Best Pre Workout with Low/No Caffeine

This post was made possible through my analysis of 300 different pre workouts. If you find this useful, you may also enjoy the original post.

For most people, pre workout is synonymous with high doses of caffeine. I can personally attest to this association. But for many others, especially those sensitive to caffeine and other stimulants or those that want a great workout without the buzz, caffeine free pre workout is the answer.

And as you’ll see, pre workouts without caffeine can still give great pumps and focus throughout a gym session.

I also provide the top picks for pre workouts with low amounts of caffeine.

Two Top Picks

I rate pre workouts on two criteria: strength and value.

Strength is essentially the dose of core ingredients, which in this case means citrulline, beta alanine, and agmatine.

Value looks at the quantity of ingredients in a single serving compared to the price per serving.

When a pre workout appears in the top 5 for both strength and value, I like to highlight those pre workouts first.

For pre workouts with no caffeine, two pre workouts stood out above the rest:

1. Ouroboros – Pre (-) ($0.73/serving)
2. Pure Cut Supplements – Perma Pump ($1.75/serving)

There are some other incredible pre workouts listed below, but I want to give a special shout out to Pre (-) and Perma Pump for delivering on strength and value.

Ouroboros – Pre (-)

I’m always disappointed that more people don’t talk about Ouroboros. I suspect poor brand name recall may be part of it.

I tried their pre workout when they went by Gnosis (…notice a pattern with these brand names?) and called their pre workout Singularity. For $1.00/serving, it was one of the best value pre workouts around and was super strong. Now they’re back as Ouroboros and still delivering insane value.

For Pre(-), the caffeine-free version of Pre (+), this means 8 grams of citrulline, 4 grams of beta alanine, and 5 grams of creatine monohydrate. All killer, no filler – for just $0.73 per serving (at least while it’s on sale… not sure when it’ll go back to $1.00/serving).

Pre(-) is only available on the Ouroboros site.

Pure Cut Supplements – Perma Pump

If you’re looking for something with agmatine, then Perma Pump is a great choice. While it only has 5 grams of citrulline, it also has 1.25 grams of agmatine sulfate to help boost nitric oxide for a nice, strong pump.

Finally, Perma Pump has 1.5 grams of creatine HCL (a typical daily dose) and 1.5 grams of creatine monohydrate (probably just thrown in for the hell of it), so you’re checking off your daily creatine needs too.

It has a few other ingredients: betaine anhydrous, hydromax glyercol, Alpha-GPC, and L-norvaline, but the research on these ingredients is a bit less solid than the ingredients I use to score each preworkout (L-citrulline, beta alanine, agmatine, and caffeine).

To check out some other options, including a few available on Amazon Prime, read on.

Strongest Pre Workouts without Caffeine/Stims

If you’re looking for something with agmatine, a somewhat newer entrant onto the scene for pumps, I’d go with Perma Pump or Komodo Pump. Otherwise, Pre(-) by Ouroboros is really killing it.

1. Pure Cut Supplements – Perma Pump ($1.75/serving)
   1. Pema Pump edged out PRE Natural and Pre(-) because of the 1.25g of agmatine sulfate, which acts as a strong pump enhancer alongside L-citrulline (2.5g) and citrulline malate (2.5g). A standard 3g dose of beta alanine rounds things off.
2. NutraBio – PRE Stim Free ($2.25/serving)
   1. A standard package of 3.2g of beta alanine, 6g L-citrulline, and 1g of agmatine to help fuel a solid pump.
   2. Available on Amazon Prime.
3. Ouroboros – Pre(-) ($0.73/serving)
   1. Pre(-) has a whopping 4g of beta alanine and 8g of citrulline malate. The only thing “lacking” here is no agmatine, but frankly I think this is still a killer package for the price.
4. Legion Athletics – Pulse Stim Free ($1.90/serving)
   1. Same story as Pre(-): 3.6g of beta alanine, 8g of citrulline malate, but no agmatine.
   2. Available on Amazon Prime.
5. Alpha Lion – Komodo Pump ($2.05/serving)
   1. 8g of citrulline malate, 3.5g of beta alanine, and a whole bunch of “focus” ingredients.

Best Value Pre Workouts without Caffeine/Stims

Make no mistake: these are still strong, high quality pre workouts. However, one of the ranking factors, aside from strength, is also the price per serving. This is applied to the strength score to understand which caffeine free pre workouts provide the most value.

Special recognition belongs to Pre(-) and Materia Zero for the 8 grams of citrulline malate.

If you’re looking for caffeine free pre workouts with BCAAs (which are not required by any means, but some people like to source their BCAAs from their pre workout), then Transparent Labs and Eon Athletics deliver in spades here.

1. Ouroboros – Pre(-) ($0.73/serving)
2. AllMax Nutrition – Impact Pump ($1.12/serving)
   1. If you don’t like the “tingles” that beta alanine give you, this is the pre workout for you. A full 6 gram dose of L-citrulline and 1 gram of agmatine deliver great pumps at a reasonable price.
   2. Available on Amazon Prime.
3. Pure Cut Supplements – Perma Pump ($1.75/serving)
4. Transparent Labs – Stim Free Pre Workout ($1.63/serving)
5. PR Breaker – Materia Zero ($1.75/serving)

Best Pre Workouts with LOW Caffeine

Okay… what if you want a pre workout with just a little caffeine?

Unfortunately, a lot of pre workouts that have low caffeine are also just weak pre workouts, often underdosed and overpriced. You’d be better off grabbing a pre workout without caffeine from the list above and then adding your own amount of caffeine.

Because caffeine powder is only sold to verified commercial buyers, your best option are the Jet Alert 100mg caffeine pills (or coffee!). I have used these for years to fine tune my caffeine consumption and have been very happy with them – especially because they’re so inexpensive. 240 100mg pills will cost you just $10 on Amazon, or $0.04 per pill.

Happy lifting!