Bucked Up Pre-Workout Review (2021) – Is It Safe?

This ultimate Bucked Up pre-workout review is the answer to all your supplement questions and concerns.

A detailed breakdown of what’s in it, how much is in it, and whether the science says that’s enough to have the effects the manufacturer is claiming. Simple!

Bucked Up pre-workout comes from the company DAS Labs. Bucked up pre-workout contains 9 ingredients like Citrulline Malate, Beta-Alanine, caffeine and more. A serving size is just about 10-grams with Citrulline Malate being 6 grams. Bucked up contains an optimal dosage of Citrulline Malate and caffeine, the drawback is that other ingredients included in the formula are slightly underdosed or lack scientific research to back up effectiveness.

Whether you’re just starting on a fitness journey or you’ve been smashing your workouts for several years, nutritional supplements can definitely help you to achieve your goals. Pre-workouts, in particular, are beginning to dominate the market, with hundreds of manufacturers and brands competing for your hard-earned cash!

Sounds great right? Loads of options for the consumer and lots of competition among supplement companies surely means high quality products at reasonable prices? Not necessarily. If you’re not careful, you can easily end up with a tub of pre-workout which does very little other than give you expensive piss!

That’s why we’ve put the hours of research in, so you don’t have to. All the information you need in one convenient place so that you can decide for yourself whether yet another pre-workout supplement is all that it’s cracked up to be!

Bucked Up vs. Woke AF (what’s the difference?)

As far as we can tell, Woke AF is basically just a more extreme version of Bucked Up, brought to you by the same manufacturer in DAS Labs. It contains the same huge dose of citrulline malate, a larger quantity of beta-alanine, and a frightening 333 mg serving of caffeine.

Woke AF is certainly not for the faint hearted and for once we agree with the marketing spiel on the website which states that it is NOT FOR BEGINNERS! If, however, you’re a seasoned gym goer with a very high tolerance to stimulants then Woke AF could be the pre-workout solution you’ve been looking for!

Ingredients in Bucked Up pre-workout

This wouldn’t be a proper Bucked Up pre-workout review without diving deep into the ingredients section. However, the only real way of cutting through the marketing pitch of pre-workout manufacturers is to take a close look at the ‘Supplement Facts’ label on the back of the product.

This, in combination with some of the simple scientific knowledge we’re about to impart on you, and determining whether a supplement brand is full of shit or not becomes a pretty straightforward process!

Serving size: 1 Scoop (10.18g)	Amount Per Serving	%Daily Value
Vitamin B12 (As Methylcobalamin)	100 mcg	1670%
Sodium	39 mg	2%
Citrulline Malate 2:1	6,000 mg	*
Beta-Alanine	2,000 mg	*
Caffeine Anhydrous	200 mg	*
AlphaSize® Alpha GPC	200 mg	*
Taurine	100 mg	*
Himalayan Rock Salt—with Trace Minerals	100 mg	*
Deer Antler Velvet Extract	50 mg	*
AstraGin® (Astragalus, Panax notoginseng)	25 mg	*
ActiGin® (Panax notoginseng, Rosa roxburghii)	25 mg	*

 

Proprietary blend?

First things first when it comes to checking the ingredients of any pre-workout. Are they hidden in a proprietary blend? This means manufacturers list the ingredients within their product but fail to give you precise quantities of any of those individual ingredients.

This allows brands to hide behind weak formulas and makes it incredibly difficult for consumers to know exactly what they are putting into their bodies, which is no good to anyone.

We’re happy to say that Bucked Up pre-workout does not contain a single proprietary blend… Great start!

Citrulline malate (6000 mg):

Booooooom! A whopping 6g of citrulline malate per serving puts Bucked Up way out in front when compared to the vast majority of other pre-workout supplements we have reviewed.

Included to help you generate some of the best muscle pumps you have ever seen as well as fight fatigue during tough workouts, citrulline is one of the most impressive up-and-coming nutritional supplements on the market.

Pretty much all the scientific research points to an optimum daily dosage of 6-8g which means Bucked Up squeezes into this range with 6g!^[1] This is a huge positive for this product, and if you’re looking for an uncontrollable swell in the gym, then this really could be the pre-workout for you!

Beta-alanine (2000 mg):

Behind creatine, this amino acid is probably the most sought-after and well-respected nutritional supplement on the market.

With loads of research to suggest that it helps fight fatigue during intense anaerobic exercise by limiting the build-up of lactic acid in your muscles, why wouldn’t you want it included in your pre-workout?!

Unfortunately, the bulk of this research also suggests that it should be dosed at 4-6g per day for an extended period of time in order to realise those benefits.^[2] That means, the 2g per serving in Bucked Up pre-workout comes in a little shy. Whilst this is hugely disappointing, it is by no means the end of the world as the inclusion of such a supplement heavyweight is a major bonus regardless.

It’s also a pretty easy fix. But, of course, if you’re really interested in the potential benefits of an optimum dose, you can always source a pure beta-alanine supplement to top up your pe-workout!

