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People who don’t enjoy the gym don’t understand the way exercise quiets your brain. When you’re lifting weights, you have no choice but to focus on what’s directly in front of you. Either you complete your movement or drop forty-five pounds of iron on your face.
For me, even preparing for the gym is calming. I’ll come back from class in a whirlwind of agitation– and I’m sure anyone who sees me during that time would laugh. My phone’s blowing up: sorority business, club meetings, emails. There’s an exam I bombed in my backpack, and across the lake, a townie kid is screaming at the top of her lungs. I nearly trip on the stairs to my house.
But by the time I’m scooping my preworkout in the kitchen, that’s all long gone. For one hour, six days a week, I don’t have to think about anything but the feel of a barbell in my hands.
I’m not necessarily alone in this feeling: between scientific advancements and social media, gym culture is now more popular than ever. With this comes a rise in supplement use– synthetic vitamins and chemicals meant to enhance your workout experience.
Among the most popular supplements for gym-goers are preworkouts. If you’re unaware of how pre works, think of it as an energy-boosting Kool-Aid mix. Chances are, though, you’ve at least heard of it– because in 2023, the global industry was valued at over $19 billion.
Unfortunately for gym-goers, synthetic preworkout is anything but carbon neutral. Most of the ingredients in pre are amino acids. These chemicals occur naturally in the body; however, in supplemental form, must be produced via chemical processing. Production is energy-intensive and factory waste can pollute environments and even create biohazards. The vast majority of chemical processing plants in America run on fossil fuels, and they are responsible for close to 20% of the country’s GHG emissions (“Ammonia Production”).
Most preworkouts contain these 5 synthetically-produced amino acids: beta-alanine, anhydrous caffeine, citrulline, tyrosine, taurine, and creatine monohydrate. Whether it’s blocking the receptors in your brain responsible for fatigue or increasing oxygen delivery to your muscles, each and every one enhances performance. Chemical production processes for each and every one of these chemicals requires “high temperatures and pressures”– in other words, they’re extremely energy-intensive. (“Advances in the synthesis of β-alanine.”)
The waste from these processes can also be hazardous. Creatine phosphate turns to creatinine (a natural waste product) in the body, but creatine monohydrate has to be burned to be disposed of. This process of burning actually releases hazardous chemicals, which can affect both workers and the environment.
All of these supplements are helpful– even essential– to anyone who goes to the gym on a daily basis. But between the chemicals, dye, flavoring, and plastic packaging of preworkout, it’s entirely unsustainable. On top of this, pre can actually expire, becoming less effective the longer it sits. Its shelf life is only about a year, and once opened, it is generally recommended to use within 6 months.
Worse, the environmental impacts of the industry have yet to fully be studied. In fact, preworkout is so new that its effect on the body isn’t fully known. The amount of caffeine per scoop typically ranges between 150-300mg, and there’s a common idea among hardcore gym-goers of “double-scooping” or even combining it with an energy drink. The effects of this intake, along with a cocktail of chemical powders, have not been studied longitudinally.
But if the entire industry is an environmental and public health risk, why buy into it? Some ideas to supplement are black tea or coffee and a “quick carb”– a slice of toast, a banana, or another light source of energy. Better yet, endeavor to eat clean. All of these amino acids are either already in your body or can be found in whole foods.
Easier said than done, right? How am I, for example, supposed to eat healthily? I’m in the PDen so often the workers know me by name. Why go to the dining hall when I have literal energy in a carton? I argue sustainability is not just about the environment– it’s about a lifestyle that you are able to support. And personally, preworkout significantly enhances my gym experience.
But the purpose of this article is to bring awareness to the preworkout industry, which is the first step to solving the problem. Choosing to opt out of synthetic preworkout is a solution, but at the root, consumers are not to blame. It’s the companies mass-producing it.
At the end of the day, it’s okay to stick with synthetic preworkout. But when a plume of smoke rises out of the tub as you open it, keep in mind its artificiality and remember that just because it’s the easiest way to get energy, it might not be the best.
Works Cited
“Global Pre-Workout Supplements Market.” Yahoo Finance, 16 Oct. 2023, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-pre-workout-supplements-market-180000537.html.
“Ammonia Production.” Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Department of Energy, 2001, https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/773773.
“Advances in the synthesis of β-alanine.” National Library of Medicine, 2023. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10639138/.