Caffeine is the consummate pre-training stimulant.
It’s been used by athletes of all varieties from elite endurance athletes to physique competitors to martial artists and everything in between.
One thing is certain -- caffeine is effective for improving performance, reducing the perception of fatigue, and boosting stamina and endurance.
However, there are certain instances where an athlete may not want caffeine included in their pre workout supplements, such as:
- They’re training late in the evening or at night
- They’re caffeine-sensitive
- They don’t want to consume any more caffeine
- They prefer to get their caffeine from other sources (coffee, tea, etc.)
EndurElite now gives athletes the option to increase their strength, speed, stamina, and power output without caffeine in Perform Elite Caffeine-Free!
What is Perform Elite Caffeine-Free?
As the name implies, Perform Elite is a caffeine-free pre workout formulated to enhance training output, boost stamina, and reduce the onset of fatigue without relying on caffeine.
We’ve brought together the best ingredients, backed by research, to help endurance athletes take their performance to the next level!
Perform Elite Caffeine-Free can be used anytime of day, including early and evening training sessions and does not need to be cycled off.
Train Harder. Last Longer. Crush PRs
- Boost Endurance with NO Caffeine
- Heighten Mental Focus
- Increase Performance
- NO jitters or disrupted sleep
- Accelerate glycogen replenishment
What’s in Perform Elite Caffeine-Free?
Beet Root Extract
Beet root extract is rich in bioactive compounds known to support increased nitric oxide concentrations. Nitric oxide is an important cell-signaling molecule that promotes vasodilation and blood flow, which beneficially impacts oxygen and nutrient delivery to working muscles.
This ultimately supports greater athletic performance and stamina.
Taurine
Taurine is an amino acid found prevalently in the brain, heart, and skeletal muscle tissue. It supports a number of functions in the body, including:
- Blood flow
- Oxidative stress
- Fluid balance
- Cardiac function
Research indicates that supplementing with taurine may improve[1,2,3]:
- Power output
- Fatigue resistance
- Endurance performance
- Tolerance to severe intensity exercise
- Recovery from training
PeakO2™
PeakO2 is a blend of six organic ayurvedic mushrooms that helps athletes "adapt" to and overcome physical and mental stress associated with intense exercise.
Supplementation with PeakO2 may help improve oxygen utilization and work capacity while decreasing lactate, thereby helping athletes to train longer and harder, increasing power and endurance.[4,5]
Theobromine
Theobromine is a “chemical cousin” of caffeine found in several foods, most notably dark chocolate.
Compared to the fast-acting, hard-hitting energy of caffeine, theobromine imparts a smoother, calmer type of sustained energy. Additionally, theobromine also acts as a vasodilator and may support easier breathing, which can be particularly helpful during prolonged training sessions or bouts of competition.[6,7]
Alpha GPC
Alpha GPC is a highly bioavailable form of supplemental choline.
Choline is an essential nutrient required for optimal brain health and function.
Supplementation with Alpha GPC is known to increase activity of acetylcholine -- a neurotransmitter heavily involved with learning, memory, focus and the mind-muscle connection.
Furthermore, prolonged endurance exercise has been found to deplete serum choline concentrations up to 40%.[8] This could reduce acetylcholine release, thereby impairing endurance and performance.
Research has found that supplementation with Alpha GPC can support improvements in athletic performance, including power output, as well as cognitive function.[9,10]
Velvet Bean Extract
Dopamine is a critical neurotransmitter involved in feelings of reward, motivation, mood, decision-making, and motor control.
Research indicates that elevated dopamine concentrations can “push” athletes toward action and pushing harder while also and influencing the decision “not to give up.”[11,12]
Dopamine also bolsters an athlete’s attention toward rewarding goals
However, mental fatigue (such as the kind induced by exhaustive exercise) can increase adenosine concentration in the brain, which decreases dopamine levels.
Theobromine helps mitigate this in part by functioning as an adenosine receptor antagonist, meaning it competes with adenosine for binding on the receptor, resulting in less feelings of fatigue.
