Pre-Workouts

Although some people hate hearing it, occasional breaks from stimulants are beneficial and restorative. During those intervals, Opus assists in keeping energy levels optimized. Ingredients: The ingredients are divided into two proprietary blends, known as “Instabolic pHuel” and “Opus Hydrating Energy Blitz.” The Instabolic pHuel blend contains 6 different ingredients to raise pH levels for more muscular endurance. The Opus...

The slim and trim pre-workout! Ingredients: This pre-workout blend is one of the first of its kind. This complete system is designed to give intense energy to help push through tough workouts while giving the body the exact amounts of ingredients to help strip off excess fat to achieve a lean, tone look. This blend starts out with a B-Vitamin blend to help give energy and help with the body’s metabolism. This is followed up with...

Consuming Nitric Blast will get you fully wired and invigorated, but may not be the best option for gaining strength and building muscle mass. The formula is not overloaded with unnecessary fillers, yet it does not have the necessary ingredients in correct amounts either. Ingredients:  Concentrated supplements continue to be a popular choice. These formulas are marketed as having no fillers, binders, or artificial colors, but they...

Maximize Your Training and Push Your Limits! Ingredients: This ingredient list is short but it can deliver intense results for better longer workouts. It starts with three grams of L-Arginine mixed Polyethylene Glycol, PEG for short. This doesn’t sound like much but the PEG helps to buffer the L-Arginine past the stomach acids to get full absorption. This is the equivalent to about 5-6 grams of L-Arginine by itself. This provides...

Optimum Nutrition packages sugar coated treats and tries to pass them off as a supplement with health benefits Ingredients: The main ingredient is Beta-Alanine, an amino acid which raises carnosine levels and delays neuromuscular fatigue, leading to longer and more intense training. The other aminos in this product are L-Citrulline and L-Arginine. Citrulline facilitates the production of arginine and stacks well with beta-alanine. These...

Amplified Pre-Workout Intensity Ingredients: This electrifying formula is designed to help fuel intense workout using Heat Shock Activation technology with high grades of Creatine and Nitric Oxide. It starts with a full B-Complex  for natural energy and metabolism support. Then it stacks healthy amounts of electrolytes to help increase endurance. Next the formula has four blends the first of which is an endurance blend using Betaine,...

Vasotropin delivers a massive pump.  What more do you want? Ingredients: Gaspari takes a different approach to stimulating nitric oxide release and creating vasodilation than most of the other stuff on the market.  We generally use amino acids to enhance nitric oxide production.  We have come to associate citrulline and arginine with these results.  These aminos, in the right dosing and mixing, can definitely produce the desired...

This is nice stuff. It basically brings together about all the right stuff for a good pre-workout supplement. Ingredients: This supplement basically puts it all together in a nice way.  It combines 150 mg of caffeine (which I consider to be generally a pretty decent dose) with a variety of really solid amino acids that deliver a nice pump and overall performance benefits.  Citrullin is a catalyst of Arginine and Citrulline Malate, which...

Razor 8 Blast Powder will get you completely buzzed and focused for a great workout, but it is not all that smooth and is not something I would want to take every workout. Ingredients: The combination of stimulants is pretty hardcore.  The half-scoop serving contains almost 200 mg of a caffeine blend in addition to 1,3 dimethylamine, plus Yohimbe HCl.  These stimulants are going to attack your receptors from all sides.  That is a good...

  Beast Sports Beast Mode pre-workout is some pretty strong stuff and some people will definitely love it, but the combination of ingredients definitely does not treat everyone well. Ingredients:  Beast mode contains a solid amino blend for muscle strength and endurance benefits.  It leads off with Creatine Monohydrate in the form of Creapure, which is high quality stuff.  Along with Beta-Alanine and Citrulline Malate, this product...

The ALL DAY Nitric Oxide Pump! Ingredients: This formula is a pretty short list but the amounts are generous and the grades of the ingredients are top notch. This contains two types or Arginine, those being Arginine AKG and Arginine Ethyl-Ester HCL. Arginine Ethyl-Ester HCL is considered to be a concentrated form of Arginine that is extremely absorbable while Arginine AKG is Arginine bonded with Glutamine. It helps with the absorption of...

ACG-3… Maximum Anabolic Results. Ingredients: This blend is a very high energy mix of creatine, nitric oxide and a gratuitous amount of stimulants to help push through any workout. The first set of ingredients is a creatine blend. It helps to give a sustained release of creatine to the muscles throughout the workout. It uses Creatine Citrate, Creatine MagnaPower, and Creatine Ethyl-Ester. These are all very absorbable forms of...

