The Clinical Dose Card
Nearly every pre-workout on the market contains the right ingredients. Most of them contain the wrong amounts. Below is the dose each ingredient was actually studied at, next to what a typical tub gives you — so you can check any label in about a minute and know whether you are buying the research or the smell of it.
The card
Doses are per serving unless noted. Where a range is given, that is the span across published trials — not a recommendation for you specifically.
| Ingredient | What it is for | Dose in research | Typical tub | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L-Citrulline | Blood flow, the “pump”, reduced fatigue on volume work | 3–6 g | 1–2 g | Usually a third of the dose |
| Citrulline malate (2:1) | Same, plus malate | 6–8 g | 2–4 g | Usually half or less |
| Beta-alanine | Buffers acidity in sets lasting roughly 1–4 minutes | 3.2–6.4 g daily | 1.6–2 g | Half dose, and it works by accumulation not per-session |
| Caffeine | Alertness, perceived effort, power output | 3–6 mg/kg | 200–400 mg | The one thing almost always dosed properly |
| Creatine monohydrate | Strength and power, by saturation over weeks | 3–5 g daily | 0.5–2 g | Underdosed, and pointless on training days only |
| Betaine (TMG) | Power output, modest strength effect | 2.5 g | 1–1.5 g | Frequently short |
| L-Theanine | Takes the edge off caffeine without killing the lift | 100–200 mg | 100–200 mg | Usually correct when present |
| L-Tyrosine | Cognitive performance under stress and fatigue | 500–2,000 mg | 250–500 mg | Often at the very bottom edge |
| Taurine | Endurance, cell hydration | 1–3 g | 500 mg–1 g | Often short |
| Alpha-GPC | Power output, focus | 300–600 mg | 50–150 mg | Expensive, so usually sprinkled |
| Dietary nitrate (beet) | Endurance, oxygen efficiency | 6–8 mmol nitrate | Rarely stated | If the nitrate content is not on the label, assume it is not there |
| Sodium & electrolytes | Hydration, cramping, blood volume | Context-dependent | Trace | Genuinely useful, almost never meaningful in a pre-workout |
| L-Arginine | Sold for pump | — | 1–3 g | Poorly absorbed orally. Citrulline superseded it years ago. |
| Huperzine A | Focus | 50–200 mcg | 50–100 mcg | Thin evidence in healthy trainees |
| Agmatine sulfate | Sold for pump | — | 500 mg–1 g | Very little human performance data |
The arithmetic that exposes a tub
Add the doses up and compare to the scoop.
A properly dosed pre-workout is physically large. Six grams of citrulline plus 3.2 g of beta-alanine plus 2.5 g of betaine is already 11.7 g before flavouring, and a full scoop is typically 12–20 g. If a tub lists twelve impressive ingredients and the scoop weighs 7 g, the arithmetic has already told you the answer. There is no way to fit clinical doses into a scoop that size, and no amount of branding changes that.
Read the order of the ingredient list.
Ingredients are listed by weight, descending. If citrulline appears below a flavouring or an anti-caking agent, there is less citrulline in the tub than there is anti-caking agent.
Treat a proprietary blend as a refusal to answer.
A blend total tells you the sum, never the parts. “12 g Performance Matrix” can be 11 g of the cheapest ingredient and a dusting of the rest — a practice common enough to have earned its own name, fairy dusting. The label is identical either way. This is the single most reliable signal on the shelf, and it costs you nothing to act on.
The one-sentence version: caffeine is nearly always dosed correctly, because it is cheap and you can feel it. Everything else is where the corners get cut — because you cannot feel a missing 4 g of citrulline, you can only read it.
Two things worth knowing before you blame the product
The tingle is not the product working
That skin-prickling sensation is paresthesia from beta-alanine, and it starts at doses well below the effective one. It tells you beta-alanine is present. It tells you nothing about how much, and nothing about whether it is doing anything — beta-alanine works by building up in muscle over weeks of daily use, not by being felt in the twenty minutes after you drink it. A tub can tingle hard at half the researched dose.
Beta-alanine and creatine belong in your day, not your workout
Both work by accumulation. Taking them only on training days, at a fraction of the studied dose, is the most common structural mistake in the category — and it is built into the format, because a pre-workout by definition is not taken on rest days.
Stim or stim-free: the honest decision tree
This is mostly a scheduling question, not a performance one.
| If this is you | Go | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Training more than 8 hours before bed | Stim | Caffeine has the strongest evidence base in the whole category. Use it. |
| Training in the evening | Stim-free | Caffeine's half-life is around five to six hours. Sleep beats a pre-workout on every outcome that matters. |
| Already drinking 3+ coffees a day | Stim-free | You are topping up a system that is already saturated and tolerant. |
| Needing 2 scoops to feel anything | Stim-free, 2–4 weeks | That is tolerance. A deload from caffeine restores the effect you are chasing. |
| Anxious, jittery, or racing heart on stims | Stim-free | The pump and buffering ingredients do not require caffeine to work. |
We publish every dose on our label, because we have to defend it.
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Related reading: The honest pre-workout ingredient guide · Best stim-free pre-workout (2026) · Category5 stim-free · Sledgehammer
General information for healthy adults, not medical advice. Check with your provider before using stimulants if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, or are pregnant.