Pre-workout Guide for Women

For more intense workouts with outstanding results, consider adding pre-workout supplements to your routine. Taking a high-performance supplement before going to exercise can infuse you with more energy, take your exercise session to a harder level, and even help you recover. Women who don’t want bulky or bloated muscles can still see optimal results with the right supplement. Here is a guide of substances to look for.

Phase 1/ Energize

Before you hit the gym, you should have a healthy store of invigorating and strengthening nutrients inside your body. Make sure you are well-hydrated, and take the supplement with food if appropriate. Your pre-workout supplement should help raise your energy, your alertness, and your physical strength.

• What to look for
• B vitamins: help increase energy in your brain and body, and speeds up metabolism
• Caffeine: enhances your mental focus, your enthusiasm, and energizes the body. Caffeine is also used to stimulate performance so you are faster and stronger.
• Green tea extract: jumpstarts your metabolism and feeling of adrenaline so that you can burn more fat.
• Taurine: helps increase mental awareness and supports muscular function

Phase 2/ Strengthen

Make every single workout count by giving your body and your muscles the nutrients they need. If you want to run farther and lift heavier, take a pre-workout supplement with proven strength enhancers.

• What to look for
• Protein: sends important amino acids to the muscles to sustain them during your workout.
• Creatine: delivers fast-acting amino acids to increase energy and endurance, and help build your muscles more quickly. It also helps your muscles to recover from the strain of working out.
• Beta-alanine: another effective amino acid that goes straight to the muscles to reduce fatigue and improve muscular performance.
• Arginine: boosts your muscular performance
• Glutamine: builds muscle mass and strength, as well as improving metabolism

Phase 3/ Protect

Maximize the benefits of your energy and muscle-building by protecting your body with essential vitamins and nutrients. You need to support your brain, your muscles, your bones, and your immunity in order to maximize your hard efforts.

• What to look for
• Multivitamins: provide a comprehensive stacking of essential vitamins to satisfy all of your nutritional needs.
• Vitamin C: a potent antioxidant that prevents sickness by eliminating harmful free radicals that can result from intense exercise.
• Vitamin D: supports bone health, muscle strength, and fat loss; especially when you are not getting enough from food or sunshine.
• Calcium: essential for durable bones and joints, and protects your body from high impact exercises.
• Potassium: helps to restore electrolytes – essential nutrients – lost during exercise.

You can find many different combinations of pre-workout supplements to support these areas. If you want to simplify, try a multivitamin that contains a wide variety of these ingredients. For several different health and fitness goals, you may want to layer a multivitamin with a weight loss supplement or a bodybuilding supplement. (You can read more about supplement stacking here.)