Pre-workout is a gymgoer’s best friend. It’s a single-serving supplement that’s packed with ingredients that can improve your performance, helping you work out better, stronger, and harder.
Now, taking pre-workout before hitting the gym can play a big role in how effectively you exercise, but the question is, how long before you begin your session should you take it? Let’s answer that question today.
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Why Do People Hit the Gym Anyways?
The reasons for hitting the gym are as diverse as the individuals who attend. Whether it's for physical health, mental well-being, social connections, or specific fitness goals, the gym can provide a supportive and equipped environment to help people achieve their personal health and fitness objectives.
- Physical Health: Regular exercise is crucial for maintaining physical health. It can help control weight, reduce the risk of chronic diseases (such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer), improve cardiovascular health, and increase strength and endurance.
- Mental Health: Exercise is also beneficial for mental health. It can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, improve mood, increase self-esteem, and reduce stress. The release of endorphins during exercise contributes to a sense of well-being.
- Building Muscle and Toning: Many go to the gym with specific goals of building muscle mass, toning their body, or improving physical appearance. Gyms provide access to a variety of equipment and weights that can help achieve these goals.
- Weight Loss or Management: Gyms are a popular choice for those looking to lose weight or manage their weight. Through a combination of cardiovascular exercises and strength training, individuals can burn calories and improve their metabolism.
- Socializing and Community: For some, the gym is also a social space where they can meet people with similar interests. Group fitness classes and shared spaces provide opportunities to connect with others.
- Professional Guidance: Gyms often offer access to personal trainers and fitness professionals who can provide guidance, motivation, and personalized workout plans to help members achieve their fitness goals.
- Routine and Discipline: Attending the gym can help establish a routine and foster discipline. Having a dedicated time and place for exercise can make it easier to maintain a consistent fitness regimen.
- Access to Facilities and Equipment: Gyms provide access to a wide range of fitness equipment and facilities that might not be available at home, such as weight machines, treadmills, swimming pools, and various fitness classes.
- Skill Development: Gyms offer opportunities to learn new skills or improve existing ones, such as swimming, yoga, martial arts, or weightlifting techniques.
- Health and Fitness Goals: People have unique health and fitness goals, such as preparing for a competition, recovering from an injury, improving athletic performance, or simply staying active as they age.
What is Pre-Workout?
For those who don’t know, pre-workout is a supplement that comes in gummy, powder, or liquid form, that contains multiple active ingredients associated with exercise performance.
The active ingredient(s) used to achieve these results can vary between different brands, but overall, they aim to improve energy levels, physical endurance, focus, mood, muscle support, and/or motivation. Depending on what’s in the formula, it can contain ingredients that offer stress relief, hormonal support, and other additional benefits.
Naturally, anyone who is going to be using pre-workout gummies will want to check the ingredients beforehand, as the fitness supplement market is notoriously unregulated. You always want to be sure you’re taking a product that’s safe, especially since some performance enhancers may stimulate the nervous system through less safe means than others, so being cautious and mindful of these ingredients should be a priority.
The Key Ingredients in Pre-Workout
Like we said, pre-workout products are going to offer various benefits to your fitness game, but at the same time, the formula a company uses can differ dramatically from the next one’s. Before we talk about the main benefits of pre-workout, let’s talk about the most common ingredients you’ll find in any given formula.
- Caffeine: Caffeine is commonly found in pre-workout gummies, and its primary function is to give a boost in energy, so that you can feel more motivated and energized while exercising.
- Amino Acids: Various amino acids are usually found in pre-workout gummies, serving important functions like boosting stamina/endurance, improving focus, helping muscles repair themselves, increasing strength, and boosting muscle density.
- Nootropics: Nootropics like creatine may be in certain formulas, providing cognitive benefits like mental clarity, concentration, and motivation, so that you can keep your head in the game.
- Adaptogens: Adaptogens like ashwagandha can help the body tolerate more stress, both physical and mental, so that you can get more out of every workout session.
- Mushrooms/Botanicals: Various mushroom and botanical extracts exist in pre-workout gummies that provide various benefits to your routine.
- Vitamins/Minerals: Vitamins and minerals can offer added benefits as these essential nutrients provide the body with key physical and mental support.
How Long it Takes for These Ingredients to Work
As you may have guessed, there are both short and long-term benefits to pre-workout products. Short-term benefits come from ingredients like caffeine, which supply the body with lots of energy, motivation, and stamina. Longer-term benefits come from ingredients like amino acids and nutrients, which require more time to build up in the body before offering their effects to the fullest potential.
Because of this, taking pre-workout daily is the way to go. You’re getting the fast-acting benefits of some ingredients, while consistently building up a good supply of the longer-term ingredients that can benefit you over a more sustained time period.
In that regard, you’ll benefit from your pre-workout no matter when you take it. Basically, by sustaining high levels of nutrients in the body that directly pertain to performance, you’re going to see better output at the gym no matter when you take them.
However, you want to maximize those short-term benefits, too. Why would you, for example, take a caffeine supplement at nighttime, if you work at 3PM every day? By the time you do your workout, the supplement has worn off completely – while at the same time, the caffeine is only going to keep you up at night.
When is the Best Time to Take Pre-Workout Before Heading to the Gym?
You’ll find that basically any pre-workout formula has directions on its label. This includes dosing directions (how much to take per day) as well as when to take them. And, one thing that’s basically consistent with all pre-workout is that it recommends taking a dose 30 minutes prior to exercise – whether that’s going to the gym, going on a hike, or training at home.
That’s because it takes about 30 minutes for the short-term ingredients to peak – like caffeine, creatine, and any other ingredients that boost energy to help you maximize performance. So, by taking the product 30 minutes before you go start your workout, you’ll be getting the strongest of these effects.
Of course, the ultimate suggestion is to follow the directions on the label. Any good pre-workout product should give clear instructions as to when to take your dose to get the most out of your time at the gym.
Most Pre-Workout Should Be Taken 30 Minutes Before Hitting the Gym
At the end of the day, the “30-minute rule” applies to most pre-workout, with very few exceptions. At Bounce Nutrition, all 3 of our pre-workout gummy formulas are designed to be taken about a half hour before you start exercising, no matter what kind of fitness regimen you engage in. Explore our pre-workout gummies to find the one that fits into your workout-related goals.
You should take pre-workout 15-30 minutes before the gym to let it digest in your body and give you the energy you need to hit your workout effectively. Pre-Workout gummies kick in the fastest, within 10 minutes sometimes but it is still better to wait for 20 minutes for full effects.