MTE® vs Celsius®: Which One’s the Better Pre-Workout?

I’ve been writing for MTE since the get-go, and using it for everything from a boost in my morning smoothie to an afternoon pick-me-up. All the while writing about all the really cool science behind our 13-ingredient formulation. But you can’t decipher everything from researching answers on a laptop. Experience is the best educator, sometimes! I’m sure 6000+ years’ worth of people using ashwagandha for medicinal purposes would agree. 

So, for this first installment of MTE Tries It!, I chose a Celsius® energy drink that I stumbled upon at my local Wal-Mart. 200mg of caffeine, some B-vitamins, chromium, vitamin C, and guarana are some of their highlighted ingredients. And Celsius® is pretty clear about their focus: helping you power through your workouts to get those gains! So, I thought, since MTE is such a versatile wellness drink, let’s try it as a pre-workout. I drank Celsius® as a pre-workout one day, and then did the same workout the next day, but took MTE first.

Quick stats on me: I’m 5’9”, BMI 21, VO2 Max 48 (according to my Garmin®). I run 30+ miles per week even though I hate every second of it, and 5 days a week I do 30 min of pilates, or, as I like to call it: power yoga for the high strung. So there we go.

Experimenting with Celsius ®

Alright, Trial 1 was Celsius® – Fuji Apple Pear, to be exact. I drank it probably over the course of 20 minutes in the morning. By the time I started my run at 9am, it had been about 40 minutes since I’d started drinking the Celsius. Y’all, I was not ready.

I felt great and less mad than usual to be running, but about a mile into my 6.6 mile loop around town, I started to get nauseous and my hands started feeling weird. For me, that’s always a sign my heart rate is way too high. Looking down at my watch, I was correct – it was at 179! I was jogging. I cannot properly express how much I was in no way straining myself enough to justify an HR of 179.

From then on, I actually had to start doing run/walk heart rate intervals instead of a sustained run. I do this sometimes when I don't feel like sustained running, but it was in no way my intention on this day. However, since my heart rate would immediately spike to 180 upon running AT ALL, and it would take a way longer time than usual to come down after I started walking, we switched to HR intervals. Because exercise is suppose to help your health, not stop your heart.

The heart rate thing was actually annoying because the loop took me way longer than usual. After, I felt exhausted, but like I had laid in the sun all day, not like I’d tired myself getting a good workout in.

Recovering with MTE

Okay, so Trial 2 was with MTE. I did the same thing – took it and started by run about 40 minutes after. Same time of day, same weather, same loop. Within the first mile, I noticed that I had totally zoned in, and I was definitely less salty than usual about being on a run. And then a weird thing happened that I’m not necessarily mad about; it seems like MTE aided in recovery during exercise.

Since the Celsius® had forced me to do HR intervals the day before, I repeated the same pattern after mile 1 on this day, too. The goal was to keep it between 140-165bpm. Which was actually impossible the day before – it was 145 or it was 180 – those were the options.

Anyway, I did notice during my MTE run that for every interval where I walked to let my heart rate fall back to 140, that recovery happened a bit faster than it does when I do HR intervals with no pre-workout at all. It meant I had to run more intervals, sure, but it also meant I was actually improving my cardiovascular system and getting enough sprints in to build more muscle. Completion time was about the same as without a pre-workout, too.

So What’s the Verdict? MTE or Celsius ®?

Here’s the conclusion I came to after using both these products as pre-workouts: these products are not for people who want the same things. 

While I sometimes felt like my heart would explode on my Celsius® run, I did burn about 15% more calories than usual. I would use it again for those couple weeks leading up to an event that requires a bikini or a slinky dress, but definitely not as an everyday situation. It’s not my jam, personally, but it certainly seems like it does what it says it will.

As for MTE, I really did notice the calm, steady energy boost. It wasn’t even a boost where I was like “Oh, I feel amped up now”. It was more just realizing during my workout that I wasn’t miserable and I had the energy to push more than I did without it. And I felt good after, too, with energy and good mood for the rest of the day. Plus, I didn’t have to drink a whole can of stuff; it was just a little shot and that’s it – good to go.

I’d say that if you’re looking for a serious and sudden bolt of energy that’ll get you through a tough workout, Celsius® can help. But I’d also say that I think MTE is the way to go for a more sustained, smoother energy through a hard workout, since it doesn’t totally rely on caffeine for energy production. Plus, I really don’t like my heart rate being so high that my body thinks we’re running from a pack of rabid wolves.