I’ve been working hard on getting back into the swing of things, and wanted to share a pre-workout blend that we sometimes use. Getting this in on a day when you aren’t feeling as much ‘pep’ is definitely a way you can subtly encourage yourself to get moving. You’ll feel more alert and pumped, more ready to work out, and the right pre-workout has some great benefits during your workout as well. 

A good pre-workout supplement can help you feel a little more ready for the workout if you aren’t feeling as motivated that day.

Now, I know not everyone likes pre-workouts, so why do we use this? There are a couple of reasons: 

  1. As mentioned earlier, it can help your motivation
  2. The right pre-workout or blend will help you perform and feel better during the workout.
  3. The right pre-workout can help improve your post-exercise gains – in other words it can help encourage your body to create a better physiological adaptation.

Let’s talk a little more about each of these. 

First, motivation – A good pre-workout supplement can help you feel a little more ready for the workout if you aren’t feeling as motivated that day. Perhaps we could say it ‘enhances your discipline’. When getting in the gym and lifting weights seems just a little too much, mixing up a quick drink isn’t as big a challenge, and once you feel it kicking in you’ll be much more likely to get that workout in too!

It really can help you attack the workout better too! There are a lot of mixes out there and some have a great list of ingredients a page long, but you don’t need all that. Just a few simple ingredients will help you perform and feel better. 

  • Caffeine is in most shakes but you don’t need hundreds of milligrams of caffeine, just as much as a small cup of coffee (which you can chug to get the benefits of caffeine without the shake). We all know how caffeine can help you feel energized, but it also blunts pain in your muscles while exercising, improves endurance, helps you focus, and burns fat! Just be careful about taking this for any evening workouts or your sleep and recovery will suffer.
  • Arginine is another key component. It’s a nitrous oxide precursor and a vaso-dilater. That means it helps your blood vessels expand in size to allow better bloodflow. This is the same system referred to if you’ve ever heard someone say “breathe through your nose” to relax or get better airflow. Your sinuses release nitrous oxide into your air, which gets into your bloodstream, and helps decrease blood pressure and inflammation. When you take arginine it boosts the amount of NO in your system and you can really feel that in your system. Remember – blood is what brings energy to your cells and takes wastes away, so the better your bloodflow, the better your workout and recovery!
  • Caffeine and arginine are the two heavy hitters, and you really could just mix some arginine into a small cup of coffee and hit the gym. I have to mention creatine here as well. It’s one of the most well-researched and effective performance supplements, but since I donated a kidney, it’s recommended that I stay away from supplemental creatine. Your kidneys need to process it and the extra load puts too much stress for one kidney. Jo doesn’t take it either because of one of the more common side effects – it makes her sick to her stomach. If you can tolerate creatine it can be a very effective performance enhancer and has a host of other benefits, but you do need to take it every day. 
  • There are a few other things that can help too, and then we’ll share our specific recommendations for ready to go preworkout blends.
  • First in the “other helpers” category is sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda! In numerous studies, orally consumed baking soda reduced the effects of lactic acid in muscles. In other words, it helps buffer the effects of that ‘burn’ that builds up while you are working out. 
  • Citrulline shows up in many workout blends and it’s there to increase the effectiveness of arginine. This is a simple supplement that helps ensure any arginine you are taking actually makes it into your bloodstream. 
  • Some blends even include BCAA’s – these amino acids are necessary for your body to build muscle, and help provide essential nutrients that may stave off muscle breakdown during a workout. While a protein shake is better for that purpose, BCAA blends are lighter on the stomach than a full shake, which you can always consume when the workout is done. BCAAs can help improve recovery and enhance performance!
  • Finally there are a number of other lactic acid buffers or endurance enhancers that may help you have a more effective workout such as beta-alanine or l-carnitine. We tried adding beta alanine for a while but while Matt Fraser might swear by it, we felt pretty rough on it so stopped adding this one.

Now why would these things help post-workout gains? Simply put, if you have more energy, can put more into your workout, can lift a little more because the caffeine has pumped you up or get an extra rep because that lactic acid burn isn’t quite as bad – then you’ve DONE MORE WORK. You get more work in safely, you get the rest and nutrition for your body to rebuild, and it will be that much stronger next time. Even if it’s just 1% better, that 1% each workout compounds every time. 

No one wants to go and put together 10 different powders every workout, so what do we suggest for ready-to-go preworkout drinks? We have two main suggestions for you, and we do add arginine to each of them. One contains more caffeine and is for earlier workouts, anything before 3 or 4 pm, while the other is for later workouts. Unlike many others, these are also sweetened with stevia or monkfruit rather than sugar or some artificial sweetener. 


1. SFH Push is a fantastic blend for use earlier in the day. With 115mg of caffeine, one scoop is about the strength of a strong cup of coffee. It has electrolytes, BCAAs, and a few things like citrulline and beta-alanine to help blood flow and muscular endurance. We’d like to see arginine added to the list, so we add a scoop of arginine in when we use this one. 

2. Then, for evening workouts, we’ve got Jocko’s Discipline powder. This has just a tiny bit of caffeine via 15mg of  white tea leaf powder – it’s just enough to clear some cobwebs without keeping you up all night. It also includes electrolytes and sodium bicarbonate as a lactic acid buffer. While it has citrulline and carnitine as well, it’s also missing arginine so we add a scoop here too. Finally, and this is interesting, it has a blend of adaptogenic herbs that can help your body adapt to stress and even improve your mood, helping you get your workout in. Finally, a dose of theanine helps keep the mind focused. 

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