MTE Tries It! What’s a Better Pre-Workout

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

5 Minute Read

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 11-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 not at a cute level. 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, but it was in no way my intention on this day. My heart rate would immediately spike to 180 upon running, and it would take a way longer time than usual to come down after I started walking. It 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 179 – 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 guess I’ll have to repeat this experiment when we come out with our powder mix, but for now, 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.