You’d forgiven for thinking that pre-workouts and energy drinks are similar. Both products are designed to offer energy boosts to help get you through your day.
But here’s the big difference – pre workout supplements are formulated specifically to improve your gym sessions.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What Are Pre Workout Supplements?
- Difference between Pre Workouts and Energy Drinks
- Conclusion
What Are Pre Workout Supplements?
These supplements are pretty self-explanatory. You consume pre workouts typically around 20-30 minutes before your gym session.
Why?
The best pre workout supplements contain ingredients that take effect within this short time-frame, so you feel immediate benefits.
You’ll experience benefits such as:
- Increased Energy – Never feel tired before or during your workout again.
- Improved Strength – Feel confident breaking your PB and make more progress on your physique.
- Enhanced Endurance – Perform at peak levels to train harder for longer.
- More Focus – Form stronger mind-muscle-connection to make the most of your workout.
Ultimately, pre workouts will help you reach your fitness goals faster – whether you’re aiming to lose body fat, or pack-on muscle mass.
Difference Between Pre Workouts and Energy Drinks
There’s a big reason why supplement companies spend years formulating pre workouts – to ensure that you experience benefits without any side effects.
For this reason, 4 Gauge has been extensively researched; only the best ingredients proven to be safe and effective have been added into our product.
As we’ve mentioned, pre workout supplements are specialized products – designed to improve your gym session and help you progress on your fitness goals.
Consequently, you wouldn’t normally consume these products while performing daily activities (although it would be more beneficial to drink a pre workout than an energy drink in general).
Why can’t I just use energy drinks before a workout?
The biggest issue with energy drinks is that they usually contain HUGE amounts of sugar.
This is actually counteractive, as it results in an insulin spike – leading to an energy crash, leaving you feeling exhausted after an hour [1].
The RDA (recommended daily allowance) for sugar is:
- 37.5g for men
- 25g for women
Energy drinks typically contain 27g of sugar per serving, which is above the limit for women – men would have to carefully watch their sugar intake after consuming one can.
As a result, these products become bad for your health [2]. Consuming too much sugar can result in:
- Increased body fat
- Elevated blood sugar levels
- Decreased HDL
- Increased LDL
- High Blood Pressure
- Increased risk of diabetes
How About Sugar-Free Energy Drinks?
After reading the bad news about sugar content in energy drinks, you might be thinking – ‘are sugar-free energy drinks safe?’.
The answer is…not really.
Even without it’s high sugar levels, most energy drinks still contain high doses of stimulants – especially when people consume more than one in a short amount of time.
Here’s why sugar-free energy drinks are bad for you:
Huge amounts of stimulants
Almost all energy drinks contain both caffeine and guarana, which are both stimulants. It’s known that healthy people can tolerate caffeine in moderation – in fact, optimal dosages of caffeine (below 200mg per serving) have shown to be very beneficial to your gym sessions [3].
The caffeine content in energy drinks range from 80mg-150mg, which wouldn’t be bad if this was the only stimulant in these products.
However, the problems start when guarana is added into the mix. Simply put, Guarana contains high amounts of a caffeine-compound called guaranine – 1g of this stimulant is equal to 47mg of caffeine [4].
As a result, guarana takes you over the safe limit for caffeine consumption per serving. This can result in side effects such as [5]:
- Jitters
- Energy Crashes
Ultimately, these side effects will prevent you from performing at your best in the gym – and reaching your fitness goals.
Artificial Sweeteners
When energy companies create sugar-free energy drinks, they have to resort to alternatives; the most popular and cost-effective option being artificial sweeteners.
Why?
Answer: Because taste is an important aspect of energy drinks – simply put, if it tastes bad, less people will buy it. Artificial sweeteners are seen as the perfect replacement, as they’re 200x sweeter than sugar [6]
The most popular artificial sweeteners in energy drinks are:
- Sucrose
- Aspartame
However, artificial sweeteners aren’t the best replacement for sugar; they might cut down the calorie (and obviously sugar) content of a product, but they create new problems themselves.
Here’s the side effects from consuming artificial sweeteners [7]:
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Diarrhea
- Stomach Cramps
- Increased risk of cancer [8]
Conclusion
There are a number of problems with energy drinks, which make them unsafe for regular consumption – the main issues being the high amount of stimulants, high amount of sugar or inclusion of artificial sweeteners.
There’s no competition when comparing the use of pre workout supplements and energy drinks when aiming to improve your gym session.
It’s important to remember that pre workouts are specifically designed to boost your performance during exercise – while energy drinks are meant to deliver a short spike in energy (which inevitably results in energy crashes).
4 Gauge
For this reason, 4 Gauge has been extensively researched to provide you with key benefits such as: 
- Explosive Power – Form stronger mind-muscle-connection to make the most of every rep.
- Laser Focus – Concentrate of your session without any distractions from the outside world.
- Extended Stamina – Be more productive in your workouts by performing at your peak for longer.
- Incredible Muscle Pumps – Experience skin-splitting pumps by looking thicker and tighter.
References
- Brenda M. M. A survey of energy drink consumption patterns among college students. Nutrition Journal 2007 Apr 26; 10.1186/1475-2891-6-35.
- Ahmed A. A. Energy Drink Consumption: Beneficial and Adverse Health Effects. Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2015 Oct; 9(4): 468–474.
- Sara M. S. Health Effects of Energy Drinks on Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults. Pediatrics. 2011 Mar; 127(3): 511–528.
- John P. H. Energy Beverages: Content and Safety. Mayo Clin Proc. 2010 Nov; 85(11): 1033–1041.
- Flávia C. S. Guarana: Revisiting a highly caffeinated plant from the Amazon. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. Volume 150, Issue 1, 28 October 2013, Pages 14–31.
- Kirtida R. T. Sugar substitutes: Health controversy over perceived benefits. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2011 Oct-Dec; 2(4): 236–243.
- Christina R. W. The Potential Toxicity of Artificial Sweeteners. Sage Journals; Vol 56, Issue 6, 2008.
- Weihrauch M. R. Artificial Sweeteners – do they bear a carcinogenic risk? Ann Oncol (2004) 15 (10): 1460-1465.