Pre-workout supplements are highly effective for boosting workout performance. With a properly formulated product, you will quickly notice a boost in exercise capacity and intensity.
There are different types of pre-workout products on the market. There’s a version with stimulants and a stimulant free pre-workout. Each one has it’s own benefits and disadvantages for the user. Allow us to give you a quick introduction to each version to decide for yourself which one to go with.
Pre-workout without stimulants
You’ll find that stimulants are very common and often found in dietary supplements. Not everybody enjoys stimulants because they can often cause jitters and a massive rush in energy.
And if you take too much of them, you’ll be tossing and turning the entire night. That’s why for some people, it’s best not to take stimulants and go for a product that is free of them.
A stimulant free pre-workout is an excellent option for those that want to get in a good training session without the massive energy rush. Several ingredients can still help you increase your training without raising your energy levels.
Some of those ingredients are betaine anhydrous, glycerpump, and pomegranate extract. What they will do is focus on optimizing nitric oxide, or better yet known as the pump. By increasing nitric oxide, a large amount of blood will be pumped into your muscles, causing them to swell up.
This will give you a tremendous mind-muscle connection, helping you contract and focus on the specific muscle better. Besides skin-tearing pumps, a stimulant free pre-workout can also help with increasing focus during a workout.
The psychological part is essential when working out because, with a good and proper focus and vision, you can get in more workload. That means getting in more repetitions when you are doing a particular exercise.
More sets and repetitions mean you’ll be able to crush down those muscle fibers. That will eventually result in you gaining more muscle mass.
The best thing about pre-workouts without stimulants is by far that they don’t cause any type of crash afterward. The effects slowly wear off, and you won’t even notice that you’ve taken it. It’s definitely one of our favorite types of supplements to take before a training session.
Pre-workouts with stimulants
Then, there’s also pre-workouts that do contain stimulants, which cause a significant increase in energy. These high stimulant versions are also prevalent amongst athletes because of the immense performance boost they can give.
With just one scoop, they can help you increase work capacity in the gym to get everything out of your session. In these versions, you’ll often find ingredients such as caffeine, hordenine, and yohimbine.
Products like this will deliver the full package – pumps, energy, focus, and overall performance improvement.
The boost in performance sounds nice, right? But, after you’ve taken a scoop of this stuff and it starts to wear off, you can begin to feel tired. This is what’s called a crash, and it’s not that pleasant if you have a lot to do.
Not everybody experiences this crash, but it’s something you should be aware of. Nonetheless, these high stimulant versions are still a great product, and we love using them now and then.
How often should I take a pre-workout?
We don’t recommend taking one every single day because your body will get used to it.
We advise switching between high stim and stim free products. By doing so, your body won’t get used to things, and you’ll keep surprising it.
For example, if you’ve taken a strong product on Monday, you can take your stim free version on Wednesday. Your body won’t know what’s coming, and you’ll still be able to get in a solid workout every time.
It’s always a good idea to take a break every once in a while if you’ve been taking them for excessive time. Let’s say you’ve been taking them for 4 weeks. Then it would help if you considered taking a 2-week break. During this break, you stay away from them to keep your tolerance high.
You can safely stack pre-workout supplements with other bodybuilding products such as branched-chain amino acids or muscle-builders. It’s actually a good idea to stack them together to improve your overall results.
Which Product Should You Go With?
Now that you’ve learned about the differences between high and stimulant free pre-workout supplements, you’re probably asking yourself which one to use.
We would advise trying both and going from there. Pick up one high-quality product from each and give them both a try.
If you’re planning on trying a high-stimulant version, we would highly advise you to try out just half the recommended serving size. This is because some products can kick in hard, and you obviously don’t want to experience any adverse effects before your training.
Stimulant-free versions can be taken without any issues because they won’t affect your energy levels directly. Make sure to pick up an adequately formulated product because the ingredients are essential.
So if you see a product that, for example, has only 5 grams per serving size, it’s probably not that good. Make sure to educate yourself on which ingredients work and which don’t.
The Bottom Line
Pre-workout supplements are great, no doubt. Manufacturers have created two options to make sure everybody can take these supplements to improve their workout performance.
There’s a lot of different ones on the market. You need to check out which product has the best ingredients. You’re going to want a product that maximizes your training performance from every single angle.
Our advice is to try both versions to see which one you like the most. Once you’ve found one, make sure to safely assess your tolerance and take a break every now and then. By taking breaks, your body doesn’t get used to the specific product, and you can continue to feel the effects.
One thing for sure, you’ll have a fantastic workout with the help of these supplements. One scoop guarantees a good pump, energy rush, and laser focus.
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