Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - What Are the 3 Best & Worst Pre-Workout Supplements?

Episode Date: December 19, 2017

It’s cold and dark at six in the morning.And it seems even colder and gloomier when you have to get up and train. At that hour, it’s like gravity has tripled. Your eyes droop, your limbs drag, and your nervous system is running on fumes.It’s time like these that you thank the gods you have a pre-workout supplement.You fumble the top off, mix a (heaping) scoop in water, gulp it down, and the magic begins.Fifteen minutes later you feel like the star of the latest Marvel flick, ready to push, pull, and squat against the forces of evil.There’s no question that a pre-workout supplement can get you fired up to get to work in the gym. There are downsides, however.Many pre-workout drinks are stuffed full of ineffective ingredients and/or minuscule dosages of otherwise good ingredients, making them little more than a few cheap stimulants with some “pixie dust” sprinkled in to make for a pretty label and convincing ad copy.Many others don’t even have stimulants going for them and are just complete duds.The reality is it’s very hard to find a pre-workout supplement that’s light on stimulants but heavy on natural, safe, performance-enhancing ingredients. And in this episode, you’re going to find out what the best and worst pre-workout supplements are and why. Let’s get started. 0:48 - Why should I take pre-workout supplements? 1:30 - What are your favorite supplements? 11:56 - Which pre-workout supplements are bad? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!  Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

Hey, this is Mike and welcome to another installment in my in five minutes or less series where I answer one common question quickly and simply because while long form content is great, sometimes it is also nice when someone just gets right to the point and tells you what to do and how to do it in five minutes or less. And that's what I do in these episodes. Let's talk pre-workout supplementation. Specifically, let's talk about a few pre-workout supplements that are good and why, and a few that are popular and commonly found in pre-workout supplements, but that are not so good and why. Now let's start this discussion with a quick disclaimer and that is that pre-workout supplements are not very important. No supplements are very important in the greater scheme of things. No amount of pills and powders are going to get you a great physique. Really only proper diet and training

can get you there. Supplements are just by their nature supplementary. So I would say the only reason why you should take a pre-workout supplement or any kind of supplement is if you have the budget for it and you have the inclination and you also do a little bit of research in terms of what supplements work and what supplements don't. So if you are going to put some money into it, at least you're going to get something for that money. Okay. So with that out of the way, let's get to the supplements. Let's start with the good. So my top three favorite pre-workout supplements are caffeine, citrulline, and beta alanine. And I would say in that order. And if I were to add a fourth, it would probably be theanine. Let's go to the top of the list, caffeine. Why is caffeine number one?

Well, we all know that if you have caffeine, it raises your energy levels. It makes you feel better. But if you take enough caffeine, studies show that it improves your strength. It improves your muscle endurance and it improves your anaerobic capacity. And all that, of course, makes for better workouts. And it can make for markedly better workouts. And if you look at it in terms of hard numbers, let's say you have, if you take enough caffeine before, let's just say it's your biggest workouts. Let's say, you know, your big lift days, your big press days days squat days and because of that let's say over the course of the longer a longer period of time let's say over the course of a year even because of your caffeine usage you are able to gain muscle let's say five percent faster not because caffeine directly

impacts muscle growth but no if you can perform better in the gym and you actually push yourself and you are following at least a decently designed workout program, and again, you push yourself and you really try to progress in your lifts. And in the case of this example, being in the most important lifts in your big lifts that can translate of course, into better gains. Of course, 5% isn't an exciting number per se and by the way that's just a number i'm plucking out of my head that seems reasonable to me it's not backed by any study that i know of but given caffeine's effects on strength and muscle endurance and given how you can turn that into faster progress, I think it's a reasonable number.

Now, it's not exciting 5%, but when you combine that with other things that you can do, supplementary and otherwise, those numbers can start to add up. So if you get a few, it's just 3% to 5% per strategy, we could say, or per tactic. But if there are four or five things you can do that, that give you a few percent, you know, you're looking now at anywhere from, it could be on the low end of 12 to the high end of maybe even 20% faster muscle gain, which depending on where you're at in your journey could equal anywhere from an additional two to five pounds of muscle gain per year. It's pretty significant. All right. So I mentioned earlier that you have to have enough caffeine to see these effects. And this is actually where a lot of people make a mistake is they don't have enough. And what is enough? Well, studies show that really

