National Bodybuilding Co. Pre-Workout Info & Review

Forcing yourself to stay motivated to your training throughout the year is no easy task. To do this, you have to keep mentally strong as well as physically primed so that you can tackle your workouts every single day with the same level of motivation.

While a lot of this motivation will come from your sheer grit and willpower, that isn’t to say you can’t use a little bit of help. National Bodybuilding Co. Pre-Workout is designed to give you that help, whether you are training with calisthenics or Tabata. When you need a little bit of a boost or some bottled motivation, simply mix a scoop with some water, and your good to go.

National Bodybuilding Co. claims that their pre-workout can help with:

• Enhanced cell hydration and muscular buffering
• Laser-sharp focus without the dreaded caffeine crash you get from other overly stimmed brands
• Increased levels of nitric oxide production and muscle pumps
• Cellular energy recovery

Every tub contains 30 servings or 60 if you only take half, which is what they recommend to beginners. This means you could have up to 2 months of boosted training if you use it daily.

But does it really do what it says on the tin? After researching the ingredients and looking at the claims, we have created this review to give you the answers you need.

Increased Size, Strength, and Endurance

The first claim they make is that they can increase your strength and endurance. The ingredients that they claim will allow you to get these results are Caffeine Anhydrous and Beta-alanine.

Caffeine has over 34 proven studies that confirm that you can work out harder and lift heavier weights when you are caffeinated. [1]

Beta-alanine is also well researched, and most regular gym users will have heard about it in some form or another. Beta-alanine allows your muscles to create a buffer for lactic acid, meaning you can work out harder and longer without lactic acid forcing you to finish your set. When you need to get those extra reps in, Beta-alanine is the way to do it.

Nitric Oxide Production

By raising the levels of electrolytes in your muscles and nourishing them with nutrients, they produce more nitric oxide. This means much more oxygenated blood is reaching your muscles, which allows them to endure more and they fatigue less. [6]

Laser Focus, Little Crash

One thing that can make a pre-workout a huge waste of money is when they come with a ridiculously stim crash. This is where they pump you full of stimulants and energy for your workout, but afterward, you are left standing there like a zombie. If you workout before work, this makes work impossible, and if you work out before bed, you can be too stimmed to fall asleep.

National Bodybuilding Co has addressed this thoroughly, with the right amount of energy and stimulant ingredients to give you a natural feeling energy boost that won’t ruin your day and zombify your brain.

You also get a natural energy boost, with B vitamins and nutrients that work to make your body more efficient at absorbing minerals and the food that you eat. [2]

Enhanced Cognitive Ability

It isn’t just energy that you gain here either. This product contains ingredients that can give you a mental edge when it comes to training or fighting. N-Acetyl Cysteine lowers brain inflammation with its antioxidizing effects. When pain is in the mind, you need to keep focused, and this will help you overcome that last mile, that last set, and that last rep.

There is also another ingredient added for the benefit of your mental focus. L-Tyrosine has been proven to increase dopamine levels. Dopamine aids your body in a number of tasks, such as sleep and happiness. This leads to a lower level of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Ingredient List

Many of the other pre-workouts currently on the market use a sneaky method to hide their ingredients. By calling it a proprietary blend, they can hide what they are putting into the powder. They might use overly strong chemicals that are a lower quality.

Luckily National Bodybuilding Co. doesn’t use proprietary blends. They use high-quality ingredients and a transparent ingredient list to inform you exactly what they want to put into your body.

Here is the composition:

• Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) (5mg)
• Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin (2.4mcg)
• L-Citrulline DL-Malate (1:1) (5g)
• Agmatine Sulfate (1.5g)
• Beta-Alanine (1g)
• N-Acetyl Cysteine (500mg)
• L-Tyrosine (400mg)
• Coconut Water Powder (300mg)
• Citicoline (CDP-Choline) (250mg)
• Caffeine Anhydrous (read more) (150mg)
• Vaso6™ Green Tea Extract (150mg)
• Infinergy™ DiCaffeine Malate (100mg)
• Teacrine® (50mg)

They aren’t just high-quality ingredients either; they are all extremely well researched. Bodybuilding Co doesn’t use any ingredients with very little research to back them up. This means that you are guaranteed to get the benefits by using this pre-workout.

What’s the Pricetag, and Where can I Get it?

The only place to buy this right now is on the Nation Bodybuilding Co. website. It’s priced at $48 dollars and is well worth every penny in our opinion. The website is  https://nationalbodybuildingco.com/products/stage-ready-pre-workout.

Possible Side Effects

Pre-workouts contain high levels of stimulants and chemicals designed to help you work out. For those that are caffeine tolerant, you might want to stay clear. Make sure you check the label for any chemicals that you might be allergic too.

Flavors and Consistency

Currently, you can only get this pre-workout in Fruit Punch flavor. It tastes great, without the unpleasant sourness that you get with lots of other pre-workouts, and it mixes really well with only a little shake.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading our review. We test these products so that we can advise you guys on what the best products on the market actually are. It’s a huge market, and we understand how difficult it can be to find good pre-workout.

We really like this one; it tastes great and gives a great natural pump and energy boost.

“Having a pump is like having sex, I train two, sometimes three times a day. Each time I get a pump, it’s great. I feel like I’m coming all day.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This is the kind of pre-workout you can use at any time of day and still be able to function afterward. The price is around what we think it should be for the  high-quality ingredients too.

Thanks for reading.

References

1. Warren GL, Park ND, Maresca RD, McKibans KI, Millard-Stafford ML. Effect of caffeine ingestion on muscular strength and endurance: a meta-analysis. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010;42(7):1375-1387. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181cabbd8
2. Tardy AL, Pouteau E, Marquez D, Yilmaz C, Scholey A. Vitamins and Minerals for Energy, Fatigue and Cognition: A Narrative Review of the Biochemical and Clinical Evidence. Nutrients. 2020;12(1):228. Published 2020 Jan 16. doi:10.3390/nu12010228
3. Orlando, L., Trangmar, S., Marins, D. D. M., Menezes, E., & Gisienne da Silva, R. (2014). Improved exercise capacity in the heat followed by coconut water consumption. Motriz: Revista de Educação Física, 20(1), 107-111. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1980-65742014000100016
4. Tardiolo G, Bramanti P, Mazzon E. Overview on the Effects of N-Acetylcysteine in Neurodegenerative Diseases. Molecules. 2018;23(12):3305. Published 2018 Dec 13. doi:10.3390/molecules23123305
5. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Military Nutrition Research; Marriott BM, editor. Food Components to Enhance Performance: An Evaluation of Potential Performance-Enhancing Food Components for Operational Rations. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1994. 15, Tyrosine and Stress: Human and Animal Studies.
6. Moon JR, Vogel RM, Falcone PH, et al. A comparison of citrulline and arginine for increasing exercise-induced vasodilation and blood flow. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12(Suppl 1):P6. Published 2015 Sep 21. doi:10.1186/1550-2783-12-S1-P6

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