Wednesday, February 27, 2013

How Necessary Are Pre Workout Supplements?

By Russ Howe


If you pick up any fitness magazine giving advice on how to build muscle fast one of the first things you will notice is the frequency of adverts for pre-workout supplements. Today we are going to look at how necessary these products actually are, to help you to determine whether they are worth your money.

If you are to believe the hype, which supplements want you to do of course, then you'll expect to be able to see life changing results within a week. Naturally, things don't work out that way.

The fitness industry has come a long way since the days of classic bodybuilding, of course. However, the basic principles of getting bigger have remained exactly the same.

There is a big risk of getting lost when it comes to supplements. Every product claims to yield life changing results, or to be the best in it's class. This often leads most people down a path of trying every product and hoping for the best.

So, what is a pre-workout supplement actually designed to do for you?

Despite all of the scientific claims and references you might see on the flashy packaging, the actual job of a pre-workout supplement is really simple. It's there to get your body pumped up before you hit the weights.

How are you supposed to know which one is the best with all of the choices available to you?

The basic rule of marketing is that every company believes in their own product. As a result, every company is going to hype up their latest product by labeling it as the best in it's niche. As a consumer this can lead to confusion. The ingredients will tell you just how effective it actually is.

There are two ingredients which appear in most pre-workout products today. Those are caffeine and nitric oxide boosters. They're designed to give you a quick spike of energy which, if applied to a gym session, could increase your ability to lift a heavier weight and therefore lead to more hypertrophy.

One reason there is so much hype surrounding this type of supplement is that the market can become a little bit 'hit and miss' for most gym users. What works for one individual won't necessarily work for another, because you probably have your own tolerance level to most of the ingredients in them, like caffeine, through your daily diet. This is often why people switch between different products every month in a bid to find one which continuously works for them.

Ever since the discovery of creatine supplements back in the very early nineties, the bodybuilding world has seen thousands of new supplements hit the market with bigger and bolder claims. If you are trying to figure out how to build muscle in the gym and were considering using a pre-workout stimulant you will now be able to see past the hype.




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