Here at TheSportsDaily, I’m a big fan of improving your body, mind, health and consciousness.
If you’ve read this site previously, you’ll know that I’m a strong believer in going vegan; it not only saves the animals and is better for the environment but is beneficial for your health too.
So, when it comes to your exercise potential, I wouldn’t advocate anything less than a top-quality, effective fully vegan pre-workout, such as Performance Lab SPORT Pre-Workout.
Good workouts and good recovery are the only two ways you improve your body and performance. Everything from lifting weights to running, sleep to nutrition, falls into one of these two categories.
Which is why I’m going to talk about how to get the most out of your workouts – how to use a vegan-friendly pre-workout and what a good example looks like. This is one easy way to improve your performance and thus your overall results, while maintaining your ethical stance.
So, what will I cover today?
- What is a Pre-Workout FOR?
- What makes a good pre-workout?
- Why is the Performance Lab Vegan Pre-Workout my favourite?
These are the key questions and I’m going to give you all the information you need. If you’re ready to improve your workouts – thus your performance and results – read on!
What is a Pre-Workout FOR?
The idea behind a pre-workout is to produce one of two changes: Improvements to your physical performance and psychological performance.
When we talk about physical performance, this usually refers to changes in the metabolic, muscular, and organ function. On the other side, psychological improvements come in the shape of better mood, focus, wakefulness, and ability to process/think effectively.
Performance
There are a few areas where physical performance is affected by a pre-workout.
The most obvious is usually through caffeine or other stimulants, which increase wakefulness. However, caffeine and other stimulants aren’t suitable for everyone since they can react poorly with certain medications or heart conditions. Some people are also very sensitive to caffeine or prefer to get their caffeine from their usual coffee drinking.
Creatine and other muscular-energy ingredients are a good replacement for stimulants. These improve the performance of the muscles themselves and they’re able to support strength and endurance.
You can also gain significant benefits to endurance from the likes of beta-alanine, or other ingredients that support metabolic efficiency. These are great for the turnover of energy production/uptake, which is key to longer aerobic-style exercise. Performance Lab’s vegan pre-workout, for instance, includes creatine, among other useful ingredients, such as Himalayan Pink Salt for hydration.
You’ll see significant benefits if you’re taking hydration seriously. Workouts require electrolytes (specific, muscle-supporting salts) and proper pre-workout supplementation will provide some form of salts, a hydration agent (like coconut water or even creatine itself).
There are a lot of ways a pre-workout can help your performance, but it’s all about the product you choose and the goals you have. We can’t explain them all individually, but we can provide examples like this for what works!
Psychological Benefits: Mood, Motivation and Focus
The psychological side of exercise is a significant part of better performance. The entire field of sport psychology exists because, most of the time, your mental approach to exercise is nowhere near perfect and needs to be managed!
Best performance comes from best practice and that means approaching exercise with focus, intention, and in the correct mood/mindset for that day.
Pre-workout supplements often attempt to improve your mental performance in a workout, as well as physical. As mentioned, caffeine is a common way of doing this.
Equally, cholinergic compounds are a good example of mind-supporting compounds. These could be compared with tyrosine and tryptophan, which are amino acids that support mood and mental wellbeing.
These are a few examples of the changes that are often intended for pre-workout supplements. What really matters are specific examples – and what you get from them. We’re going to discuss the Performance Lab PRE-workout supplement later as an example, but first it’s important to talk about more than just ingredient choice…
Ingredient Quality: What It Is and Why It Matters
It’s not enough to simply use the ingredients that are effective in effective doses. While the quantity is important, the quality of nutrients is also something you should consider when you’re looking for a better pre-workout supplement.
The quality of ingredients is based on the structure that they’re found in and the manufacturing processes. The better quality a nutrient, the better product, where all things are equal.
This tends to come from the correct choice of supplementation (such as using a D3 supplement rather than D2) or through the bioavailability of the nutrients. This refers to the uptake and utilisation of a nutrient from your gut to your muscles, brain, or wherever else it will be used.
Proper production methods also include the responsible sourcing and manufacture of products. A vegan pre-workout should also consider the integrity and ingredient supply chains that it uses and provide sustainable and cruelty-free ingredients.
This extends to the integrity of the company and their manufacturing processes. Cruelty-free is no good if it is cruel to you, using illicit compounds and proprietary blends that include compounds you don’t want. Clear, transparent products and a lack of harmful ingredients is something you need to pay attention to, even if it should be a given!
Why is Performance Lab SPORT Pre-Workout my Favourite?
I’ve mentioned Performance Lab’s PRE-workout supplement as my favourite vegan pre-workout supplement already. You might be wondering why.
