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Pre Workout 101

Not all pre-workout products are created equal—in fact, far from it. Between that and the fact that pre-workouts are a dime a dozen these days, choosing the right one can quickly become a complicated and confusing pursuit.

We don’t want you to waste your money on a supplement that doesn’t work, so in this guide we’re divulging exactly what to look for in a pre-workout. After reading, you’ll know which common pre-workout ingredients actually work, which ones are so-so, and which ones you should flat-out avoid.

Medical disclaimer: This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. For health advice, contact a licensed healthcare provider.

What is a Pre-Workout? Pre-workout is a supplement that you consume before a workout/practice/game. A pre-workout intends to accomplish at least one of the following things:

  • Boost your energy levels
  • Help you focus
  • Give you a muscle pump
  • Increase your exercise endurance
  • Help you work harder in the gym, or in competition  
  • Improve overall exercise performance  
  • Decrease post-exercise muscle soreness
  • Ultimately, if a pre-workout is accomplishing these things on a regular basis, it should improve your overall athletic performance and help you reach longer-term goals like gaining muscle mass, fat loss, increasing muscle strength and muscular endurance, improving aerobic capacity, and more.

Best Pre-Workout Ingredients

These are the key ingredients often present in pre-workouts and what they do in the body.

1. Caffeine

Caffeine is what provides the energy in the vast majority of pre-workouts supplements. Those without caffeine are mostly labeled “non-stim” pre-workouts, and they won’t give you the jolt of energy that a caffeine-laden supplement will. However, those who tend to get the jitters after caffeine ingestion will likely prefer a stim-free pre-workout.

2. Citrulline

Citrulline is one of the most important ingredients in a pre-workout. It often appears on the ingredients list as L-citrulline or citrulline malate. The difference is that citrulline malate includes malic acid, which contains malate. Malate is an important compound in energy production systems within the body (1), so some people think that citrulline malate is the superior form of citrulline in sports supplements. The science is still out on that, however.

Citrulline is a vasodilator (2) and it’s largely responsible for the muscle pump that occurs during strength training after taking pre-workout. Vasodilators widen the blood vessels (3), which simultaneously lowers blood pressure and increases blood flow, allowing more oxygen and nutrients to reach working muscles.

3. Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is the compound responsible for the tingling sensation associated with pre-workout consumption. This ingredient is much more than that pins-and-needles feeling (which is harmless and called paresthesia), though—beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid that boosts the production of carnosine. Carnosine is a buffer against lactic acid (4), and it helps prevent a buildup of the acid during exercise, especially high-intensity exercise. In this way, beta-alanine is a powerful anti-fatigue agent.

4. Betaine Anhydrous

Research on betaine supports this ingredient as an endurance enhancer (5), something that can help you extend the total duration of your training session or eke out more reps in the weight room. It might also increase muscle protein synthesis (6).

5. Creatine

Creatine is the most clinically studied sports nutrition supplement. It’s been proven safe and efficacious for a number of fitness outcomes, including increases in lean muscle (7), strength (8), power (9), and endurance (10). Creatine also replenishes your body’s stores of ATP (11), as it’s a primary component of the creatine phosphate energy system in the body.

When creatine is included in pre-workout, it’s usually present as creatine monohydrate or creatine HCl. Creatine phosphate is the third possible option. We recommend creatine Monohydrate as it is the most researched and proven form of creatine. Usually (but not always), the dose in pre-workout is too small to be beneficial and you’re better off buying a creatine supplement separately. A standard dose of creatine is 3-5g.

6. Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs)

There are three BCAAs: leucine, isoleucine, and valine. These amino acids support muscle protein synthesis and increase glucose uptake into the muscles (which is important for long-duration exercise), but the verdict is still out on how helpful these amino acids are independently as supplements, according to a 2017 review in the Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition (12). To build muscle, you need all nine essential amino acids. BCAAs in pre-workout won’t hurt, and they might help, but I wouldn’t place them high on your priority list.

