Welcome to the most comprehensive StrongGirl pre-workout review on the internet!
Whether you’re just starting out on your fitness journey or you’ve trained regularly for a number of years already, then a pre-workout supplement could be exactly what you need to kick start your workouts, or take them to the next level.
Marketed as a nutritional aid to training, capable of boosting your physical and mental readiness for tough workouts as well as helping to maximise the gains you make from regular training, pre-workout supplements really do promise the world!
But how much of the marketing jargon and sales pitch can you actually trust and what exactly is in these miracle supplements to make such results possible?
Well that’s where we come in.
Our reviews for products such as StrongGirl pre-workout aim to give you all the information you need to decide whether it is the right supplement for your training needs. That means a detailed breakdown of the ingredients and their dosages and how this compares to what the latest scientific research is telling us, as well as where you can buy it, how much you can expect to pay, what kind of flavors are available, and much more!
No bullshit, just the cold hard facts!
About StrongGirl pre-workout
In 2015 Iovate Health Services, the company behind MuscleTech, launched StrongGirl, a female focused blend with 4 products in the range: whey protein, BCAA”s, a fat burner and a pre-workout.
StrongGirl pre-workout intends to provide ladies with the necessary energy rush and mental focus to get through a highly intensive workout and achieve the best results possible.
The ingredients included have supposedly been chosen with the female physique in mind… We’re not entirely sure how that works but a closer look at the ingredients included and their dosages should at least determine whether this pre-workout product is worth parting with your hard earned cash for!
StrongGirl pre-workout ingredients
The first place I look when I’m considering the merits of a pre-workout product is the Supplement Facts Label. There are a few things you can take note of even with the briefest of glances, and perhaps the single most important question you should be asking yourself is whether there are any proprietary blends included?!
For those of you who may not be 100% sure of exactly what a proprietary blend is, it can be described as a mix of ingredients where the total blend weight is given, but the precise quantities of individual component ingredients is not disclosed. This makes it very difficult for you to know exactly how much of everything you are consuming per serving.
Despite what supplement manufacturers might try to tell you about hiding their secret formulas from the prying eyes of competitors, there is actually only one reason why they make use of proprietary blends. To hide underdosed ingredients from you!
Unfortunately for you, this product is made up of a single proprietary blend weighing 3053 mg. A hugely disappointing start to our StrongGirl pre-workout review.
Beta alanine
One of the most promising nutritional supplement ingredients on the market, beta alanine is proven to help increase your muscle stores of something called carnosine which helps you buffer lactic acid and therefore fight fatigue during anaerobic activity.[1] In order to do so it must be dosed at 4-6g per day for a period of at least 2 weeks.[2]
Given that the entire blend only weighs just over 3g and there are multiple other ingredients to squeeze in, it seems unlikely that there is even a meaningful dose included, let alone an optimum serving. Unfortunately, without a chemistry lab in your living room, you’ll never know for sure.
Taurine, l-carnitine l-tartrate, choline bitartrate, l-theanine
We have grouped these 4 ingredients together simply because there is actually very little unequivocal scientific evidence to support their efficacy for exercise performance, let alone specific information about optimal dosages!
Research into taurine, for instance, has indicated that supplementing with 1-6g before exercise has absolutely no effect on physical performance.[3]
Carnitine is purported to have benefits for body composition, helping you to use stored fat as an energy supply.[4] Having said that, the research to support such claims is limited at best, and for every study that suggests a potential impact, there are plenty of others which refute such claims.
Choline bitartrate is believed to increase cognition and memory, improve focus and motivation, and reduce fatigue, but once again studies are far from unequivocal.
There is a suggestion that l-theanine improves mental performance, but very little if any evidence to suggest this can have any benefits for your exercise performance.
Caffeine
Caffeine is by far and away the most common stimulant ingredient found in pre-workout supplements, and for good reason. There has been a wealth of scientific research conducted into its efficacy for exercise performance with two major benefits emerging.
Firstly it is capable of giving you increased energy and ensuring you are in the right place physically and mentally for your session. And secondly, it has also been demonstrated to boost metabolism and help you to burn more fat during your workouts!