The Platinum Standard! Ingredients: This pre-workout formula is a rare breed. It is not laced with a huge amount of stimulants but can deliver a workout worthy of the most elite bodybuilders. (I actually know a couple of them take this product!) This product starts off with KreAlkalyn Creatine. This is one of the highest grades of creatine on the market. It is ph-balanced for the acids in the stomach and therefore the only creatine with a...

Pre-Workout Intensity to the MAX!!!! Ingredients: This blend is pretty simple like other pre-workouts in this category of extreme energy pre-workout supplements. The first ingredient is L-Arginine HCL this form of Arginine is considered to be a concentrated form and produce a lot of Nitric Oxide with a smaller amount than the usual in other pre-workout supplements. Creatine Magnesium Chelate, or Creatine MagnaPower, is considered to be one...

The Nitric Oxide Booster for every workout! Ingredients: This blend will help with endurance and give some pretty good muscle pumps and can be mixed in with an existing stack too. It contains L-Arginine AKG which is L-Arginine bonded with L-Glutamine to help with better absorption and better endurance/recovery. It helps give a better Nitric Oxide boost that L-Arginine alone and is considered one of the highest grades of Arginine available...

The return of Arnge Krush!!! Ingredients: This blend of ingredients is meant to help give a better longer workout in the gym without the use of high energy stimulants! There are several mini-blends so I will break down each blend individually. The first blend “Glyco-Positive Instafuse Delivery” is a blend of unrefined cane juice, Karbolyn, Glycerol Monosterate, and 6,8-Thioctic Acid (R-Alpha Lipoic Acid and S-Alpha Lipoic Acid)....

  The Muscle Pump Maximizer!! Ingredients: This blend at first look may not seem like much but it packs a huge wallop! This is not meant to give crazy energy but some ridiculous muscle pumps. So anyone can take this product. (Almost anyone… If you are on a MAOI inhibitor check with your doctor first. It can cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure if you take it with an MAOI inhibitor.) The first ingredient is Arginine Nitrate...

The Pre-workout for people who look to get shredded. Ingredients: This blend is for people who still want some muscle but are not looking for a big puffy look but more along the lines of a lean washboard abs look. This is actually a revised version of N-Zero that took place about a four or five months ago. They had to take out some good ingredients ( Thanks FDA!!! }=( ) but they were able to replace it with ingredients that are better in...

The Mass Machine! Also the most customizable pre-workout possible! Ingredients: This is actually a two part formula so I will break it down into two parts. The top part of the container is your energy blend or “Ignite” blend. It contains 150mg of Caffeine to kick start your workout, Mucuna Pruriens (Velvet Bean Extract) which is a precursor to L-Dopa to give you energy similar to 1,3-Dimethylamylamine (Geranium Stem),...

This explosive (pun intended) formula is a game changer in the gym! Ingredients: The ingredients in this blend help to do many things to augment your workout and this new blend of C-4 has greatly improved over the old version. The biggest parts of this blend can also be easily over looked if you didn’t know any better. The first would be the Creatine Nitrate. This new groundbreaking supplement is an extremely absorbable form of...

BSN Hyper FX is a pre-workout that just did not do it for me. Ingredients:  It has a lot of caffeine in it, which can definitely be a good thing.  I think it has enough to deliver a solid buzz most of the time, but is not really complimented with a really nice amino profile like a good pre-workout.  It leads off with Beta-Alanine which can have some positive effects sometimes in conjunction with some other products, but just...

  Nitrox II is a really solid nitric-oxide enducer with a nice blend of ingredients that seem to work very well together. Ingredients:  Arginine Alpha-Ketoglutarate (AAKG) is the first ingredients in here.  Arginine allows blood vessels to expand, delivering great exercise benefits, but combined with Citrulline, which is the second ingredient in the form of Citrulline Malate, the benefits have been demonstratively increased, and...

CTD Labs Noxipro is a pretty sweet workout supplement. Ingredients:  The powder contains a mix of amino acids and stimulants, as most pre-workout supplements do.  The product’s big three ingredients are Beta-Alanine, Creatine Monohydrate and Arginine-AKG.  Beta-Alanine is shown to increase endurance and power output.  As is creatine, and the two in conjunction can deliver a noticeable result.  AAKG is a nitric oxide precursor...

PhD Wired was fairly awesome, not completely perfect. Ingredients:  The product formula has two basic parts:  The cell volumization/nitric oxide vasilodilatation part made up of Creatine, Critulline Malate, Beta-Alanine, Arginine.  It basically delivers a sweet pump and overall performance and endurance benefits that are definitely noticeable.  The other part is the CNS stimulation/focus.  Propanoic Acid seems to be a pretty sweet...

