Honey and Salt Pre-Workout: The Perfect Natural Supplement?

In response to many social media well being and health “gurus,” honey and salt pre-workout is a boon for athletic efficiency. 

They declare that the salt and honey pre-workout combine gives an immediate and sustained vitality increase, enhances hydration, and improves electrolyte stability, which helps forestall mind fog, fatigue, and muscle cramps.

Not everyone seems to be offered on the advantages, although. Skeptics say taking honey and salt as pre-workout delivers on none of its guarantees and is simply well-liked due to its “pure” enchantment.

Who’s proper?

The place did the honey and salt pre-workout pattern start?

What are the purported advantages of taking this combo?

And does science agree?

Get evidence-based solutions to those questions and extra on this article.

The Origin of Honey and Salt Pre-Exercise

Like most up-to-date well being and health fads, the honey and salt pre-workout pattern began on social media. 

A TikTok consumer shared a video of herself licking honey and salt off the again of her hand, claiming it was her new pure pre-workout routine.

The video caught the eye of different health fanatics, who started making and sharing their very own movies of the honey and salt pre-workout combine.

Whereas there isn’t an ordinary recipe that everybody follows, some recommend essentially the most potent mixture is honey and Himalayan salt for pre-workout. They consider the pink salt comprises extra minerals than common salt, maximizing the pre-workout’s advantages. 

The Purported Advantages of Honey and Salt Pre-Exercise

• Fast Power: Honey is an easy carbohydrate that your physique rapidly breaks down into glucose (blood sugar), providing you with a direct vitality increase.
• Electrolyte Replenishment: Honey and salt comprise electrolytes. These taking honey and salt pre-workout declare it optimizes electrolyte stability and replenishes electrolytes misplaced by sweat throughout lengthy weightlifting exercises and endurance train.
• Hydration: Followers of honey and salt pre-workout say the mixture boosts hydration in two methods. First, the honey comprises a small quantity of water, which contributes to hydration earlier than a exercise. And second, salt performs a vital position in your physique’s fluid stability, serving to you to retain the correct amount of water in your physique.  

• Antioxidant Increase: Honey is a pure supply of antioxidants, providing safety in opposition to exercise-induced oxidative harm that results in irritation and muscle soreness.

Is Honey and Salt a Good Pre-Exercise?

Is Honey a Good Pre-Exercise?

Honey is a natural supply of carbs, so it gives your physique with quick vitality and, in doing so, helps protect glycogen (saved carbs), permitting you to coach for longer. 

These advantages aren’t distinctive to honey, although. All carbs do that, which might be why the few studies investigating honey as a pre-workout present honey isn’t higher at offering vitality than different carb sources.

That mentioned, many honey pre-workout tubthumpers would say that is lacking the actual benefit. For them, honey’s edge is that it solely comprises pure sugars, which hold your blood sugar ranges extra secure than processed sugars.

Sustaining blood glucose ranges prevents vitality crashes and lack of focus, which can enhance athletic efficiency when doing duties requiring a whole lot of talent (like squatting heavy weights, for instance).   

Nonetheless, the restricted analysis out there suggests honey is not any higher than different carbs at preserving blood sugar secure.

One other perk of eating carbs before you train is that it tends to make you feel like you possibly can push tougher in your exercise. Once more, few research have checked out honey’s impact on this regard, however people who have recommended honey has an analogous impact to different carbs on “perceived exertion.”

As for antioxidant safety, a single dose of honey for pre-workout has little effect on irritation, so it gained’t ease post-workout muscle soreness. Common use would possibly assist, however since some irritation is essential for muscle development, decreasing it an excessive amount of would possibly gradual your progress.

Lastly, honey doesn’t comprise a lot water, so claims it has a marked influence on hydration are foolish. If you happen to’re dehydrated earlier than a coaching session, your finest guess is to drink water.

Is Salt a Good Pre-Exercise?

For example, there’s little evidence consuming salt earlier than train advantages efficiency. That is doubtless as a result of even the “saltiest” sweaters only lose a small quantity of electrolytes after they perspire. Studies also show that consuming sodium earlier than you prepare gained’t forestall cramping.

There’s little analysis analyzing whether or not dropping salt by sweat makes you weaker, however what exists suggests it’s not trigger for concern. For instance, a study of older adults discovered that those that ate essentially the most salt had a weaker grip than those that ate much less. 

Consuming an excessive amount of salt can even negatively influence efficiency as a result of it causes your physique to attract water into your intestines, leading to bloating, sloshing, and abdomen cramps whereas figuring out.

The one potential good thing about taking a small quantity of salt earlier than a exercise is that it makes you thirsty, so that you drink extra water, bettering pre-workout hydration. It’s not the salt that advantages your exercise however the further water you drink due to it.

Ought to You Take Salt and Honey as a Pre-Exercise?

Or, for those who’d want a pure pre-workout complement containing elements confirmed to spice up vitality, focus, and power with out the jitters, upset abdomen, or post-workout crash, strive Pulse with or without caffeine. 

Salt and Honey Pre-Exercise FAQs

FAQ #1: What’s the honey and salt pre-workout pattern?

FAQ #2: Is salt and honey a very good pre-workout?

FAQ #3: Is salt as pre-workout protected?