During a recent quest to find the best pre-workout supplement for increasing energy, focus, power, and muscle endurance while training, I was shocked to discover that most ingredients in pre-workout supplements are either a) useless, b) in a dose much lower than the evidence shows to be effective, c) not timing-dependent in relation to exercise.

Until the past couple months I had simply been consuming 200mg of caffeine pre-workout. Occasionally I would consume 16mg of ephedrine in addition to the caffeine. Ephedrine is a stimulant and an oral nasal decongestant. I find that it opens my airways and increases my focus while training. Ephedrine is legal here in Canada, but some countries have banned it as a result of a select few athletes who were consuming excessive amounts of it.

The reason I began to consider taking a pre-workout supplement was beta-alanine and the increasing amount of research revealing it’s benefits, such as increased muscle endurance and decrease in muscle fatigue. This translates into more work being done (volume) during your workouts, which is what leads to increases in aesthetic muscle gains.

Beta-Alanine is the ingredient in pre-workout supplements that gives you that tingling sensation on the surface of your skin. Maybe this sensation is why lifters feel that the beta-alanine is doing something for them in that moment while they are training. But after digging through the supplement research I discovered that Beta-Alanine is not timing-dependent. Meaning that no matter what time of day you consume it, you will still experience the same benefits of increased muscle endurance and decreased muscle fatigue.

According to the research, about The Pre-Workout Supplement Scam