Perform Elite Caffeine-Free also includes Velvet Bean extract, which contains a precursor to dopamine. This ultimately supports greater dopamine in the brain, encouraging greater performance and stamina.
Huperzine A
We previously highlighted the benefits of Alpha GPC as a bioavailable source of supplemental choline, which can support greater focus, concentration, and performance via its actions on the “learning neurotransmitter” -- acetylcholine.
Huperzine A is a powerful nootropic that works with Alpha GPC to support stronger, longer-lasting acetylcholine levels in the body.
It does this by inhibiting the actions of acetylcholinesterase -- the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine.
This potent combination of Alpha GPC + Huperzine A promotes greater focus and concentration during training, helping athletes to push hard and last longer.
Beta Alanine
No ingredient is more synonymous with endurance than beta alanine.
This amino acid has been studied time and again over the years and has been effective in buffering muscle acidity, which ultimately enables them to complete a higher amount of work before succumbing to fatigue.
Research has found that supplementing with beta alanine may[13,14,15]:
- Improve exercise capacity
- Reduce exercise-induced fatigue
- Increase workload
- Decrease feelings of fatigue
elevATP®
ATP is the cellular currency of energy production, and an athlete’s ability to effectively and efficiently replenish ATP stores ultimately determines whether they can go the distance.
A number of exogenous ATP supplements have been explored over the years, and by and large, they’ve all failed to consistently show benefit in research, mostly due to poor bioavailability.
elevATP®, however, is an ATP supplement shown not only to boost ATP levels in the body, but also improve athletic performance.
Specifically, the polyphenols present in elevATP have been shown to[16,17,18,19]:
- Increase endogenous ATP levels in the body
- Improve power output
- Boost performance
- Support gains in muscle and strength
- Support improvement in body composition
- Reduce performance decrements associated with overreaching (“overtraining”)
Senactiv®
Similar to elevATP, Senactiv (formerly ActiGin) is another blend of botanicals whose bioactive compounds help the body generate more ATP.
The mechanism by which Senactiv does this, though, is different from elevATP.
Senactiv has been found to increase the production of citrate synthase (up to 47%!).[20]
Citrate synthase is an important enzyme involved in the production of ATP.
Senaciv may also support recovery as studies suggest it accelerates the recovery rate of glycogen in exercised muscle tissues as well as reduces levels of IL-6, an inflammation biomarker.[21]
References
- Waldron, M., Patterson, S.D. & Jeffries, O. Oral taurine improves critical power and severe-intensity exercise tolerance. Amino Acids 51, 1433–1441 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-019-02775-6
- Kurtz, J.A., VanDusseldorp, T.A., Doyle, J.A. et al. Taurine in sports and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 18, 39 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-021-00438-0
- Balshaw TG, Bampouras TM, Barry TJ, Sparks SA. The effect of acute taurine ingestion on 3-km running performance in trained middle-distance runners. Amino Acids. 2013;44(2):555–61.
- Katie R. Hirsch MA, Abbie E. Smith-Ryan Ph.D., Erica J. Roelofs MA, Eric T., Trexler MA & Meredith G. Mock BA (2016): Cordyceps militaries Improves Tolerance to High-Intensity Exercise After Acute and Chronic Supplementation, Journal of Dietary Supplements, DOI: 10.1080/19390211.2016.1203386. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19390211.2016.1203386
- Wesley David Dudgeon, Dennison David Thomas, William Dauch, Timothy Paul Scheett, and Michael John Webster; “The Effects of High and Low-Dose Cordyceps Militaris-Containing Mushroom Blend Supplementation After Seven and Twenty-Eight Days”; American Journal of Sports Science; 2018; 6(1): 1-7; https://article.sportssciencejournal.org/pdf/10.11648.j.ajss.20180601.11.pdf
- Baggott, Matthew J et al. “Psychopharmacology of theobromine in healthy volunteers.” Psychopharmacology vol. 228,1 (2013): 109-18. doi:10.1007/s00213-013-3021-0
- Martínez-Pinilla E, Oñatibia-Astibia A, Franco R. The relevance of theobromine for the beneficial effects of cocoa consumption. Front Pharmacol. 2015;6:30. Published 2015 Feb 20. doi:10.3389/fphar.2015.00030
- Conlay LA, Sabounjian LA, Wurtman RJ. Exercise and neuromodulators: choline and acetylcholine in marathon runners. Int J Sports Med. 1992 Oct;13 Suppl 1:S141-2. doi: 10.1055/s-2007-1024619. PMID: 1483754.
