If you’ve ever done a CrossFit workout, you know it’s no joke.

The old saying “blood, sweat, and tears” applies to the level of intensity that these workouts demand, but the level of fitness you achieve from them is out of this world.

Your heart is racing, blood is pumping, and your strength is on an entirely new level. CrossFit athletes are some of the fittest of the fit and to get to that point takes a lot of hard work, consistency, and dedication on all levels.

Whether you’re doing cleans, 1RM squats, wall balls, or butterfly pull-ups, having sufficient energy is non-negotiable. There’s no laying on the sidelines or sitting out of rounds because you're tired here, and if you want to perform like the best, you have to be supplementing like the best.

That’s where we come in. We’re talking about a pre-workout supplement like you’ve never tried before. The best pre-workout supplements deliver relentless energy, better performance, stronger endurance, and keep you calm, collected, and focused.

CrossFit is one of the most intense forms of exercise and consistently pushes your body to its limits, so you need a pre-workout that’s going to support you from every angle and help you recover like a champ so you can be back at it again tomorrow.

That’s Pre Lab Pro. It’s a next-generation pre-workout formula that delivers everything you want to take your performance to a whole new high and it's the best pre-workout for CrossFit.

Best Pre-Workout for CrossFit 2022

If you’re looking to shatter your limits, break PRs, and reach beyond just strength and stamina, there’s only one pre-workout for you. It unleashes human beast mode for the ultimate performance and gains.

Pre Lab Pro® is an elite pre-workout supplement that sparks a 2X muscle-pumping nitric oxide (NOx) turbocharge + afterburn for all-around athletics. It’s designed to help you crush even the most brutal WODs with an intensity like never before.

It provides an exhilarating blood flow boost, maximum physical and mental energy, peak muscle power and efficiency, extended endurance, laser intensity, and calm clarity.

And once you think you’ve reached your peak, feel the Pre Lab Pro® afterburner kick in—a second NOx surge that helps you go longer, finish stronger, and accelerate recovery for a stronger and faster bounce back and a big head start on muscle recovery.

With the addition of smart caffeine, hydrating factors, restorative essentials, and more, Pre Lab Pro® also supports homeostasis to help you re-balance and get on with your day. It helps you power through your day like a beast and promotes deep sleep at night for maximum muscle and fitness gains.

It's the smartest and most efficient pre-workout yet with only the most powerful, science-backed ingredient. That's why it's our only choice for a pre-workout for CrossFit.

Key benefits:

  • Oxygenates muscles for athletic energy and intensity
  • Boosts muscle endurance, strength and power, and stamina
  • Multiplies and optimizes mitochondria for enhanced energy production
  • Boosts blood flow for better mental energy, intensity, focus, and drive
  • Accelerates clearance of failure-inducing lactate from muscles to prevent lactic acid buildup
  • Supports overall cardiovascular health and circulation by regulating homocysteine levels
  • Delivers proteins, antioxidants, and anabolic factors for peak muscle performance and growth
  • Blocks caffeine’s circulation-restricting effects for a bigger pump
  • Nourishes muscles for optimal repair and recovery

Key ingredients:

  • Setria® Performance Blend L-Glutathione and L-Citrulline, 2200mg
  • Natural Caffeine, 80mg
  • Suntheanine® L-Theanine, 160mg
  • Ajupure® L-Tyrosine, 400mg
  • NutriGenesis Vitamins & Minerals: Vitamin D3, potassium, iron
  • Himalayan Pink Salt, 500mg
Get the best Pre Lab Pro deals here

What Is A Pre-Workout?

For some CrossFit athletes, pre-workout is a religion. A good pre-workout is the one thing that can power them through even the toughest and most exhaustive WODs or competitions.

But the thing with fitness supplements, especially a pre-workout, is that finding a good formula can almost be like finding a needle in a haystack.

When you’re in the middle of the floor in the midst of a competition, you can’t afford to be getting the jitters or feeling nervous from a mega-dose of caffeine or getting leg cramps from poor blood flow and build-up of lactic acid because your pre-workout doesn't contain what you need.

That’s where a moderate caffeine pre-workout for CrossFit shines. They’re a blend of ingredients designed to boost energy and performance from every angle, be it endurance, strength, stamina, speed.

Typically, you’ll find things like creatine, caffeine, beta-alanine, and amino acids that all help to increase alertness, dilate blood vessels for maximum blood flow and nutrient delivery, and prevent waste accumulation that can result in muscle fatigue 1.

While many of the ingredients are effective on their own, together they offer a synergistic effect on acute exercise performance and post-workout training adaptations.