optimally you'd be having about six milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. And you'd have it about 30 to 45 minutes before you work out it's just a general rule of thumb however benefits can be seen at half that dosage so three milligrams per kilogram of body weight and that's probably a good place to start if you are not a caffeine person i wouldn't recommend that you just jump to six milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day, start at three and see how your body responds. And if you respond well, then work up toward that six milligrams per kilogram of body weight amount. It's also worth mentioning that research shows that the more frequently you have caffeine and the more, uh, the larger those, those doses are, the more your body becomes resistant to its effects, both its energy

and mood boosting effects, the effects that you feel and its performance boosting effects. So if you want to maintain maximum efficacy, you should limit your caffeine intake to just two or three days per week. I mean, if you're cutting and you want to push the envelope with the, you know, increase in basal metabolic rate, I suppose you could probably bump it up to four days a week. But generally, two or three days a week is going to be optimal and then no caffeine on the other days so your body can reset its sensitivity, so to speak. Now, in terms of the best source of caffeine, there is evidence that the form found in supplements, which is caffeine anhydrous, is better for our purposes, for the purposes of boosting performance than the form found in coffee. So again, that's why I like going with a pre-workout supplement for that reason. I like coffee more than I like pre-workout supplement. But if I'm taking caffeine to have a better workout, I'm going to take a pre-workout. Okay. Number two on my list is citrulline and citrulline is

amino acid that works similar to L-arginine, which you have probably also heard of if you're looking into pre-workout supplements, but I like citrulline more because it has more or less the same effects in the body, which kind of boils down to increasing nitric oxide production, but it does so more reliably than L-arginine. It actually gets turned into L-arginine in the body, which you would think just because it's more circuitous, wouldn't it be better to just supplement directly with L-arginine if you want to increase the arginine levels in your body? Well, research shows that no, actually, citrulline is better for this. And as a consequence of increased nitric

oxide production, which by the way, if you want to learn more about nitric oxide, what it is, how it works in the body, head over to legionathletics.com and search for nitric oxide. And you'll see an article I wrote on nitric oxide supplements, which explains the mechanisms. But anyways, so as citrulline increases nitric oxide production, what that does then is it boosts muscle endurance. It can reduce muscle soreness after workouts, and it can also increase your aerobic performance. So again, it just makes for better workouts. And not that it matters all that much, but you can also expect to get bigger pumps from citrulline because that's one of the side effects of increased nitric oxide production is increased blood flow. And so you have bigger and better

pumps. And similar to caffeine, what you're looking at then with citrulline is something that is safe and natural that you can take that can make for better workout performance, which if you apply yourself diligently enough in the gym can make for better progress over the longterm. Okay. So let's talk beta alanine. So beta alanine is another amino acid. And what it does is it regulates the amount of a substance called carnosine that's stored in your muscles. And by supplementing with beta alanine, you raise the carnosine levels, the intramuscular carnosine levels, and that in turn benefits your performance and possibly your muscle gain as well in a few

different ways. Specifically, studies show that if you take enough beta alanine, it can reduce the amount of fatigue that you experience during your workouts. And especially if your workouts are higher intensity workouts like CrossFit workouts or HIIT intervals, that's where it's particularly beneficial. It also can improve your anaerobic capacity, which of course, again, is very beneficial if you are doing high intensity workouts and especially high intensity resistance training workouts. And it can also increase your power output. So the amount of just raw work that your muscles can do in a given workout. And there is evidence that it may also directly increase muscle growth in a way that isn't quite understood yet. It isn't necessarily a result of just having better workouts, similar to creatine. Creatine helps you gain muscle directly. It doesn't just increase workout performance and then it's on you to do something

with that and turn that into muscle gain. Now, in terms of how much beta-alanine you take, according to a meta-analysis of 23 different studies on beta alanine, the clinically effective dosage ranges between about 2.6 and 6.4 grams per day. And researchers determined that about five grams a day is optimal. So if you're on the low end, if you're taking, you know, two and a half grams a day, you may see some benefits, but if you take five grams a day, or I think specifically it was about 4.8 grams a day, you're going to see significantly better results. But if you go above that, that's where diminishing returns really kicks in. So, you know, there's, there's very little difference in terms of results between 4.8 or five grams a day and closer to six and a half

or seven grams per day. All right. So quickly, I mentioned theanine as a, as a bonus, as a, as a number four pick, and I'll just tell you quickly about it. So it's an amino acid as well, and it's found primarily in tea. And why I like theanine so much is one, it works synergistically with caffeine to further boost mood. Um, mood. And it really actually makes a difference. At least for me, I really feel a difference between just caffeine and caffeine theanine. It almost sometimes gives me a little bit of a euphoric kind of feel. Like that's how strong the mood elevation is. And research shows that it actually can elevate mood just in and of itself as well.

