Gold Standard Pre-Workout Review (2021) -Low Dosed

If you take your training seriously and pay proper attention to what you eat, the chances are you’ve heard of and considered using a pre-workout supplement.

Gold Standard Pre-workout comes from the giant supplement company Optimum Nutrition. The formula of Gold Standard pre-workout contains 8 ingredients, many of them are really good pre-workout ingredients. However, unfortunately, most of the proven ingredients are underdosed this includes Citrulline, beta-alanine, and creatine. The formula does contain a decent caffeine dose and has no proprietary blends. Overall it’s a pretty weak formula that may suit a beginner.

Marketed as the product which can take your workouts to the next level, there are so many pre-workout options available that choosing the one which aligns most closely with your training needs can be a troublesome process.

I can see it now. Hours and hours of internet research, wasting your valuable time going round in circles trying to look beyond the sales pitch and drill down to exactly what each product offers you.

Well, now you don’t need to. We’ve put together this Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard pre-workout review so that all the key information you need to make the right decision for you is in one convenient place. How kind of us!

Gold Standard pre-workout ingredients

Serving size: 1 Scoop (10g)	Amount Per Serving	%Daily Value
Calories	10
Total Carbohydrate	3 g	1%*
Vitamin D (as Cholecalciferol)	12.5 mcg	63%
Thiamin (as Thiamin Hydrochloride)	2 mg	167%
Niacin	20 mg	125%
Vitamin B6 (as Pyridoxine HCl)	2 mg	118%
Folate (200 mcg Folic Acid)	340 mcg DFE	85%
Vitamin B12 (as Cyanocobalamin)	10 mcg	417%
Pantothenic Acid (as D-Calcium Pantothenate)	10 mg	200%
Calcium	50 mg	4%
Sodium	15 mg	1%
Muscle Matrix
Creatine Monohydrate	3 g	**
AstraGIN® Proprietary Blend (Panax notoginseng Extract [root], Astralagus membranaceus Extract [root])	25 mg	**
Performance Composite
Carnosyn® Beta-Alanine	1.5 g	**
Micronized L-Citrulline	750 mg	**
Energy & Focus Complex
Acetyl-L-Carnitine Hydrochloride	375 mg	**
N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine	250 mg	**
Caffeine	175 mg	**
Citrus Bioflavonoids Complex	100 mg	**

 

At first glance, Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard pre-workout looks to have all bases covered. Hallelujah, finally a pre-workout product that is actually going to help you make the gains you’ve been dreaming of for years.

Woh woh woh… let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It can have all the ingredients it likes but if they aren’t present in the right quantities then it won’t be of any use to anyone. Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients and see whether Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard pre-workout is as effective as it appears or is actually just too good to be true!

1.   Creatine Monohydrate (3g):

The fact Gold Standard includes a dose of creatine at all makes us suspicious from the off. Generally speaking, pre-workout supplements only have so much room per scoop, and to obtain a meaningful dose of creatine from any pre-workout, it would have to make up the vast majority if not all of that scoop.

As a result, it is no surprise that Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard pre-workout contains a suboptimal dose of creatine at 3g. All scientific studies point to a 20g per day loading phase for one week followed by 5g daily for an extended period of time to achieve optimum supplementation.

As a result, the 3g per serving within Gold Standard will not achieve what you want it to… Trust me!

If you want the benefits of creatine, which include increased strength and lean muscle mass, then your best bet is to source a pure creatine supplement rather than looking for its inclusion in a pre-workout. The multi-ingredient nature of pre-workouts and limited space per scoop means they will never include the optimal 5g dose.

2.   Beta-alanine (1.5g):

The body converts Beta-alanine into something called carnosine, which can help to buffer lactic acid and reduce the feeling of fatigue in your muscles when you are completing a short-duration anaerobic exercise.

Unfortunately, to do those things, it needs to be dosed at significantly higher levels than the 1.5g, which is included in Gold Standard pre-workout, with most studies pointing to an optimal dose of around 5g daily.

3.   Citrulline  (0.75g):

The ultimate ‘pump’ ingredient, citrulline, helps to improve your circulation by producing nitric oxide. Nitric oxide causes vasodilation (expanding your blood vessels) and therefore allows more blood to be pumped around the body.

This means more oxygen and nutrients can be transported to your working muscles, which doesn’t just mean a great swell, but also should help you to fight fatigue during your workout. Win-win!

Once again, however, Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard pre-workout doesn’t contain nearly enough of this ingredient to have the physiological effects described above. Scientific studies suggest a daily dose of 3-5 g of citrulline for optimal training effect, which means this pre-workout barely contains 25% of the recommended amount!^[1]

4.   Carnitine (375 mg):

Carnitine is yet another amino acid (it seems pretty much every nutritional supplement going is part of this family). Its principal role in the body is to transport fat so the body can use it as fuel.^[2]

Sounds pretty useful stuff, right? Especially if you’re looking to trim down a little and improve your body composition. Now, the actual evidence to support the effect of carnitine supplementation on burning fat is sketchy at best, but there are certainly studies out there that suggest it may help, so it can’t do any harm.^[3]

As far as the optimal dose is concerned, most of these studies have demonstrated that 2-3g per day is most effective over an extended period of time.^[4] Once again, Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard pre-workout flatters to deceive with an infuriatingly low dose of 375 mg!

