You’ve probably experienced the tingling sensation in your face and hands after drinking your pre-workout. And you might wonder why pre-workouts make you itchy, seems weird right?
And first of all, I can tell you that you aren’t allergic to your pre-workout supplement.
The reason why your pre-workout makes you itchy is because of a popular pre-workout ingredient known as Beta-Alanine.
Why Does Beta-Alanine Make You Itchy?
Beta-Alanine stimulates your sensory neurons (nerves) by activating a group of genes called Mas-related genes. This causes the tingling sensation known as paresthesia. You usually feel it the most in areas where you have a lot of nerve endings such as your hands and face. [1]
The medical term for Beta-Alanine tingles is called acute paresthesia. It might sound pretty serious but this side effect is completely harmless. Although it can be a bit distracting and make it difficult to focus on your workout.
How Do You Stop Pre-Workout Itching?
Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do to prevent or stop the tingling sensation from Beta-Alanine. But the itching and tingling feeling does go away on its own. The pre-workout itching lasts for about 40-60 minutes.
If you want a pre-workout that gives you all the benefits but without the face tingles I recommend that you read my article about the best pre-workouts without Beta-Alanine!
Is Pre-Workout Supposed To Make You Itchy?
Pre-workouts are not necessarily supposed to make you itchy and tingly, the sensation is simply a Beta-Alanine side effect that you can’t avoid.
A lot of supplement companies like to implement Beta-Alanine into their pre-workout formulas since a lot of people associate the tingling sensation with a potent pre-workout. But in reality, the Beta-Alanine tingles have no performance-enhancing effects.
Is Beta-Alanine Good For You, What Does It Do?
Beta-Alanine can help to increase your endurance during workouts. It reduces fatigue by regulating the build-up of acid in your muscles. This helps you to do more reps before getting tired which can help you build more muscle.
The effective dose of Beta-Alanine is 3.6 grams before physical exercise. The problem is that you need to do a loading phase to build up a store of 179 grams of Beta-Alanine in your body before you get the full effects.
This means that you need to supplement with 3.6 grams of Beta-Alanine for 50 days before you get the full effects. So there is currently a big debate on whether or not Beta-Alanine is necessary to include in pre-workouts. [2]
Can You Build A Tolerance To Beta-Alanine?
Beta-Alanine is not a central nervous system stimulant so it’s not possible to build up a tolerance to it in the same way that you can build up a tolerance to caffeine.
I mentioned earlier that Beta-Alanine stimulates your sensory neurons (nerves), so this might seem a bit contradictory, but It’s important to know that these nerves are part of the peripheral nervous system and not a part of the central nervous system.
In my experience and with the people I’ve talked to, the tingles and itches become less noticeable the longer you use Beta-Alanine.
So it is possible that your neurons adapt to Beta-Alanine usage, but that doesn’t take away any of the positive effects of the supplement and rather only stops the side effects.
To summarize, you can’t build a tolerance to the performance-enhancing effects of Beta-Alanine, but you can build a tolerance to Beta-Alanine tingles.
What To Do Now?
Now you know why your hands and face tingle after taking your pre-workout supplement.
But If you want a pre-workout that gives you all the benefits but without the face tingles I recommend that you read my article about the best pre-workouts without Beta-Alanine!
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