How To Quit Pre-Workout Supplements
Millions of people around the world take pre-workout supplements for a fast and easy energy boost before hitting the gym. When used properly, they can be a useful tool to jump start your workout with a surge of caffeine-fueled energy. However, the long-term health effects of using pre-workout on a regular basis are largely unknown- and once you're on it, it's easy to get addicted, especially if your pre-workout supplement of choice contains a high dosage of caffeine. Many people who regularly consume caffeinated pre-workout become physically addicted to that caffeine, which often leads to debilitating withdrawal symptoms like headaches, fatigue, “brain fog” and more when trying to quit.
What Makes Pre-Workout So Hard To Quit?
Many pre-workout supplements can contain up to 400mg of caffeine in a single serving- that's more caffeine than 4 average-sized cups of coffee. Caffeine is a physically addictive substance, meaning that regular use causes the body to become dependent on it to function normally. When caffeine is suddenly cut out of a person’s diet, withdrawal symptoms often start to set in within just a few hours, and can last for days or even weeks.
Quitting Cold Turkey
Quitting preworkout cold turkey is the most obvious and straightforward method, but it’s also usually the riskiest. Many people find that they’re unable to work out, concentrate, or socialize while experiencing the strong withdrawal symptoms that come with quitting cold turkey. In addition, being in physical pain because of a lack of pre-workout gives users an incentive to have “just one” scoop or can of pre-workout (which often turns into multiple, putting them right back to square one).
Gradually Consuming Less Pre-Workout
Tapering is a widely-accepted method to quit virtually any physically addictive substance. It works by progressively reducing the concentration of the substance (in this case, caffeine) in the body, giving the brain time to adjust to its new conditions. Unfortunately, consuming less pre-workout is not the best way to taper off caffeine, because each serving can contain varying concentrations of caffeine- meaning that users can inadvertently take too much, or too little, caffeine on a certain day, exacerbating withdrawal symptoms.
Using a Caffeine Quitting Aid
As quitting pre-workout and other caffeinated substances continues to rise in popularity, a new category of products has emerged to help users quit without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Sometimes called caffeine quitting aids, caffeine cessation aids, or caffeine detox programs, these products work by turning the tapering method mentioned above into an exact science. Our product, CafDetox, weans users off caffeine over the course of 10 days by reducing their caffeine intake by 20mg a day until reaching zero. It’s delivered through a series of tablets, making quitting easy and accurate. If you’re interested in learning more about CafDetox, click here.