Evidence based pre-workout ingredients
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Posted May 26, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC
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Look into Sodium
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You may want to look into taurine, tyrosine, grape seed extract. Personally, I like citrulline as well.
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Learned in my physiology of exercise class about some studies that showed if you consumed a ridiculous amount of baking soda (something like a gram/kg of body weight) you can improve your bodies ability to buffer against hydrogen ions. Not going to waste time looking for study links bc unless you’re a little insane it doesn’t have real life applicability but a fun anecdote nonetheless
EDIT: I overshot it with gram/kg, dosage is closer to .3g/kg. Expect gastric distress regardless
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At least here in Australia lots of World level rowers were doing that, and just coping with the gastric issues. It's since stopped because anecdotally (not sure about robust evidence) it was linked to heart issues (murmurs I think) in quite a few of them. Apologies I can't provide anything more rigorous atm
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Interesting! I had never heard of this being applied in a competitive setting, but rowing is the sport I’d expect to see it in if anywhere
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Ha yeah- Beetroot juice was the next one after that. Legend has it in the bicarb days a lightweight at U23 world hadn't tried it properly before with his water cut, and at the start (when you've got squat like pushes to get the boat going) catastrophically voided his bowels... still finished the race respectably though.
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Rowers... they’re a different breed of human
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0.3g/kg is plenty
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Can’t seem to find any references to dosage in the link you shared, possibly because I only have access to the abstract?
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sci-hub and libgen has it
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I highly recommend it for middle distance training. It wont guarantee a performance enhancement depending on what your limiting factors are but it makes training a lot more comfortable.
It can very easily cause diarrhea and nausea(you've seen baking soda and vinegar before) but not in everybody. .3g/kg is generally seen as optimal taken in at least half a liter of water sipped fairly slowly. If it causes issues taking it in multiple doses spaced throughout the day can be similarly effective while mitigating symptoms, and you may up the total dose to .5g/kg
A few things to be aware of: it tastes bad so consider adding flavoring, it's 27% sodium so you'll want to increase fluid consumption (which is also why I wouldn't recommend taking it with creatine), and acid production often isn't the main limiter in lactic producing performances; there's no reason to assume this will improve your movement economy.
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Baking Soda has better effect sizes than Beta Alanine, is cheap as hell, and affects a broader range of exercise.
The gastric distress tho
Beetroot's effect on aerobic exercise is also pretty potent.
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Gastric distress is a very polite way to describe what happens within minutes lol
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Someone in my wife's running club decided to chug a baking soda and Gatorade mix before a 10k race. That did not end well.
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I use beetroot all the time (cycling) and tried baking soda but you have to take SOOOO much it's fucking nasty.
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Yeap you are.
Natural sources of NO.
Beets, rocker, spinach.. Works as good as citrulline and kinda pairs of.
And Garlic. 2-4g of raw give performance cardio boost. Samé magnitude as mentioned supps.
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Nicotine is a great ergogenic.
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Exact ones I got with in my own preworkout, I just also add electrolytes (used to used Gatorade powder, one by vega, and another I can't remember), taurine, and a B complex (vile/droplet form). Love it , but what are you're thoughts on an intraworkout drink? Powdered carb mix with whey isolate? Bcaa's, glutamine, or more caffeine as well? Just wondering, thanks!
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Beta alanine has a good amount of research backing it, helps with high intensity exercise.
Caffeine is an obvious one.
Might be able to make a case for a bicarbonate to buffer lactic acid. Since most people get sodium elsewhere, it’s probably better to supplement with potassium bicarbonate
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I’ve done exactly as you have, OP. For the past year I’ve been using only caffeine but have become very in-tune with my response to the drug. I’ve learned to take more accurate doses and cycle off it at the right time.
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Coffee my dude