When and Why to Choose Stim-Free

You’re a weekend warrior. Or an Olympic hopeful. Or just getting started on your fitness journey. And you find that, with your busy schedule, the only time you can train is in the evening, after you’re done with your work. And, of course, that means you need an extra boost, but it’s too late for caffeine. What can you do?

Caffeine 

Let’s start with how caffeine works in your body when it comes to disrupting sleep. We are all familiar with ATP, right? The famous energy-currency of your cells! ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate, and when it is broken down by usage for energy (think: exercise), your cells will eventually release adenosine molecules. Adenosine will then work its way to your brain and sit in specific structures that start a chain reaction to tell your body to be tired. Go to sleep. Rest!

This is where the magic of caffeine comes in. Molecular caffeine looks a lot like those adenosine molecules, so your receptors can’t tell the difference between the two. The only difference is caffeine doesn’t activate that same chain reaction, effectively blocking your body’s internal signals that you should sleep. Which is good, right? Well, it can be. 

Your body has a whole lot of work to do to create the correct conditions for sleep, so this can be massively disruptive. Caffeine also has a pretty long half-life of four to six hours. This means that up to six hours after you’ve had caffeine, your body still has about half of the original amount of caffeine in it, stopping you from going to sleep. Try taking 250mg of caffeine for your wild 4pm workout, and you’ve still got 125mg of caffeine in you by 10pm, which is more than the average cup of coffee. That will definitely mess up your body’s ability to wind down. 

All of this can combine to create a vicious cycle for those consuming too much caffeine. If you can’t sleep because of caffeine, you’ll probably feel sleepy the next day and require more caffeine, and the cycle begins again. 

The absence of caffeine is definitely one of the main benefits of taking a stim-free preworkout. Our Stim-Free Stammpede formula was created to give you the feelings of motivation and focus that you’re looking for in a pre-workout without the worry of how much caffeine you’re taking and what time you’re taking it at.

Peak02 

On top of the benefits of avoiding caffeine in your pre-workout, our Stim-Free Stammpede includes a number of ingredients that can boost more than your workout. We’ve spoken about them before, but many of the mushrooms included in the Peak02 formula benefit you as you take them over time. Mushrooms like Cordyceps and Lion's Mane have powerful antioxidant effects that work best with regular usage. These ingredients are known as adaptogens, and they’re a great tool to have in your toolbox

Adaptogens are a class of ingredients, mostly plants and fungi, that contain various compounds which help your body adapt to stress (hence, the name). Many of them have been used for millennia in Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine as salves for various ailments. While adaptogens can’t remove the stress of dealing with a big meeting or competition, they can help your body manage those stressors better by decreasing the intensity of your stress reaction.

For example, both Cordyceps and Lion’s Mane mushrooms have been shown to have powerful antioxidant effects, which can help buffer the cellular impact of stressful activities. Further, Lion’s Mane has particular compounds called Erinacines which seem to be able to protect our neurons from inflammation-related damage. Chronic inflammation is a rampant health issue, and adaptogens like those in Peak02 can be an extremely useful tool in your efforts to combat it.

Summary

All that being said, Stim-Free Stammpede is about offering options. Sometimes, you just gotta dive in head-first and smash caffeine for a big session, which is where Stammpede comes in. Other times, you need to focus up but your program doesn’t call for running through a wall. If you dual wield our pre-workout supplements, you’ll be ready for any situation!