If you are involved with any form of fitness, be it working out in the gym or playing an organized sport, there is no doubt you have heard of someone, or maybe even yourself, using a supplement to complement the exercise. There are endless options and combinations for those who have performed under the influence of these supplements. Some popular fix-ins are Whey protein, glutamine, creatine; their big flashy containers hold up to five pounds of strange smelling powder, and with a little bit of water you have yourself an alarmingly unpalatable fruit drink or chocolate shake that will help you become the next Ronnie Coleman.
Forget a well-rounded and vitamin rich diet; if you want to be a swollen beast or cut like Rambo, the new belief is you need some supplements. Tons of people swear by these products and are convinced that they make all the difference, but the truth is that the legitimacy of a lot of these supplements is equivocal to say the least. There are many other factors that can make or break a training regimen besides the use of a magic fitness potion. As of late, pre-workout supplements that supposedly boost one’s energy and stamina are very popular on the supplement market.
Associate Athletic Director for Sports Medicine, Chuck Whedon, gives his opinion on why these supplements have gathered the recent attention of many. “The products have gained an increased interest for the same reason McDonald’s does- effective marketing strategies and heavy reliance on individual ignorance and desire for a ‘quick fix’. Our society’s unhealthy emphasis on appearance lends to narcissism and an eagerness to do whatever it takes to get bigger, stronger, leaner-thinner and better looking,” Whedon claimed.
I recently avoided Whey products and have instead purchased USPLabs Jack3d, one of the most popular of these pre-workouts, and took some before a workout. Here is a detailed summary of my first experience with it:
I dropped three scoops of powder (the max recommended) in about six ounces of water and chugged it quickly because the only comparable thing to its taste would be if I took grape bubblegum fluoride and mixed it with watered down Windex. Half an hour later, I was on my way to the gym, and I started to feel an itchy electric tingle all over my skin. As my eyes grew increasingly wide, I realized that the only logical thing I could do right now is blast Rage Against the Machine on my car stereo and drive like I had a wife in the passenger seat who was eight centimeters dilated.
I arrived at the gym, fully intending to hit the upper body hard, when I happened to glance at the treadmill and a shot of chemical ambition made up my mind for me. I cranked it to nine right off the bat, no warm up, and for the next 40 minutes, I operated on a staunch conviction that if I looked up the word “dynamite” on Wikipedia, the little picture at the top right would be of me on the treadmill. Then I decided to go rip some deltoid flies, but this is not the only thing I decide to do.
In the four seconds that it took me to walk to the weights from the treadmill, I realized that if I want to be successful in life, I would have to do about two loads of laundry and cut the grass as soon as I get home.
I finished my workout and as I was on the way home, about three hours after lift off, when a wave of anger and disappointment about literally nothing rippled across my mind. Even though I had a great workout, I started to feel like I wanted to rip someone’s face off. I realized that I was not doing any laundry, nor was a single blade of grass going to become any shorter that day. I did not eat a thing all day and did not fall asleep until three in the morning.
Believe it or not, Jack3d does not contain cocaine or methamphetamine. What it does contain, according to the supplement facts on the back of the container, is 4,145 milligrams per serving of a “proprietary blend” consisting of the powerful legal stimulant DMAA, also known as dimethylamylamine, as well as caffeine.
To find out more about the purposes of some of the ingredients in pre-workout supplements, I spoke to a friend, Ryan Rizco, who works at the popular fitness nutrition store, GNC. Ryan, a very fit and muscular guy in his early twenties, is a vegan and does not take any of the supplements that he sells at the store. He says he does not hate them, but does not need them either.
When I asked about the ingredients and their roles in pre-workout substances, Ryan said, “They have about as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. They also usually have beta alanine and creatine for endurance purposes. The DMAA in some of these substances has been associated with heart palpitations.”
I later researched the controversial DMAA. According to Connor Link of the Nutrition Business Journal, “The U.S. Army is investigating the deaths of two U.S. soldiers possibly linked to the popular pre-workout supplement Jack3d from USPLabs.” Not enough actual research exists on DMAA yet for the supplement to be banned in the US, but after having experienced firsthand its power to motivate, and in the long run agitate, I will probably just be sticking to a balanced diet and proper hydration to fuel my future workouts.
Chuck Whedon agrees that laying off these supplements would be wise. “Protein supplements are helpful if athletes are strength training or body building and need extra protein-the primary component of muscle,” Whedon goes on, “Muscle Milk and other products are marketed as quickly ingested protein sources and are probably not harmful, despite one study in 2010 that found heavy metals in the product. However, are they better than other protein sources, milk, cheese, eggs, and meat? Probably not.”
So the question remains: Are these pre-workout supplements just a strong cup of coffee to get you motivated for the workout, or are they something much more harmful? One must decide for themselves, just make sure every decision is well thought out.
