If you have ever taken pre-workout, then you know just how strange that first experience can feel. All at once, tingles begin to spread through your body as energy suddenly surges from within you – prompting the question “Is that even safe?”.
Pre-workout supplements are generally legal, safe, and have no harmful side effects for most of the population. Furthermore, choosing appropriate dosage and ingredients could help you to prevent headaches, digestive issues or water retention from occurring.
In this article, we’re going to take an in-depth look at whether pre-workout supplements are truly safe. Additionally, we will examine their potential side effects and how to minimize their occurrence.
Are Pre-Workout Supplements Safe? You might know that pre-workout supplements come in various forms such as pills, powders and even candy; what you might not realize is their range of ingredients; typically pre-workout supplements contain one or more of these substances:
BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids) – used to help repair muscle damage caused by exercise and may increase muscular endurance – are considered an excellent supplement to prolong training sessions and assist recovery time. Creatine, too, has long been touted for increasing muscular endurance.
Caffeine – an effective legal stimulant for athletes – can improve cognition and energy, making workouts more efficient while increasing performance. Nitric Oxide agents – used for getting a good pump during training, and known to increase blood flow to muscles used during exercise sessions
Beta-alanine helps combat fatigue caused by build-ups of lactic acid in muscles, making longer endurance workouts easier to bear.
Before purchasing pre-workout supplements, it’s crucial to investigate their ingredients. Make sure your pre-workout is FDA-approved, with all its constituent parts and amounts clearly listed and accessible for you to read. Furthermore, confirm that any dietary supplement (pre-workout is considered one) contains only approved “dietary ingredients,” such as minerals, vitamins or herbs permitted as supplements.
Pre-workout supplements should never contain pharmaceutical ingredients as their purpose is not to treat or prevent disease. As long as your pre-workout supplement only includes dietary ingredients in adequate dosage, it’s safe and should not cause worry before exercising.
Pre-workout supplements should not be taken by everyone. Adults and anyone under the age of 18 are advised against taking pre-workouts until speaking to a healthcare provider first. Furthermore, those who are suffering from medical conditions such as heart issues, cancer, Parkinson’s disease or thyroid dysfunction should not use pre-workout supplements without first consulting with them first.
Even if you currently appear healthy, it would be advisable to speak to your physician and discuss whether a pre-workout supplement would be suited to your health history and needs.
What Are the Common Side Effects of Pre-Workout Supplements? Even though pre-workout supplements are considered safe and can have positive impacts on performance, some individuals may still experience adverse side effects from using them, even if their ingredients have been carefully researched and FDA-approved. Let’s now take a closer look at some of these potential adverse reactions.
Creatine Is Linked with Water Retention
Creatine, a staple ingredient found in pre-workout supplements, can have positive impacts on exercising capacity and lean body mass increases; however, its most notable side-effect is water retention, leading many people to experience weight gain when first starting to take creatine; however, once their bodies adjust to it over time this effect tends to go away.
Pre-Workout Ingredients Can Upset Your Digestive System
Most pre-workout supplements contain several ingredients that could disrupt your digestive system, such as caffeine, magnesium and sodium bicarbonate. Since both magnesium and caffeine have laxative effects, it shouldn’t come as any surprise if your pre-workout causes more frequent trips to the bathroom than expected.
However, sodium bicarbonate only has this laxative effect when consumed at doses higher than 0.3 g per kilogram of bodyweight; which is not typically the case when using pre-workout supplements. One way to prevent diarrhea from pre-workout supplements is using more water when mixing your pre-workout. Too concentrated of a liquid often has this laxative effect.
Coffee Can Make You Jittery
Caffeine can provide many performance benefits – including increasing exercise output – but too much consumption may lead to side effects such as insomnia, increased heart rate, anxiety and feelings of restlessness and jitteriness.
Pre-workout supplements often produce that familiar buzz because of their caffeine content – up to 500 milligrams per serving! By comparison, an average cup of coffee only has around 95 mg. To minimize any negative side effects from caffeine consumption, it would be prudent to choose either one with lower dosage levels or one without stimulants altogether.
Pre-workout supplements tend to be safe when their ingredient lists are approved and clean, though there may be undesirable side effects which could include nausea. Therefore, we advise consulting your healthcare professional prior to beginning supplementation to avoid any unexpected concerns in the future.
