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Gold Standard Pre Workout

Company: 
Optimum Nutrition

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Pre-Workout Review
Gold Standard Whey has been one of the top-selling protein powders in the world for over a decade. The “gold standard” name simply means this is the gold standard in terms of quality, taste, and performance. Gold Standard Whey has developed a cultlike following among athletes all over the world, which is why Optimum Nutrition decided to use this “gold standard” name with the introduction of Gold Standard Pre-Workout. But does Gold Standard Pre-Workout measure up to Gold Standard Whey? In this review, we’ll answer just that.

Marketing Gold Standard Pre-Workout
Gold Standard Pre-Workout boasts the following tagline in its marketing: “Don’t settle for a second place product, get the legit pre-workout that’s as GOOD AS GOLD.” We love this tagline and with the beautiful metallic gold lid and gold foil label, we love the play on gold. Optimum also recently added Gold Standard BCAA to its lineup, so you can expect “Gold Standard” to be part of a series of supplements, as Optimum did with its Platinum Series a few years back. Fans may remember that back in 2012, Optimum got in the pre-workout category in a big way with the launch of “Platinum Pre,” which was and still is part of its Platinum Series and an excellent product (the Raspberry Lemonade is our favourite). The formula delivers 400 milligrams of caffeine, 3.2 grams of beta-alanine, 4 grams of citrulline, DMAE, a red pepper extract for a thermogenic zing, and a host of other performance nutrients! This product is still one of the best pre-workouts, but as researchers uncover new performance-enhancing substances, new pre-workout formulas must emerge. Gold Standard Pre-Workout is the next evolution in pre-workouts for Optimum, and one look at the formula shows that they finally nailed it. This is gold. Gold Standard Pre-Workout comes in Blueberry Lemonade, Fruit Punch, Green Apple, Pineapple, and Watermelon flavours, all of which are strong enough that you don’t have to add a ton of water, but also light enough that it doesn’t feel like you just sucked down a Jolly Rancher candy before you trained! (Okay bad analogy ‘cause we’re dieting, right?).

One of the things we love about all Gold Standard Pre-Workout and all Optimum Nutrition products is that you always get what’s on the label. Gold Standard Pre is banned substance free and carries the certified “Informed-Choice, Trusted by Sport” label, which more and more companies are doing and for good reason. Athletes and consumers want to know what they’re putting in their bodies.

Gold Standard Pre-Workout Under the Microscope
There are 175 mg of caffeine in one scoop of Gold Standard Pre. The caffeine is from natural sources (Camellia sinensis leaf and Coffee arabica seed). The caffeine dose per scoop is similar to most pre-workouts, so how much Gold Standard Pre you take will be based on how much caffeine you can handle. As we all know, the benefits of caffeine include enhanced energy, focus, elevated mood, appetite suppression and increased free fatty acid utilization (i.e., fat burning). Essentially, you can divide Gold Standard Pre-Workout’s ingredients into two categories: the energy and intensity aspects. Obviously, the caffeine makes up the energy part, but the “intensity” ingredients are also “gold”!



• 1.5 grams of beta-alanine as CarnoSyn® – Beta-alanine is an amino acid known to boost endurance and help you fight fatigue. It’s the ingredient in many pre-workouts responsible for that tingling sensation under the skin (paresthesia). Beta-alanine keeps your muscles loaded with more carnosine (CarnoSyn® is a patented form of beta-alanine), and carnosine in your muscles is important for helping your body buffer lactic acid (this is how it helps with endurance specifically).

• 3 grams of creatine monohydrate as Creapure® – Most scientifically backed studies have been done on doses of creatine monohydrate between 3 grams and 5 grams. The benefits include increased power, enhanced endurance, decreased DOMS, decreased fatigue, a small testosterone increase, and more efficient use of oxygen.

• 250 milligrams of acetyl-L-carnitine – This form of L-carnitine, affectionately known as ALCAR, is the more bioavailable than the traditional form. This form is mostly used for its cognitive and mental boosting effects but it has also been shown to help prevent the natural fall in testosterone that happens when you work out for prolonged periods of time.

