Pre-workouts are products that combine caffeine with various ingredients such as Beta-alanine, Citrulline and Creatine Monohydrate designed to support energy, focus and performance when consumed before workouts, games and competitive sporting events.

When taken in combination with a well-balanced diet, sufficient hydration and good sleep, pre-workouts are intended to support energy, focus and endurance during workouts and exercise.

For most healthy adults, caffeine, which is the primary ingredient in most pre-workout supplements, takes about 60 minutes to peak in the blood and the brain and can stay active for 2-6 hours.1 However, this is highly individualized and can vary considerably by person to person.

Pre-Workouts should never be a replacement for a healthy lifestyle that includes nutrition, hydration and sleep that doesn’t support your goals. Assuming you are a healthy adult and follow label directions preworkout can be a positive addition to your workouts and exercise.

Weight loss only occurs when your body is in a calorie deficit – a state where more calories are being expended than are being consumed. This can happen either from reducing calories from food and/ or increasing calories expended from exercise. While preworkouts don’t influence weight loss directly, using them properly as directed can help with training intensity which can over time help you burn more calories contributing to your overall weight loss efforts.

Building muscle, or hypertrophy, occurs when sufficient resistance exercise is combined with proper balanced nutrition that provides sufficient calories and sufficient protein to support your individual needs for hypertrophy to occur. While pre-workout don’t influence muscle building directly, using them properly as directed can help with training intensity which can over time help you train more intensely contributing to your overall muscle building efforts.

Ultimately that decision is determined by you and your goals. One thing to consider is that for healthy adults caffeine will achieve its full effectiveness in about an hour. So depending on the duration of your workout or sport you may want to consider consuming your pre-workout starting about 30-60 minutes before your workout or sport.

The feeling effect of caffeine is highly individualized and as such, different healthy adults can potentially respond differently. In general however the feeling effects of caffeine will typically last between 2 and 6 hours for most people so you may want to keep that in consideration when planning your evening workout and sleep routine so as not to create any challenges with your sleep.

Quite often the “crash” people experience may be more related to lifestyle factors. When using caffeine to help support performance it’s important to try and ensure you are fully hydrated, well rested, following a balanced diet and spreading your caffeine intake throughout the day. 2 If you are still experiencing a “crash” consider that more is not always better and consider using a pre-workout with a lower amount of caffeine per serving or using a half serving or trying a different form of caffeine such as naturally sources caffeine from green tea or green coffee to assess your individual response.

What you are feeling is a very common and largely harmless effect called Parasthesia that comes from the ingredient Beta-alanine activating various receptors in your skin. The effect is believed to have no effect on performance and for most healthy adults will typically fade and disappear in a short amount of time.

In combination with a healthy balanced nutrition plan, proper hydration and sufficient rest, and being mindful of your total daily caffeine consumption, healthy adults can consume one serving per day of preworkout to help prepare for their workout, game of sporting event.