But when you combine it with caffeine, it's particularly effective in that regard. And otherwise, research shows that theanine can reduce stress levels and it also can increase nitric oxide production, which is good for the reasons we've already discussed. And in terms of amount, the clinically effective dosages range from 100 to 250 milligrams is really where you want to be. And if you're going to be taking theanine with caffeine, then I recommend a one-to-one ratio, even if that means going above 250 milligrams of theanine. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, We carry on. If you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it?

Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. All right, so let's flip this coin over now and let's talk about pre-workout supplements that are not so good. So let's go with the three that are most popular and most common in pre-workout supplements that I'm not

a fan of and that I don't take and that I won't be putting in my products unless new research comes out that completely changes our understanding and also just changes the weight of the evidence. Because currently the weight of the scientific evidence is against these guys. And the first is branched chain amino acids. I get emails or my team, you know, over at Legion, we get emails every single day from people asking us to please make a BCAA. And I just don't see any reason to do it. Now, if you're not familiar with BCAs, it's really, it's three amino acids. It is leucine, isoleucine, and valine. And the reason why these BCA supplements are so popular is there are a number of studies that have been done over the last decade or so that hype BCAs up as sometimes, you know, almost like a steroid-like supplement, but a natural version

that has no side effects. The hype around BCAs is that they can improve your immune function. They can reduce the amount of fatigue that you experience in your workouts, that they can reduce exercise-induced muscle damage, which is of course good because the less muscle damage that you have resulting from your workouts, the harder you can train and the more frequently you can train those muscle groups. And of course that they also are supposed to or supposedly increase muscle growth and significantly increase muscle growth. Some people say it's even better than creatine. Again, it's like a natural steroid. And while it would take probably a video to really break it all down, I'm just going to get right to the point and say that really that is all just fake news. So the studies that are

held up as definitive proof of how great PCAAs are, are either not indicative of us, so they're not conducted with young, healthy, resistance-trained people, or in some cases are just completely fabricated, in my opinion. It gets to be where it's obvious in terms of design flaws and funding biases and so forth, or are just misinterpreted. So the research is just misinterpreted or sensationalized. So where, you know, effect sizes aren't really discussed. It's just taking maybe minor, very minor improvements in maybe one or two of a number of variables looked at. And then in some cases, some of those variables actually are worse with BCA supplementation, but we just ignore that. And we just take these one or two and really the effects are so small. And when you look at the data, you can't even be sure if they are due to the BCA

supplement or just random chance. But again, let's ignore that. Let's take it, run with it and say, hey, see this study right here? See this little graph. You know, you don't really quite understand what you're looking at. You haven't looked at the data, but here's what it shows you. It shows you that these things are going to help you get super strong and super big. And you know, this is the one supplement that you should be taking every day if you're into weightlifting. And so the bottom line here is if you eat a high protein diet, which you should, if you want to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible. And if you also pay attention to your pre and post-workout nutrition, which again, you should, it's not nearly as important as eating a high

protein diet, but you might as well, because it can make a difference, especially over time. And again, that just kind of boils down to have some carbs and have some protein maybe like within two or three hours of before working out and then have some protein at least. There is an argument to be made for having carbs after workout, but protein is more important. So have some protein within an hour or so following a workout and you're good to go. So if you do that, eat a high protein workout, pay attention to your pre and post workout nutrition. You have no reason to take BCAAs. I guess one little caveat is if you are training in a fasted state and combining that probably with some supplements to lose fat faster, like caffeine, synephrine, yohimbine, then the leucine and BCAAs can be helpful because it will mitigate the increase in protein breakdown rates

that you see when you train in a fasted state. But I prefer HMB over BCAAs for that because BCAAs are going to impact insulin levels and the isoleucine and the valine are pretty much worthless. So really you're just paying for leucine, which you can buy in bulk. You could even do that over the HMB. That would be the cheapest is just buy, go on Amazon. There's like bulk powders or bulk supplements or something, and just get leucine, take two or three grams. Again, just put it in your pre-workout 30 to 45 minutes before you train, good to go. Or if you're going to do HMB, it's about the same dosage at the same time. Good to go. Okay. So number two on my list of do not likes is something I mentioned earlier. It's L-arginine. And again, you're going to find L-arginine in a lot of pre-workout