Most research indicates that caffeine is effective at doses as low as 100 mg and can be safely consumed at levels as high as 400 mg per day.[5] Whilst we have no idea what kind of dose appears in this StrongGirl pre-workout as a result of its inclusion in a proprietary blend, the relatively small serving required to be effective means the product more than likely contains a meaningful dose! Exactly how much it contains, unfortunately, is a complete mystery!
StrongGirl pre-workout side effects
There are probably two ingredients included in this pre-workout that have the potential to cause some minor side effects for users.
Beta alanine does tend to cause a mild tingling sensation on the surface of the skin (on the face in particular) which generally subsides after 20 minutes or so. The good news is, this side effect is completely harmless, and at least demonstrates that you are consuming a meaningful dose of beta alanine and not something entirely useless! In all honesty given the very small blend weight, it seems very unlikely that the dose of beta alanine in StrongGirl pre-workout will be enough to elicit such a response anyway.
Large doses of caffeine, as is common in pre-workout products, can result in diarrhea, vomiting, the jitters and even anxiety. It is impossible for us to determine how likely such symptoms may be when taking StrongGirl as we simply don’t know how much caffeine is included in the proprietary blend. To be safe, however, it may be sensible to test the waters with a half dose of this product before ramping up your serving slowly but surely if you don’t experience any adverse effects. This could be a particularly good strategy if you are new to pre-workouts or don’t consume much caffeine in your day to day life.
Pros and cons of StrongGirl pre-workout
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Pricing
At £10 on Amazon, StrongGirl comes in at an incredibly low £0.33 per serving, making it one of the cheapest pre-workout supplements we’ve ever reviewed.
There are only 2 flavor options available in this StrongGirl pre-workout, which means if you are fussy about the taste of your supplements then you might struggle to find an option to your liking. Having said that, in addition to the pre-workout stalwart of Fruit Punch, you can also purchase StrongGirl in a rather delicious sounding Strawberry Mojito flavor!
Your options are pretty limited in all honesty, with StrongGirl pre-workout seemingly only available on global online retail website Amazon, and at dolphinfitness.co.uk.
StrongGirl pre-workout review conclusion
Overall this is has been an incredibly disappointing StrongGirl pre-workout review. As soon as we see a product made up solely of a proprietary blend, the alarm bells start to ring. When you’re dealing with ingredients that absolutely have to be dosed at the correct level in order to be beneficial, not disclosing their exact weights, is a cardinal sin. It means you, as a consumer, have absolutely no idea how much of anything you are taking on board per serving, which just isn’t a very comfortable place to be!
Given that the total weight of the blend is just over 3g, and the headline ingredient has a minimum optimum serving of 4g per day, we can be absolutely sure that this product doesn’t contain a good dose of beta alanine.
The inclusion of Taurine, l-carnitine l-tartrate, choline bitartrate, l-theanine, four ingredients which simply don’t have the scientific research to support, really does add insult to injury! At least the dosages of those ingredients is largely irrelevant, so them being hidden within a proprietary blend isn’t such a problem.
Whilst the product is likely to contain a solid enough dose of caffeine, simply because it can be effective at such low servings and there is plenty of room in a 3g blend for 200-400 mg, it is, unfortunately impossible for our StrongGirl pre-workout review to be certain.
The price per serving, at £0.33 is without doubt the biggest positive of this product, and makes it one of the cheapest pre-workouts we have every reviewed. If you’re new to this game and you’re looking for a low key and cost effective introduction to nutritional supplements then StrongGirl maybe be worth a go.
But, if you’re more serious about making gains in the gym and you want a pre-workout that can properly support those goals then you’re going to need to spend a little more money and we would definitely suggest continuing your search!
References
[1] 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
[2] International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine- J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015; 12: 30.
[3] https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1024/taurine
[4] The effect of (l) carnitine on weight loss in adults: a systematic review and meta analysis of randomised controlled trials.
[5] Fat burners: nutrition supplements that increase fat metabolism- Obesity Reviews 2011
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