  Animal M-Stak is a “nutrition partitioner”/general anabolic enhancer that is not quite as groin-grabbling awesome as Universal claims, but there are a few things we really like about it. Ingredients:  There are a lot of different things to note with this product.  The first and foremost is the claim that Beta-Ecdysterone and Methoxyisoflavone can increase protein synthesis and increase anabolism without directly...

MHP Trac is a solid Creatine and Nitric Oxide promoter which is a simple, but effective formula, but contains a bit too much filler. Ingredients:  The primary ingredients are Creatine Monohydrate and L-Arginine, two proven effective Amino-based ingredients, but ones which some people do not always respond to.  These two ingredients make up eight grams in a 17 gram serving.  Other active ingredients include L-Lysine and L-Phenylalanine,...

This is a simple Arginine N.O. booster that is packaged as much more. Ingredients:  A serving contains three grams of Arginine in three different forms: Arginine-Alphaketoglutarate, Arginine-Ketoisocaproate and L-Arginine.  While we like results we get from Arginine in general, this is basically all that this supplement is, but it costs much more.  The benefit one can get from the Arginine plus 200 milligrams of some micro-nutrients...

Driven Sports Craze is a very impressive pre-workout supplement. Ingredients:  The product contains a variety of compounds that have obvious benefits that are common in a lot of pre-workouts that deliver good results and also contains certain stimulant ingredients that are not in other products and were new to us.  But we loved the results and believe that the concoction is a very good one.  Craze contains Creatine Monohydrate and...

This is a creatine/NO precurser/Performance supplement that shows some effects, but the negatives about the product outweigh the positives. Ingredients: The product is made up of a mixture of three creatine powders which amount to about 5 grams. These are solid ingredients with esters that make them more efficient than creatine monohydrate, so they are dosed fairly well. Horsepower also contains a blend of arginine compounds as a Nitric...

Omega Sports Flashover is a good supplement with good ingredients.  They have not made it 100% user friendly, as it does not mix all that well and the taste is iffy. Ingredients: The Flashover ingredients are solid for sure.  The product contains reatine and other effective amino acids as well as a fair amount of stimulants: caffeine and 1,3Dimethylamine.  These are tried and tested to be effective stimulants and certainly quality...

Black Powder is a decent pre-workout supplement. Ingredients: The product is a mix of various amino acid ingredients to go along with stimulants carbohydrates and micro-nutrients.  The choice of aminos is good.  It contains the N.O. pre-cursor arginine in a few different forms.  It also contains a good amount of taurine which has been shown to be very beneficial in muscular performance.  The product contains a good amount of stimulants...

Hemo Rage has a lot of kick, but it’s not effective for everyone. Ingredients:  Hemo Rage Black is completely concealed in a proprietary blend, so the ingredients are not easily evaluated but we can still see a lot.  The first notable thing about the product is that it is more than half carbohydrates.  Carbs can be useful for producing energy, but are very cheap and are essentially filler in this type of product.  We prefer the...

Scivation Novem is a decent pre-workout supplement but it is not entirely amazing. Ingredients:  Novem contains a blend a few amino acid compounds and add in stimulants to the mix.  One serving comprises of creatine, taurine, beta alanine and a couple of stimulants including caffeine.  These are all ingredients proven to be pretty effective and it results in a supplement that delivers effectiveness.  Some people do not like the...

Muscletech Neurocore is a solid new product by the company.  They have been able to deliver very good results and have offered the supplement at a very reasonable price. Ingredients:  The product contains a mix of stimulants to deliver energy and a combination of beta alanine, creatine hydrochloride and critulline malate to deliver muscle volumizing and muscle performance enhancement benefits.  It does not contain any arginine...

This is a product that for us simply did not yield noticeable results. Ingredients: It is difficult to pinpoint where this product goes wrong in the ingredients due to the propriatary blend that Muscletech has used.  We do not know how much of each ingredient has been placed into the product.  While none of the ingredients stand out to us as the obvious answer to why this product does not work for us, we can say that we have read studies...

This is a product that downright delivers noticeable results, but its price makes it tough to justify. Ingredients: Gakic is comprised of one primary active ingredient called glycine-arginine-alpha-ketoisocaproic acid.  It is a patented formula of amino acids which has studies that back up its effectiveness (Though generally the studies were likely sponsored by Muscletech, so you have to take them with a grain of salt).  But we find...