7. Arginine

L-arginine (13) is an amino acid. Like carnosine, it’s essential for the production of nitric oxide, which dilates the blood vessels and promotes increased blood flow. In terms of fitness, it’s thought to have positive effects on aerobic metabolism (14), meaning it might increase your endurance. Unlike a lot of substances, L-arginine has both acute (short-term/immediate) and chronic (long-term) effects on performance (15), so this is one that we really like to see in pre-workouts.

8. Tyrosine 

This amino acid is included in pre-workouts for its impact on mental alertness and focus; it’s broadly characterized as a nootropic. Your body makes tyrosine endogenously from phenylalanine, a different amino acid, but supplementing with it is thought to improve mental performance in stressful situations (16) and keep your mood stable. Research shows that tyrosine supplementation can improve working memory (17) and cognitive flexibility18 (the ability to switch effectively between tasks), but the implications for fitness performance are unclear.

Some research shows that tyrosine fails to improve physical performance19, while other studies (20) say the opposite. Tyrosine may work better in combination with other ingredients21, including theanine and caffeine. For these reasons, I wouldn’t worry too much about finding a pre-workout with tyrosine, and instead think of it as an added bonus.

9. Taurine

Taurine has been called a “very essential” amino acid (22) due to its abundance in almost all body tissues, but especially the tissues of the eyes, brain, spinal cord, heart, and muscle cells. Taurine holds a number of important roles in the body (23), but with regard to fitness specifically, it is important for mitochondrial function, maintaining electrolyte balance in your cells (and thus hydration), supporting central nervous system function, and maintaining calcium balance in cells.

10. Theanine

L-theanine is an amino acid that has an effect on the nervous system and is thought to bolster the effects of caffeine (25). It’s often included in pre-workout as an aid for calmness and focus. Some people believe that it reduces the jittery effect of caffeine.

11. Electrolytes

In pre-workout, the minerals sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium are sometimes included for hydration purposes and to support the sodium-potassium pump that plays a big role in muscle contraction.

I wouldn’t call these a necessary ingredient, since you can get them from drinking a sports drink (you could, perhaps, mix your pre-workout powder in something like LMNT), but they definitely don’t hurt a pre-workout formula.

12. B Vitamins

B vitamins are sometimes included in pre-workout formulas due to their role in energy regulation and mood support (26). Some B vitamins may act as nootropics, promoting a sense of focus and calm.

However, B vitamins are not likely to be a highly beneficial inclusion in multi-ingredient pre-workouts that contain other, more potent ingredients—particularly if you already get enough B vitamins daily.

13. Nootropics

Nootropics are a class of compounds that promote focus and mental clarity. Popular nootropics in pre-workouts include caffeine, L-theanine, L-tyrosine, and B vitamins, all described above, but also ingredients like theobromine, choline, lion’s mane mushroom, rhodiola extract, ginkgo biloba, and panax ginseng.

14. Bioavailability Agents

In modern pre-workouts, bioavailability enhancers are becoming more and more popular. These ingredients help your body absorb more of the ingredients you consume when you take a pre-workout.

Two in particular have been proven effective to a degree: black pepper extracts (27), including the patented version BioPerine, and ginseng extracts (28), often as AstraGin, a patented compound that increases nutrient transporters in the gut for common pre-workout ingredients.

15. Other Nitric Oxide Boosters

You may come across other nitric oxide booster ingredients in pre-workouts, such as beetroot extract or pomegranate extract. These are thought to function in the same way as citrulline: they trigger reactions that cause the blood vessels to widen, resulting in increased blood flow and a muscle pump.

Doses Of Ingredients In Pre-Workouts 

I hate to break it to you, but just including the above ingredients in a pre-workout formula isn’t enough. They must be dosed correctly, too, or they’re a waste of money. Many, although not all, of the above ingredients have been proven to work at specific, or efficacious dosages, which are as follows.

Caffeine: 0 to 300 milligrams, depending on tolerance

Creatine: 3 to 5 grams

Beta-alanine: 3.2 grams

Citrulline: 6 to 8 grams

Betaine anhydrous: 2.5 to 5g

Ingredients To Avoid 

For most people, the important things to look out for are known allergens and ingredients that you already know give you unwanted side effects, such as artificial sweeteners that may cause GI distress. When it comes to common food additives, it’s really up to the individual to know what works for them and what doesn’t.

