The short version
- An analysis of the 100 top-selling pre-workout supplements found a mean of 18.4 ingredients per product, 8.1 of them inside a proprietary blend, with 44.3% of all ingredients listed at undisclosed amounts.
- Beta-alanine was the most common pre-workout ingredient, in 87% of products at an average of 2.0 g per serving, which the analysis reported as below the recommended efficacious dose of 4 to 6 g daily.
- Caffeine appeared in 86% of pre-workouts at an average of 254 mg, described in that analysis as near the low end of an effective relative dose for a 70 kg person, against an ISSN range of 3 to 6 mg per kilogram.
- Citrulline appeared in 71% of products at an average of 4.0 g, above the 3 g minimum used in a meta-analysis of 12 studies and 198 participants that found a small pooled benefit of 0.20 for strength and power.
- Creatine was in 49% of pre-workouts at an average of 2.1 g, a dose that ignores the fact that creatine works by daily saturation over weeks rather than acutely before a session.
Eighteen. That is the mean number of ingredients listed on a scoop of pre-workout, and it is not a typo. When Jagim and colleagues pulled the supplement facts panels of the 100 top-selling pre-workout products, the average formula listed 18.4 ingredients, 8.1 of which sat inside a proprietary blend at undisclosed quantities. Across the whole sample, 44.3% of all ingredients came with no number attached.
That is the first thing worth knowing about a pre-workout label: close to half of it cannot be argued with, because you are not shown enough to argue. So the useful exercise is not "does pre-workout work." It is going down the panel line by line and asking, for each ingredient, whether the amount in the scoop is the amount that was studied.
Caffeine, which earns its slot
Caffeine appeared in 86% of those products at an average of 254 mg. The ISSN position stand puts the consistently ergogenic range at 3 to 6 mg per kilogram of body mass, and Jagim's team noted that the average caffeine content sat near the low end of an effective relative dose for a 70 kg individual. That is the honest verdict: for most people the caffeine in a scoop is a real dose of a real ergogenic aid, and if you are heavier than average it is a slightly light one. It is also responsible for nearly everything you actually feel in the twenty minutes after drinking it. Because the effective caffeine dose scales with bodyweight rather than with scoop size, two people using the same tub are not running the same experiment.
Beta-alanine: right ingredient, wrong dose, wrong logic
Beta-alanine was the most common ingredient of all, in 87% of products, at an average of 2.0 g. The ISSN position stand on the ingredient concludes that four weeks at 4 to 6 g daily significantly raises muscle carnosine. Jagim's analysis states the obvious consequence: the average amount per serving was below the recommended efficacious dose.
There is a second problem no amount of dosing fixes. Beta-alanine works by accumulating carnosine in muscle over weeks. Taking it before a session does nothing for that session. The tingle arrives on schedule; the buffering does not. If a formula has put it there for the sensation, it has succeeded.
Citrulline, usually dosed correctly
Citrulline turned up in 71% of products at an average of 4.0 g, which makes it the one line on the panel where the typical product sits inside the evidence base. A 2019 meta-analysis of 12 studies in 198 participants — which excluded any trial using less than 3 g, or dosing less than 30 minutes before testing — found a significant benefit with a small pooled standardised mean difference of 0.20. The authors were careful to note that confidence intervals for each individual study crossed the line of null effect, and that the result may matter most to athletes whose outcomes are decided by small margins.
Creatine, in the wrong product entirely
Creatine was present in 49% of pre-workouts at an average of 2.1 g. Creatine is not an acute ergogenic. It works by saturating muscle stores over days to weeks — which is the whole subject of the creatine loading question — and the intake that keeps them saturated has to arrive every day, including the days you do not train. The ISSN position stand describes habitual ingestion of around 3 g a day as the level worth maintaining across the lifespan. Two grams on training days only is not that. If you want creatine, buy creatine.
The rest of the panel
Tyrosine appeared in 63% of products at an average of 348 mg, taurine in 51% at 1.3 g, and a long tail of vitamins, herbal extracts and free amino acids fills out the remaining lines. BCAAs are a frequent inclusion, and they are the clearest case of an ingredient whose job your dinner already did; we make that argument in full separately, along with the leucine threshold that explains it. Most of the tail exists because a longer panel photographs better than a shorter one.