I’m going to discuss a few of the factors that put it at the top of my list, but from the get-go it’s about a focus on quality and integrity that I really like. The supplement market is often mixed with a huge difference between high- and low-quality products.
In a field like that, Performance Lab’s approach to quality and transparency really matter.
Vegan
Obviously, these are totally vegan supplements. The Pre-workout contains no animal products, and the capsules themselves are produced from plant extracts rather than gelatine.
The result is a totally vegan-friendly product without any compromise to performance.
Clean label
As mentioned, integrity and transparency are important when there are always supplement manufacturers turning a quick buck. Performance Lab stands apart from shady business practices with a non-GMO, soy-free, allergen-free, proprietary blend-free approach to supplementation.
Products like PRE are also produced in a GMP-certified laboratory meaning the best, FDA-approved standard of quality. This ensures cross-contamination is not an issue and there’s no likelihood of you getting illicit substances in your supplements.
A good product is one you can trust.
Caffeine-/stimulant-free
While caffeine is a popular ingredient for pre-workout supplements, the Performance Lab PRE supplement is a totally stimulant-free product. Which makes it free from jittery side effects associates with other products.
This makes it appropriate and healthy for some populations, and for anyone who is watching their caffeine intake. If you’re looking to keep your caffeine or stimulant intake low, for instance, it’s a great choice. This makes it a perfect option for specific needs.
It’s also an ideal product to use if you need to cycle off your usual stimulant-heavy pre-workout and want an effective stim-free one in the meantime.
Effective quality ingredients
I’ve already mentioned some of the key ingredients in Performance Lab SPORT Pre-Workout, such as creatine and beta-alanine. These are proven, effective and safe ingredients.
The full list includes:
- Creatine (Creapure® pH10) 1250mg
- Setria® Performance Blend 2200mg (Glutathione and L-Citrulline)
- CarnoSyn® 800mg (Beta-alanine)
- Himalayan Pink Salt 350mg
- Pine Bark Ext. (standardized to 95% Proanthocyanidins) 100mg
- Iron 2.5mg (Growco)
Reputation
As we’ve mentioned, the reputation of a manufacturer matters to the quality of the product. If you’re putting supplements in your body, the quality and reliability of the manufacturer matters.
A manufacturer and their practices determine the quality of the product and the extent to which you can trust their product. Performance Lab follows all the clean label criteria set out above, as well as pro-actively avoiding proprietary blends.
The result is a manufacturer reputation you can trust that seems to care about your results and wellbeing.
Are there side effects?
The removal of stimulants from this product reduces the risks of side effects significantly. It’s still possible to respond poorly – as that’s always very specific to the individual – but all the ingredients are healthy and safe and will be side effect-free for most people.
I recommend contacting your medical professional to seek advice before using if you have any existing health concerns. With that said, most people will have no problems with this pre-workout.
How to Use a Product Like This
How long does it take to work?
Pre-workout supplements are instantaneous: they’ll get to working within 30-60 minutes depending on what you’ve eaten and how much you take.
There’s no huge waiting period – you should notice changes from the first use/workout.
Timing
As a pre-workout supplement, we recommend taking this product in the hour before a workout. It’s also totally possible to take it in combination with your workout hydration just before/during your warm-up.
Give the capsules a little time to work, but they shouldn’t take too long. There’s a short half-life to these ingredients, so they’ll come on very quickly.
Dose
The best dose is the one on the bottle. There’s nothing dangerous in this product and, with no stimulants, you can adjust the dose upwards if you find yourself tolerating it well.
We recommend sticking with the suggested dose, so follow manufacturer instructions when you start using this type of product!
Performance Lab recommend taking 4-6 capsules 45-60 minutes before your exercise on training days.
Is this the supplement for you?
Yes, if you want a vegan pre-workout supplement that can support better workout performance without any caffeine or proprietary blends.
This is the product for you if you’re concerned with the quality and responsible production of your supplements. It’s also great if you’re looking for the convenience of a capsule pre-workout that you can take with you through your day.
You’re not going to find a huge caffeine kick with this product, but that’s the nature of a stimulant-free pre-workout supplement – the benefit being no risk of jittery side effects!
Final Thoughts
If you know what you want from a pre-workout, you’re able to shop smarter. This is key to getting the best results and saving your cash.
The Performance Lab SPORT PRE-workout supplement is a good example of a stimulant-free vegan pre-workout supplement. If you’re on the market for quality and integrity, it’s my favourite example and sets the scene for what a pre-workout supplement should be like!
There’s a lot of variety out there but – whatever you’re looking for and whatever your goal – you should insist on quality and integrity!
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