Green Tea as a Pre-Workout: Everything You Need to Know
From Energy, to Focus, to Potential Fat Loss Support, Here Are The Benefits of Green Tea as Pre-Workout
The pre-workout category is one of the most popular in the entire supplement industry. Yet, the simple reality is that most pre-workouts and energy drinks are overpriced, flavored stimulant water.
Some of the best pre-workouts, and best pre-workout ingredients, come from popular beverages found in nature. One such example is green tea.
While you may not think of a hot cup of relaxing green tea as an ideal pre-workout, it contains a ton of benefits that fuel your training sessions.
The Benefits of Green Tea in Your Pre-Workout
Smooth Energy without the Jitters
Green tea contains naturally occurring caffeine. The typical cup of green tea contains between 30-50mg of caffeine. A typical cup of coffee contains around 125mg, so your green tea will have roughly one third the caffeine.
This gives you alertness and focus without the jitters, crash, anxiety, excessive heart rate, and other side effects common from high caffeine consumption.
Additionally, green tea has some of the highest naturally-occurring amounts of L-theanine.
L-theanine is an amino acid that helps “take the jitter” away from caffeine, by promoting relaxation and even reducing stress levels.
Improved Focus to Help You Find Your Flow
The natural presence of both caffeine and l-theanine in green tea is a classic synergistic, “the sum is greater than its parts” situation. Caffeine and l-theanine work together to give you energy, as well as focus, attention, and relaxation.
This state is often colloquially called “flow state.” This is when you feel immersed in whatever you’re doing, and completely dialed in, often even losing sense of time.
For our best workouts, this is what we want, and green tea can help us get it there.
Reduce Fatigue with Powerful Antioxidants
Green tea contains a powerful antioxidant and polyphenol called EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate). EGCG has been studied for its anti-fatigue effect. In swimmers, the study showed a prolonged time to exhaustion. It decreased blood lactic acid, promoting anaerobic performance.
Simply, EGCG study allowed athletes to put off fatigue.
This has an obvious benefit when using green tea as a pre-workout.
The study also showed that EGCG buffered creatine kinase levels, suggesting it may help your muscle handle stress from exercise more effectively.
All of this points to how, while typical pre-workouts rely on stimulants (which have a place), all-encompassing, natural pre-workouts can help your body make their own energy.
Then you can perform better without all of the stimulants, and without building a tolerance. In other words, green tea may give you performance benefits day after day.
May Help Reduce Muscle Damage.
Along similar lines, the catechins in green tea may help reduce muscle damage and even soreness. The idea behind this is because these catechins, notably EGCG, have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
In one 2018 study, male athletes supplemented with green tea extract while others took a placebo. Everybody performed the same cycling workout routine.
Those who took green tea extract showed less muscle damage, based on reactive protein measures.
However, other research, like this 2018 study, did NOT show reduced delayed onset muscle soreness (the soreness you feel the days after lifting weights).
Overall, the jury on this is still out, but if there’s any benefit to your muscles from simple green tea, that alone is impressive.
May Support Fat Loss*
Could green tea even be a tool to support weight loss? Green tea extract, with standardized amounts of EGCG, are a popular ingredient in fat burner supplements.
A 2016 study found that green tea extract led to weight loss and lower cholesterol. However, the dose was very high. To get that dose from green tea, you’d need to drink nearly 30 cups. That’s obviously ridiculous. Yet it still points to the power and potency of simple green tea leaves.
Nonetheless, some research showed that the catechins can lead to reduction in abdominal body fat, like this 2009 randomized controlled trial on obese adults. Another trial showed that the catechins improved body composition, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels in children.
May Improve Insulin Sensitivity and Blood Sugar*
A 2013 meta-analysis on the array of research on green tea concluded that green tea supports reduced fasting glucose levels. Therefore, it may help you manage your blood sugar. Blood sugar levels and fasting glucose are considered some of the hallmarks of overall health and wellness.
Supports Hydration
In addition to, of course, being steeped in water which supports hydration, green tea also contains naturally occurring electrolytes.
