Pre-Workout Powders Are Gaining Popularity. Do They Work?

If you’ve trained your social-media algorithms to serve you even a little bit of fitness content, scrolling your TikTok feed might feel like wandering the aisles of a vitamin store. Workout vlogs often feature a prominently displayed tub of something called pre-workout powder: Just mix a scoop into a glass of water, down it before exercising, and you’ll instantly become more efficient and energized during your workout. That’s the hoped-for benefit, anyway. The reality is more of a gamble. “Pre-workout,” a packaged powder that contains at least a dozen supplements—and usually more—started as a DIY obsession among bodybuilders and weightlifters in the early 2000s. “There were really only a couple that were on the market at that time,” says Andrew Jagim, director of sports medicine research at the Mayo Clinic Health System who has studied pre-workout supplements. “And then, by 2010, you instantly had probably hundreds of pre-workout supplement brands on the market.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Now, social-media platforms—mostly TikTok, where fitness “journeys” often include regular updates about what people are consuming—have helped these reach more mainstream audiences and explode in popularity. The pandemic pushed things along; when COVID-19 shut down gyms and dismantled workout routines, pre-workout powders looked to many like an easy way to stay fit. What’s in ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Diet & Nutrition healthscienceclimate Source Type: news