I Took Pre-Workout Before a First Date and I Regret Everything

Before you judge me, let me explain the timeline.

3:30 PM — Took pre-workout for my 4 PM gym session. Normal. Responsible. Fine.

3:45 PM — Date texts: "Hey, can we move dinner to 5 instead of 7?"

3:46 PM — Panic.

3:47 PM — I have approximately 400mg of caffeine and enough beta-alanine to make my face tingle entering my bloodstream, I have not worked out yet, and I now have a dinner reservation in 75 minutes.

This is the story of the worst first date of my life.

The Gym Speed Run

I tried to cram a full push day into 30 minutes. Supersetted everything. Ran between machines. A man asked if I was okay and I said "NEVER BETTER" way too loudly because the stim was hitting.

Showered in the gym — rookie move, the water pressure is tragic — threw on my date outfit that I'd packed (at least I planned THAT part), and drove to the restaurant with my hands shaking slightly on the steering wheel.

The Date

I want you to imagine sitting across from someone at a nice Italian restaurant while your skin is tingling, your heart rate is 130 BPM at rest, and you're so overstimulated that the ambient jazz music sounds like a concert.

She said, "You seem really energetic!"

I WAS. I was SO energetic. I could not stop talking. I talked about my workout. I talked about progressive overload. I talked about the mind-muscle connection. She asked what I do for work and I said "chest and triceps" before correcting myself.

I ate my pasta in what I can only describe as aggressive fashion. I drank four glasses of water. My leg was bouncing so hard the table was shaking. She asked if I was nervous and I said "no this is just the beta-alanine" which is NOT a reassuring thing to say to someone who doesn't know what beta-alanine is.

The Aftermath

She did not text me back. Can't imagine why.

I went home and lay on my floor staring at the ceiling for two hours because the caffeine wouldn't let me sleep and the shame wouldn't let me relax.

The next day I texted her an apology: "Hey, I'm really sorry about last night. I accidentally took pre-workout before dinner and I was basically vibrating. I promise I'm normally a calm person."

She said: "That explains a lot actually lol."

We did not go on a second date.

Lessons Learned

Never take pre-workout if there's even a 1% chance your schedule might change
If you DO take pre-workout before a date, at LEAST go burn it off first
"This is just the beta-alanine" is not first-date conversation
Italian restaurants with ambient jazz are not the vibe when you're stimmed out of your mind

For the record, I've since had perfectly normal dates. I've read advice about first date ideas that are actually active and honestly, if I'd just suggested a gym date or a hike, the pre-workout would've been an ASSET.

Timing is everything. In lifting and in love. Mostly in pre-workout.