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Well, a 2003 study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition demonstrated that creatine supplementation led to a 5% increase in lactate threshold during interval training. So once again I dug into the research to see if creatine can actually help your running. My theory had been that increases in ATP storage would also lead to increased running efficiency for high intensity sprint workouts. Well, creatine works by helping increase the store of phosphocreatine, which is the main building block of ATP, the “bank of energy” we use for explosive muscle contractions. It’s why lifters take it but, what about running improvements? Pre-workout is widely known for its ability to increase strength. This is another ingredient I was really interested to see in a runner’s pre-workout. This study has been backed up by numerous other studies, concluding that blood flow enhancement is the mechanism by which citrulline mallate is able to improve aerobic performance.
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I’ll note that in this context, a pre-workout supplement isn’t the same as fueling for your workout (i.e carbohydrates and glycogen). Reduce fatigue (so we can workout harder for longer).Increase aerobic efficiency (helping us increase VO2max, etc).Improve maximal power output (allowing us to run more powerfully with less effort).Ideally, we’d want a pre-workout supplement for runners to help us… Let’s breakdown the ingredients and look at what the research says about how they may be able to help improve your running and workout performance. So, what does a pre-workout for runners look like? Of course, this sparked my intrigue and I started digging into the ingredients list to see if it might actually be effective. Then a few months ago I stumbled upon a “pre-workout designed for runners” by 6am Run. I didn’t do anything with the idea – I just let it kind of mull in the back of my mind.
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That’s when the thought started to kindle in the back of my mind about what ingredients and supplements a runner could use before workouts to help boost performance. I might have a cup of coffee and some toast before heading out for a workout, but taking something specific to help boost my workout performance never occurred to me. The funny thing is, as a runner I never considered a “pre-workout” supplement. In short, yes, there are definitely some ingredients that can help you improve performance and workout with more intensity and with greater focus (more on that later). One thing I immediately noticed as I became more ingrained in weight lifting culture is the popularity of pre-workout supplements.Īs my analytical mind usually does, I started researching if these supplements were effective, how they worked, and what ingredients were actually useful. In 2015 I started to experiment more with strength and weight training.
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