Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout Review: What to Know Before You Buy

What Is Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Pre-Workout?

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Pre-Workout is a supplement designed to be taken 20–30 minutes before your workout.

It contains a variety of ingredients that have been shown to support exercise performance, energy, and focus.

Some of these ingredients include:

• Caffeine: A nervous system stimulant that delays fatigue and perception of pain. (1)
• Creatine: A compound that increases muscle size, strength, and power. (2)
• Beta-Alanine: An amino acid that combines with another amino acid to delay muscle fatigue. (3)
• N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine: A form of l-tyrosine that supports cognitive focus. (4)
• Citrus Bioflavonoids: Compounds found in citrus fruits that enhance oxygen and nutrient delivery to muscles. (5)

Each serving also provides 63% of the daily value (DV) for vitamin D and more than 100% for several B vitamins.

Pre-Workout contains 30 servings per container and is available in a variety of flavors, including Watermelon, Blueberry Lemonade, Fruit Punch, and Green Apple.

Each one-scoop serving provides about 10 grams of powder, which mixes easily with 6–8 fluid ounces of cold water.

The powder blends well with a stirring utensil, like a spoon, or can be mixed using a shaker cup.

With a shaker cup, it’s best to shake gently instead of vigorously to prevent the formation of foam, which makes drinking it more difficult.

Pre-Workout is third-party tested by Informed Choice, so you can be sure it contains the ingredients and amounts listed on the label without impurities.

Is It Effective?

Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout claims to enhance performance, energy, and focus.

Although no study to date has examined these purported benefits, Pre-Workout contains ingredients that support these claims.

However, many of these ingredients are underdosed compared to what the evidence suggests is an effective dose.

So while you can still experience increased exercise performance, energy, and focus with Pre-Workout, a higher dose of these ingredients may yield better results.

Performance and Energy

Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout may enhance several markers of exercise performance, including muscle strength, power, and endurance.

Creatine, beta-alanine, and caffeine are the primary ingredients that have been proven to enhance exercise performance.

Creatine works by increasing the available fuel in the muscle so you can lift heavier weights and perform a greater number of repetitions before tiring. (2)

Creatine can also be beneficial for endurance sports or activities since it enhances recovery and reduces muscle damage, helping alleviate or prevent muscle soreness. (2)

The performance-enhancing effects of beta-alanine lie in its ability to increase muscle carnosine concentrations. (3)

Carnosine helps buffer the acids that form within muscle cells during intense exercise that contribute to fatigue, allowing you to exercise harder and longer before fatigue sets in.

However, most of the performance-enhancing effects of creatine and beta-alanine only occur once your muscles are fully saturated with creatine or carnosine. (3, 2)

Based on the doses Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout provides per serving, this can take up to four weeks of daily supplementation to fully experience creatine’s benefits and up to six weeks to experience beta-alanine’s benefits. (3, 2)

In either case, Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout contains 175 mg of caffeine, equivalent to a 12-ounce (360 mL) cup of coffee, per serving, which can be a sufficient amount to experience caffeine’s performance-enhancing effects. (6, 1)

Caffeine decreases pain and fatigue perception, allowing you to exercise harder and longer. (1)

You can become desensitized to caffeine’s performance benefits over time, so it’s best to cycle off caffeine every few weeks. (7)

Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout also contains L-citrulline and citrus bioflavonoids.

These ingredients increase your body’s production of a molecule called nitric oxide, which widens blood vessels and allows more oxygen and nutrient delivery to your muscles.

However, like creatine and beta-alanine, Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout contains these ingredients in doses smaller than what research has demonstrated effective in offering performance-enhancing benefits. (8, 5, 9)

Energy and Focus

Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout contains ingredients that can enhance energy and focus to help you get through your workouts.

The primary, and most beneficial, energy and focus ingredient in this supplement is the nervous system stimulant caffeine.

Indeed, an extra boost of energy is usually why people take Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout and other popular alternatives.

Other ingredients intended to increase energy and enhance focus in Pre-Workout include acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) and n-acetyl-L-tyrosine (NALT).