Caffeine (200 mg):

Pretty much the cornerstone ingredient of any stim-based pre-workout, Bucked Up contains 200 mg of caffeine. Whilst this is a little short of our recommended dose of 250 mg, you will most definitely still feel the effects of this quantity, particularly if you are new to pre-workouts or have a low tolerance to caffeine!

Great for getting you zoned in for your session, plus scientifically proven to boost metabolism and help you burn more calories and fat when exercising. The inclusion of caffeine in Bucked Up is another major positive!

As you can probably tell from this bucked-up pre-workout review, it’s honestly a decent product.

Pros and cons of Bucked Up

Pros

Cons

A great dose of citrulline, which should give you some pretty unreal muscle pumps during your workout. Even better, Bucked Up has used our preferred citrulline malate variety which has both fatigue-fighting and energy-boosting benefits! A solid dose of caffeine, even if it doesn’t quite reach our preferred 250 mg serving. Multiple flavor options, which means even the fussiest among you, should be able to find an option to your liking. Includes one of the heavyweight supplements in beta-alanine, which has proven effects on your endurance levels.

Sub-optimal dose of beta-alanine. Some ingredients included lack scientific backing.

 

Benefits of Bucked Up pre-workout

As you can probably tell from our Bucked Up pre-workout review so far, this product has some serious benefits.

The complete transparency regarding the doses of each of the key active ingredients and unwillingness of DAS Labs to hide behind any proprietary blends is an excellent starting point.

We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to know exactly how much of these ingredients you are putting in your body.

Many of the compounds in these products can cause you harm if dosed too high, so it is vital to be aware of their precise amounts.

A whopping serving of citrulline malate, in combination with solid doses of beta alanine and caffeine means Bucked Up really does have the potential to help you make tangible gains in the gym.

By concentrating on just three major ingredients, DAS Labs have ensured that they are all included in meaningful doses. Too often, supplement companies attempt to squeeze too many different compounds into their pre-workout and end up underdosing all of them!

Pricing:

This pre-workout comes in at $49.95 on the official Bucked Up website at a pretty pricey $1.66 per serving. A tub of Woke AF will set you back even more at $54.95, which works out at $1.83 per serving.

This puts both of these DAS Labs products at the more expensive end of the pre-workout market, but this is hardly surprising given the healthy dosing of some very effective ingredients!

Summary

If there were one word we could use to sum up, our Bucked Up pre-workout review, it would be… Excellent! Bucked Up contains all the components of a really effective pre-workout with no proprietary blends, a monumental dose of citrulline malate, and solid quantities of both beta-alanine and caffeine.

Add to all of that the variety of flavors you have to choose from, and you’ve got one hell of a product on your hands!

Whilst it is a little on the expensive side at over $1.50 per serving, you almost certainly get what you pay for when it comes to Bucked UP!

FAQ

Does Bucked Up pre-workout have creatine?

No, it doesn’t. And this is no bad thing. Pre-workout supplements, which include creatine, never achieve the optimum dose of 5g. There isn’t enough space in one serving to achieve a clinically effective quantity of creatine.

As a result, you should always be wary of pre-workouts that do contain it.

Bucked Up do offer their own pure creatine supplement called 6 point creatine, however, which is a 5750 mg blend of various creatine formulations. So if creatine is what you’re looking for, then give this, or pretty much any other pure creatine supplement on the market, ago!

Does Bucked Up pre-workout have caffeine?

Yes, it does—a 200 mg dose per serving to be precise.

What does deer antler velvet do?

Now, we didn’t address the inclusion of deer antler velvet in our main ingredient section, as the scientific research behind its effects is limited at best.

It is, however, used as a medicine for a wide range of health problems and is believed to boost strength and endurance.

What is a stim-free pre-workout?

A stim-free pre-workout is simply a pre-workout product that doesn’t contain stimulants such as caffeine. They are perfect for those with a low tolerance level for stimulants or if you like to work out late in the evening when the use of stimulants may disturb your sleep that night.

Bucked Up pre-workout and Woke AF, both produced by DAS Labs, are absolutely not stimulant-free, each containing sizeable doses of caffeine!

This concludes our bucked-up pre-workout review; please leave your own review in the comments below :).

Resources

^[1]Pérez-Guisado, J., & Jakeman, P. M. (2010). Citrulline malate enhances athletic anaerobic performance and relieves muscle soreness. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(5), 1215-1222.
^[2] Stellingwerff T, Anwander H, Egger A, Buehler T, Kreis R, Decombaz J, et al. Effect of two beta-alanine dosing protocols on muscle carnosine synthesis and washout. Amino Acids. 2012;42(6):2461–72. doi: 10.1007/s00726-011-1054-4 and Harris RC, Jones GA, Kim HJ, Kim CK, Price KA, Wise JA. Changes in muscle carnosine of subjects with 4 weeks of supplementation with a controlled relase formulation of beta-alanine (CarnoSyn), and for 6 weeks post (Abstract) FASEB J. 2009;23:599.4.