The pre-training dose window is the planned minutes-before-workout band in which a performance compound is taken so that peak plasma concentration lines up with the working set, not the cool-down. The window varies sharply by compound, from 15 minutes for a fast carbohydrate to 60 minutes for citrulline malate, and getting it wrong is a common reason a pre-workout "stops working" even though the dose and ingredients are unchanged.
Why the band is narrower than users expect
Every performance compound has an absorption curve and a half-life, and the intersection of those two curves defines a useful band, usually only 20–40 minutes wide. Caffeine at 200 mg peaks 30–60 minutes after ingestion, so a dose taken 15 minutes before a 10-minute warm-up reaches peak mid-workout. A dose taken 10 minutes into a session peaks after the working sets are done. Compound timing is therefore treated as its own field in the log, following the same timing logic used elsewhere in the app.
Typical pre-training windows
| Compound | Timing before session | Useful dose | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caffeine anhydrous | 30–60 minutes | 3–6 mg per kg | Roughly 200–400 mg for a 70 kg user |
| L-citrulline or citrulline malate | 45–60 minutes | 6–8 g | Nitric oxide precursor, builds over 2–3 sessions |
| Beta-alanine | No acute window | 3.2–6.4 g daily | Saturation over weeks, not acute |
| Creatine monohydrate | No acute window | 3–5 g any time of day | Saturation over weeks, not acute |
| Taurine | 30–45 minutes | 1–3 g | Pairs well with caffeine to blunt jitter |
| L-tyrosine | 45–60 minutes | 500–2,000 mg | Helpful in fatigued or sleep-deprived sessions |
| Fast carbohydrate (dextrose) | 15–30 minutes | 20–40 g | Useful for fasted or glycogen-depleted athletes |
| Sodium and electrolytes | 15–30 minutes | 500–1,500 mg sodium | Especially relevant in heat or long sessions |
A user running a 7 am workout with 300 mg caffeine and 8 g citrulline therefore doses both around 6 am, or splits the caffeine earlier and the citrulline closer to the session if schedule allows.
What happens when the window is missed
A caffeine dose taken 5 minutes before warm-up peaks 30 minutes into the session, often after the heaviest set. A citrulline dose taken 20 minutes before a 45-minute session peaks during the cool-down. The user experiences a session that feels flat at the top set and unusually amped during the walk home, which then contaminates the bedtime block if the session was in the late afternoon. Stimulant residual from a 4 pm pre-workout at 300 mg caffeine still sits around 150 mg at 10 pm given a 6-hour half-life, which is enough to delay sleep onset for most users.
Splitting doses when schedules do not cooperate
Split dosing lets a user match the peak to the actual working sets when schedules are unpredictable:
- Take roughly half the caffeine 60 minutes out and the remainder 20 minutes out if the warm-up is long.
- Pair 3 g of taurine with caffeine to reduce jitter without blunting the arousal effect.
- Keep stimulant sensitivity in view and default to one stimulant at a time before adding a second.
- Log the actual ingestion time, not the planned one, so the trend view maps response to real timing.
Evening sessions need extra care
A late session puts the pre-training window on a collision course with the bedtime dose window. Rough guardrails: no caffeine within 8 hours of lights-out for most users and 10 hours for slow metabolizers of CYP1A2. Caffeine-free pre-workouts with 6 g citrulline, 2 g taurine, 500 mg tyrosine, and electrolytes perform reasonably well for most users after 4 pm without carrying the stimulant load into sleep.
How this appears in Unfair
Unfair tags performance entries with an expected pre-training window and prompts the user to confirm workout time before logging, which sets the reminder exactly within the compound's peak band rather than at a fixed clock time. The overlap view flags any stimulant dose whose predicted clearance still sits inside the bedtime window for that day, and the review chart separates sessions dosed inside the window from those dosed outside so the effect estimate stays clean.
Clinical safety note
Stacking multiple stimulants in a single pre-training dose materially raises the risk of acute hypertension, arrhythmia, and, in rare cases, cardiac events. Users with a history of high blood pressure, arrhythmia, pregnancy, anxiety disorders, or stimulant medication use should clear any pre-workout with their clinician first. Stop the session and seek care for chest pain, severe palpitations, fainting, or sudden severe headache that follows a pre-workout dose.