Is Pre-Workout Good for Swimming? (From A Trainer)

Yes, a pre-workout can help in swimming by boosting your energy and nourishing your muscles with nutrients so you can swim faster and longer and have a faster recovery.

As a demanding physical activity, swimming fatigues the muscles quickly, and swimmers could use a boost in energy and mental alertness.

Pre-workouts often contain ingredients like caffeine and creatine that provide these benefits.

They also contain nitric oxide precursors like L-citrulline and L-arginine that enhance the flow of blood by dilating blood vessels [1].

This enables nutrients to reach the muscles more easily and get absorbed to boost performance and reduce recovery time.

Shortly, we’ll examine some of these common ingredients in pre-workout supplements. But before that, let's explore more of these benefits.

Swimming is exhausting because it leverages almost all muscle groups.

To improve time intervals as a competitive swimmer, you need all the focus and energy you can get.

Pre-workout supplements get you geared up by enhancing your energy levels and pre-workout improves your mental focus when swimming, thanks to ingredients like caffeine that stimulate the nervous system.

Scientists investigating the effects of caffeine on swimmers subjected their respondents to a power test.

They found faster swim time and increased peak power among participants who took a caffeinated beverage than those who took a decaf drink [2].

While this is good news to most competitive swimmers, caution should be applied to the dosage.

The FDA recommends a maximum of 400mg, although it may depend on your caffeine tolerance levels. Even half this amount is still significant [3].

A study on caffeine confirms that even low doses can significantly affect your mood and performance [4].

The adverse effects of overstimulation include:

• Restlessness or anxiety
• Upset stomach
• Headache
• Insomnia

Besides caffeine, similar stimulants such as theobromine, theanine, and tacrine can also give similar results.

Swimming is a strenuous exercise for weight loss that leaves your muscles exhausted and sore. This is where creatine comes in; to provide your body with more energy for rapid use.

Studies on the ingredient show significant gains in strength, lean muscle, and exercise performance in high-intensity tasks like swimming [5].

Additional research shows that creatine supplements can improve performance in repeated interval swim sets [6].

The study also suggested that creatine improves power development in swimmers.

This was particularly helpful for energy-demanding swimming styles like butterfly and breaststroke.

3. Nitric Oxide Precursors

Nitric oxide precursors, L-citrulline and L-arginine, are common ingredients in swimming pre-workout supplements.

They aid in reducing muscle fatigue and soreness by relaxing and widening the arteries, which improves blood flow to the muscle [7].

They also aid in the delivery of nutrients and oxygen, which enhances athletic performance and reduces fatigue.

Studies investigating the effects of L-citrulline found that it significantly helped increase the swimming period before exhaustion sets in [8].

What’s more, research has also found that the ingestion of L-citrulline, L-arginine, and BCAAs, all of which are commonly found in pre-workout supplements, allowed improved performance in swim interval sets [9].

BCAAs are part of the nine essential amino acids externally obtained from food and supplements.

They include:

• Leucine
• Isoleucine
• Valine

One unique thing about BCAAs that makes them suitable for physical activities like swimming is that they are broken down in the muscle rather than the liver [10].

Hence, they are thought to be important in energy production during exercise.

Additionally, researchers have found that supplementing a dosage of BCAAs about an hour before an exercise session can help delay fatigue [11].

Other studies also found that BCAAs, particularly leucine, help enhance strength and performance [12].

5. B Vitamins

B vitamins are essentially a group of eight vitamins, including:  

• Thiamine (B1)
• Riboflavin (B2)
• Niacin (B3)
• Pantothenic acid (B5)
• Pyridoxine (B6)
• Biotin (B7)
• Folate  (B9)
• Vitamin B12

Researchers from Oregon State University have attributed inadequate B vitamins among athletes to reduced high-intensity exercise performance and the inability to repair damaged muscles [13].

The same study also confirms that vitamins B1, B2, B6, and B12 are essential in converting proteins and sugar into energy.

Nutritional supplements are generally safe and effective in optimizing physical performance. But there are certainly many bad apples.

Perhaps you’ve heard cases of elite athletes receiving bans after a positive test and later suing supplement manufacturers for contaminating products with steroid precursors [14].

This is why understanding the contents of these nutritional supplements is crucial in the first place.

I always advise my clients that it’s better to avoid products with proprietary blends, especially if they do not disclose the exact ingredients.

If you’re an athlete, the consequences are even more pronounced. You don't want to open yourself to the possibility of a positive doping test.

3. Not a Band-Aid to Poor Sleep Habits

Many swimmers misuse pre-workout supplements by taking them to compensate for the lack of sleep.

For optimal swimming performance, pre-workout supplements will work best when combined with a healthy diet and an uninterrupted 7-9 hours of sleep.

4. Not a Magic Pill

Some swimmers think that once they start taking pre-workout supplements, they can reach national-level swimmer status in a few months.

Pre-workout supplements only complement the hard work and discipline put into training.