Welcome to the most comprehensive Genius pre-workout review on the internet.
Pre-Workout from the company, The Genius Brand contains 13 ingredients and has no proprietary blend. That means you know exactly how much of each ingredient you consume in a serving from this pre-workout. Genius pre-workout contains ingredients such as L-Citrulline malate, Beta-alanine, Betaine, L-Tyrosine, and more. What you need to know about Genius pre-workout is that it doesn’t contain any stimulants such as caffeine. Which is a downside for many pre-workout users.
If you take your training seriously and you haven’t heard of pre-workout supplements, then quite frankly, where the hell have you been?! With hundreds of brands competing for your custom, they are without doubt one of the most in-vogue nutritional training aids on the market right now.
Designed to help you focus mentally for your workouts as well as boost the physical gains that are well associated with regular sessions, pre-workout supplements can certainly help you reach your goals faster. But in order to do so they have to contain the right kinds of ingredients at the correct dosages. Otherwise they are a giant waste of time and money.
Unfortunately for you, for every pre-workout product, which will benefit you, hundreds of others will achieve nothing but expensive piss.
That’s why we’ve put together this detailed Genius review. To give you all the information you need, from where to buy it and how much it should cost, a detailed ingredient breakdown is based on the latest scientific research. That way, you can come to your own decision as to whether this particular pre-workout is right for you and your training needs!
No more hours trawling the internet, only to be met with marketing jargon and sales pitches! We give you the cold hard facts, and that’s it!
You’re welcome…
What does stimulant-free mean?
Pretty simply, in pre-workout terms, it refers to products that do not contain any stimulant ingredients, which tend to increase the activity of the central nervous system. Without a doubt, the most common stimulant ingredient within the nutritional supplement market, and pre-workouts in particular, is caffeine!
Caffeine is proven to help improve mental and physical readiness and give much-needed energy boosts, all due to its stimulating effects.
As a result, pre-workout supplements in particular often contain very potent doses of caffeine.
However, the positives for training associated with caffeine consumption do come with several downsides, including side effects such as diarrhea, vomiting, jitters, and even anxiety.
As a result, more and more pre-workout manufacturers are creating stimulant free varieties of their products in order to satisfy those customers who would rather avoid some of the negative repercussions associated with significant stimulant intake!
Genius is just one of the many caffeine-free pre-workout options out there!
Genius pre-workout ingredients
Serving size: 2 Scoops (15.8 grams) | Amount Per Serving | %Daily Value |
L-Citrulline Malate | 6 g | * |
CarnoSyn® Beta-Alanine | 2 g | * |
Betaine Anhydrous | 2 g | * |
L-Tyrosine | 1 g | * |
L-Arginine | 1 g | * |
Taurine | 1 g | * |
AlphaSize®(50% Alpha GPC) | 600 mg | * |
HICA (a-Hydroxyisocaproic Acid) | 500 mg | * |
Rhodiola Rosea | 100 mg | * |
ElevATP™ | 150 mg | * |
Theobromine | 30 mg | * |
AstraGin® | 25 mg | * |
Huperzia Serrata | 10 mg | * |
A lack of stimulant ingredients does not necessarily mean that a pre-workout isn’t going to be as effective at aiding your training, with many other ingredients included for their performance-enhancing effect.
Before our Genius review considers these ingredients in more detail, there is one major question that we must answer!
Does this product contain any proprietary blends?! For those without a working knowledge of nutritional supplements, and pre-workouts in particular, a proprietary blend is a mixture of active ingredients where only the total blend weight is disclosed and not the precise individual weight of each component ingredient.
That means it is impossible for you to know exactly how much of everything you are consuming per serving, which is never a good place to be when it comes to a nutritional supplement!
Fortunately for you, Genius supplements don’t use a single proprietary blend in this pre-workout product. A positive start to the ingredients section of our Genius pre-workout review!
L-citrulline malate (6g)
Arguably one of the most exciting ingredients in the world of nutritional supplements for exercise performance, citrulline is finding its way into pre-workouts with increasing regularity, and for a good reason!
Citrulline supplementation has been demonstrated to help increase your blood levels of an amino acid called arginine. This, in turn, boosts your production of nitric oxide, which leads to greater vasodilation, improved circulation, and the delivery of more oxygen to working muscles during exercise.[1]
To achieve such effects, the scientific evidence suggests that a daily serving of 5-8g of l-citrulline for a period of at least 7 days should be sufficient.[2] That means the 6g contained per serving of Genius pre-workout is absolutely optimum and will definitely have a positive impact on your body’s ability to fight fatigue!
Beta-alanine (2g)
With the exception, perhaps, of creatine monohydrate, beta-alanine is the most widely researched and clinically effective nutritional supplement on the market when it comes to boosting your exercise performance.
By helping to increase your muscle stores of something called carnosine, beta-alanine supplementation directly impacts your ability to buffer lactic acid during short bouts of intense, anaerobic activity.[3] That means your muscles are better at fighting fatigue, and you can exercise harder for longer!
