4 Do’s and 1 Don’t for Your Daily Pre-Workout Formula

Written by Larry Veteto, CN

Pre-Workout supplements…yep, I’m going to open this can of worms and try to break it down into what we really want.  “Pre-Workout” as a category is rather vague, in my opinion.  It just means: “something you take before your workout.”  What I want to focus on is what they actually do.  Pre-Workout nutrients basically fall into two categories…stimulants…and everything else.   

The sports nutrition trend has always been that you have to “feel” your Pre-Workout…kind of like Denorex Shampoo’s old commercial that said “that tingling tells you it’s working.”  This approach has created all kinds of problems.  Today’s Pre-Workout concoctions seem to have more and more stimulants to get users more and more wired.  Back in the days of legal ephedrine of the 90s, it seemed like no one believed they could possibly lift weights without taking stimulants first.  Unfortunately, many gym-goers of today still think that way.  “Gotta get jacked-up ‘cause I’m gonna lift!”  As you can probably tell, I’m not a huge fan of that type of thinking.

If you can’t get motivated to lift, taking stimulants isn’t really the answer.  Here’s where I stand on stimulants…caffeine works...and caffeine is plenty strong.  If you want some, it’s ubiquitous.  It’s not hard to find.  I don’t want to be relying on it every workout, though.  If you’re trying to hit a PR or work up to a max single, then adding a little caffeine with your Pre-Workout might help.  However, as every chronic coffee-drinker knows, you get used to caffeine and start to need more and more to get that same kick—or worse, people start to experiment with far riskier stimulants—those aren’t necessary or advised.  If caffeine is in my Pre-Workout formula (and all those other stimulants), then that means I’ll be taking it every time I work out.  I prefer that it be separate from my Pre-Workout, so I can choose when to take it.  Maybe I want to save caffeine for when it might actually matter—like hitting a max—otherwise, I prefer to rely on my own physiology—not some stimulant.

So, what do I want in a Pre-Workout formula?  The short answer is that I want to improve my workouts, or more specifically, I want to improve the results from my workouts.  Let’s create a checklist of what we want and see if we can find a smart way to accomplish our goals. 

NOTE: This list is primarily focused on intense exercise activity that lasts 1 to 1 ½ hours…if you’re running a marathon or similar, I recommend you follow a marathon nutrition expert’s advice (and rely on your own knowledge and experience, too—personal, individual experience always seem to be forgotten—nothing beats experiential knowledge).

Okay, let’s go.  What are we looking for?

• Stored ATP as fuel: (ATP is adenosine triphosphate: this is the fuel you use for very short, explosive movements—like sprinting and weightlifting, for example). This is how we contract our muscles.
  • To increase our ATP, I always (and by always, I mean for the past 20+ years) recommend creatine. My preference is Creatine MagnaPower^® because it is combined with the all-important mineral, magnesium.  Creatine is the most validated sports nutrition supplement, helping us store more ATP, increasing lean mass, and making us stronger, faster, and more powerful.
  • The other compound I love for ATP, is appropriately named, PEAK ATP^®. PEAK ATP^® directly delivers the patented, orally absorbable form of ATP known as adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) disodium.  The list of benefits of PEAK ATP^® is long, including increased strength, power, lean body mass, blood flow, recovery, and more.  From the very first time you take PEAK ATP^®, you’ll find that you’re as strong on your 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th sets as you were on your 1^st and 2^nd.
• Fat as fuel: (great fuel source for long-term energy, as long as we can keep mobilizing it). I don’t want to crash after 20 minutes.
• You’ve got plenty of fat on your body to fuel your workout…the best way to continue to access it is by keeping your blood sugar stable. We don’t want loads of carbohydrates right before you exercise because that will drive up insulin. Insulin turns off fatty acid mobilization and that can result in a crash in energy levels.  In addition, we can take in a few grams of MCTs (medium chain triglycerides)…a unique fat that can be immediately used for energy.
• Muscle glycogen as fuel: (the sugar already in your muscle cells)
• Remember that Post-Workout drink you had yesterday and the good meals you’ve been eating? Those choices have helped prime your muscles for today’s workout.
• Blood glucose as fuel: (this is the sugar in your blood waiting to restore your muscle glycogen)
• Again, the all-day good diet that keeps blood sugar stable is your best bet here. A balanced meal with a low to medium glycemic response a couple hours before your workout will help stabilize your blood sugar.
• Ketones for fuel: (substances from fatty acid conversion in the liver also used by your mitochondria). These are present in higher amounts when we’re in starvation mode or in following a ketogenic diet.  As far as a Pre-Workout goes, MCTs can help here, increasing your ketone bodies that can be utilized for energy in the cells.
• NOT ON MY LIST FOR PREFERRED FUEL: catabolized muscle.  After around an hour of exercise, our bodies start shifting the fuel source away from fat and glycogen and more towards converted muscle tissue—even if you can keep going, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.  We want to avoid destroying our hard-earned muscle, so what are some nutritional ways to reduce this?
• Continued use of fat as fuel
• Acetyl-L-carnitine is often a limiting nutrient in the body’s signaling to continue to mobilize fat for fuel.
• MCTs will also help delay catabolism.
• BCAAs. The branched chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine have been shown to reduce or delay this shift towards muscle destruction.

