· By Bridget Reed
Why Sour Candy Before a Workout Is Great
If you’ve chosen the real-life side quest of hitting the gym recently, you’ve probably seen a few TikTokers talking about the benefits of eating sour candy before a workout. Well, it turns out there’s actually some pretty cool science to back up the claims that candy is a great pre-workout snack, and going for the sour candy takes it to the next level in some surprising ways.
In the battle against the Final Boss and all his cronies, we’ll take every advantage we can get — especially if the advantages include eating our favorite snacks.
It wasn’t easy to gather this information. Still, we downed an entire case of Level 2 Cranberries to rapidly boost our sour stamina and went undercover to get the inside scoop from the minibosses who know best.
The Power of Sour
We had to brave the wild Darengeti to pick up these secret tips from the ultimate Sour Strength Coach, Beester — AKA, the Level 1 Strawberry miniboss. Rumor has it that Beester gets a sour candy boost before every workout, so we snuck in on a training day to see it for ourselves.
Inside the inner sanctum of Beester’s gym, he makes sure everyone eats sour candy before a workout. He says that consuming 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrates 15 to 45 minutes before exercise is a great way to fuel your body if you’re looking to rack up the gains.
Every time he makes his athletes drop and give him 20 pushups, he tells them that if they work hard enough, they could win the Hyper Trophy. He says, “Candy makes you hyper. Hyper makes you exercise. Exercise wins you a trophy.”
If you want to use Beester’s secret weapon against him, a bag of Final Boss Sour has 25 grams of carbs, making it the perfect amount of fuel for a workout. You can even put another bag in your pocket for a mid-workout refuel if you’re feelin’ wild.
A lot of pre-workout supplements have similar amounts of glucose, but they cost a lot more and they add stimulants that can make you feel all jittery and hit you with a big energy crash afterward. Final Boss is made with real fruit and without any artificial ingredients so you don’t have to worry about all that extra stuff.
How Do Sour Candies Work?
Seeing the sour power in action was great, but we still needed to know how it worked. So we paddled our way through the Doom Flume until we found Billton, the Level 2 Strawberry miniboss.
He was easily charmed by a compliment about his intellect, and just like that, he spilled all of his secrets.
Super Glucose Energy Boost
So basically, candy packs a concentrated punch of glucose, which gives you a quick energy boost to help you power through a workout. Glucose is a fast-acting fuel that your body uses to keep your muscles and organs functioning during exercise, and that’s why it’s so helpful to consume as a pre-workout.
But there’s so much more to it than just that.
The Hyper Trophy
To make it even better, glucose plays an important role in building muscle after you’re done with your workout. That means if you also consume glucose with protein after you lift weights, you’ll help your muscles get stronger faster.
And when muscles get bigger it’s called hypertrophy, so it turns out that trophy Beester kept going on about is actually just muscle gains.
Even More Sour-Power
Glucose isn’t the only powerhouse in this pre-workout hack. The sourness actually has its own special powers, too. Billton went on and on about the new research showing that consuming sour-flavored snacks encourages exciting and adventurous risk-taking behavior.
This must be why the Final Boss’s sour resurgence has emboldened his sycophants throughout the land, but that also means you can harness that same sour power in the fight against him.
Eating sour candy before a workout could help push you to new limits by boosting your bravery and audacity. Just make sure you’re doing it safely and with some professional guidance (we recommend finding someone a little more trustworthy than Beester).
Bonus Points
Antioxidants and exercise go together like peanut butter and jelly. Sure, they’re great on their own, but they’re even better together.
Final Boss Sour snacks are naturally jam-packed with antioxidants that can help give your body that extra somethin’ against oxidative stress, so your life meter can stay in the green for longer while you tackle all your side quests and prepare yourself for the Final Boss.
Level Up Your Workouts and Level Up Your Sour
As if candy could get any better than just being plain delicious, it gives you an energy boost during your workout and helps rebuild your muscles afterward. And sour candy does all that plus it gives you a jolt of wildness that will take your exercise to the next level.
But not all sour candies are created equal, and going for options with natural ingredients will always be more beneficial to your gains than anything artificial.
It’ll take a finely tuned machine of a player to best the Final Boss, and fine-tuning comes from nutritional balance and preparation. So don’t forget that you’ll get the best results when you eat the right amount of carbs and pair them with some protein.
And you won’t even make it through the main quest unless you eat your veggies, drink lots of water, and take time to rest. The Final Boss won’t stand a chance against you.
Sources:
Exercise and the Institute of Medicine recommendations for nutrition | National Library of Medicine