Does the combination buy anything the parts do not?
Harty and colleagues reviewed multi-ingredient pre-workouts in 2018 and were candid about the ceiling on what can be known: direct comparisons between formulas are often impossible, precisely because of proprietary blends. Their read was that acute pre-exercise use may positively influence muscular endurance and subjective mood, with mixed results for force and power, and that chronic use alongside a periodised resistance programme appears to augment lean mass. They also flagged the caveat we would put in larger type than the marketing: most safety studies run under eight weeks, and formulas may contain banned substances either as listed ingredients or as contaminants.
What we'd actually tell you
If you like the ritual of a scoop before training, that is a legitimate reason to have one — buy it knowing what it is. A pre-workout is a caffeine delivery system with a citrulline dose that is usually right, a beta-alanine dose that is usually not, and a creatine dose that belongs in a different product taken on a different schedule. Read the panel before the front label. If the caffeine number is missing, put the tub back; that is the one ingredient you need to be able to count. And if what you want is the two ingredients here with the most consistent data behind them, they are cheaper bought separately, taken daily, at amounts you can see.
Good questions
Do I need a pre-workout to train hard?
No. Nothing on the panel changes what your programme is capable of producing over a year. The strongest ingredient in the scoop is caffeine, which reliably helps a session you were going to do anyway. If a pre-workout is the thing that gets you to the gym, that is a real benefit and worth the money. If you are buying it expecting the other seventeen ingredients to matter, most of them will not.
Is it a problem if my pre-workout has a proprietary blend?
It is a problem for you, not for the manufacturer. In the analysis of 100 top-selling products, 44.3% of all ingredients were listed inside blends at undisclosed amounts, and 8.1 ingredients per product on average were hidden this way. You cannot check a dose you are not shown, and the ingredients that need a big dose to work are exactly the ones most worth hiding.
Should I just buy the ingredients separately?
For caffeine, creatine and citrulline, yes, and it is usually cheaper. Separate ingredients let you match the dose to your bodyweight, take creatine every day rather than only on training days, and stop paying for a long tail of extracts at token amounts. The trade is convenience and taste, which are real things people are allowed to buy.
Why is there creatine in my pre-workout if it does not work acutely?
Because it is a recognised name that improves the look of a panel. Creatine raises muscle stores over days to weeks and then has to be maintained daily; the ISSN position stand describes around 3 g a day as the habitual level worth keeping. An average of 2.1 g taken only on training days does not maintain anything. It is not harmful, it is just in the wrong product.
Are pre-workout supplements safe?
Broadly, in healthy adults, at the doses studied — with two caveats worth taking seriously. The 2018 review noted that most safety studies of multi-ingredient pre-workouts ran under eight weeks, so long-term data is thin. It also noted that formulas may contain banned substances as listed ingredients or as contaminants, which matters if you are tested. If you have a heart condition or take medication, the caffeine content is the part to raise with your doctor.
How much caffeine is actually in a scoop?
An average of 254 mg across the 100 top-selling products, with a standard deviation of about 80 mg, so the spread is wide. Against the ISSN range of 3 to 6 mg per kilogram, that is roughly a low-to-moderate dose for a 70 kg adult and a light one above that. Check your own tub rather than assuming, and count anything else you drank that morning.
Sources
- Jagim AR, Harty PS, Camic CL. Common Ingredient Profiles of Multi-Ingredient Pre-Workout Supplements. Nutrients, 2019. View study
- Harty PS, Zabriskie HA, Erickson JL, Molling PE, Kerksick CM, Jagim AR. Multi-ingredient pre-workout supplements, safety implications, and performance outcomes: a brief review. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2018. View study
- Guest NS, VanDusseldorp TA, Nelson MT, et al. International society of sports nutrition position stand: caffeine and exercise performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2021. View study
- Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE, Stout JR, et al. International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2015. View study
- Trexler ET, Persky AM, Ryan ED, Schwartz TA, Stoner L, Smith-Ryan AE. Acute Effects of Citrulline Supplementation on High-Intensity Strength and Power Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med, 2019. View study
- Kreider RB, Kalman DS, Antonio J, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2017. View study
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