Pre-workout supplements help to:

  • Enhance muscular endurance
  • Increase force and power output
  • Improve aerobic performance
  • Increase reaction time
  • Boost mental focus
  • Alter body composition
  • Boost energy expenditure
  • Reduce fatigue
  • Accelerate recovery

Simply put, when used appropriately, a good pre-workout is one of the best workout supplements for CrossFit and can be a stellar addition to your CrossFit training stack.

Benefits Of Adding Pre-Workouts To Your CrossFit Workout Stack

As we just mentioned, pre-workouts can offer some really great benefits for athletes of all types. But when you’re training at intensity levels well beyond the average gym-goer as a CrossFit athlete does, you need something that’s going to help you get it done. There’s no cutting out in the middle of a round or skipping your next session because your body is exhausted from yesterday's workout.

That’s where Pre Lab Pro® accelerates. It’s not your average pre-workout supplement. It supports you before, during, and after training to help you perform at your best at all times.

Here’s what we mean.

Increases energy and performance

Caffeine’s effect on the central nervous system is one of the main reasons why it’s one of the most popular stimulants around.

Because it acts as an adenosine receptor antagonist (A1, A2A, A3, and A2B), it blocks the action of adenosine in the brain—adenosine functions to induce drowsiness—and results in an increased release of dopamine, noradrenaline, and glutamate 2, 3.

A1 adenosine receptors are found in most regions of the brain with the highest concentrations in the cerebral and cerebellar cortices, the hippocampus, and the thalamic nuclei, which explains why caffeine elicits such powerful cognitive effects.

But the metabolite of caffeine, methylxanthine, also has powerful actions on arousal, vigilance, and fatigue 4.

Better performance

On the other hand, some research suggests that caffeine may also affect muscle performance, hence its role ergogenic role. This is likely from caffeine’s ability to mobilize calcium ions (Ca2+) to facilitate force production by each motor unit 5.

Fatigue onset happens when there is a gradual reduction in Ca2+ release, which may be attenuated through caffeine consumption. What’s more, caffeine may also work in conjunction with increased sodium/potassium (Na+/K+) pump activity to enhance the excitation-contraction coupling that is necessary for muscle contraction.

But many pre-workouts also contain things like beta-alanine, creatine, and other compounds that help to clear metabolic waste, maintain force production, and maximize production throughout the entire duration of your training session.

More focus and intensity

If you’re struggling with a lack of motivation and want a stronger, more intense workout, a pre-workout may be your guy.

The powerful combination of boosters and balancers found in some pre-workout supplements helps to achieve clean, sustained energy along with stronger focus and drive.

While L-theanine and L-tyrosine play a role, caffeine has a major influence on cognitive function via its effects on the central nervous system. It can increase the release of dopamine, which helps regulate the ability to focus and maintain concentration. More specifically, it enhances dopamine signaling in the brain through its action on antagonizing adenosine A2A receptors (A2AR) 6.

But how much? Research shows that low-moderate doses of caffeine—like what in Pre Lab Pro®—of 0.5-4mg/kg are most effective for increasing alertness, vigilance, attention, and reaction time 7.

Fat burn and muscle maintenance

No athlete wants to carry around useless weight. Muscle mass is metabolically active and serves a purpose, so shedding your fat mass and trading it in for muscle is to a CrossFit athlete’s advantage.

While a pre-workout supplement isn’t designed to melt fat to the same degree as a fat burner, moderate dose caffeine may offer some good fat-burning benefits.

Studies aren’t consistent but some research suggests that caffeine acts as a thermogenic agent and may spare glycogen stores during moderate-intensity exercise by stimulating lipolysis. Altering substrate utilization means the body is switching to fat for fuel while retaining glycogen stores for better recovery.

A 2001 study looked at the effects of lipolysis in both rats and humans 8. Rats were given 6mg/kg of caffeine one hour before exercise and humans 5 mg/kg caffeine also one hour before exercise. The exercise consisted of a 20m/minute run for rats and a cycle ergometer at 60% of VO2max for 45 minutes, and then the exercise intensity was increased to 80% of their VO2max until exhaustion for humans.

Results showed increases in blood-free fatty acid (FFA) levels in both rats and athletes following caffeine ingestion during exercise, which suggests that increased FFA and glycerol concentrations can reduce glycogen utilization during exercise and improve endurance capacity.

Not only that, but caffeine consumption also appeared to significantly increase endurance time to exhaustion, which may be due to its glycogen sparing effect and increased lipolysis from adipose tissues and fat oxidation during exercise.

The Best Pre-Workout Ingredients For CrossFit

Let’s break those benefits down further and see why Pre Lab Pro® is the only pre-workout supplement a CrossFit athlete needs.

