Many of you will already be familiar with pre-workout. Broadly, pre-workout refers to any kind of product that you take before a workout that’s designed to give you a boost. In recent decades, they’ve become one of the most popular supplements on the market.
They’re usually in the form of a pill, drink, or powder and common ingredients include caffeine, L-glutamine, and creatine.
As the name suggests, pre-workouts are designed to be taken before a workout. However, we’re often asked whether you can take them everyday, even if you aren’t working out?
Below, I’ve explained whether or not you can take a pre-workout everyday and if there are any dangerous side effects to doing this.
I’ve also discussed how often you should be taking pre-workout products, and whether it’s ok to take them before every workout as the high-stimulant supplement may not be the best thing to constantly be consuming…
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Can You Take Pre-Workout Everyday?
Many pre-workout products can safely be consumed everyday. However, taking pre-workout everyday isn’t ideal or recommended. This is because regularly consuming pre-workout leads to tolerances and makes it less effective over time. It can also increase the risk and likelihood of side effects.
Each pre-workout product comes with guidance on how often it can be taken. How often you can take a product will depend on what ingredients it contains.
Caffeine, for example, can be safely consumed everyday.
However, just because it can be safely consumed doesn’t mean taking it everyday is ideal. In fact, taking pre-workouts everyday can make them less effective over time.
This is due to tolerance. Essentially, your body can become used to the ingredients that the pre-workout contains. Usually, it’s the stimulants that pre-workout contains that your body becomes used to but it can also happen with other ingredients such as beta-alanine.
Building up a tolerance to pre-workout is a gradual process. It usually takes 4-6 weeks of regularly using pre-workout for your body to become used to the ingredients.
You can tell if you’ve become tolerant to pre-workout because it will no longer have the effect it once did. That initial rush of energy that you used to feel after taking a pre-workout will be significantly reduced or completely gone!
As a result, your pre-workout may feel ineffective. So it’s best not to take pre workout everyday in order to avoid becoming tolerant to the ingredients.
Another factor to consider is side effects. Unfortunately, pre-workout products can cause side effects. Although this varies depending on what ingredients they contain, some common side effects from pre-workout include digestive problems as well as insomnia and a racing heartbeat (heart palpitations).
The more frequently you take pre workout, the more likely it is that you’ll experience these side effects. So in order to reduce the likelihood of side effects, it’s best not to overconsume pre-workout.
The bottom line then is that whilst it can be safe to take pre-workout everyday it isn’t ideal as you can become tolerant to the ingredients, making it feel ineffective. Taking it everyday also increases the likelihood of experiencing unwanted side effects.
Is It Ok to Take Pre-Workout Every Workout?
Pre-workout can usually be safely consumed before each workout. Taking it before each workout however can lead to tolerance, making the ingredients feel less effective. It can also increase the likelihood of experiencing unwanted side effects.
Your pre-workout product should say how often it can safely be taken. However, just because pre-workout can be safely taken before every workout doesn’t mean it should be.
Pre-workouts are designed to give you an extra boost to get through tough workouts. They can help to provide extra energy and increase focus as well as stamina.
As they’re designed for tougher workouts they’re not supposed to be taken all of the time. Like I explained in the last section, taking pre-workouts regularly can lead to tolerance which will make the ingredients feel less effective.
As well as becoming physically dependent on pre-workout, you can also become mentally dependent on it if you take it before every workout. After taking it for a while, sometimes people don’t feel like they can have a good workout without it anymore.
So whilst it may be safe to take pre workout before every workout, this isn’t ideal as it can lead to tolerance and mental dependence.
Limiting your consumption of pre-workout to times when you really need it, meaning during those tough workouts, will mean that you get the most out of your pre-workout. A pre-workout is a supplement so you should never have a dependence on it for training or dieting purposes.
How Often Should You Take Pre-Workout?
To see the best results, it’s best to take pre workout 3 or 4 times a week. This should be done for a month or two before taking a break or cycling to other products, to reduce the risk of becoming tolerant to ingredients like caffeine.
To expand on this some more, how often you should take pre-workouts is often debated. It often comes down to what you’re taking pre-workout for and what kind of ingredients your pre-workout contains.
The reason I recommend taking it 3 to 4 times per week is that pre-workout is designed to help you get through tougher workouts by providing additional energy and focus.
Taking it 3 to 4 times a week then can help you do this without making you prematurely tolerant to the ingredients or hugely increasing the risk of side effects.
However, pre-workout should only be regularly consumed for 4-8 weeks. This is because with regular use your body will become tolerant to the ingredients it contains.
Therefore, it’s recommended that after a few weeks you take a break from pre-workout or change to a different product containing different ingredients (also known as cycling) to allow your tolerance to reset.
Alternatively, you could also consider taking a stimulant-free pre-workout. The stimulant in most pre-workouts (mainly caffeine) is the leading reason why you can build up tolerances or suffer from side effects from using it too frequently.
When you remove these ingredients altogether though, you can feel the mental and pump benefits from a pre-workout with fewer side effects from regular use.
Just note that stim-free pre-workouts are usually less potent so you might not feel the same impact as you would be a heavily stimulated pre-workout.
Summary
Pre-workout is an incredibly addictive supplement and for good reason, people wonder can you take pre-workout everyday safely or not.
While technically you can take pre-workout everyday, it wouldn’t be recommended. Due to the fact that you’ll build up a tolerance and need to increase dosages to have the same effect – which is never a good idea – it’s better to have less of a dependence on a pre-workout.
Therefore, consuming a pre-workout only for days when you are physically/mentally tired or when you are preparing for a heavy or taxing training session would be the best method for maximizing efficiency and minimizing the risk of side effects.
As a compromise, it would be fine to take a stimulant-free pre-workout with greater frequency. These forms of pre-workout will give you mental focus for your session and can still have active pump ingredients without many of the side effects of a regular pre-workout.
If you’re not convinced that you don’t need to take pre-workout everyday then it’s also worth checking out our article on pre-workout addiction to see if any of the points in that as a reason you keep taking it – even when there’s no real benefit in everyday life!
