[Ringo]

If you're like me, most days a cup of strong coffee and a snack 30-60min prior to working out is enough. But some days you want an extra kick.

I've tried pre-workout formulas before, but have always been cautious with them because 1) I don't like consuming unnecessary ingredients, sweeteners, shady/placebo proprietary blends etc 2) I wanted to have more control over each ingredient and dosage I ingest and 3) pre-workouts are relatively expensive (usually US$1+ per serving).

Plus, I love experimenting with stuff and trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

After some research, I got three ingredients off of BulkSupplements.com:
- Caffeine capsules (200mg)
- Beta Alanine - 250g Pure Powder
- L-Citrulline DL-Malate 2:1 - 250g Pure Powder



Why did I choose these ingredients:
- Caffeine: mental focus
- Beta Alanine: delays muscle fatigue, pre-workout "tingles" depending on dosage
- L-Citrulline DL-Malate 2:1: improves recovery and circulation, boosts pumps

I'm not a doctor, don't take the above as advice - do your own research and find if these substances would benefit you.

I also wanted some type of flavor. The taste kicks me into go mode. I wanted something tasty, cheap and the least unhealthy I could get away with. Pure fruit juice or kombucha would be good, but they're relatively expensive. So I went to the supermarket and found these:



Very tasty, under 5 calories per serving, and the ingredients are okay.

Sugar, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Stevia Leaf Extract (Sweetener), Sodium Citrate, Maltodextrin, Contains Less Than 2% Of Natural Flavor, Magnesium Oxide, Black Carrot Extract (For Color), Kiwi Juice Concentrate.

Ideally I would like something "cleaner" but it's such a small amount that I think it doesn't really matter. True Lemon Crystallized could be a good alternative in the future.

Here's the price breakdown per serving/gram:



Today I tried my first recipe (based on this and this blog posts, and this video). I underdosed everything to assess how my body would respond. My combination was as follows:



I had a great, 9.5/10 workout session.

The beta alanine tingles started ten minutes in and at points were so strong it borderline disrupted my concentration, so I'll decrease it next time. Other than that, the mental focus and pump were excellent. Managed to get a lot more volume in compared to the same workout last week. Might up the caffeine and citrulline slightly next time.

The cost per serving came out to ~US$0.47.

This is not meant to be an expert post, but maybe there's more guys who enjoy pre-workouts and don't want to spend on overpriced formulas.

I'll try a couple different variations of that recipe and try to report back.