We all have those days when we couldn’t be less enthused about exercising, whether ducking out of a lunchtime visit to the gym or putting off that marathon training run.
That’s where pre-workout supplements can become your best friend. Available in different forms, these powders, drinks, gummies and capsules contain ingredients to help boost your alertness and increase focused, ready for powering through a session and staying on top of your fitness goals.
Supplements are made up of a whole concoction of ingredients, some of which you may or may not be familiar with. Caffeine is one ingredient well known for being able to help us kick-start our mornings, and some supplements can offer equal or more caffeine than you’ll get from a cup of coffee.
Some supplements also include BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids), which are associated with fuelling muscle growth and fighting off fatigue. Others look to ditch caffeine altogether and use natural ingredients to get you primed for a gruelling workout – these can also be gentler on your stomach.
You need to pay attention to the volume of ingredients delivered in a single dose, and whether they are a good fit for any allergies from which you might suffer. Look at how long prior to exercise you need to consume the supplement, too, to ensure you get the most out of it.
With all this in mind, keep scrolling to discover our pick of the best pre-workout supplements.
We spent a month testing these supplements, to see if they’d help us get through a range of exercises, including long runs and interval-style running sessions, pool swims, HIIT workouts and strength training sessions. Those workouts varied in duration and the time of day they took place, to see whether the supplements are as effective when you’ve been working all day or you’re trying to fit in an early morning workout.
We paid attention to taste and how quickly supplements took to get to work. We looked at how long prior to a workout we’d need to take the supplements and whether there were any unwelcome after-effects. We also took price into consideration, to see how much you’d have to spend per serving.