This is a product with some decent benefit but overall is just not worth it. Ingredients: The product is a combination of many different amino essential, semi-essential and other amino acids that provide muscle energy and deliver nitric oxide boosts.  It also contains a fair amount of stimulants in the form of caffeine and others.  These are decent ingredients, but the very expensive product is also 50 percent carbohydrates, a very...

A solid product that delivers only good ingredients and may be just right for some. Ingredients: A solid array of amino acids that includes arginine, a great nitric oxide precursor as well as less common and heralded amino acids such as histidine, which helps promote recovery by reducing inflammation as well as others.  The product also contains a healthy dose of branch chained amino acids, which we love.  All around a pretty solid...

A decent unique preworkout drink that ads a variety of ingredients for some results. Ingredients: Most pre-wrokouts do not include protein powders so the inclusion of a good amount of casein and whey is fairly unique.  The product includes proprietary blends that make it difficult to discern the various amounts of different ingredients.  There are a fair number of ingredients that we have had good results with, from various essential and...

This is a solid supplement to that gives a workout a little boost. Ingredients: There are a good number of herbal ingredients and it is tough to pick out which ones are the most effective, but they seem to produce a decent result.  There are a good number of proven-effective ingredients such as fenugreek, which can notably reduce inflammation, suma root, proven to increase resistance to stress among other things and a host of other...

This is a premium priced product that does not deliver great results. Ingredients: One serving contains 2 grams of a combination of Arginine Ethyl Ester as well as a host of other amino acids designed to deliver that nitric oxide boost that goes into a solid workout.  We think that the total content of 2 grams is not a high enough dose to deliver results.  Other more effective products have higher doses of similar ingredients.  Now AEE...

A solid combination of ingredients designed for an often neglected area of nutrition. Ingredients: SizeOn is comprised of half sugar, but they are good readily absorbed carbohydrates and for an in-workout product we think this can be very helpful.  The price is also not outrageous given the sugar content, so we are okay with that.  Carbohydrates are an important ingredient, and when reasonbly priced, a great additive to a product....

This product can yield some results, but is generally not all that valuable. Ingredients: This fairly expensive product is made up of nearly three quarters fairly inexpensive carbohydrates, mostly Waxy Maize Starch.  Waxy Maize Starch is a solid carbohydrate, but really is not worth the price here.  Otherwise the product is made up of about six grams of amino acids and electrolytes per serving and is generally just not worth the...

Sometimes simple is better than complex.  NOW offers the basics in alternative energy enhancer. Ingredients: The product contains simply the processed green tea extract and a small amount of vitamin C for a very potent presence of anti-oxidents.  However the product is below standard in quality with only 60% polyphenols.  The most potent products contain 90%, but some are as low as 15%, so given the price of the NOW product, that seems...

A very solid pre-workout product that is earning our respect. Ingredients:  The product uses a simple combination of very effective amino acids and stimulants.  We really like the arginine ingredient they used and 1,3-Dimethylamylamine has been proven to be very effective.  We must tell you however, that that ingredient has been banned by WADA and all the anti-doping federations that operate under it.  As we have reported before, it...

There are some pros and cons to this product that will work in general. Ingredients: The product is made up of various amino acids, micronutrients, electrolytes, stimulants and herbal extracts.  The variety seems to mostly include ingredients of high quality that have shown to be effective.  Overall a nice supply of ingredients for pure energy.  The product is not a “pump” product, as these ingredients are not going to...

This is a nitrogen oxide product that delivers an immediate pump but may not be the best value. Ingredients: This product contains simply an arginine ingredient and a herbal ingredient Trichopus Zeylanicus, which has been shown to offer increased energy in subjects and seems to work in this product.  We like the simplicity, but this is a very expensive product and we generally prefer a complex with more added value.  However, with...

This is a preworkout supplement that offers great results for some and bad experiences for others. Ingredients: This product offers a nice array of amino acids, micro-nutrients, electrolytes and stimulants to get you going and last throughout the whole workout.  We like the profile overall.  A lot of nice ingredients that work together in synergy.  It does include creatine so you will not need to double up on that with other products....

We enjoy the play on words as much as we enjoy the supplement. Ingredients: We really like the profile here but the dosing could be rearranged.  It combines a great array of the best amino acids that we have found to work well.  However, the list leads off with taurine and glutamine, which we do not think are the most important amino acids to involve in this type of product.  But it includes the branch chained amino acids as well as...

One more rep.  Isn’t that exactly what we are looking for in an effective pre-workout supplement. Ingredients: This product contains a mixture of stimulants, amino acids and herbal extracts that are really offer a potent combination of energy, pump and muscle repair throughout an entire workout.  These are some of our favorite ingredients and we like products that do not waste our money on carbohydrates.  However we would like to...