Pre-workout supplements, also called “pre-workouts,” are meant to give you energy for when you exercise. The main ingredient in most of them is caffeine. These supplements often come in pill or powder form. Some of the ingredients in certain pre-workouts can be good for your health and your workouts.

What Pre-Workout Supplements Do

You take the supplement before your exercise. Its purpose is to help you recover and ease the fatigue of an intense workout. 

Some common ingredients in pre-workouts are:

Caffeine. Product makers say pre-workouts can keep you focused, give you energy, and improve your overall performance. The main ingredient behind these promises is high levels of caffeine. 

Pre-workout supplements have a range of 150 mg to 300 mg of caffeine per serving. This equals about three cups of coffee. That’s a lot. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, you may want to take a smaller amount or find natural ways to boost your energy before a workout.

Beta-alanine . This ingredient is meant to help you do high-intensity exercises. It may help buffer your muscles during intense workouts. Beta-alanine has been shown to lower fatigue and enhance recovery in sprinters. 

Creatine. When combined with exercise, this substance helps you gain strength. Creatine works to replenish your ATP stores, which gives your muscles energy to contract. Creatine can also help you increase your levels of lean body mass. 

Amino acids. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) in pre-workout supplements help increase lean body mass. BCAA has also been shown to promote muscle growth. BCAA helps reduce damage to your muscles after an intense workout. 

Tips for Taking Pre-Workout Supplements

As with any supplement, you need to talk to your doctor before you take a pre-workout -- especially if you have any health conditions or you take any medicines. They’ll let you know if these supplements are safe for you to try. If they give you the green light, here are some tips on how to use them:

Take a pre-workout 20 minutes before you exercise. This gives the supplements time to kick in.

Company History

Labrada Nutrition, headquartered in Houston, Texas, was founded in 1995 by IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Hall of Famer and former Mr. Universe Lee Labrada. Labrada Nutrition offers a wide range of healthy nutritional supplements including award-winning Lean Body® ready-to-drink protein shakes, meal replacement powders, and bars.

Labrada Nutrition's mission is to empower people with nutritional products and the knowledge they need to get into great shape, and be healthy for life. Labrada Nutrition provides education on fitness, nutrition, and health through their weekly newsletters, videos, content-rich websites, social media, online fitness contests, and dedicated customer support.

Our Labrada product line is more exclusive than ever, so make sure that you check out the new products we've been developing to help you attain your physique goals — whether you want to get stronger, bigger, or leaner, we have the right nutrition solution for you.

Why should you trust Labrada with your nutrition needs? Here are several very good reasons:

Labrada supplements are proven to work, both in the lab and in the field, to help you reach your physique goals. Our products are backed by scientific research and studies — not hype.

When you choose a Labrada supplement, you are using a quality product that contains efficacious amounts of active ingredients, not the 'pixie dust' sprinkling that most of our competitors sell you under the guise of a 'proprietary blend.' It's right there on the label for you to see. We call that "truth in labeling."

All Labrada products are assayed by a third-party lab to ensure that they meet label claim, so you get what you pay for. That's why since 1995, I have proudly laid my hard-earned reputation on the line by stamping my products with my Personal Quality Guarantee Seal, "If it's on the label, it's in the product." Each and every shipment of my products is lab-assayed for purity.

In addition to having all Labrada products manufactured in U.S. FDA inspected and registered facilities and following cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices), our products are manufactured in facilities that are certified by:

NSF https://www.nsf.org/

Informed Choice (for banned substances) https://www.informed-choice.org/

SQF https://www.sqfi.com/

Additionally, our products are 3rd party tested by ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited laboratories.

We use the finest ingredients available in the world in all our products. The 3rd party labs consistently test and prove that we outperform our competitors for: Microbiological levels, Heavy Metal levels, and Macronutrient content (label claim).

Labrada products not only work, meet label claim, give you your money's worth, and provide drug-free peace of mind... they are also the best tasting products on the market. For example, our world-famous Lean Body® products have won coveted taste kudos including the NNFA People's Choice Award and the American Culinary Institute's Gold Taste Award, not once, but multiple times over the years.

It's no wonder that athletes and fitness enthusiasts have come to recognize Labrada as "The Most Trusted Name in Sports Nutrition."™ If you'll give me the opportunity, I'll earn your trust too.