Enhanced focus can help you avoid distractions and make your workouts more productive.

ALC is a form of L-carnitine, which helps transform fats into energy. However, compared with L-carnitine, ALC is able to cross the bloodstream into the brain, where it may enhance cognition and focus.

However, the ability of ALC to improve cognition and enhance focus in healthy people remains largely unknown, especially during exercise. (10)

NALT is a form of tyrosine, an amino acid that helps make the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine. (4)

These neurotransmitters play important roles in focus, learning, and memory.

By enhancing the production of these neurotransmitters, NALT is thought to improve focus and help you get more out of your workouts.

However, the evidence to support NALT for this purpose is mixed, and Pre-Workout contains a smaller dose than what studies have shown to be beneficial. (11, 12)

Side Effects and Safety

Although no study to date has examined the safety of Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout, it contains ingredients that have a strong track record of safety.

As such, Pre-Workout is likely safe for most people. (13)

However, some users of multi-ingredient pre-workout supplements — not necessarily Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout — have reported skin reactions, heart abnormalities like an elevated heart rate, and nausea. (14)

Females are more likely to experience these side effects compared with males. (14)

The reported skin reaction is likely related to beta-alanine, which in high doses can cause paresthesia, a harmless sensation that causes a tingling-like feeling, usually to the face and hands.

However, Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout provides a dose of beta-alanine that is unlikely to cause paresthesia. (3)

The other side effects, especially heart abnormalities, are likely caused by stimulants like caffeine in high doses.

It is important to be mindful of the total intake of caffeine and other ingredients in a day to ensure levels are not exceeding recommended doses.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends no more than 400 mg of caffeine in a day.(15)

Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout provides almost half of the recommended max daily dose of caffeine.

However, if you’re sensitive to its effects, starting with half a serving and limiting caffeine from other sources during the day may be best to assess your tolerance level.

Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout also contains artificial flavorings, sweeteners, and colors.

The type of these artificial ingredients varies by flavor but includes sucralose and acesulfame potassium as sweeteners, and Red 40, Blue 1, Blue 2, and Yellow 5 as color additives.

Although these ingredients are recognized as safe by the FDA, they remain controversial and may be linked to health issues, including metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hyperactivity, and cancer. (16, 17, 18)

In addition, some people may be more sensitive to these ingredients than others.

Cost and Where to Buy

Pre-Workout is widely available in stores and online.

Popular online retailers include Amazon.com, Bodybuilding.com, and GNC.com.

You can also purchase it directly from the manufacturer Optimum Nutrition at optimumnutrition.com.

Pre-Workout is only available in a 30-serving tub and varies in cost from $30 to $35 ($1.00 to $1.17 per serving), depending on where you purchase and any promotions offered by the retailer.

Purchasing Pre-Workout directly from the Optimum Nutrition website guarantees you a 30-day return policy if you’re unsatisfied and use less than 25% of the product.

Optimum Nutrition also provides contact information if you have specific answers about Pre-Workout or their other products.

How Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout Compares with Alternatives

Pre-workout products are one of the most popular supplement categories.

Most pre-workout products contain a stimulant like caffeine and include ingredients like creatine and beta-alanine.

Many products also contain ingredients intended to increase nitric oxide production, including L-citrulline, L-arginine, and betaine.

Here’s a look at how Pre-Workout compares to other popular brands, including another one from Optimum Nutrition called Pre Advanced.

Pre Advanced contains the same ingredients as Pre-Workout, but in effective doses.

Prices were pulled from Amazon for consistency.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Pre-Workout is a popular supplement that is designed to be taken before your workout to enhance exercise performance, energy, and focus.

Most of the ingredients in Pre-Workout have evidence to support their use for these purported benefits, but because they are underdosed, you won’t experience their full potential.

You can experience a greater effect taking two scoops but remember to start with one scoop or less to assess your tolerance first.

Alternatively, you can also try the more adequately dosed Pre Advanced pre-workout from Optimum Nutrition.

In either case, Pre-Workout is likely safe for most people and still offers a good price point for what it provides compared with other popular alternatives.