- Ziegenfuss, Tim et al. “Acute supplementation with alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine augments growth hormone response to, and peak force production during, resistance exercise.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition vol. 5,Suppl 1 P15. 17 Sep. 2008, doi:10.1186/1550-2783-5-S1-P15
- De Jesus Moreno Moreno M. Cognitive improvement in mild to moderate Alzheimer's dementia after treatment with the acetylcholine precursor choline alfoscerate: a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Clin Ther. 2003 Jan;25(1):178-93. doi: 10.1016/s0149-2918(03)90023-3. PMID: 12637119.
- Roelands, B., Hasegawa, H., Watson, P., Piacentini, M. F., Buyse, L., De Schutter, G., et al. (2008). The effects of acute dopamine reuptake inhibition on performance. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 40, 879–885. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181659c4d
- Roelands, B., De Pauw, K., and Meeusen, R. (2015). Neurophysiological effects of exercise in the heat. Scand. J. Med. Sci. Sports 25(Suppl. 1), 65–78. doi: 10.1111/sms.12350
- Hoffman JR, Ratamess NA, Faigenbaum AD, Ross R, Kang J, Stout JR, Wise JA. Short-duration beta-alanine supplementation increases training volume and reduces subjective feelings of fatigue in college football players. Nutr Res. 2008 Jan;28(1):31-5. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2007.11.004. PMID: 19083385.
- Smith AE, Walter AA, Graef JL, Kendall KL, Moon JR, Lockwood CM, Fukuda DH, Beck TW, Cramer JT, Stout JR. Effects of beta-alanine supplementation and high-intensity interval training on endurance performance and body composition in men; a double-blind trial. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2009 Feb 11;6:5. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-6-5. PMID: 19210788; PMCID: PMC2649036.
- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2018.01105/full
- B, Argumedo R, Shu C, Huynh L, Pietrzkowski Z. Effect of the dietary supplement ElevATP on blood ATP level: An acute pilot clinical study. J Aging Res Clin Practice. 2013;2:178–84.
- Reyes-Izquierdo T, Shu C, Argumedo R, Nemzer B, Pietrzkowski Z. The effect of elevATPTM on whole blood ATP levels: a single dose, crossover clinical study. J Aging Res Clin Practice. 2014;3:56–60.
- Joy, J. M., Falcone, P. H., Vogel, R. M., Mosman, M. M., Kim, M. P., & Moon, J. R. (2015). Supplementation with a proprietary blend of ancient peat and apple extract may improve body composition without affecting hematology in resistance-trained men. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 40(11), 1171–1177. https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2015-0241
- Joy JM, Vogel RM, Moon JR, et al. Ancient peat and apple extracts supplementation may improve strength and power adaptations in resistance trained men. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2016;16:224. Published 2016 Jul 18. doi:10.1186/s12906-016-1222-x
- Wu, J., Saovieng, S., Cheng, I. S., Liu, T., Hong, S., Lin, C. Y., Su, I. C., Huang, C. Y., & Kuo, C. H. (2019). Ginsenoside Rg1 supplementation clears senescence-associated β-galactosidase in exercising human skeletal muscle. Journal of Ginseng Research, 43(4), 580–588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgr.2018.06.002
- Hou CW, Lee SD, Kao CL, Cheng IS, Lin YN, et al. (2015) Improved Inflammatory Balance of Human Skeletal Muscle during Exercise after Supplementations of the Ginseng-Based Steroid Rg1. PLOS ONE 10(1): e0116387. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0116387
