effectiveness and decrease recovery time.
Many are drawn to pre-workouts because they allow you to maximize your performance by training harder, for longer and more consistently, enabling you to reach your fitness goals faster than you would have without a pre-workout.
By consuming pre-workout supplements, you can achieve higher focus, energy, performance, strength, endurance, metabolic rate, protein synthesis, muscle breakdown and nutrient delivery.
To get these desired results, the pre-workouts of today contain ingredients that have been scientifically proven to promote energy, improve strength and endurance, and aid in recovery. Some pre-workouts also contain ingredients that assist in increasing your metabolic rate to aid in fat loss. And others include ingredients that promote testosterone production, like the HYDE Test Surge, which can be used by both men and women.
Pre-workout supplements can help to produce an ideal hormonal environment for you to maximize each gym session. They work to fix hormonal imbalances associated with exercise.
Why Would You Use Pre-Workouts?
The main objective of a pre-workout supplement is to provide you with all of the ingredients that you will need to maximize your workout. But not all pre-workouts are created equal. The choice of which product to go for should come down to your individual fitness goals.
However, there are three essential objectives of most pre-workout supplements:
Increased Exercise Load During Your Workout
Nothing is worse than leaving the gym unsatisfied because your workout performance was not where you wanted it to be. You may have underperformed for a variety of reasons, such as muscle fatigue or lack of endurance during training. Pre-workouts are designed to help minimize the frequency of bad gym days through ingredients such as creatine and beta-alanine, which contribute to muscle stamina and endurance. By combining these two ingredients in the HYDE Xtreme pre-workout, you should be able to increase your load and frequency of workouts.
Improved Power for More Reps
There is nothing better than feeling the pump in your muscles after a hard session at the gym. We all know that the heavier the weight we can push at higher frequencies, the greater the muscle growth. But that’s often easier said than done. To really smash through your PRs and lift heavier than you have before, you’ll probably want to use the aptly named HYDE Max Pump pre-workout. HYDE Max Pump is packed with L-Citrulline and Arginine Nitrate which aid in increased blood flow, maximum muscle pump and oxygen uptake. Blending this with beta-alanine helps you to keep pushing your reps harder for longer.
Increase Focus to Motivate Yourself
One important element that is frequently overlooked is how your brain affects your training results. After all, the motivation to go to the gym (or not go to the gym) comes from your brain. If you’re in the mood to workout, you are more likely to have a great session. But how often do you go to the gym with the right mindset and focus? This is where pre-workouts can help. An all-in-one like our Mr. HYDE Signature contains a unique blend of caffeine and TeaCrine to increase energy and focus.
What Ingredients Are in Pre-Workouts? What Do They Do?
Every pre-workout supplement will have a slightly different blend of ingredients depending on what that supplement is trying to help users achieve. As a result, there isn't a one size fits all list of ingredients.
A recent study by experts at the University of Oklahoma has uncovered that pre-workout supplements are able to increase your anaerobic running capacity by ten percent. Other studies such as one run by the College of New Jersey also found that pre-workout supplements were responsible for improved focus and increased energy levels during high-intensity workout sessions. There is also reliable evidence that pre-workouts increase muscle endurance, allowing users to have longer and more productive sessions.
Here are some of the pre-workout ingredients that can help you reach your fitness goals.
Increased Muscle Growth
BCAAs tend to be the ingredient of choice when it comes to muscle growth stimulation. Otherwise known as Branched Chain Amino Acids, BCAAs are crucial in replacing amino acids that are lost during your workouts. They can be taken as a standalone supplement or as part of a pre-workout focused on muscle growth.
High-glycemic carbohydrates can also aid in muscle growth by preserving muscle glycogen, ensuring that you stay strong. They also provide you with a boost of insulin to reduce stress levels. It is recommended for you to consume 20-60 grams of high-glycemic carbohydrates immediately before your workout session.
Improved Strength and Power
Creatine is present in a large majority of pre-workout supplements. It is an essential part of muscle tissue that helps to replenish ATP (adenosine triphosphate) stores after a muscle has contracted. Muscles typically only maintain enough ATP to contract for a few seconds at a time; having sufficient levels of creatine in your body helps to replenish your ATP stores faster. The faster the stores replenish, the more energy available to the muscles, and the more reps you can push.
Enhanced Endurance
Citrulline Malate is an essential amino acid that helps with blood flow and can be converted to another amino acid called arginine. Studies have shown that this amino acid helps to reduce fatigue and prevent a build-up of lactic acid.
Similarly, beta-alanine reduces the effect of lactic acid in the muscles. Lactic acid forms as a byproduct of muscle use. In extreme conditions, a build-up of lactic acid can actually cause the muscle to spasm, which can be very uncomfortable. By reducing the rate at which lactic acid builds up, beta-alanine allows you to train at a high intensity for longer.
Increased Energy and Focus
As previously mentioned, energy and focus is an important aspect of training that often gets overlooked. It’s important to keep both your energy levels and focus high to ensure you get the most out of each session at the gym.
TeaCrine is a naturally occurring substance that stimulates the nervous system when consumed in high doses. TeaCrine helps to improve your cognitive responses, providing mental sharpness and more focus during training.
Caffeine is the most widely used ingredient in pre-workouts. That’s because it is very effective at increasing energy levels, helping you feel alert and providing a boost to help you push through your reps.
Improved Antioxidant Activity
Alpha Lipoic Acid has similar effects as insulin. It protects your red blood cells, decreases glucose uptake in fat cells and increases your glucose uptake in your muscle cells. This allows you to build more muscle as well as focus on fat loss.
Vitamin E improves the function of other essential antioxidants to ensure higher protection during exercise.
What’s Next?
Now that you know their benefits, you can maximize your training with pre-workouts and achieve your fitness goals.
Each pre-workout in our HYDE range has been designed to offer something different to ensure you have the supplement you need for your unique fitness journey.
