Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout Review

Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout Review

Our Rating

Pros:

  • Contains Caffeine & Beta-alanine for energy and endurance boosts
  • Nootropic ingredients help improve your mental performance

Cons:

  • Huge 350 mg combined dosage of caffeine sources may cause jittery side effects to those with a low tolerance to stimulants
  • All ingredients contained in proprietary blends (meaning you’re not shown the individual dosages of ingredients)

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Barbell Brigade is a pre-workout supplement that is meant for people who are serious about their training. It contains ingredients like caffeine, Beta-Alanine, and L-Tyrosine which can help you push through the toughest workouts.

Barbell Brigade pre-workout is available in various flavors including; watermelon, lemon, orange and ice cream. It also has great taste and doesn’t leave any powdery residue in your mouth like other pre-workouts.

The Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout aims to be a nitric oxide/caffeinated workout booster that delivers maximum pumps all through your training session.


Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout Benefits

Barbell Brigade is a pre-workout supplement that is designed to give you increased strength and energy as well as an intense muscle pump.

This product is available in one flavor from what we’ve seen: mango guava.

The benefits that Barbell Brigade aims to offer is that of all pre-workout supplments:

  1. Muscle pumps – The first thing that we should mention about this pre-workout supplement is the intense muscle pump it aims to give you. The ingredients used in this formula aim to help increase nitric oxide levels which can lead to more blood flow and better muscle pumps.
  2. Energy boosts – Another great benefit of barbell brigade is the energy boosts it provides. It contains caffeine and beta alanine which help to improve your workout performance by giving you more energy and focus.
  3. Increased strength – Finally, we want to mention that this product also aims to give you increased strength.

But does it actually deliver the above benefits?

That’s exactly the answer we’ll answer in this review; to do this, we’ll analyze the ingredients in Barbell Brigade pre-workout in the next section.


See Your Best Options In Our 
Top 3 Pre-Workouts Page


Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout Ingredients Reviewed 

As we’ve mentioned, this barbell brigade pre-workout formula is designed to increase performance and energy, boost stamina and endurance, enhance mental focus, amplify endurance and increase strength – for whether you’re training in the gym, at home, or outside.

On first glance, this pre-workout appears to be a powerhouse.

It provides intense energy and endurance from caffeine and beta-alanine. While Lion’s mane mushroom powder, cordyceps mushroom extract and l-tyrosine would provide nootropic benefits (to improve your mind-muscle-connection).

These ingredients would work to not only provide an intense boost in performance but also last throughout the work out. Furthermore this formula provides long lasting stamina with the addition of l-citrulline for enhanced muscle pumps.

However, one issue we have with Barbell Brigade pre-workout is that all ingredients are contained within proprietary blends.

What are proprietary blends?

There are pros and cons to using proprietary blends. While they can be beneficial for supplement companies (because it is easier to create a product that includes multiple dosages), they may also be risky to the customer because the specific dosages of each ingredient can’t be clearly listed on the package.

To put that into perspective, if you consume unknown dosages of such ingredients as caffeine (or any other stimulant), then you put yourself at risk of jittery side effects.

Not only that, even if a pre-workout contains effective ingredients, if those ingredients are under-dosed then they simply won’t work either.

To avoid these risks, consumers should look for products that only include one dosage of each ingredient on their labels. This way, there is no risk of taking too much or too little of any one ingredient.

Anyway, without dragging on too much, we’ll analyze each ingredient in Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout for you now.

Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout Ingredients
The supplement facts label for Barbell Brigade showing its ingredients.

Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid that helps to increase the concentration of carnosine in muscle. This increases the time until exhaustion and delays fatigue.

Beta-alanine has been used by athletes who need to perform at a high level, such as those who play endurance sports, for decades now. It’s an ingredient that’s been shown to increase both strength and endurance as well as delay fatigue.

We used to not like this ingredient in pre-workouts because companies often add too much. And taking too much beta-alanine can result in a side effect called paresthesia (a tingling sensation on your skin).

