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- Aug 3, 2010
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- 1,089
PRE-WORKOUT SUPPLEMENTS...DO YOU REALLY NEED THEM?
It used to be a you ate a banana or a snicker candy bar before a tough workout, and that was sufficient! But now...there are a multitude of “pre-workout supplements” that have flooded the market. There’s really no good definition of what a pre-workout supplement is—and a lot of companies are just slapping it on products because it’s ‘in’ right now—but in general, it’s a product that’s intended to boost energy levels, generally though a combination of B vitamins, carbs, and antioxidants,”
Some pre-workout ingredients are well studied and can actually help improve your performance. But a lot of ingredients are filler which will do nothing at all, and may even be unhealthy and detrimental to you.
The problem with a number of these popular products, and a lot of them have some really lavish names, is that you have absolutely no way of telling how much of each ingredient is in the product. You might see the phrase proprietary blend, and it’s followed by the number of grams in the whole blend, and underneath that might be a list of ingredients in the proprietary blend that doesn’t have the actual gram or milligram values besides the individual ingredients.
This can be exceedingly dangerous because each individual’s hormonal responses and tolerances differentiate with the type and amount of ingredients that are used in the blend. For instance, some of these products, but not all of them, might have up to 20 grams of proprietary blend of several of the ingredients used. You might just be taking in a whole lot of caffeine!
If you’re not absolutely sure, then you’re just gambling with your body, and that’s no good. There is some hope though, because there are a lot of pre workout supplements that are effective, natural and they have the ingredients’ dosage listed, or just a very small amount of proprietary blend included.
Bottom line...be smart, become educated.
GD
It used to be a you ate a banana or a snicker candy bar before a tough workout, and that was sufficient! But now...there are a multitude of “pre-workout supplements” that have flooded the market. There’s really no good definition of what a pre-workout supplement is—and a lot of companies are just slapping it on products because it’s ‘in’ right now—but in general, it’s a product that’s intended to boost energy levels, generally though a combination of B vitamins, carbs, and antioxidants,”
Some pre-workout ingredients are well studied and can actually help improve your performance. But a lot of ingredients are filler which will do nothing at all, and may even be unhealthy and detrimental to you.
The problem with a number of these popular products, and a lot of them have some really lavish names, is that you have absolutely no way of telling how much of each ingredient is in the product. You might see the phrase proprietary blend, and it’s followed by the number of grams in the whole blend, and underneath that might be a list of ingredients in the proprietary blend that doesn’t have the actual gram or milligram values besides the individual ingredients.
This can be exceedingly dangerous because each individual’s hormonal responses and tolerances differentiate with the type and amount of ingredients that are used in the blend. For instance, some of these products, but not all of them, might have up to 20 grams of proprietary blend of several of the ingredients used. You might just be taking in a whole lot of caffeine!
If you’re not absolutely sure, then you’re just gambling with your body, and that’s no good. There is some hope though, because there are a lot of pre workout supplements that are effective, natural and they have the ingredients’ dosage listed, or just a very small amount of proprietary blend included.
Bottom line...be smart, become educated.
GD