5.   Tyrosine (250 mg):

The main metabolic function of tyrosine is in the production of adrenaline and noradrenaline, known collectively as catecholamines.^[5] These hormones are responsible for the fight or flight reflex you experience in stressful situations.

Tyrosine also plays a role in the production of dopamine, which regulates the reward and pleasure centers within your brain and the thyroid, which helps regulate metabolism.^[6]

As a result, its inclusion in pre-workouts mainly has to do with stimulating you mentally and ensuring you are properly motivated to get the best from your training session. So whilst the effects of tyrosine supplementation on your actual training performance appear to be quite limited, its benefits for cognitive performance could be pretty useful.

An optimal dose of tyrosine supplementation has not yet been established, with recommended dosage varying between 500 mg irrespective of your weight to 150 mg/kg of body weight.^[7] The 250 mg quantity in Gold Standard may be beneficial, or it may not be, but it certainly isn’t going to do you any harm.

6.   Caffeine (175 mg):

The benefits of caffeine supplementation for mental alertness and increased fat burning potential are well known, so its inclusion in this pre-workout is a major positive.

At 175 mg, the dose is slightly lower than our recommended 250 mg, but it should still be enough for you to feel the effect.

Which ingredients are missing?

There aren’t many if any, ingredients we would add to Optimum Nutrition’s pre-workout. At least for us, the problem doesn’t lie in the ingredients that have been included but rather the quantities of those ingredients.

If anything, it contains too many, which means there isn’t room to dose any of them adequately! This is a real shame, as, on the first inspection, the gold standard looked like an up-and-coming pre-workout option!

Pros	Cons
●     Contains so many of the most impressive pre-workout ingredients, including creatine, beta-alanine, and citrulline. ●     A decent amount of caffeine is included, even if it’s a little lower than our preferred 250 mg dose. ●     NO PROPRIETARY BLEND (of note anyway) ●     Decent enough dose of tyrosine. ●     Reasonably priced. ●     Comes in lots of different flavors.	●     Suboptimal dose of creatine. ●     Pathetic dose of beta-alanine. ●     Pathetic dose of citrulline malate. ●     A low dose of carnitine.

Gold Standard pre-workout side effects

There aren’t any significant side effects specific to Gold Standard for you to be worried about.

Pre-workout supplements normally come with warnings related to diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and the jitters because the vast majority contain stimulants at fairly high doses. Given the moderate quantity of caffeine included you are unlikely to experience the associated side effects unless you have a particularly low tolerance.

The best way of avoiding such negatives is to take half doses to start with to assess and build your resistance to these ingredients.

Whilst beta-alanine is commonly associated with a tingling sensation on the surface of your skin; this does not represent any actual harm and usually disappears after 15 minutes or so. So please take it as a sign that your pre-workout does actually contain beta-alanine and is therefore not a complete waste of money.

Whilst creatine monohydrate has been linked to gastrointestinal discomfort and bloating due to its tendency to increase water retention, this shouldn’t necessarily be an issue with Optimum Nutrition’s Gold standard pre-workout due to the moderate dose per scoop.

Pricing

At $29.99 per pot, Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard pre-workout comes in at 99 cents per serving, which puts it well within the reasonably priced bracket and makes it one of the cheaper pre-workout supplements on the market.

Summary

At a glance, the Gold Standard pre-workout supplement looks to be one of the best products on the market. After all, it contains all of the big hitters, and there isn’t a single ingredient we would replace with another.

Unfortunately, as is the case with so many pre-workout supplements, the dosages of these key ingredients are often way under what is required to produce the desired effect. Having promised so much, our Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard pre-workout review has no other option than to condemn this product to the supplement scrapheap. Do better next time!

 FAQ

How many calories are in one serving of Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard pre-workout?

There are 5 kcals per scoop and 1g of carbohydrates, making this a great option if you’re looking to manage your weight.

Can pre-workout cause acne?

In a word, no. Any changes in your skin condition are much more likely to result from hormonal changes your body experiences as a response to training.

When should I take my Gold Standard pre-workout?

Mix each scoop with 6-8 oz of water and consume 20-30 minutes before training.

References

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. ^[1]
2. Chronic oral ingestion of l carnitine and carbohydrates increases muscle carnitine content and alters muscle fuel metabolism during exercise in humans- Journal of Physiology. ^[2]
3. Chronic oral ingestion of l‐carnitine and carbohydrate increases muscle carnitine content and alters muscle fuel metabolism during exercise in humans. The Journal of physiology ^[3]
4. https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/your-expert-guide-to-l-carnitine.html^[4]
5. Biomedical Research 2017- effects of tyrosine supplementation ration on anaerobic sports capacity and plasma catecholamine levels in soccer athletes.^[5]
6. Tyrosine, phenylalanine, and catecholamine synthesis and function in the brain- J Nutr. 2007^[5]
7. https://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/the-core/l-tyrosine-benefits-dosage-side-effects/^[7]