The problem here is that since Beta-Alanine is contained within a proprietary blend, you can never be sure whether you’re putting yourself at risk from this side effect in Barbell Brigade.

Caffeine Anhydrous

Caffeine is one of the most widely used stimulants in the world. It is used for all sorts of things – everything from energy boosts to preventing cognitive decline. The human body does not need caffeine to function, but it can significantly improve your performance at work or school, help you exercise more intensely or focus better.

Caffeine is a stimulant that is found naturally in many plants and beverages including coffee beans, tea leaves and cocoa beans. It works by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain which slows down neurotransmission and increases arousal. You can also consume caffeine by drinking a cup of coffee, a soda or a caffeinated tea drink like Red Bull

It’s important to note that caffeine can cause jittery side effects when taken in large doses.

350 mg combined dosage of 2 different forms of caffeine is on the large side. However, if you drink 2-3 cups of coffee daily and are okay, then you should be fine with this dosage.

That being said, we certainly wouldn’t recommend you to drink coffee in the same day that you plan on taking Barbell Brigade pre-workout.

Nootropic Ingredients

Nootropics are substances with cognitive-enhancing effects. They can be used to increase concentration, improve memory and analytical skills and enhance mental performance.

Here is a quick analysis of the nootropic ingredients found in Barbell Brigade:

  • L-Tyrosine: is an amino acid that can be found naturally in some foods and which the body uses to make thyroid hormones, skin pigment and stomach acid. Animal studies have shown that L-tyrosine may also help people with Parkinson’s disease, ADHD and Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Lion’s Mane Mushroom Powder: provides a host of cognitive benefits such as improved mood, focus, immune system function and memory retention.
  • Cordyceps Mushroom Extract: is a medicinal mushroom that grows on the high mountainsides of Tibet in China at altitudes up to about 18000 feet. This mushroom has been traditionally used as

Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout Side Effects

The potential side effects of a pre-workout are seen from ingredients contained within them.

For example, the side effects of caffeine are usually related to the anxiety it causes when consumed in high doses, which is why it’s not recommended to drink or ingest more than 300mg at any given time.

Since Barbell Brigade contains caffeine, there is always the risk of suffering from jittery side effects. Especially if you have a low tolerance to caffeine and don’t drink coffee or tea very frequently.

Barbell Brigade contains a 350mg combined caffeine dosage. However, this is on the high end of what we would consider to be safe for everyone; those with a low tolerance to caffeine should stick to less than 150 mg (or choose a pre-workout with 50-70 mg dosages so that you can take double servings when you need the extra push – so that you remain in control of your caffeine intake at all times).

Beta-alanine has been shown to cause paresthesia in high doses. This is a potential issue since it’s found in unknown quantities in a proprietary blend in Barbell Brigade.

This is all our honest opinion and no-one is guaranteed to suffer side effects.


Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout

See Your Best Options In Our 
Top 3 Pre-Workouts Page


Barbell Brigade Pre-Workout: Review Conclusion

Barbell Brigade is not a bad pre-workout at all. In fact, we’re actually impressed with it after seeing some real cr*p on the market in recent times.

The addition of caffeine, beta-alanine and nootropic ingredients mean that this is a pretty well formulated pre-workout in general.

That being said, it’s not all good news for everyone; the huge 350 mg dosage of combined caffeine sources mean that it’s not going to be suitable or safe for everyone.

Remember, everyone has a different tolerance to caffeine, so take this into account. If you drink several cups of coffee per day, then you’ll have a high tolerance, whereas if you never drink coffee (or tea) then you’ll likely have a lower tolerance to caffeine and may suffer from jittery side effects when consuming large dosages of caffeine (over 300 mg) in pre-workouts.

We always recommend that you remain in complete control of your caffeine intake. More is not better with caffeine in pre-workouts, remember that.

For this reason, we much prefer to recommend a pre-workout that contain less than 100 mg caffeine per serving (ideally). This means that you’ll be able to take a “double serving” safely when you need that extra kick in the gym, while keeping safe with normal servings too.


See Your Best Options In Our 
Top 3 Pre-Workouts Page


 

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