What is the best pre workout on the market?

I like Mr. Hyde... I saw C4 has a new formula I have yet to try. I too love the tingles.

Coffee or a sugar free monster do the trick for me

kwtilbury wrote: »

I stopped using pre-workout formulas because most are either under-dosed or hidden behind "proprietary blends" and are really expensive. I buy individual ingredients in bulk and make my own. However, when I did buy, I would get C4, NO X-plode or Assault - which ever was cheapest at the time.

^^ This. Make your own.

C4 pink lemonade or fruit punch

Personally, I'll take attitude over any preworkout. I stopped using them back in 2000 and haven't really noticed a lack of working out any harder.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Yes, caffeine is the best answer. Cheap and effective... Dedication, Hard-Work, and Commitment is even more effective.


If you are looking for an actual, good tasting PWO though:

• Controlled Labs White Flood Reborn
• ANS Performance Ritual
• Ergogenix ErgoPump
• MAN: Game Day
• JYM Prejym
• Omega Sports: Ultima
• Pharma Sports: Plasma NOX

Beta-Alanine gives you the tingling sensation, but it disappears with continued use. Beta-Alanine is in lower doses in quite a few pre-workouts, despite doing nothing specifically to energize you, prior to exercising. It does however offer endurance benefits, but that requires system saturation over time.

If you want to take it correctly, then buy standalone flavorless Carnosyn-trademarked Beta Alanine and dose at 3-4 grams/day. Timing it to the hour doesn't matter.

paris458 wrote: »

I was using bpi sports and only half a scoop because I feel nauseous on it. I dont really use it anymore.

For anyone who has ever felt nauseous from a pre-workout, the culprit is probably the Yohimbe or the Rauwolfia Vomitoria extract. Yohimbe/Yohimbine makes me feel like death, so I choose preworkouts without it.


BPI Sports: 1.M.R. has Yohimbe in it...
BPI Sports: Pump HD does not.

whmscll wrote: »

What is the purpose of a pre-workout formula?

Increased energy, focus, or pump.

jessef593 wrote: »

I was asking what do people use for flavouring when they mix their own pre workouts from bulk ingredients. Beta alanine, creatine, l citraline, and so on

You could use any of these:

Carnosyn Beta Alanine: 3-4 g/day
Micronized Creatine Monohydrate: 3-5 g/day
Caffeine: 200mg or preference preworkout
Betaine Anhydrous: 2.5-4 g/preworkout
Agmatine Sulfate: 1 g/preworkout
Citrulline Malate: 6-8 g/preworkout

Crystal Light, Mio, or Gatorade mixed with ice water to taste.

Obviously, you wouldn't take a preworkout every single day of the year. So on the days that you don't take it, continue with the beta alanine and creatine for optimal system saturation. You can even afford to skip a day with those, as they will already be saturated in your system if taking 3-5 days a week out of 7 days.

Another +1 for caffeine...recently I've been enjoying the Crystal Light single packets with caffeine, grape and wild strawberry. While they aren't "natural" like coffee, it's another option to change it up.

I like C4 (though I find that better for cardio than for lifting), Bullnox (I like this better for lifting), or Pre Jym (It's decent on both fronts).

kwtilbury wrote: »

sixxpoint wrote: »

You could use any of these:

Carnosyn Beta Alanine: 3-4 g/day
Micronized Creatine Monohydrate: 3-5 g/day
Caffeine: 200mg or preference preworkout
Betaine Anhydrous: 2.5-4 g/preworkout
Agmatine Sulfate: 1 g/preworkout
Citrulline Malate: 6-8 g/preworkout

That's my stack, minus the Betaine Anhydrous and Agmatine Sulfate. What to they accomplish?

That looks like an awful lot of Citrulline Malate; I usually take around 2g pre-workout. I used to stack it with L-Arginine, but found that it lowered my blood pressure to the point I would get shortness of breath.

L-Arginine has been proven to do jack. What you want to look into is the pre-cursor, Agmatine, which has a number of positive effects: http://examine.com/supplements/Agmatine/


You're thinking of the L-Citrulline dosage. 3g L-Citrulline = 6g Citrulline Malate.


On Betaine...

Cholewa et al., 2013
In summary, the major findings of the present study are that 6 weeks of betaine
supplementation improved body composition, muscle size, work capacity, attenuated a rise in
HCTL, tended to improve power, but not strength in resistance trained men.

Cholewa et al., 2013
...betaine improved work capacity for 10 sets of repetitions to
fatigue at 50% 1 RM [4]. Given improved work capacity with higher volume resistance
training prescriptions, and the lack of improvement during micro-cycle 2 which imposed less
of a metabolic demand (4 sets of 4–6 repetitions with 3 min rest), it is likely that betaine
poses the most ergogenic potential in resistance training exercise protocols that impose higher
metabolic demands.

