It is 6:25 on a Monday evening at a bare bones gym in Penndel, called the Warehouse. The name says it all. It has all of the nuts and bolts, without the color-coordinated machinery. In fact, the machines, and most of the weights, don’t match in any way, shape, or form.
This is a “real” man’s gym; not contingent on appearance. There is a lot less grunting and growling than one would expect, but you can still hear the occasional thud coming from one of the members who drops his dumbbells after each set.
The trainer asks the “dumbbell dropper” how his abs are coming along. He lifts his shirt that reads “Coalition Nutrition” to reveal unfathomable rivets that you would only expect a Greek God to have protruding from his gut. Is it possible that this fleshy range of foothills were accomplished “all natural?” Or is there some type of supplement involved in the formation of this biological topography?
Across the street is the source of the concealing shirt. Ben Keller, 25, has been Coalition Nutrition’s operations manager for over a year and he’s been working out for the past seven years.
There has been a lot of talk about steroids over the past decade, but has anyone questioned the legal supplements that are available for bodybuilders?
I wanted to get the scoop (no pun intended) on the trending popularity of pre-workout supplements. They are all pretty much the same; their packaging is the only thing that’s really different.
With names like Cannibal, Angel Dust, God of War, and God of Rage, accompanied by pictures of demonic creatures, it is quite obvious that these supplements are marketed towards the angst-ridden teenager that wants to look buff. But are they safe?
“They do have redeeming qualities, obviously,” says Keller on their best-selling product. These fruit-flavored powder supplements are loaded with caffeine and other stimulants that get your amped up and ready for a workout.
You can expect to get around 95 milligrams of caffeine from your average cup of coffee. Each serving of pre-workout can contain anywhere from 100-300 milligrams of caffeine in a single scoop. “They’re going to give you that next level of motivation,” he says.
The real debate comes into play when discussing the downsides of these supplements. “Anything in abundance… or that you use too much of is going to have a negative effect on your body,” explains Keller. “It depends on how your body responds to the stimulants.”
The ingredient beta-alanine is an amino acid, commonly found in pre-workout supplements, which is known for giving a person the skin tingles, or “face feels” as they call them at Coalition Nutrition. Many people associate the niacin flush-like feeling with a muscle pump. “There is no correlation between that [feeling] and muscle growth,” Keller clarifies.
“Muscle pump” is the term used to refer to the natural swelling your muscles undergo during an intense workout. “’Pump’ is strictly ego,” he says.
Kelly Jones, an assistant professor and registered dietician at Bucks, says that beta-alanine is very easily used for energy in the body, but it is actually more efficient to just eat enough carbohydrates for that energy.
“A lot of people don’t realize that too much of a good thing can be bad,” Jones says. “That skin tingling feeling that you get is actually the body trying to get that out as soon as possible.”
They call that feeling a “flush” since the body’s reaction is to get rid of any excess intake of supplements.
“There is actually no research supporting that [beta-alanine] increases your power during a workout,” Jones explains. “Supplement companies know that if you get that feeling then you think that what you purchased is doing something for your workout and that’s why they keep using it.”
The only ingredients in pre-workout that are proven to be beneficial to lifters are the caffeine and creatine.
“Caffeine, itself, is researched, in certain dosages, to actually reduce your rate of perceived exertion,” says Jones.
A 2012 study posted in the Journal of Strength Conditioning and Resistance found that men who took caffeine supplements were able to do heavier lifting at greater weights than men who were given a placebo.
The other valuable ingredient found in many pre-workout supplements is creatine. Creatine monohydrate is the only form of creatine proven to have an effect on the body, but only in about 50 percent of people.
“Creatine can help you to do really high intensity activities for a little bit longer, but still the most its ever going to last in your body is like 18 seconds,” Jones estimates. Creatine is actually produced in the body and a person can get it from eating red meats and fish.
“The effect that you’d be getting for the amount of money that people are spending on these things is so minimal,” she says.
Pre-workouts like C4 and Jack3d have been known to include an illegal stimulant, DMAA, similar to Ephedrine, which will cause the consumer to fail drug tests.
“Supplements are so poorly regulated that you never know what you’re getting,” Jones says.
Just last year, she learned that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency estimates that about 40 percent of all pre-workout and protein supplements contain anabolic steroids and prescription drugs.
Forester Somsanith, 19, exercise science major, shares a similar view to Jones’. He believes that preworkout supplements is a waste of money and that you should get your caffeine and creatine from other sources.
“I don’t really like any of the other things that they put in preworkout,” says Somsanith. He speaks from experience having used pre-workouts throughout high school. Even though all of his friends still use pre-workouts, “I don’t think that it really benefits you,” Somsanith says.
Johnny Cohen, a 22-year-old communications major, is an avid user of preworkout. “It always gets me pumped up and ready for a workout,” he says.
“You lift more reps, you’re doing more pushups, and hitting the bag harder,” Cohen describes. “I never got that experience prior.”
Cohen is definitely right about one thing: “There is a constant jabber about what is and what isn’t beneficial to your workout plan.”
Although views of preworkout vary from person to person, everyone apparently agrees that these supplements are being marketed towards the younger generation.
Somsanith describes the packaging as having “big bright labels with caution [signs]… to make it seem like it’s dangerous or something. Like it’s ungodly almost,” he says.
Jones says that the labels have pictures of stuff that kids might see in video games. She believes that it is a brainwashing technique.
Jones says, “You’ll see little kids running around in a ‘Monster’ t-shirt that fits them perfectly when they’re five years old.”
“Marketing is everything.” says Keller.
He explains the average consumers’ assumptions, “If it looks hardcore, then it’s gotta be hardcore.”
Supplements are not FDA regulated or monitored by any other government agencies.
“I wish that these things were regulated more than cigarettes, to be honest with you, because of the harmful effects they can have on the body so quickly,” says Jones.
While they say that they’re only to be consumed by “adults 18 years of age or older,” there is no laws requiring verification of age for the purchase of these items. Keller assures us that they use cautious discretion when suggesting and selling their products. I have no reason to doubt this claim, since I was carefully warned about the perspiration to be caused by the ingredients in one of my previous purchases, Cardio Igniter.
“They’re not for everyone,” Keller says.
Preworkout supplements appear to be nothing more than a quick way to get a little push in a fast-paced world. They are the energy drinks of the gym. The 5 Hour Energy of the bodybuilding world. “It is not a necessity,” he says. “It is more of a luxury for sure.”