• N-Acetyl-L-tyrosine can increase focus, motivation, and concentration while under stress—like working out. Like Acetyl-L-carnitine, it also provides an additional benefit by donating an acetyl group than can be used with choline to make the important neurotransmitter, acetylcholine.
• When your B vitamin levels are low, your energy and brain function will often feel sluggish as well. Boosting B’s before a workout is an old-school approach that still works.
• Phosphatidylcholine is used by the body to make choline and then acetylcholine. When we’re low in dietary choline, we may show difficulty with attention, focus, and memory.
• Remember PEAK ATP^® from above? Guess what…PEAK ATP ^® also has research showing increased “muscle excitability.”…in English, “muscle excitability” means that when you’re getting under that bar, you’ll be better able to fire those muscle fibers

• L-norvaline. What’s L-norvaline?  I’m glad you asked.  I’ll try to keep it brief.  L-norvaline is a downstream metabolite of the BCAA valine as you may have guessed from the root word.  A key component of “the pump” is NO or nitric oxide.  NO has a vasodilating effect, which means that the blood vessels stretch and hold more fluid.  One of the key limiting factors in NO is an enzyme called arginase.  Arginase essentially turns off the pump.  Researchers have discovered that L-norvaline inhibits arginase, which in turn results in more vasodilation and a better pump.  This is why the older approach of just taking more arginine never really worked.  The scientists involved with the ongoing research are excited about L-norvaline because preliminary studies suggest it may play a role in reduced heart disease, in reversing sexual dysfunction in diabetics, as well as slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease…in the meantime, weightlifters are excited about it for our own reasons.
• PEAK ATP^®…what, again? Yes, PEAK ATP^® has been shown to increase blood flow in as little as 30 minutes after taking it orally.

• The magic is in the beta-alanine. Researchers discovered that the limiting amino acid was beta-alanine.  They then discovered in numerous clinical studies (55 and counting) that supplementing with this one amino acid could increase our muscle carosine levels and therefore our buffering capacity which has a huge impact on muscular performance.  The research-supported claims of the patented form of beta-alanine known as Carnosyn^® go on and on—increased muscle strength, improved muscle performance and endurance, delayed fatigue, decreased acidosis, increased buffering, and more.  What this means to you is more reps with more weight on the bar.  It means performing better in the 4^th.  It means having more leg drive at the end of your 5K.

• BCAAs
• Beta-Alanine as Carnosyn^®
• Creatine MagnaPower^®
• PEAK ATP^®
• L-Norvaline
• MCTs
• N-Acetyl-L-tyrosine and Acetyl L-carnitine
• Oh, and definitely some B vitamins
• …and I don’t need a bunch of stimulants.

Real energy, focus, the pump, and acid-buffering.  Got it.  Now, I just want to go lift.