There’s a cheap stimulant free pre-workout drink you can easily make with just a few ingredients that will help you to get insane pumps “the likes of which you’ve never seen,” as Trump would say.
I’m a little late to this party because I’ve never put much stock in the idea of a pre-workout drink. For years, I would just eat a small, high carb meal twenty minutes before working out and that would be the extent of my pre-workout nutrition, but now that I’ve finally gotten around to trying a homemade pre-workout that I whipped up myself using just a few ingredients, I have to say, it really does make a difference.
Why a pre-workout drink?
Sounds like bullshit, right? A pre-workout drink? Why do I need that? The truth is, you don’t need a pre-workout drink. You can still get a very respectable pump and a great workout without one.
Like I said, I’ve never in my fifteen some odd years of working out tried a pre-workout drink up until just recently. This means I can’t claim to to have this tremendous knowledge about pre-workouts, or guide someone on the best ones or anything. Especially not the store-bought ones because I’ve never tried them!
All I can do is share my personal experiences with you about the things I’ve noticed since I’ve started taking this very cheap, homemade pre-workout. So far, I have to say, my experiences have more than been positive.
A pre-workout drink, in theory, is supposed to 1) give you more energy and 2) help you get a better pump. That’s what the marketing on these types of products seems to suggest and what most people use them for.
Unfortunately, only one of these outcomes is helpful and desirable. The other is potentially harmful and undesirable. Can you guess which one is which?
Spoiler: the ingredients in the pre-workout that help you to get a better pump are desirable and the ones that are supposed to give you “more energy” are not because it’s more like a fake, jittery kind of energy.
“More energy” is not something a pre-workout drink can, or should deliver. “More energy” is something you should already have as a result of getting enough sleep and eating a healthy diet that prioritizes low-glycemic foods. It’s high-glycemic, “sugary” foods that cause your blood sugar and energy levels to go up and down like a rollercoaster.
This is why I don’t understand why the supplement companies put caffeine and other stimulants in their pre-workout mixes. At the end of the day, caffeine has a sugar-like effect on the body that ends up making you crash!
If you doubt me on this, search it up on Google. Here are some links from people who’ve said that their pre-workout mixes made them “crash.”
- Reddit: Crashing After Pre-Workout
- Reddit: How Not To Crash After A Pre-Workout
- Reddit: Anyone Else Feel Depressed After Pre Workout?
What ingredients are in your typical store-bought pre-workout mix?
I headed down to the local Vitamin Shoppe to see what kind of pre-workout mixes they had and so we could compare some of the ingredients. Let’s take a look 🧐
- Alani Pre-Workout ($39.99)
There’s 200 mg, or two cups of coffee’s worth of caffeine in this pre-workout per serving. My gut tells me a caffeine additive in a pre-workout formula is probably much more potent than the caffeine you would get from drinking coffee, potentially making this even worse. This stuff is not something I would buy anyway because there’s sucralose in it, which is an artificial sweetener that’s bad for your health. However, the pump ingredients it has include the 6 grams of Citrulline-Malate and 200 mg of L-Theanine, which both help increase nitric oxide and dilating blood vessels.
2. Betancourt Nutrition B-NOX Reloaded Pre-Workout ($37.99)
Alright, so this pre-workout utilizes an, ‘Energy and Focus Blend’ which is a marketing-friendly way of saying, ‘caffeine and other stimulants.’ 775 mg or upwards of, I’m guessing, between 4-7 cups of coffee’s worth of caffeine is in this. Since the stimulant ingredients in this pre-workout are listed on the label as a proprietary blend, it’s difficult to ascertain exactly how much caffeine is in this 775 mg concoction, but it could be a significant portion. We also have 5 grams of ‘carbohydrate’ which is a purposely vague way of saying sugar, or dextrose. Other than that, we got some decent T boosters in here and some citrulline, a good pump ingredient. There’s also some beta alanine in this, which is a good ingredient to have from what I hear (never tried it). There’s sucralose in here along with other artificial sweeteners, so that bears mentioning as well.
3. Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Pre Advanced Pre-Workout Mix ($44.99)
This pre-workout actually has some good things in it, like the citrulline, creatine monohydrate, and beta alanine. It even has an electrolyte blend in it, which is good for when you’re sweating a lot and losing mineral electrolytes. But, it also is fairly heavy on the stims, with 300 mg of caffeine. I don’t know about you, but I get wired after drinking a half cup of coffee, so I can’t imagine how strung out I would feel after taking this. The other ingredients are kind of neutral in their ability to give you a great pump. Also, more artificial sweeteners and sucralose in this.
4. REDCON1 Big Noise Pre-Workout ($44.99)
This is probably the best of the bunch because it’s a non-stimulant formula with no caffeine in it. It’s got betaine anhydrous too, which is a byproduct of beetroots that’s good for your cardiovascular system and aids in athletic performance by improving blood flow to muscle tissue. It’s also got L-Theanine in it, which is a good nitric oxide booster and pump ingredient. It’s also got some herbal stuff in it, which may or may not help you get a better pump. I don’t know. Try it and find out. Price tag is a little steep for me, plus it has the artificial sweetener sucralose in it. Yeah, I know, sucarlose is FDA-approved and all that, but forgive me if I no longer have trust in our health authorities to tell us what’s good and what’s not. I go by my own experience and gut feeling about it, which tells me to avoid them.
How the caffeine in your pre-workout drink could actually harm you
A 29 year-old personal trainer from Wales died from mixing his pre-workout with caffeine. He ended up taking, “five times the potentially fatal level of caffeine” and died after they took him to the hospital!
