If you’re looking to take your training to the next level, there’s no end to the supplements you can use to boost strength and stamina, increase endurance, and accelerate recovery. Be it BCAAs, creatine, caffeine, glutamine… you name it and there’s some way it fits into a fitness stack.
By far one of the best supplements you can add into your stack to excel your performance to an entirely new place is a pre-workout. But we’re not talking about the run-of-the-mill, conventional pre-workout supplements you’ll find at the supermarket.
We’re talking about a cutting-edge, research-backed formula designed to push your body to its limits. A pre-workout that extends beyond just strength and stamina to turbocharge your workout and help you achieve optimal and peak performance. It’s fine-tuned for ultra-clean stimulation to power through the longest and most intense training sessions with ease and focus.
But let’s stop there for a second.
That all sounds incredible but one of the big questions involving pre-workouts is how long are the effects going to last. Generally speaking, you’re told to down your scoop about 30-60 minutes before training, but are you still going to be buzzing 3 hours later? Or staring at the ceiling until 2 am because you still have pre-workout coursing through your veins?
We’re giving you the rundown on what you need to know about pre-workout supplements and how long you can expect to feel the effects.
The Benefits Of A Pre-Workout Supplement
If you’re not familiar with the world of pre-workout, they are some of the best supplements you can take to propel your workout in a new direction. They’re specifically designed to boost energy levels and increase focus, drive, and intensity for an overall performance enhancement.
So, why should you take a pre-workout?
Some people are looking for better endurance abilities, whereas others are looking to improve strength and stamina for their lifts. In any case, a good pre-workout will cover all your bases—especially Pre Lab Pro®.
With every dose, you’re getting:
- Enhanced delivery of oxygen, nutrients, glucose, water, and hormones
- Increased removal of lactic acid, cellular waste, carbon dioxide, ammonia, metabolic byproducts
- Massive blood flow surge for the ultimate workout performance
- Stronger muscle performance — Strength, power, stamina, and recovery
- Better cardiovascular performance — Stamina, cardio efficiency, endurance, and aerobic fitness
- Enhanced cognitive performance — Focus, intensity, and motivation
It’s cleaner energy and sharper focus without the crash for overall improved performance and recovery.
The Best Pre-Workout Ingredients
Pre-workout supplements contain all sorts of ingredients aimed at maximizing performance and recovery, but when it comes to what you put in your body, you want only the best.
Pre Lab Pro® is stacked with some of the most highly sought-after, research-backed ingredients that are guaranteed to give you maximum performance with minimal adverse effects.
You’re getting:
- RedNite® Beetroot Powder — Improves neuromuscular performance, combats fatigue, enhances muscle energy, supports healthy cardiovascular function, and sharpens cognitive function
- Setria® Performance Blend — Provides a powerful and sustained nitric oxide boost for greater strength, power, speed, and endurance through all activities, but also accelerates muscle growth and recovery
- Natural caffeine 80mg — Supplies potent moderate-dose smart caffeine stacked with boosters and balancers for the ultimate clean stimulation with minimal side effects
- Ajipure® L-Tyrosine — Replenishes brain chemicals depleted by caffeine and intense training to drive athletic intensity and mental recovery, while sharpening focus under stress
- Suntheanine® — Supports relaxed alertness, positive mood, and cognitive clarity, and enhances the effects of caffeine for calmer, cleaner stimulation in any situation
- NutriGenesis® Vitamins & Minerals — Tops off the vitamins and minerals depleted during intense training to support strength, endurance, hydration, and recovery
How long do the effects last?
How long your pre-workout will stay in your system is going to depend on what’s in your supplement.
With Pre Lab Pro®, we’re supporting optimal performance with moderate-dose caffeine to avoid any nasty long-lasting side effects that can come with heavy caffeine consumption, but you’re also getting completely natural, research-backed ingredients so you can train safely without adverse reactions.
In general, most ingredients in a pre-workout supplement will start to peak in the bloodstream about 30-90 minutes after consumption, but how long the effects last will be dictated by:
Dosage
The amount you take is going to be the major indicator of how long your pre-workout will stay in your system.
If you’re taking double the dose or higher, you can expect that you’re going to feel a more intense effect. For something like caffeine, plasma levels peak anywhere from 15-120 minutes after oral ingestion and can remain in circulation up to 9 hours after consumption.
For example, one study of adult men found that a dosage of 4mg/kg (280mg/70kg person), which is equivalent to about 2–3 cups of coffee, remained in circulation for 2.5–4.5 hours [1]. So, if you’re taking more than 280mg at one time, you can expect a longer-lasting buzz.
Quality & Ingredients
Because both the composition and strength of pre-workout formulas range across brands, what and how much of each ingredient it contains will influence the duration it stays in your system.
For example, pre-workout formulas with beta-alanine and caffeine will usually last between 30 and 90 minutes at peak plasma concentrations; studies find that beta-alanine provides a modest benefit for exercise lasting up to about 25 minutes before the effects start to fade [2].
On the other hand, compounds like nitric oxide and creatine have a longer-lasting effect on the body; the elimination half-life of creatine is roughly 3 hours, suggesting that 50% of a dose will be cleared from plasma after 3 hours [3].
From this, you can deduce that 100% of exogenously supplemented creatine will take about 16.5 hours to clear your system completely. So, after 24 hours, there won’t be any lingering exogenous creatine in your plasma.
Body Composition
Lastly, biochemical individuality will dictate the rate at which your body clears substances.
The half-life elimination of caffeine ranges from 1.5 to 9.5 hours, but this will vary based on the innate variation between individuals, as well as a variety of physiological and environmental factors that influence caffeine metabolism (pregnancy, obesity, diet, oral contraceptive use, smoking, altitude, etc.) [4].
For other substances commonly found in pre-workout, clearance rates will also vary based on these factors.
Final Thoughts
How long a pre-workout stays in your system isn’t going to be consistent across the board. It depends on both your body composition, genetics, and metabolism, as well as how much of what you’re taking.
In any case, always start with the minimum serving size and work your way up to a sweet spot that supporting maximum performance to avoid any adverse effects that interfere with your working, body function, and sleep.
References
- MJ Arnaud. The metabolism of coffee constituents. In: Coffee. 1988. 3, Physiology, pp.33–55.
- ET Trexler, AE Smith-Ryan, JR Stout, et al. International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12:30.
- WL Chiou, FH Hsu. Pharmacokinetics of creatinine in man and its implications in the monitoring of renal function and in dosage regimen modifications in patients with renal insufficiency. J Clin Pharmacol. 1975;15(5-6):427-434.
- Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Military Nutrition Research. Caffeine for the Sustainment of Mental Task Performance: Formulations for Military Operations. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2001. 2, Pharmacology of Caffeine. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/