Most research suggests that a daily intake of 4-6g for a period of at least 2 weeks is sufficient to raise muscle carnosine stores enough to generate a tangible performance benefit, with stores increasing the longer the supplementation protocol continues.[4] Consequently, the 2g serving contained within Genius is quite a way short of this optimum dose.
Having said that, given that carnosine stores appear to increase the longer you supplement with beta-alanine, a 2g serving may still be enough to have an impact; it will just take twice as long to do so!
Overall, beta-alanine is certainly a positive inclusion. It would just be nice for there to be a little more. You can certainly find pre-workout supplements with higher doses, even if they often don’t reach optimum levels!
Betaine (2g), l-tyrosine (1g), and l-arginine (1g)
We’ve grouped these three ingredients because we consider their inclusion a little contentious… Why? Because there is very little scientific research to support their efficacy for exercise performance.
All three are purported to have benefits, but the studies are far from unequivocal as to whether they actually work. Betaine, for instance is suggested to increase strength and lean muscle mass gains, and l-tyrosine supposedly has benefits for cognitive performance and energy levels. But the research is nowhere near at the levels of ingredients such as citrulline and beta alanine!
Whilst raised blood levels of arginine have been demonstrated to help increase your nitric oxide production, as discussed above with citrulline supplementation, unfortunately, oral ingestion of arginine directly does not achieve the desired result. That’s because the vast majority is broken down in the liver before it ever has a chance to reach the bloodstream. As a result, citrulline supplementation is the far more effective option for raising blood levels of arginine and the associated circulatory benefits!
Genius pre-workout side effects
Pre-workout supplements often come with a long list of potential side effects, and the vast majority are normally associated with their stimulant ingredient content, particularly caffeine. However, because Genius is a caffeine-free pre-workout, you don’t need to worry about many of these.
There is one ingredient included, which may present some minor side effects, though!
Beta-alanine can cause a mild tingling sensation on the skin’s surface (face in particular), which tends to subside after around 20 minutes. The good news is this symptom is completely harmless and should actually be taken as a sign that you are consuming a meaningful dose of beta-alanine and not something entirely useless.
To be entirely honest with you, we’re not sure whether the 2g dose per serving of this Genius pre-workout is sufficient to generate such an effect anyway.
Pros and cons of Genius pre
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Where to buy it?
At $37.95 on Amazon, Genius pre-workout comes in at a very pricey $1.90 per serving, so it’s not a cheap pre-workout. However, whilst this is not the most expensive pre-workout we’ve ever reviewed, it does put it firmly at the more costly end of the market!
This Genius pre-workout is available at global online retailer Amazon, as well as several third-party supplement websites, including supplementsmarter.com and cardiffsportsnutrition.co.uk. So be sure to shop around for the best price!
There are just 2 flavor options: Grape Limeade and Sour Apple, which means if you are particularly fussy about your pre-workout taste, you might struggle to find something to your liking!
Genius pre-workout review conclusion
All in all, there are definitely some merits to this product, and our Genius pre-workout review can be fairly satisfied that it is at least worth giving a go.
The 6g dose of l-citrulline is without doubt the most attractive feature of this product, and will undoubtedly give your training a serious performance boost! Whilst we would prefer to see citrulline malate, it is difficult to be critical of a product that contains an optimal dose of such an effective ingredient.
Beta-alanine is also a very welcome inclusion, but the 2g dose is a bit of a disappointment, especially considering the amount of space Genius wastes per scoop on unproven ingredients like betaine l-tyrosine and l-arginine.
The stimulant-free nature of the product is undoubtedly a positive for those looking to avoid some of the side effects associated with significant stimulant intake, particularly caffeine. It does, however, mean that this is not a product for those looking for a notable mental and physical energy boost and the notorious buzz that stimulant ingredients offer!
There is a distinct lack of flavor options, and it is certainly at the more expensive end of the pre-workout market, with a price tag that probably warrants a little more bang for the buck. Had Genius included an optimal dose of beta-alanine in addition to the l-citrulline malate, then maybe we could look past almost $2 per serving, but it doesn’t, so we can’t!
By all means, give this pre-workout ago. It certainly isn’t a complete waste of money. But in all honesty, you can find much better and more effective pre-workouts out there for the same price. You need to keep looking!
References
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780124046306000531
[2]Bailey, S. J., Blackwell, J. R., Lord, T., Vanhatalo, A., Winyard, P. G., & Jones, A. M. (2015). L-citrulline supplementation improves O2 uptake kinetics and high-intensity exercise performance in humans. Journal of Applied Physiology, 119(4), 385-395.
[3] beta-Alanine supplementation augments muscle carnosine content and attenuates fatigue during repeated isokinetic contraction bouts in trained sprinters- J Appl Physiol (1985). 2007 Nov;103(5
[4] International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine- J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015; 12: 30.
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