Let’s take a look at pre and post workout suppliments. This subject illustrates an important point about the science behind fitness.
You really have to approach these kinds of questions from two angles. Angle number one is to do the hardcore research. I’m not talking about checking the reviews in the fitness magazines or consumer forums online, I mean checking whatever clinical research is actually available on the subject. Angle number two is asking the question “is this the most important improvement I can make to my training?”
The research on this subject I found to be very interesting. There are a couple of things to look at here. There are studies done on the complete pre and post workout suppliments and then there are studies on the individual ingredients. The studies on the suppliments seem to show that they do work. They vasodilate, they increase energy, and they ultimately lead to a larger work load being performed. That all sounds good for the products, however, if you look at the research on each of the individual ingredients that make up the whole concoction the results become less clear. Beta Alanine for example has not been shown to produce any significant performance improvements. L-Arginine has also not been found to produce real results. Only Betaine shows a moderate increase in some exercise parameters. On top of that, I can’t find anything connected to whether or not some of these effects actually matter. Vasodilation for example happens, but so what? Does this actually lead to an increase in oxygen efficiency which then produces better muscle function – the jury seems to be out.
The only thing that I can support with the research is that taking the whole suppliment does give you a kick and allow you to do slightly more work, not necessarily significantly more work, but more nonetheless. I have to conclude that this means the number one most important ingredient in these suppliments is probably the caffeine. We know that caffeine is a stimulant which will make you feel pretty energized if you get a good dose. But of course, there is also a study that shows that acute ingestion of Red Bull has no effect on upper body strength in resistance trained men. So quite possibly the whole thing is at best a placebo effect. This just keeps getting trickier, doesn’t it?
This is the perfect time to segue into the second angle I mentioned. I spent a good couple of days cruising Pubmed but in all fairness, that doesn’t make me a pre and post workout suppliment expert. It merely showed me that the whole thing is definitely questionable. I think a more important question therefore would be “is this the most important improvement I can make to my training?” Rather than spending time reading forums about workout suppliments or doing the research on their ingredients maybe we should just ask if our diets are optimal? Are we really getting all the servings of fruits and vegetables we should be? Do we know how many servings that is? What about sleep? Are we getting enough shut eye to keep our hormones properly regulated? How much sleep is that? What about training skills? Can we execute good lifts with great form? What is great form? When I look at myself or my clients I feel very confident that I could find at least five things along those lines that would definitely have a real, measurable impact on training success. If I, for example, could just get in 5 quality meals every day my results would be way better than anything I could buy in suppliment form.
Ultimately I have found that all suppliments are questionable to a degree. Even plain multi-vitamins pose real unanswered questions about nutrition. I enjoy doing the research on all of these things and I think it’s important, but I also always keep in mind that there are many ways to improve training that are not so theoretical. Sometimes just getting someone to show up on time is worth a years supply of any suppliment on the market. I think there is too much emphasis on buying things to improve our training rather than just diving even deeper into the basics. In fact, if you are thinking about taking a suppliment, ask yourself how long you plan on supplying yourself with it, how much that would cost, and whether or not the money might be better invested in working with a competent fitness professional.