Should you use a pre-workout? Firstly, what do you want to achieve in your workout, and would like to go for a stim-free option, or is caffeine and other stimulants what you need for a more intense workout?
If you prefer to do a heavy lifting session, for approximately 40 minutes or more, then sure, you could benefit from the added endurance, and power that you may get from a pre-workout’s ingredients. Pre-workouts are overkill for shorter workouts, for example, workouts less than 30 minutes.
When do you prefer to workout, the morning, afternoon, or evening? When you do your workout, the length, and type of workout can determine when a pre-workout would be viable, or not.
If your workout is in the morning, and your caffeine tolerance (or other stimulants for that matter) is relatively good, then you may opt for a stimulant based pre-workout. If your workout is in the evening, then you may want to use a stim-free pre-workout, to provide less disruption to your sleep-cycle.
Caffeine can stay in the body for up to 13 hours, this means a late pre-workout can severely disrupt sleep, and leave you feeling sluggish in the morning.
As for myself, I’m currently using two different pre-workouts, DEFIB v3, which is a high-caffeine pre-workout, especially at 2 doses which is the recommended dose, totalling up to 400mg of caffeine!
I tend to stick with one scoop of DEFIB, as 400mg is past the upper tolerance level for me, and I usually use VARI for cardio training. The two can be combined for lifting for increased pumps, endurance and power!
The stim-free option I use is TWP’s (The Warrior Project) VARI v2 pre-workout, which has been formulated to give you a strong pump, without stimulants such as caffeine, or geranium extract (DMHA is formulated from geranium, DMAA has been banned) .
for cardio related training, you can opt for one or two doses of a stim-free pre-workout, however, I would avoid using high-caffeine for cardio workouts, as the increased heart rate and blood-pressure from stimulant use does come with risks, and cardiovascular strain is a general, if not potential risk from high-caffeine use.
You may want to refer to my previous article regarding the risks of high-caffeine use, which you can find here: The risks with high-caffeine
Purchasing
For purchasing, please find the links attached below:
HR Labs DEFIB v3: https://hr-labs.co.uk/products/defib-v3
TWP VARI v2: https://twpnutrition.com/collections/pre-workout/products/vari-v2
