Your own effective and affordable pre-workout supplement.

Dozens of pre-workout supplements and you don't know which one to choose.

You look at the ingredients and you get even more confused.

Some work, others not at all.

We decided to develop a formula to create your own homemade pre-workout supplement.

This combination aims to be simple, effective, economical and versatile.

It had to be useful regardless of the objective, be it gaining muscle mass, losing fat or achieving better sports performance.

We only selected four ingredients, so don't worry, you won't need any laboratory, the kitchen will do.

But first of all, why create your own pre-workout?

3 reasons to create your own home pre-workout

Choose ingredients that work

While in the case of a pre-workout supplement you are subject to the ingredients used by the brand, when creating your own, you decide the ingredients.

This means that you can leave aside the ingredients that don't interest you, and only use those that are truly effective and that suit your goals.

Furthermore, it is much easier to discover those that work for you, and those that don't.

You can adapt the doses to suit you

When opting for a ready-made pre-workout, you are subject to the doses used by the brand, and these are often not the best.

If the supplement you purchased only has 2.5g of Citrulline per dose, and you decide to increase it to two doses to have the ideal amount, you will increase all the other ingredients.

In most cases this means two things.

That the supplement will run out quickly, and that you will have an excessive dose of Caffeine.

Furthermore, you can adapt not only the dose, but also the ingredients to be used.

For example, if you have days where you train at night, you can (and should) easily remove the caffeine from your pre-workout, and keep the rest that doesn't affect your sleep.

Workout in the morning the next day?

Just add Caffeine, in the ideal dose for you.

Cheaper

Finally, your home pre-workout is more economical than any of the pre-workouts on the market.

You will rarely find a supplement that uses the right ingredients, in the right doses, at a price that is comparable to buying the ingredients individually.

You will be able to confirm this below.

The four ingredients

Now that you have some reasons to create your own homemade pre-workout, it's time to move on to the ingredients to use.

Here are four suggestions for you to use before training.

Caffeine

We start with the most well-known and obvious ingredient, Caffeine.

Caffeine is found mainly in coffee and has a stimulating effect.

It is the main energetic ingredient in this formula, and will allow you to get more performance out of your training.

It also has a slight thermogenic effect, which will lead you to burn more fat if that is your goal.

As for the dose to use, if you don't drink coffee, choose to start with 100mg, if you are already used to using coffee, use between 150mg and 200mg of Caffeine.

You can, of course, use coffee as your source of caffeine.

The ideal is to adjust the dose according to your sensitivity to Caffeine.

Tyrosine

Tyrosine is an amino acid naturally present in foods, and is currently extremely common in pre-workout supplements.

Why?

Tyrosine makes an excellent synergy with Caffeine, and increases its positive effects.

You can train with greater concentration and energy, and thus get more out of training.

Use 1g to start, and if it's not enough, go up to 2g.

You have it here some more information about Tyrosine.

Citrulline

If you read our guide on Citrulline, you already know what you're doing here.

It is an ingredient present in almost all pre-workouts on the market, but unfortunately, few use an effective dose.

This amino acid will reduce fatigue and improve your training performance, allowing for more sets, repetitions and loads.

Furthermore, it will also reduce post-workout pain and increase vasodilation.

Use between 6g and 8g in the form of Citrulline Malate or between 3g and 5g if you choose L-Citrulline.

Prepare yourself not only for more intense workouts, but also for a much more obvious pump.

To learn more about Citrulline, see here our guide on this amino acid.

Beta-Alanine

Finally, Beta-Alanine.

This supplement improves your performance in the gym, and therefore, you will achieve more repetitions, more sets and consequently better results.

If you are in the fat loss phase, Beta-Alanine is very good for increasing resistance in cardio training.

This supplement, unlike Caffeine and Citrulline, should be taken every day and not just pre-workout, and the dose should be between 2g and 5g daily.

Start with the smallest dose, and divide it into two doses, as higher doses taken at once usually cause the famous tingling, which although harmless, is unnecessary.

Here is a complete article about Beta-Alanine.

Pricing

The formula is simple, with just four ingredients, and all of them effective.

It now remains to be seen whether the objective of creating a pre-workout that is not only effective, but also economical, has been achieved.

We used the values practiced by Myprotein for these supplements, without discounts, to calculate the price of this formula.

The weekly value of this combination if you train four times a week is 3.23? and monthly you get around 13?.

Yes, your homemade pre-workout supplement will only cost you 3.23? weekly, less than a Happy Meal at McDonalds.

This includes 200mg of caffeine per workout, 1g of tyrosine per workout, 6g of Citrulline Malate per workout and 2.5g of Beta-Alanine daily.

That is, the recommended doses for each of the ingredients.

Products used for the calculation

Caffeine

Tyrosine

Citrulline

Beta-Alanine

What to expect from this formula?

This combination of ingredients is intended above all to improve your training performance.

You will feel more energy, concentration, resistance and strength.

You'll notice a more pronounced pump and the loads you used last week will feel lighter.

Now, you need to make an effort in training, and take advantage of this combination.

None of these ingredients will give you muscle mass if you don't do it.

By achieving better training, more intense and with higher loads, you will have better results.

This is what this pre-workout will do for you, give you better workouts.

So what about Creatine?!

Creatine could have been included, but it wasn't.

Why?

Firstly, because it is more advantageous to use it post-workout and not pre-workout, especially in the short/medium term.

Secondly, because during the fat loss phase, fluid retention caused by creatine can be unpleasant, especially in people more susceptible to this type of effect.

Does this mean that Creatine is bad?

No.

If you're trying to gain muscle mass, Creatine is probably the best supplement you can use, so adding 5g after training is a good idea.

Here you will find our complete guide to Creatine.

Conclusion

As promised at the beginning of the article, the formula is simple, economical and there are several studies proving the effectiveness of all the ingredients.

Attention, effective does not mean miraculous.

If you do 60kg of flat bench press today, you won't move up to 100kg of bench press tomorrow.

It can be used at any stage you are in, and they are safe ingredients, as long as you respect the recommended doses.

You can obviously add more ingredients, if you feel necessary, or remove them, if you want something more basic.

Oh, and of course, don't forget the most important thing.

Training, diet and rest.

Only then comes supplementation.

Would you add any ingredients to this formula? Tell us which one in the comments below.