supplements. It's in a lot of pump supplements. It's also just very popular. A lot of people buy it just as a, as a, as an ingredient an ingredient, just to add into whatever it is that they're taking in addition to that. And I kind of mentioned this earlier, the reason why I don't like L-arginine, which is an amino acid, by the way, that can have similar effects in the body as citrulline. So it can raise your nitric oxide levels. Research shows that it's just very unreliable in this regard. Some people respond well to it. Some people don't respond at all. And because of that, I just prefer citrulline. It's far more reliable. It's better absorbed. And it's more likely that you are going to get the results you want with citrulline than with L-arginine. Okay. And the last pre-workout supplement

that I don't like is a supplement that I actually like. I just don't like it in the context of a pre-workout and that is creatine. Now, of course, I'm a fan of creatine. I take creatine every day. It's probably the most researched molecule in all of sports nutrition. And there's no question. It does help you gain muscle and strength faster, helps you recover from your workouts better, blah, blah, blah. But the reasons are two main reasons why I, well, I'd say three reasons why I don't like creatine in a pre-workout. So the first reason, I'm just going to get it out of the way because it's the weakest reason, but it is worth noting. And that is there is evidence that having caffeine with creatine may negate some of creatine's effects in the body. Now,

I know that this research has kind of gone both ways. We don't really know yet. It's just a possibility. It's just worth mentioning. And it's one of the reasons why I didn't put creatine in my pre-workout. And when you combine that also with the fact, and this is my second reason why I don't like creatine in pre-workoutsouts is there is better evidence that create the best time to take creatine is actually after a workout with your post-workout meal. And particularly with carbs, um, because of the insulin spike, if you have enough protein that may actually raise insulin levels enough. So I guess it doesn't necessarily have to be with carbs, but most post-workout meals obviously contain carbs. And again, there are a couple studies that suggest that is actually the best time to take creatine. That's when you are going

to get the most benefits from it. And the third and final reason why I don't like creatine in pre-workouts is good quality creatine is actually pretty expensive. It's not expensive to buy as a consumer. If you just buy a big bag or a big bottle of creatine, it's actually pretty cheap. But that's just because you're probably buying from big companies like Optin Nutrition, for example, which they buy so much creatine. They're able to offer prices that nobody else can offer. And I guess really the same can be said for any of the real big players. They're able to, you know, offer prices that nobody else can offer. And I mean, I guess really the same can be said for any of the real big players. They're able to offer really low prices, but for somebody like me, you know, with Legion, I mean, Legion is going to do eight figures in sales this

year, but in the scheme of, you know, the sports nutrition space, that's nothing. It's actually kind of expensive for me to put a good dosage of creatine. It's in my, it's in my post-workout supplement, which is called Recharge. And you want five grams per day. That's actually kind of expensive. And so what that means is if I were to be spending the money to put that in a pre-workout supplement, which again, I don't think that's the best place to put creatine, but if I were to do that and I were to spend the money to put a proper dosage of creatine in it, that would mean that I would have quite a bit less money to spend on stuff that I think should be in there. Like, I mean, caffeine is not expensive, but like theanine, citrulline, beta-alanine, and a couple others I haven't mentioned like betaine. So again, I would rather

spend that money on things that I think make the most sense in a pre-workout supplement and save creatine for a post-workout supplement where then I can put a full proper it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email

at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead, I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine.

Specifically, my fitness book for men, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. Now this book has sold over 350,000 copies in the last several years and helped thousands and thousands of guys build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 3,100 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that are keeping you from achieving the lean,

muscular, strong, and healthy body that you truly desire, and if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate male body, then you want to read Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, which you can find on all major online retailers like Amazon, Audible, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, speaking of Audible, I should also mention that you can get the audio book 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audio books. I love them myself because they let me make the time that I spend doing stuff like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth so much more valuable and productive. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free,

then simply go to www.bitly.com slash free BLS. And that will take you to Audible. And then you just click the sign up today and save button, create your account. And voila, you get to listen to Bigger, leaner, stronger for free.