• 250 milligrams of N-acetyl-L-tyrosine – This is the most stable form of L-tyrosine, an amino acid known for increasing your focus and your endurance. It has major benefits on cognition, just like ALCAR. Acetylating any substance can increase absorption by helping to prevent the molecular destruction of the compound during digestion and also help allow it to cross the blood-brain barrier more effectively.

• 750 milligrams of L-citrulline malate – This amino acid gets converted to L-arginine, which goes through a cycle and ends with a boost in nitric oxide levels; think pump, reduced fatigue, more growth hormone, and increased capacity to train. It’s actually more effective than taking straight L-arginine.

How to Take Gold Standard Pre-Workout
The instructions say to mix one scoop of Gold Standard Pre-Workout with 240 millilitres (approximately 8 ounces) of water, 20 to 30 minutes before your workout. Personally, we found two scoops perfectly well tolerated, which really got us going. Besides if one is good, two must be better, right? Two scoops gave us major alertness, cognitive focus, muscle endurance, and overall performance enhancement. Gold Standard Pre-Workout makes you want to train when it hits, but it’s not a over-stimmed, sketchy energy; it’s more hard-hitting but smooth. So while one scoop is what the label recommends, this does work, but we found it worked even better for us at two scoops. Now, our receptors are fried from doing so many supplement reviews and testing out so many stim-based products, so try one scoop first to assess your tolerance because you will likely get all the stimulation you need with one scoop. Hardcore bodybuilders or those experienced with stims might get even better results from two scoops. But check yourself, and test our theory by starting off with one scoop either way. As always, assess your tolerance—175 milligrams of caffeine is a lot for some people. But the taste of Gold Standard Pre is insane, the energy is clean-burning, and the formula doesn’t hide behind proprietary blends, pixie dusting, or other deceptive crap like that.

Optimum Nutrition Is Owned By Glanbia Performance Nutrition
Headquartered in Ireland, a massive dairy company called Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN) is the parent company of Optimum Nutrition as well as BSN®, Isopure®, Nutramino®, American Body Building®(ABB), and the thinkThin® bar. Yup, five supplement companies under one roof! If you’ve got more supps in your cupboard than a local health food store, then you’ve no doubt heard of most of these brands (maybe not Nutramino as it’s sold mostly in Scandinavia). But these are very popular supplement brands you keep hearing more about because they’re top of the line. Needless to say, Glanbia is kind of a big deal, and its sports supplements are available in over 130 countries. Optimum Nutrition used to focus primarily on its protein powder sales, as it’s won more awards than we can count for its Gold Standard Whey. However, just as the demand from consumers for unique products has grown, so too has Optimum. It now manufactures items in product categories from protein to pre-workouts, multivitamins to mass gainers, and CLAs to casein, to meet the needs of its customers. In terms of total global sales, no other supplement company conglomerate sells more sports supplements than Glanbia Performance Nutrition. It isn’t one of the biggest, it’s the biggest, and we’re proud to be able to say that Glanbia has been advertising with MUSCLE INSIDER since 2012. Oh yeah, back to the Gold Standard Pre-Workout supplement review…

The 'balance' between athletic and aesthetics! 
Thank you, Gold standard Pre-Workout!

Final Thoughts on Gold Standard Pre-Workout
We’re huge fans! We love the Blueberry Lemonade flavour, not just because it’s unique to the market of pre-workout flavours but also because Gold Standard Pre-workout is refreshing and tastes awesome. We definitely give Gold Standard’s combo and quantity of different ingredients 5 gold stars, and the feeling in the gym is also solid gold. Moral of the story: This product is getting a gold rating from all the MUSCLE INSIDER staff who tried it! It’s a little more expensive than other brands still stuck in the “concentrate” era of pre-workout supps, but you get what you pay for in supplements and quality always costs more.

If you want to check out Optimum Nutrition on social media here, visit it at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!

If you want to check out the last review on Optimum’s Protein Energy product (good shit) hit it here!

Empire Health
By: 
Jaime Filer