Fire up your winter training with a pre-workout supplement
While winter workouts can feel like a grind as you drag yourself to the gym when it’s dark and cold outside, you can give your motivation and performance a boost to fire up your winter training with a pre-workout supplement.
Pre-workouts like Primal Pre are formulated to provide a mental and physical power-up, with ingredients like caffeine for an energy boost and beta-alanine to power through the winter malaise with supercharged endurance.
The Primal Pre formulation
- 2g BCAA
- 3g Beta-Alanine
- 300mg Caffeine
- 1.5g Citrulline Malate
- 380mg Acetyl-L-Carnitine
A caffeine kick
Caffeine is an effective ingredient in pre-workout formulations for its ability to boost energy levels and combat fatigue.
Caffeine blocks an inhibitory neurotransmitter called adenosine in your brain, which means it can reduce the signals that tell your body you’re tired. It also stimulates your nervous system to wake up your muscles and prime your body for action.
Caffeine might also play a role in how you perceive effort. Short-circuiting those same brain signals could make hard workouts feel a little less intense to help you push your limits through the winter training block.
Better with beta-alanine
While every athlete chases the burn in the gym, especially in winter, too much lactic acid can limit your performance as fatigue builds in muscles.
The beta-alanine included in pre-workout formulations like Primal Pre is used to create carnosine, a molecule that acts as a buffer in your muscles. It helps neutralise lactic acid build-up, keeping the pH level from dropping too much.
By keeping rising acidity in check, your muscles can potentially work harder for longer. This translates to potentially higher endurance, with additional reps or more weight during weight training.
Fire up the furnace
While not a thermogenic ingredient, acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) helps your body access stored fat for energy. This can be especially helpful for longer workouts when your body starts to rely more on fat for fuel.
By supporting fat metabolism, ALCAR might help delay fatigue during a workout, which can help you push a little harder for a little longer.
All pumped up
Citrulline malate converts to L-arginine in your body, which then helps produce the vasodilator nitric oxide (NO), supporting blood flow to warm up muscles quicker and get important nutrients like oxygen and glucose to fuel contractions, and BCAAs to protect and build muscle.
The enhanced blood flow also pumps up muscles to get your winter swole on and create a better mind-muscle connection to boost your workout performance. Citrulline malate may also help reduce muscle fatigue, especially during high-intensity exercise.
Mind and muscles
The right pre-workout product can do more than just fuel your muscles; it can sharpen your mental focus and elevate your mood too to beat the winter workout slump and get you through the daily grind.
It’s the helpful nudge we all sometimes need to get going and keep going to power through the coldness and darkness and emerge from winter bigger and stronger.