RedNite® Beetroot Powder

If you’re looking for maximum performance and muscle building during your workout, active muscles need oxygen and nutrients, and waste needs to be cleared to prevent accumulation and subsequent fatigue. To do that, blood vessels need to be dilated.

While there’s no shortage of NO boosters around, beetroot powder is gold. It’s a concentrated and natural source of nitrate that drives nitric oxide production 9.

As a powerful vasodilator and chemical messenger, nitric oxide widens blood vessels to increase blood flow and nutrient delivery to active muscles, which also supports waste removal to prevent things like muscle cramps and fatigue.

But that’s not all you’re getting. Beetroot is also a rich source of betalain pigments, which are powerful antioxidants that can mitigate the effects of oxidative damage on muscle cells and prevent post-workout muscle soreness so you can train like a beast and recover like one, too.

Setria® Performance Blend

For anyone looking for maximum workout capacity and maximum recovery, Setria® Performance Blend is it.

It’s a combination of two powerful ingredients that boost and sustain nitric oxide levels for an unbeatable pump, helping you push harder, stronger, and longer than you ever have before. A CrossFit workout is no easy task and Setria® helps you push through with ease.

L-glutathione is one of the most powerful endogenous antioxidants that helps to mitigate cellular damage caused by intense activity. Because CrossFit athletes are pushing their bodies to the limit, oxidative damage can build up and prevent peak performance.

That’s where glutathione comes in. Not only does it protect muscle tissue during intense exercise, support immune defenses, and boost performance, but it also improves lipid metabolism and acidification in skeletal muscles during exercise to reduce muscle fatigue and maintain a strong performance 10.

Then we throw in L-citrulline, an amino acid that boosts blood concentrations of NO and blood flow for an even bigger muscle pump 11. It supports peak muscle power output, maintains VO2max, supports energy in muscle tissue, and boosts muscle growth, comfort, and recovery.

Studies show that glutathione and L-citrulline combined can increase plasma nitric oxide metabolites, nitrite and nitrate, and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), all of which may play an important role in boosting muscle protein synthesis 12.

Natural caffeine

When it comes to stimulation, caffeine is usually the go-to—and there’s a good reason for it.

However, while most pre-workout supplements offer a mega-dose of caffeine that can leave you feeling jittery and anxious mid-workout, Pre Lab Pro® offers moderate dose caffeine that sharpens focus, gives you an energy boost, increases alertness, and improves cognitive function for smarter stimulation.

And because it’s stacked with boosters and balancers, you’re getting maximum benefit with minimal side effects.

Ajipure® L-Tyrosine

Conventional stim-heavy pre-workout supplements may give you an energy boost like never before, but they can leave you exhausted, run-down, jittery, and anxious in the long run.

If you want to avoid the nasty side effects of high-dose caffeine, L-Tyrosine needs to be in your pre-workout powder.

It throws a wrench in the pre-workout supplements game by supporting the synthesis and recycling of the three catecholamines that are heavily affected by caffeine and high-intensity training—dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine 13.

By counteracting the side effects of heavy stimulant use, L-Tyrosine sharpens focus and maintains neurotransmitter levels to increase performance, stabilize mood, and reduce fatigue.

Suntheanine® L-Theanine

Caffeine can be gold for energy levels and focus, but it can also be a buzzkill for performance and recovery if taken in high doses long-term.

It’s known to deplete important brain chemicals and nutrients that the body requires for optimal performance, which means you’re running low on what your body needs. That’s exactly where L-theanine shines and it's a must in the best pre-workouts for CrossFit.

It’s one of the most effective compounds for preventing stress-associated impairments in performance. L-theanine helps to enhance the effects of caffeine for a calmer, cleaner stimulation precision-tuned for peak performance by supporting key neurotransmitters like dopamine, GABA, glutamate, and serotonin 14.

It leaves you with a calm, motivated state of mind that can push you to the finish line of CrossFit workouts with confidence and ease, even during the toughest competitions.

Because of caffeine’s role in the CNS, L-theanine works in the brain to inhibit excitatory brain chemicals and prevent overstimulation that can impair performance and recovery. With this, you’re getting relaxed alertness and cognitive clarity for the ultimate kind of stimulation.

Final Thoughts

CrossFit is no easy game, and it takes only the best pre-workouts to support the most elite of the elite athletes.

While conventional pre-workouts may put a pep in your athletic step, only Pre Lab Pro® can help you cross the finish line in record time. It’s an ultramodern pre-workout supplement designed specifically for those who want to be the best.

No fillers, no synthetics, and no nasty side effects—just pure power and performance. That's why we say it's the best pre-workout for CrossFit athletes.

References

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