NutraKey TRU PRE Review

Pro’s

• Optimal 6,000mg dosage of Citrulline Malate
• Beta-Alanine can improve muscular endurance

Con’s

• Beta-Alanine also causes paresthesia (see side effects section for more info)
• Huperzine A reported to cause numerous side effects
• Overdose of Caffeine likely to cause jitters and energy crashes
• Contains numerous ineffective ingredients
• Not good value for money

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

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About The Product

TRU PRE is a pre-workout supplement made by NutraKey. It’s priced at $64.99 for 20 servings on their website, and comes in a choice of 4 flavors – Blue Rock Candy, Rainbow Blast, Sour Gummy Worm and Tahitian Fruit Punch.

These all sounded like good options, but we loved Sour Gummy Worms as kids, so we went for this flavor. It didn’t taste bad, but it definitely wasn’t one of the best tasting pre-workouts we’ve tried.

But we’re more interested by the ingredients inside NutraKey’s TRU PRE – so we’ll analyze this pre-workout’s nutrient profile after telling you about the company behind this product.

Who are NutraKey? 

One thing we like about NutraKey, is that they focus on being transparent; so they never hide any ingredients inside proprietary blends (meaning you can see the exact dosages of each ingredient inside their products).

This allows us to really analyze their products, and keeps you from guessing how effective their supplements really are. We’ll always forgive companies for underdosing ingredients when they’re not in proprietary blends (we all make mistakes) – but when they’re added into blends, it usually means the company has purposefully cut costs and is trying to fool you.

Anyway, this is the first time we’ve heard about NutraKey, so were guessing they’re a quite new to the industry (correct us if we’re wrong in the comments section).

Enough about this company – let’s get to the main event and check out which ingredients are inside TRU PRE below.

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TRU PRE Ingredients Explained

From first glance, the ingredient list for TRU PRE doesn’t look too bad; there’s no proprietary blends (meaning you can see the exact dosages of each ingredients), and Citrulline Malate has been dosed optimally at 6,000mg.

The only really negative ingredient we’ve noticed is Huperzine A, but we’ll expand on this further below.

We’ll analyze each ingredient inside TRU PRE – so you can see how effective this pre-workout really is.

Here’s Everything You Need To Know:

Citrulline Malate 

This is one of our favorite pre-workout ingredients; it’s shown to enhance your muscle pumps by increasing your blood flow.

Studies have proven it works, but you need to consume dosages of at least 6,000mg per serving. NutraKey has clearly done their research here, as they’ve dosed Citrulline Malate optimally in TRU PRE.

Great start from this company.

Beta-Alanine 

Beta-Alanine is controversial molecule; it’s shown to enhance your muscular endurance, but it also causes a side effect called paresthesia.

What’s paresthesia? Answer: a tingling and itching feeling on your face and body.

Personally, we don’t enjoy this sensation while lifting weights in the gym. But we know others don’t mind it as much, so we’ll never recommend you don’t try a supplement simply because it contains Beta-Alanine.

However, we try to avoid pre-workouts containing this ingredient.

BCAAs 

Also known as Branched Chain Amino Acids, this consists of L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine and L-valine.

These BCAAs have shown to promote muscle protein synthesis, but studies suggest it’s better to take this after your workout.

For this reason, we don’t believe BCAAs are needed in pre-workout supplements – but there’s no negatives to having this here.

Ultimately, we would have preferred to see Creatine Monohydrate instead (as it’s shown to enhance your strength and endurance in the gym).

Glycerol 

Let’s not waste our time here. All you need to know about Glycerol is that it’s not shown to deliver any benefits to improve your gym session.

Betaine 

This is always one of the worst ingredients when added to supplements; Betaine hasn’t shown to deliver any benefits at all.

However, it’s often reported to cause your breath and sweat to smell fishy – which is something we don’t enjoy.

For this reason, Betaine is a useless ingredient that might as well be avoided.

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Taurine 

Taurine is an organic acid containing sulfur (not bull urine). And it’s not shown to boost your energy levels either, although some mistakenly believe it does.

So what does it do? Well, Taurine has shown to help reduce cramping in the gym. But apart from that, it doesn’t do much else.

As you can reduce cramping simply by keeping yourself hydrated, we don’t consider Taurine as a necessary addition to TRU PRE here.

L-Tyrosine 

This is basically a ‘brain booster’ ingredient that’s shown to enhance your focus. However, it’s more suited to Nootropic supplements and isn’t needed in pre-workouts.

Here’s why; TRU PRE also contains Caffeine, which has shown to enhance your focus in the gym anyway. And if you had to choose between Caffeine and L-Tyrosine, Caffeine wins every time.

Caffeine 

As we just mentioned, Caffeine is a key pre-workout ingredient and the best stimulant you can find in supplements.

Why? Because it’s proven to be safe and effective – as well as being to boost your strength, endurance, focus and energy levels (which are all key benefits that improve your workout).

But you need to watch how much you consume per serving; we found that a dosage under 200mg Caffeine per serving was perfect to deliver benefits – without causing side effects.

So here’s the problem with TRU PRE; this pre-workout contains a HUGE 350mg Caffeine per serving dosage (which is almost certain to cause jitters and energy crashes, especially to those sensitive to this stimulant).

To put this into perspective, it’s recommended that you consume 400mg Caffeine per day (so consuming 350mg in 1 serving is HUGE).

We strongly recommend that you choose pre-workouts containing under 200mg Caffeine – to stay safe and avoid side effects such as jitters and energy crashes.

Black Pepper Extract 

You should know this from sprinkling it onto your food. But it’s more useful than you think; Black Pepper Extract has shown to improve the absorption rate of other ingredients its consumed with.

Although it’s not a key pre-workout ingredient, it can be a great ‘bonus’.

Huperzine A 

NutraKey haven’t finished strong here. Basically, Huperzine A is another cognitive booster that’s not needed (as Caffeine boosts your focus in the gym).

But here’s the worst part; Huperzine A has shown to cause numerous side effects. We’ll list these side effects in the next section below.

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

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Side Effects

There are 4 things in TRU PRE that can cause side effects; Beta-Alanine, Betaine, Huperzine A, and the HUGE 350mg Caffeine dosage per serving.

Here’s a quick summary – Beta-Alanine causes paresthesia (a tingling & itching sensation on your face and body), while Betaine makes your breath and sweat smell fishy.

Not only that, Huperzine A has been reported to cause numerous side effects (which we’ll bullet point below), and dosages over 200mg Caffeine per serving frequently cause jitters and energy crashes.

Here’s the potential side effects from taking TRU PRE: 

• Paresthesia (Beta-Alanine)
• Fishy smells in breath & sweat (Betaine)
• Nausea (Huperzine A)
• Cramping (Huperzine A)
• High Blood Pressure (Huperzine A)

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TRU PRE Review Conclusion

NutraKey has priced TRU PRE to compete against the best pre-workouts on the market. But unfortunately, TRU PRE doesn’t contain the right ingredients to compete with the premium products.

In fact, our favorite pre-workout supplement costs less than TRU PRE (which shows how expensive this pre-workout really is).  The only good thing abut NutraKey’s TRU PRE, is that it contains an optimal 6,000mg dosage of Citrulline Malate – the rest of its ingredients have been overdosed or seriously underdosed.

Not only that, 4 of TRU PRE’s ingredients have shown to cause side effects – we always advise our you (our readers) to avoid pre-workouts containing over 200mg Caffeine per serving, as this causes jitters and energy crashes in the gym. As TRU PRE contains a HUGE 350mg dosage of Caffeine, you’re almost certain to suffer these side effects.

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