The Science Behind Pre-Workout Supplement: Beachbody Performance Energize
Whether your goal is to improve overall health, lose weight, gain muscle, become stronger, or perform better, nothing will beat an exercise program and a healthy well-balanced diet.
That said, select supplements taken at the appropriate doses, in the appropriate forms, and at the appropriate times have been shown to provide additional benefit.
You can find a lot of different pre-workout drinks at Walmart, Costco, Target, GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, Online….and so many more places!
Which one should you choose?
I’d definitely suggest trying a few and really giving them your own personal trial and test. But something to consider before you go out and start buying a bunch is: what are the ingredients as well as what is your goal?
From my years in the fitness industry and experience, I can tell you most of the powders you will find in the above locations I listed, are full of preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fillers, and fabricated powders.
These powders HAVE to have a shelf life, since many sit in a back room of a store in stock.
I have tried MANY. I am aligned up with the health and fitness company Team Beachbody as a Coach, but that doesn’t mean I’d only support and use their product line. There are other products I do not use because I have other company’s products that I would prefer.
Do I use Team Beachbody’s Pre-Workout Drink Energize?
Yes. I have chosen this product because of years experience using the other products on the market. Some, you surely can taste the artificial creation of this sort of product.
It is my goal to accelerate my growth in my health and fitness gains, and prefer to use a product that is natural and has proven independent studies backing up the science of WHY it works.
Additionally, as a fitness professional with over 25 years of experience, I feel it’s my responsibility to make better choices as an example in the health and fitness industry.
What is in Beachbody’s Performance Line, Pre-Workout Energize? Why does it work?
They combined three key ingredients (beta-alanine, caffeine, and quercetin), individually shown to help boost energy, enhance exercise performance, or delay fatigue (or all three).
These ingredients have been researched for years (decades even), but they weren’t content to simply rely on previous studies of individual ingredients.
They wanted to test the effects of Energize itself. So they teamed up with sports nutrition experts at the University of Exeter, in England, to measure the effects of Energize on exercise performance and perceived effort in a study of 14 male and female cyclists.
The Beachbody Performance Energize Study
The Energize study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study — the gold standard design for clinical trials of this kind.
“Placebo-controlled” means that they tested the effects of Energize against a taste, color, and calorie-matched placebo. (In other words, it looked and tasted like the real thing, but lacked the active ingredients.)
“Cross-over” means that they tested Energize and the placebo in the same study participants on different days.
“Randomized and double-blind” means that the drinks were tested in random order (i.e., some participants received the placebo first, while others received Energize first), and that neither the study participants nor the researchers knew which drink was administered until the study was completed.
Study participants completed four testing visits, each of which was separated by at least one week. To minimize interference from prior food and beverage consumption, participants were asked to fast overnight prior to all visits. During each visit, the participants:
- Consumed one study beverage (Energize or placebo) and then rested for 30 minutes.
- Consumed a second study beverage (Energize or placebo) and then completed 30 minutes of vigorous steady-state cycling.
- Consumed a third study beverage (Energize or placebo) and then completed a 15-minute exercise performance test known as a cycling time trial.
During the 30 minutes of steady-state cycling, participants exercised at 80 percent of their VO2 max (i.e., maximum aerobic capacity).
At 10-minute intervals, perceived exertion (i.e., how hard the participants felt they were working) was evaluated using the Borg Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale.
The scale ranges from six to 20 with six corresponding to little or no effort (e.g., resting comfortably) and 20 corresponding to maximum effort (e.g., sprinting up a steep hill).
Exercise performance was assessed during the cycling time trial, when participants were instructed to cycle as hard as they could for 15 minutes while the researchers recorded their power output and total work done.
Beachbody Performance Energize Study Findings
When the study participants consumed Beachbody Performance Energize 30 minutes before steady-state cycling, their RPE was significantly lower than when they consumed the placebo.
In other words, even though they were exercising at the same intensity, they reported that exercise felt easier after consuming Energize.
During the cycling time trial, participants’ exercise performance was roughly 5 percent greater
when they consumed Energize 60 minutes prior to the test than when they consumed the placebo.
That is to say, the study participants were able to perform more work in the same amount of time when they consumed Energize.
For elite athletes, a 5 percent improvement in performance can mean the difference between winning an event and not even placing.
For the rest of us, it can mean being able to push harder during a workout, and working out harder can simply mean burning more calories and working more effectively toward our goals.
Practical Recommendations
Collectively, their findings indicate that consuming Beachbody Performance Energize roughly 30 minutes before most workouts (or 60 minutes before all-out efforts) can
- help improve exercise performance
- boost power output
- increase total work done
- reduce perceived effort.
For more information on Beachbody’s Performance Energize, check out Beachbody Performance Energize.
Beachbody Performance Energize uses a synergistic blend of three key ingredients—beta alanine, quercetin, and caffeine—to delay exercise-induced fatigue and boost energy, focus, power, and athletic performance. But don’t just take our word for it.
Dr. Marcus Elliot, founder of the Peak Performance Project (P3), explains to Beachbody President and CMO Jon Congdon how it has enhanced the training of some of the country’s top athletes at his applied sports science facility in Santa Barbara, California.