Cholewa et al., 2013
Based on the small differences in HCTL changes, betaine supplementation may have
impacted body composition via other mechanisms. Betaine has been shown to elevate plasma
GH and IGF-1, and increase Akt phosphorylation in human skeletal muscle [38]. In mice
betaine improves insulin sensitivity by restoring activation of IRS1 and the subsequent phosphorylation of PI3K/Akt by 50-100% in a concentration-dependent manner [39]. Thus, it is possible that by elevating anabolic hormones and enhancing downstream cellular signaling,
betaine may have improved muscle protein synthesis, thus leading to an increase in lean
mass. Finally, because betaine is a powerful osomylte, the increases in lean mass may have
been due to cellular swelling without an appreciable increase in myofibril protein accretion.

This study utilized 2.5g of Betaine split into two doses of 1.25g.

Abstract: http://www.jissn.com/content/10/1/39/abstract
Full text: http://www.jissn.com/content/pdf/1550-2783-10-39.pdf

Supplements that utilize Betaine (TMG) and dosage:

Genomyx Origin - 3g (per serving)
Controlled Labs Green Magnitude - 2g (per serving)
Omega Sports Ultima - 1.125g (per serving)
LiveLong Nutrition Betaine powder - 100g
Pre-Jym - 1.5g (per serving)
NOW TMG tablets 100 tablets - (1g per tab)
Cellucor COR-Performance Creatine - 1.25g (per serving)
Cellucor M5 - 1g (per serving)
Muscle Tech MyoBuild - 1.25g (per serving)
Muscle Tech AminoBuild - 1.25g (per serving)
ANS Ritual - 1.25g (per serving)

sixxpoint wrote: »

kwtilbury wrote: »

sixxpoint wrote: »

You could use any of these:

Carnosyn Beta Alanine: 3-4 g/day
Micronized Creatine Monohydrate: 3-5 g/day
Caffeine: 200mg or preference preworkout
Betaine Anhydrous: 2.5-4 g/preworkout
Agmatine Sulfate: 1 g/preworkout
Citrulline Malate: 6-8 g/preworkout

That's my stack, minus the Betaine Anhydrous and Agmatine Sulfate. What to they accomplish?

That looks like an awful lot of Citrulline Malate; I usually take around 2g pre-workout. I used to stack it with L-Arginine, but found that it lowered my blood pressure to the point I would get shortness of breath.

L-Arginine has been proven to do jack. What you want to look into is the pre-cursor, Agmatine, which has a number of positive effects: http://examine.com/supplements/Agmatine/


You're thinking of the L-Citrulline dosage. 3g L-Citrulline = 6g Citrulline Malate.


On Betaine...

Cholewa et al., 2013
In summary, the major findings of the present study are that 6 weeks of betaine
supplementation improved body composition, muscle size, work capacity, attenuated a rise in
HCTL, tended to improve power, but not strength in resistance trained men.

Cholewa et al., 2013
...betaine improved work capacity for 10 sets of repetitions to
fatigue at 50% 1 RM [4]. Given improved work capacity with higher volume resistance
training prescriptions, and the lack of improvement during micro-cycle 2 which imposed less
of a metabolic demand (4 sets of 4–6 repetitions with 3 min rest), it is likely that betaine
poses the most ergogenic potential in resistance training exercise protocols that impose higher
metabolic demands.

Cholewa et al., 2013
Based on the small differences in HCTL changes, betaine supplementation may have
impacted body composition via other mechanisms. Betaine has been shown to elevate plasma
GH and IGF-1, and increase Akt phosphorylation in human skeletal muscle [38]. In mice
betaine improves insulin sensitivity by restoring activation of IRS1 and the subsequent phosphorylation of PI3K/Akt by 50-100% in a concentration-dependent manner [39]. Thus, it is possible that by elevating anabolic hormones and enhancing downstream cellular signaling,
betaine may have improved muscle protein synthesis, thus leading to an increase in lean
mass. Finally, because betaine is a powerful osomylte, the increases in lean mass may have
been due to cellular swelling without an appreciable increase in myofibril protein accretion.

This study utilized 2.5g of Betaine split into two doses of 1.25g.

Abstract: http://www.jissn.com/content/10/1/39/abstract
Full text: http://www.jissn.com/content/pdf/1550-2783-10-39.pdf

Supplements that utilize Betaine (TMG) and dosage:

Genomyx Origin - 3g (per serving)
Controlled Labs Green Magnitude - 2g (per serving)
Omega Sports Ultima - 1.125g (per serving)
LiveLong Nutrition Betaine powder - 100g
Pre-Jym - 1.5g (per serving)
NOW TMG tablets 100 tablets - (1g per tab)
Cellucor COR-Performance Creatine - 1.25g (per serving)
Cellucor M5 - 1g (per serving)
Muscle Tech MyoBuild - 1.25g (per serving)
Muscle Tech AminoBuild - 1.25g (per serving)
ANS Ritual - 1.25g (per serving)

Can I just buy some from you? This sounds really complicated!