Dark Chocolate for Pre-Workout?

Today we will look at the effects of taking dark chocolate as a pre-workout.

Taking sugar based additives have always been a popular choice among weight trainers, but recently have been dropped in favor of the more stimulant heavy alternatives. Dark chocolate contains an alkaloid known as theobromine which has been recently been proved to improve athletic performance. In 2009, Willie Harcourt-Cooze with the help of Dr Emma Ross who is a senior lecturer in Sport and Service Management at Brighton University, conclusively proved that pure chocolate had a positive effect of athletic endurance.

This is not really a surprise as theobromine is an anti-oxidant which counter-acts the damage of free radicals when exercises occurs, particularly the cardio-vascular region. Another study conducted 2011 on rats concluded this theory when those that had been given the chocolate beverage, ran 50% further then those rats that had just drank water.

So with this information in hand I decided to put dark chocolate to the test and use it solely on its own as a pre-workout. Cost benefits aside, dark chocolate is obviously a healthier and natural option then the more stimulant heavy pre-workouts on the market such as Jack-3d and Craze. Other reasons for this trial were that I wanted to see how it compared to other cheap food sources out there such as apples or bananas which I have found effective.

I took 20 grams of dark chocolate (80%) 15 minutes before attempting a back workout on a full stomach. One of the most immediate effects on taking the chocolate was that I felt very alert, that may have been from the sugar content of the bar. Once in the gym I completed a number of super-sets finishing off with two normal exercises. (My workout can be found below) I felt fully energised though this may be down to the salmon I ate one hour prior to the gym. Funnily enough I felt no aching during my workout, however I believe this is down to the rest day I had on Sunday.

Overall I wouldn't recommend replacing your usually two scoops of Jack-3d with a bar of green and blacks. However if you don't take a supplement before exercise it could make a nice change from the norm. The jury is out on this maybe USP labs could adopt a bit of the dark stuff in their next pre-workout or dark chocolate craze could follow the hype of concentrated beetroot juice. I'll be sticking to an apple and leaving dark chocolate in the sweet tin.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


Back Workout

Superset-4x10 (rest 1.30)
1) Wide Grip Lat-Pulldown
2) Close Grip Straight arm Pulldown
Superset-3x10
1) Wide Grip seated wire pull (rest 1.30)
2) Close Grip seated wire pull
Singular Exercise
1) Single arm dumbell row-8x3 (rest 1.00)
2) Close Grip Seated back pull-10x3 (to failure) (rest 1.00)