How to Get Pre Workout Out of Your System

Pre-workout supplements make you feel energized and motivated to do some workouts. However, they also affect your natural circadian rhythm. This affects your sleeping pattern and lifestyle. You should know how to get pre-workout out of your system for the short and long term.

How to Get Pre Workout Out of Your System 

You have two options to get pre-workout out of your system without affecting your diet and lifestyle. If you want to focus on the short term, getting rid of the compounds before your body absorbs them prioritizes first. 

If you want to go for the long term, cutting back on how much pre-workout you take and gradually remove your dependence on it. You can also drink lots of water to quickly urinate it out of your system. 

Woman trying to get her pre workout supplements out of her system by drinking water

Other than that, all you have to do is wait it out until the effect wears off. Short term solutions include forcing yourself to vomit or eat greasy food. Both options aren’t great if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle

Factors that Affect Pre Workout

  • Dehydration: water-primarily drives pre-workout supplements into your body. If you’re dehydrated, the effects won’t be as effective.
  • Malnutrition: if you’re not eating the right foods, supplements won’t have that much effect on you.
  • Over-eating: your body won’t absorb the supplements effectively because there are a lot more nutrients that your body needs to process.  
  • Fatigue: Never over-exercise and get some quality rest. Fatigue causes counterproductivity and even pre-workout supplements can’t help with that. 
  • Tolerance: you need to know what you are taking in. You may be allergic to it or too much of it may be dangerous for you. 
  • Alcohol: taking in alcohol along with your supplements is bad for your liver and is unhealthy.

You gradually gain resistance from the effects of supplements. If you want to maintain the effects, you should cycle your supplements so that your body won’t get used to it.  

How Long Does Pre Workout Normally Last?

The effects of pre-workout supplements usually last between 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours. If your supplement contains caffeine, you may feel the effect as early as 45 minutes from intake until 4 hours. 

Your body processes the pre-workout supplements through your liver and kidneys and has a similar time to how long the effects last. You get increased mental focus and energy boost when your body absorbs the nutrients.

If you consume too many pre-workout supplements, you may feel some lingering symptoms even after 2.5 hours. You may feel one or more of the following if you took too many pre-workout supplements:

Pre workout supplements
  • Anxiety
  • Jitters
  • Cramps
  • Vomiting
  • Skin tingling for more than an hour
  • Chest pain
  • High blood pressure

Why You Should Drink Lots of Water

If you feel uncomfortable with the pre-workout supplement you’ve taken, you want it out of your body immediately. You can’t eliminate the effects it does on your body. However, you can lessen the time it affects your body. 

You need to drink lots of water that helps move the compounds as fast as possible in your body. It also dilutes the supplement. Water won’t help with getting rid of caffeine but it will have an effect on other compounds. 

Drink until your urine gives off a clear color. You’ll notice that the pre-workout effects have worn off or less in frequency and intensity. 

What Are the Alternatives to Pre-Workout Supplements?

If you want to stop your dependency on pre-workout supplements, you can follow other alternatives that give you the same effect. You can get an energy boost and mental enhancement in other ways aside from pre-workout supplements. 

You can try following this on your lifestyle:

  • Maintain a healthy sleep cycle: sleeping 6-8 hours every day ensures you get fully charged to start the day and have spare energy to do some workouts. 
  • Stretch daily: stretching your muscles lessens the fatigue you get from working them out. You also help loosen up the muscles so you won’t get cramps during a workout. 
  • Stay hydrated: When you work out, you lose bodily fluids. That’s why staying hydrated helps you maintain your energy level. 
  • Avoid junk food: junk food contains a lot of calories that you would have to work a lot to burn. It also makes your body unmotivated to work out. 
  • Maintain a healthy diet: eating the right food will give you enough nutrients that you won’t even have to rely on pre-workout supplements. 
Woman preparing a healthy breakfast

Following this type of lifestyle, you won’t have to rely on pre-workout supplements. You also don’t have to worry about adding unfamiliar compounds to your body and rely on the natural and capabilities of your body. 

What If I Don’t Want to Stop Taking Pre-Workout?

Pre-workout supplements do amazingly good in boosting your body for a productive workout. You don’t want to stop getting that effect and it’s understandable. 

You can continue taking pre-workout supplements as long as you do it safely. You can follow these tips so that you won’t have any problems taking pre-workout supplements:

  • Only take the recommended dosage of every pre-workout supplement you plan to take. Going over the recommended dosage won’t give you better effect but instead, cause harm to your body. 
  • Don’t take it every day. It might lead to addiction. Also, constantly taking it would not benefit you. Your body gains resistance to foreign compounds over time. The effects you get from it will lessen. That’s why only take pre-workout supplements every once in a while. 
  • Be mindful of what you ingest. You might have gone over your caffeine limit and cause heart palpitations. Monitor what you take or better yet, consult your doctor before taking pre-workout supplements. 
  • If you think the effects of pre-workout supplements don’t help you, consult your workout trainer. Your trainer will give you a workout lifestyle routine that fits your needs. 
  • If you want to get a good night of sleep, don’t take your pre-workout supplements when you’re close to going to bed. 

Conclusion

That’s how you can get pre-workout out of your system. Taking a good amount of water minimizes the effect and flushes out the solution to lessen the time pre-workout effects do to your body. Conditioning your body to not rely on pre-workout supplements would be your best choice but it’s all up to you what fits your lifestyle.

Robert Lemus has been a natural competitor for 6 years, starting in Men’s Physique, then Bodybuilding, and then into Classic Physique. He is the Orange County Bodybuilding champion in 2016 for the Musclemania Organization. In 2018, he received his Pro Card with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in Classic Physique.