There are some universal things we can point to as watch-outs, though. For example, very high levels of stimulants, including caffeine, can be dangerous. Other stimulants to avoid include dendrobium, synephrine, DMAE, and rauwolfia vomitoria, according to registered dietitian Bob Lafelice, Ph.D.

Steer clear of pre-workouts that make questionable health claims. A pre-workout that says you can lose 20 pounds of body weight in two weeks is lying, and most likely dangerous. The same is true if a pre-workout claims it will make you pack on muscle in a short amount of time. Steroids and hormones do that, not pre-workouts.

Third-Party Testing & Label Transparency 

Unfortunately, supplement companies have very few rules and regulations to abide by when it comes to manufacturing sports nutrition or health and wellness products. Supplements are currently regulated under some very outdated 1994 legislation called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 199429.

This act doesn’t stipulate much other than the fact that supplement manufacturers are prohibited from “marketing products that are adulterated or misbranded,” according to the FDA30. This means that the companies themselves are responsible for vetting their products for efficacy, safety, and label accuracy and ensuring they meet FDA standards.

But the FDA doesn’t actually have any control over whether or not a company abides by the DSHEA—until a product reaches shelves, at which point it could be too late if consumers have already started ingesting harmful substances.

Once a product is on store shelves or available for sale online, the FDA can take action against it if it’s deemed “adulterated or misbranded.” This includes products that do not declare allergens, potentially harmful ingredients, or proven harmful ingredients, as well as those that make claims about the efficacy of a product that simply aren’t true.

This is one of the main reasons why SafeForSport.com was established, to create a credible source of information and safe supplementation to help athletes of all ages safely maximize their performance, development, and recovery.

Third-party testing protects consumers where the FDA does not. It also protects athletes from consuming ingredients that are prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The Best Pre-Workout Supplements 

Although you just learned all about what to look for in a pre-workout, we’ve actually already done the shopping for you! We’ve tested more than 50 pre-workouts to find the best of the best.

Here’s our list of the best pre-workout supplements:

Best Pre-Workout Overall: Transparent Labs BULK

What To Look For In A Pre-Workout:

Final Thoughts There’s a lot to consider when it comes to pre-workout supplements. Here’s a checklist you can run through next time you’re shopping. These questions are listed in order of importance.

Does it contain any ingredients that, to you, are known allergens or irritants? 

Are there any proprietary blends that prevent you from knowing what exactly is in the formula and in what amounts?

Is there full label transparency? (Especially important if the answer to No. 2 was yes).

Does it contain, at a minimum, citrulline, beta-alanine, and caffeine (if you want it), at efficacious doses?

Does it contain any other scientifically proven ingredients that assist with performance, like creatine, betaine, arginine, or electrolytes?

Does it contain these ingredients in the clinically supported doses?

Does it contain any nootropics or bioavailability enhancers?

Answering these questions will help you whittle away the bad eggs to find a good pre-workout that works for you.

What To Look For In A Pre-Workout: Q&A

Is It Enough To Take Pre-Workout Before The Gym? Taking pre-workout might help you perform better during your training session. However, it’s still a good idea to fuel up with some good ol’ fashioned calories, primarily carbohydrates, before you hit the gym.

Is Pre-Workout Safe?

There are plenty of safe pre-workouts out there. The problem is, there are many unsafe ones, too. As you shop, it’s important to know which ingredients to look for and which ones to avoid.

Does Pre-Workout Help You Build Muscle?

Yes, pre-workout can help you build muscle if it contains the right ingredients. Those ingredients include creatine, beta-alanine, betaine anhydrous, citrulline, and various amino acids.

 

References

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  2. Moon JR, Vogel RM, Falcone PH, et al. A comparison of citrulline and arginine for increasing exercise-induced vasodilation and blood flow. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12(Suppl 1):P6. Published 2015 Sep 21. doi:10.1186/1550-2783-12-S1-P6
  3. Hariri L, Patel JB. Vasodilators. [Updated 2022 Aug 22]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554423/
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