Forget the ‘girls only’ pre workouts that come in pink packaging. We’ll show you what really matters.
All of us women are pretty guilty of online shopping and being sold-to on that extra lipstick or pair-of-shoes we probably didn’t need. It’s hard to resist things that look great…
Well, it’s important to take a different approach when looking at supplements. It might look nice and pretty on the outside, but as your mother always told you, it really is what’s inside that counts.
We don’t want you to become a victim of the pre workouts that come in pink packaging (but otherwise have no other reason to be labelled as a female-friendly product). So we’ll take you through the most important factors when choosing a pre workout.
You’ll learn:
There’s a good chance you know what these supplements are if you found this article on google. But just in case, we’ll give those that don’t know a quick summary of what pre workout supplements are.
Simply put, pre workouts are supplements that are designed to improve your performance in the gym.
How? By delivering these benefits:
Ultimately, these are the main things that you should be looking to achieve from taking pre workout supplements. After all, why else would you consume them?
But the problem is that many pre workouts contain potentially harmful or ineffective ingredients (we’ll expand on this in the section below).
[Related Article: Caffeine Anhydrous Explained – What is it and How Does it Work? ]
We just mentioned above that many pre workouts actually contain ingredients that you don’t want to consume. But the bad news is that companies add some controversial nutrients to try and make their product the ‘strongest’ on the market.
Basically, after suffering from jitters, itchy skin and nausea from taking bad supplements, we want to save you the hassle.
So here’s the things to avoid when choosing a pre workout supplement:
If you haven’t seen or used many pre workouts before, then you might not be aware of what proprietary blends are.
In a nutshell, they’re mixtures of different ingredients (usually between 5-20) that are presented to you in 1 overall amount. This means you have no idea about the dosages of individual nutrients contained in these blends.
Well, you may have consumed too much coffee before and experienced jittery side effects as a result. The exact same thing happens after taking a pre workout containing too much caffeine.
As you’re not shown the dosages of individual nutrients in proprietary blends, you’ll never know whether that particular product contains too many. And many of them do contain more than 1 stimulant, increasing your risk of side effects.
Consequently, we recommend choosing pre workouts where every ingredient and its dosage is clearly listed – so you can determine how safe and effective it is before taking it.
Here’s an example of a proprietary blend:
We touched on this briefly in the previous section. But we’ll repeat this as it’s important when staying safe from side effects.
As we mentioned, too much caffeine can cause jitters and energy crashes. And remember that caffeine isn’t the only stimulant that’s added to pre workouts.
Other stimulants that are added to supplements are:
Choosing a supplement containing numerous stimulants in unknown amounts is always a big risk. So this adds fuel to the fire, in terms of staying away from proprietary blends.
Bottom line: Ultimately, we recommend choosing pre workouts that only contains 1 stimulant in an equivalent of under 200mg caffeine per serving.
This leads on nicely from the previous point. Although we mentioned that you should avoid overloads of stimulants, not all of them are harmful on their own.
However, some stimulants need to be avoided as they have been reported to be potentially harmful.
Here’s the ingredients that have shown to cause side effects:
Yohimbe Bark Extract is one ingredient that we always try to avoid. It has become increasingly known for causing worrying side effects, with many experts recommending that you avoid it.
What does it do? Well, Yohimbe Bark Extract has shown to help you burn fat by increasing your adrenaline levels (thereby raising your heartbeat and body temperature).
The bad news is that it’s also shown to cause side effects, including:
This is another stimulant that’s been reported to cause unwanted side effects. It’s also increasingly being added into pre workout supplements, in an attempt to make products ‘stronger’.
But we don’t recommend consuming Bitter Orange Extract as it can cause:
If a pre workout specifically targets women through ‘girly’ packaging, then this should be an immediate warning sign.
Why? Because most gender orientated pre workouts aren’t specific to females for a reason. We say most, because there are 1 or 2 that contain less caffeine and stimulants to suit the needs of females instead of men.
However, remember that no ingredient benefits women more than men. Think about it, when was the last time green tea extract was only beneficial for a certain gender? Green tea extract is proven to improve BOTH men and women’s health and promote fat loss.
As a result, we recommend choosing the best pre workouts in general (that are unisex and not just targeted at women). This way, you’ll end-up with a much more reliable product.
If you’ve searched for pre workout supplements, you’ll know exactly how many there are on the market – too many!
This makes it seriously difficult to find the best product, as it’ll be too expensive to try them all yourself. But don’t worry, this is where we come in.
Team SpotMeGirl have spent a while (and a lot of cash) testing out different pre workout supplements. And after going through dozens, we finally found a product that we feel confident recommending.
We first noticed this pre workout’s inventive packaging; instead of the usual, boring cylinder tub, 4 Gauge comes in a red shotgun shell container.
But as we mentioned, never just judge a book by its cover. So we analyzed 4 Gauge’s nutrient profile and found everything to look safe and effective.
No proprietary blends, and no overloads of stimulants. It almost sounded too good to be true, so we ordered 1 bottle to test it out – and we weren’t disappointed.
Take a look at our mini review:
What makes any pre workout ‘tick’ are the ingredients inside them. And 4 Gauge contains a great selection of nutrients that are proven to help you sculpt your dream bikini body.
Containing under 200mg Caffeine Anhydrous per serving, you’ll be safe from jitters while enjoying the raises in energy levels – allowing you to train harder and achieve tone-up quicker.
The added L-Theanine further ensures you avoid side effects; it’s a relaxing agent naturally found in green tea that works in synergy with caffeine to increase your focus without risks of jitters or energy crashes.
Creatine Monohydrate increases your strength and endurance during your workouts, while the Coconut Water Powder delivers electrolytes to keep you hydrated, so you can perform at your best.
Ultimately, these ingredients come together to form the best pre workout that we’ve tried this year. It might come with a higher price-tag, but we’d rather pay extra for something that works, than waste our money with an ineffective product.
The main point to take-away is that if a pre-workout is safe and effective for men, then it’ll be beneficial for women too.
But we do understand that some women prefer supplements containing smaller dosages of stimulants; you might not drink as much coffee as your partner, so you might not have an equally high tolerance to stimulants.
As a result, we’ve chosen 4 Gauge as the best ‘all-round’ pre-workout on the market. This is because it contains the perfect ingredients, without blowing your head off with caffeine, that’ll make sure you work harder and spend less time achieving your dream bikini body.
This post was last modified on Mar 15, 2021 4:42 pm
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