Exercising has a host of incredible benefits such as increased strength, better metabolism, fat loss, and more. However, you may not always have the physical or mental edge you need to power through it. Therefore, you may look to improve your potential performance through the use of “heart healthy” pre-workout.

While not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there is a plethora of buzz around just what pre-workout can do for your workout and subsequent recovery. Side effects are understandably a part of the conversation since the goal is to remain healthy.

Your heart needs to be protected, and considering there is a pretty high dose of caffeine in these supplements, the questions will start to come about. Here’s a look at what you need to know about pre-workout and what it can mean for your heart.

Understanding Pre-workout Supplements

Starting simple, pre-workout speaks to supplements that you can use before your exercise sessions that are meant to improve your workout performance. This comes from a series of cooperating ingredients that improve different areas such as strength and endurance.

The doses of caffeine, for example, will give you an energy boost and lead to a delayed onset of fatigue, which is the kind of kick you need to be able to power through when you probably wouldn’t be able to do so ordinarily.

A Quick Look at the Benefits of These Dietary Supplements

You’ll see pre-workout supplements commonly endorsed in the fitness world if you pay attention to the content floating around in them. Here’s a quick look at some of the professed benefits that you can look forward to.

Energy Boost

There’s a reason why coffee, energy drinks, and other items containing caffeine tend to be used when people want more energy. It works by making blood vessels dilate. This will improve blood flow which improves the amount of oxygen going to muscles, which will make them perform better.

So, no you have a situation where your quads, calves, biceps, et. al are all now feeling supercharged and you can get more done with less of a push. After all, trying to work out when you feel like you’re dragging yourself through the motions is not a good long-term strategy.

Better Recovery

As you can appreciate, exercise puts quite a bit of stress on the body regardless of your level of athletic performance. People who train harder will put more strain on their bodies, which means that the road to recovery may take a bit more.

The health benefits of recovery are well documented including the inability to maintain peak physical performance if the body doesn’t get enough time to do it. Pre-workouts are meant to assist in recovery, which makes both subsequent workouts and daily activities less of a struggle.

Optimized Blood Flow

Your heart is going to be pumping faster than usual to meet the demand that has been placed on it by the muscles for more oxygen and nutrients. To help increase blood flow, pre-workout supplements tend to contain nitric oxide, which will widen your blood vessels.

This is what will allow the blood to traverse more easily, which means that more of the compounds needed will be taken to the right place.

Why Might Taking a Pre-workout Supplement Be Considered a Bad Idea?

Here’s one of the key questions that you’re here to have answered. What makes pre-workout bad? Who said it was even bad? Well, there are a couple of key points that can make it a point of contention.

While caffeine is great, for example, there’s such a thing as too much caffeine. An adult is recommended to have no more than 400 mg of caffeine daily. This is equivalent to your drinking four cups of coffee in a day.

Excessive caffeine is linked to high blood pressure, heart palpitations, and a higher risk for cardiovascular disease, as well as heart attack concerns.

The Ingredients and the Heart

Caffeine is not the only ingredient in a pre-workout that can have some kind of interaction with the heart. With that said, here are a few more you want to be aware of:

1. L-citruline – This is an amino acid that’s present in spades in watermelon. Note that your body also makes it. Supplementing with it can help to increase your power output and endurance while reducing your fatigue since it helps with blood flow improvement. However, it can affect blood pressure, which is particularly concerning for those on blood pressure medications.
2. L-arginine – Here, you have yet another amino acid. This one, however, is found in dairy, fish, meat, and poultry. It’s the precursor of nitric oxide, the benefit of which was covered above. if not used in moderation though, it can contribute to quite a significant dip in your blood pressure.
3. Yohimbine – This comes from a tree in Africa and improves blood flow throughout the body. It was once only used for the treatment of sexual concerns but now it finds its way into pre-workout. People dealing with heart problems are advised to avoid supplements with Yohimbine since it is linked to heart attacks and irregular heartbeat concerns.
4. Taurine – You’ll often find this in energy drinks, but it naturally occurs in the human body too, as well as in meat, eggs, and fish. Taurine delays fatigue and lowers blood pressure. Of course, too much of it could put you in the hypotensive range.

Can You Take Pre-workout with a Heart Condition?

There are healthy ways of navigating the pre-workout world as someone with heart concerns. First, as popular as dry scooping pre-workout is on social media, you want to avoid it since the dose is way too concentrated. You may start to experience chest pain and other concerning complications.

Avoid pre-workouts with yohimbine too and consider not taking a full dose since that will reduce the amount of ingredient exposure.

Taking the pre-workout every other exercise session is a good idea too since that will also reduce dependency.

Wrapping Up

Finding a pre-workout supplement that is heart-healthy is a tall task, especially considering the ingredient profile that is typical of them. However, you can make modifications to the dosage and avoid certain ingredients to help you keep your heart healthy.

Be that as it may, if you are already experiencing heart issues or are on blood pressure medication, you may want to check with your doctor before taking any.