A cup of green tea has about 20mg of potassium and 2.5mg of sodium, on average. Now, this isn’t a high amount of electrolytes, compared to superfoods like bananas, but it can still support your hydration.
All-Natural
Last, unlike the synthetic pre-workouts that come in neon colors and packed with stimulants, green tea is all-natural. All you do is steep the tea leaves in water, and you have one of the best pre-workouts available.
All of This Makes Green Tea an Effective Pre-Workout on Its Own
With all of this said, there’s a reason why traditional pre-workouts are more popular among professional athletes, bodybuilders, and other serious competitors.
Good pre-workouts ingredients like l-citrulline to support blood flow.
This in turn can improve stamina, support recovery, and improve your mind-muscle connection while you workout.*
And these ingredients can also come right from nature. Together they can make the perfect pre-workout cocktail for energy, focus, recovery, and performance.
The Solution: A Natural Pre-Workout With Fully-Brewed Green Tea
The ideal pre-workout, in our estimate, begins with full brewed green tea (not just green tea extract)
Enter: Troov. The All-Natural Pre-Workout to Put You in Flow
Troov is the all-natural alternative pre-workout to jittery, overpriced powders.
The base of Troov though is fully-brewed green tea. This fully-brewed tea is stronger than your typical cup of green tea, so it has ample l-theanine, catechins, polyphenols, and 125mg of caffeine (about as much as a cup of coffee) to improve your energy, focus, and performance.
It contains premium ingredients like fermented beetroot and l-citrulline for blood flow, maca root for performance, and lemon juice for its numerous health benefits.
It’s free of artificial sweeteners (sweetened by just a touch of stevia), supports hydration, and helps reduce oxidative stress.
It’s the ideal pre-workout drink for any fitness goal.
The Compounding Effect of Consistency
Whether you pick up Troov or opt for a classic green tea as your pre, the magic comes with consistency.
That extra boost your pre-workout gives you in the gym allows you to do an extra rep, extra set, or go the extra mile (literally).
However, one extra set isn’t enough for you to reach your goals. It’s the extra edge multiplied day after day. In other words, the compounding effect of consitency.
FAQ
What about post-workout green tea?
Green tea contains ingredients that are uniquely beneficial before your workout, like caffeine. However, there’s nothing wrong with it post-workout, it just makes more sense in your pre-workout supplements.
That’s why we made it a main ingredient in Troov, The All-Natural Pre-Workout.
Is Matcha an effective pre-workout?
Matcha comes from green tea, so it has a lot of benefits. A scoop of matcha green tea powder in a pre-workout shake is an interesting idea.
However, compared to a typical pre-workout, a fancy matcha latte is much less practical, and the milk you top it off with probably won’t sit well in your stomach while you train.
Does Green Tea Have Any Side Effects?
Green tea contains caffeine. However, as we say, it’s about a third of the caffeine in coffee. As long as you’re not drinking more than a few cups, the anxiety, irritability, and withdrawal common with caffeine won’t be a problem.
Can I Drink Troov And Green Tea?
Another option is to start your day with a cup of regular green tea. Drinking green tea daily is one of the healthiest things you can do.
Then, go for an all-encompassing natural pre-workout like Troov before training, with fully-brewed green tea and other ingredients to fuel your performance and peak flow state.
Does Troov or Green Tea Support Fat Burning?
There’s pretty good evidence that in high doses the catechins in green tea do support fat loss. This is why EGCG is a popular ingredient in “fat burner” supplements.
However, at normal doses found in tea, research hasn’t demonstrated the same fat loss effect.
In conjunction with a sound training program and proper diet, both Troov and green tea can be a part of a weight loss regiment.
What's the Caffeine Content of Green Tea?
It depends on how strong the tea leaves are, and how long it’s steeped for. A typical cup of green tea has between 30-50mg of caffeine.
Troov uses fully-brewed green tea, which is stronger, and contains 125mg of caffeine. This is about as much caffeine in a cup of coffee. This will definitely support your energy levels while you train, and caffeine is one of the most well-studied ingredients in existence.
What About the Other Ingredients in Troov?
For more on what makes Troov such an effective all-natural pre-workout, you can learn more about each of the ingredients in Troov.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