According to the headline to the article on The Daily Mail, the “fatal level” of caffeine they’re referring to is about forty cups of coffee’s worth.
Granted, it was a freak accident and something like that probably wouldn’t happen if you took your pre-workout in the correct dosage, but the fact that there’s such a thing as a “fatal level” of caffeine makes me very wary of ingesting any amount of caffeine.
It reminds me of the lead, arsenic and fluoride in our tap water. The EPA acknowledges these as toxic at high levels, but then allows small amounts of it in our water supply, as if a little bit of poison is O.K. I’m sure it doesn’t have a cumulative effect over time or anything! 🙄 Freaking ridiculous, bro. That’s how you know the people in our government couldn’t care less about you and me.
I’m wracking my brain right now trying to think of a well-regarded nutritional supplement that, when you take 40 times the recommended dosage, it equals death and I’m having trouble thinking of one. Maybe, given enough time, it’ll come to me. 🥱
I’m sure some of you reading this will vehemently disagree with me about the caffeine in your pre-workout and that’s fine. If you know your body, make sure not to overdose it, and derive a benefit from it in terms of getting a better workout, then more power to you.
My cheap homemade pre-workout mix
There’s only 5 ingredients in my pre-workout mix and none of them are caffeine! I use a serving each of non-gmo nutritional yeast, organic beetroot powder, unflavored L-Arginine HCL powder, trace minerals, and a couple turns of sea salt. That’s it.
I usually measure out a serving of the beetroot powder and nutritional yeast on my food scale, add the scooper of the L-Arginine, 10-15 drops of the trace minerals and then the sea salt. After everything is mixed together, it should look like this. Just add water and slam it down around 10-20 minutes before you workout. That’s it.
What are the best pump ingredients in a pre-workout mix?
If you scroll back up and look through some of the ingredients the big supplement companies use in their pre-workouts, you’ll notice that there’s always a vasodilator in it, usually L-Citrulline or L-Theanine. I use a different vasodilator, L-Arginine, right now because it’s what I have, but I’m sure the other two would work just fine as well.
The way these vasodilators work is by increasing nitric oxide (NO) production. This relaxes the blood vessels, increasing blood flow, and decreasing blood pressure.
So, a vasodilator in conjunction with beetroot powder, which is high in nitrates, is a killer combination because the beetroot powder helps supply the body with the precursor to NO, which are the nitrates, as well as serving to increase muscle efficiency and exercise endurance via increased cardio output, or VO2 max.
This personal trainer became a beetroot super-fan after swapping out his caffeinated pre-workout for a beetroot powder mix. He even said, “the beets totally mimicked a typical preworkout, complete with ‘tunnel vision,’ ‘intense pumps,’ and ‘vascular veins.’ And I didn’t even need caffeine!”
The nutritional yeast powder is a great source of B vitamins and trace minerals, which help to legitimately and naturally increase energy without jitters because B vitamins are also critical for physiological and neurological function. The trace elements supplement is just something I add to ensure I’m getting all of my minerals in the right balance, in case the yeast lacks any. You could probably get away without taking this one, if you’re short on time or funds.
But, the sea salt is absolutely critical because it forces water into your muscle cells. This is what causes the muscle to get that “pumped” look and feel. Timing the salt before the workout will ensure you get a really bad-ass pump when you’re lifting.
Last two things you need to get a crazy, insane muscle pump!
- Muscle glycogen
A pre-workout drink will not substitute for not having enough muscle glycogen in your muscles to be able to force a lot of contractions. This means you need to ensure you’re eating enough complex starchy carbs to sufficiently power your workouts.
2. Water
Make sure you’re hydrated and drinking enough water throughout the day to ensure that when you’re contracting those muscles during your workout, you have enough fluid for your body to be able to push that water into your muscle cells. Sometimes, we get busy and forget to drink enough water, but water is a big one.
My personal experience taking this cheap stimulant-free pre-workout drink
I’ve been taking this pre-workout for the last month before every workout and I’m amazed at the pumps I’m getting. Visually, the pumps seem bigger. Of course it’s difficult to measure and quantify that, but I notice it. Also, the pain I feel in my muscles after every set is definitely a lot more, which tells me that there must be a lot more blood being forced into my muscles.
And because I’m getting these bigger pumps, I feel like I’m gaining more lean muscle. I can’t say for sure because it’s only been a month, but it definitely seems to be going in that direction.
I’m going to continue taking this pre-workout before every workout I do because I think it’s that effective. But, try it yourself. The cost is minimal and the chance that it’s going to hurt you is very low, pretty much non-existent. You might as well try it. Only good things can happen.
If you do decide to try it out, please tell me what you notice by leaving a voicemail at *67-917-267-8590 and I’ll post up your responses.
Your training partner,
Read next: Sweet Potato Pie Recipe With Mo’ Protein!
Sources:
- Caio E.G. Reis,∗ José G. Dórea, and Teresa H.M. da Costa. “Effects of coffee consumption on glucose metabolism: A systematic review of clinical trials.” J Tradit Complement Med. 2019 Jul; 9(3): 184–191.Published online 2018 May 3. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2018.01.001. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6544578/
- “Can you really have too much caffeine?” ClevelandClinic.org September 28, 2021. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-much-caffeine-is-too-much/
- David Khalaf,1 Marcus Krüger,2 Markus Wehland,2 Manfred Infanger,2 and Daniela Grimm1,2,3,* “The effects of oral L-Arginine and L-Citrulline supplementation on blood pressure.” Nutrients. 2019 Jul; 11(7): 1679.Published online 2019 Jul 22. doi: 10.3390/nu11071679. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6683098/