The 3 Best Pre-Workouts for Teens in 2023 (Tested!)

As teens begin getting involved in lifting weights and playing sports, it’s common for them to become curious about pre-workout supplements.

While pre-workout supplements are by no means necessary for teenagers to use, it’s not necessarily dangerous either.

With proper research and due diligence, teens can responsibly use pre-workout supplements if that’s something they’d like to do. With that said, they’re not necessary.

If you just want to know what the best pre-workout supplement for teenagers is, we strongly recommend Bulk Pre-Workout by Transparent Labs. It meets all of the criteria we outline for safer pre-workout supplements for teens: reasonable caffeine dosage, clearly labeled ingredients, and nothing artificial.

Below we’ll talk about some of the key considerations for parents and teens when evaluating if a pre-workout supplement is right for them. We’ll also highlight some of the products that can be used responsibly.

All of these supplements also appear on our list of the best pre-workouts for athletes due to the tremendous care they take in producing products that are compliant with drug testing procedures.

Other recommended supplements for teens:

• Best Creatine for Teens
• Best Weight Gainer for Teens
• Best Protein Powder for Teens
• Best Multivitamins for Teens

Best Pre-Workout Supplements for Teens

1. Superhuman Sport – Alpha Lion
2. Pre-Kaged Sport – Kaged
3. Bulk Pre-Workout – Transparent Labs

Superhuman Sport Pre-Workout – Alpha Lion

Superhuman Sport is our top recommended pre-workout for teens because it has 100 mg of caffeine per serving while still delivering clinical doses of other key ingredients.

100 mg of caffeine is an important limit, as it is the daily limit for caffeine consumption recommended by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry for children aged 12-18. While it can be exceeded from time to time without disastrous consequences, it shouldn’t be a regular occurrence.

If pre-workout may become a regular part of a teenager’s routine, then it is best to keep the caffeine content to 100 mg per serving, which Pre-Kaged Sport adheres to.

Superhuman Sports boasts a transparent label that is loaded with effective ingredients at clinical dosages.

Here are a few of the standout ingredients:

elevATP

elevATP has been shown to increase levels of ATP. This allows the muscles to continue working than they would with lower ATP stores, allowing for increased power output.

This is especially apparent for activities that require short bursts of explosive activity, like sprinting, lifting weights, or blocking a defensive lineman. It is included at the clinically recommended dosage of 150 mg.

Over time, this increased energy expenditure may result in muscle growth and increased strength.

Betaine Anhydrous

Betaine anhydrous has been shown to improve muscle protein synthesis, helping the body build more muscle. It is included at the clinical dosage of 2.5 grams.

VitaCherry Sport (Tart Cherry)

Tart Cherry may help support recovery from intense exercise. This is especially helpful for teenage athletes that are regularly pushing themselves hard in training and competition.

Superhuman Sport contains 400 mg of tart cherry, which is slightly lower than the 480 mg used in this human trial that demonstrated its potential for aiding recovery from lower-body resistance training.

Bulk Pre-Workout – Transparent Labs

Bulk Pre-Workout is an excellent choice for teenagers because it has a fully disclosed ingredient label, contains no banned ingredients, and contains clinical dosages of its ingredients. Transparent Labs has been around for several years and is a reputable manufacturer, always disclosing every ingredient in their products and never using any banned or illegal substances.

Not only is recommended for teens, but it also made it onto our list of the best overall pre-workout supplements!

While Bulk may not seem to contain all that much caffeine, at least compared to some of the strongest pre-workout supplements, it still exceeds the 100 mg limit recommended by the AACAP.

At 210 mg of caffeine per serving, Bulk provides an excellent surge of energy and focus without exposing the nervous system to an inappropriate amount of caffeine. It’s definitely on the upper-end of the caffeine spectrum, so if you’d like to take a half serving you can get even more servings per tub!

If a teenager has no caffeine tolerance or a small caffeine tolerance, this should be more than plenty. Remember, you always want to use the minimum amount of a supplement that still yields that desired effect. Needlessly consuming a lot of caffeine serves no purpose and will only serve to expedite the creation of a caffeine habit.

Transparent Labs also makes Creatine HMB, one of the best creatine supplements for teens.

Pre-Kaged Sport Pre-Workout – Kaged

Kaged is another company that has forged a reputation for transparency, going so far as to submit to 3rd party testing to ensure their products remain free of banned substances.

In fact, Kaged willingly participates in Informed Choice, a globally recognized quality assurance program for dietary supplements that ensures no illicit or banned substances are present.

It’s worth noting that t 188 mg of caffeine per serving, Pre-Kaged Sport exceeds the 100 mg daily caffeine limit recommended by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry for children aged 12-18.

Their product designed for athletes, Pre-Kaged Sport, is a less expensive version of their flagship pre-workout supplement: Pre-Kaged. Clocking in at $25 for 20 servings, it’s the most reasonably priced option on this list.

Quick Tips for Buying Pre-Workout for Teens

1. Don’t exceed around 200 mg of caffeine per serving (100 mg is recommended).
2. Don’t buy a pre-workout with a proprietary ingredient blend.
3. Make sure that the pre-workout use is not interfering with getting 8 hours of sleep per night.
4. Don’t purchase anything with exotic stimulants like DMAA, DMHA, DMBA, etc.

The three recommended pre-workouts below meet all of these criteria. These pre-workout recommendations apply to all teens, whether they’re 13 years old, 14 years old, 15 years old, 16 years old, or 17 years old.

Important Considerations for Buying Pre-Workout Supplements for Teens

Here are a few quick tips when purchasing a pre-workout supplement for a teenager.

Avoid Proprietary Blends

When buying a pre-workout, make sure to avoid proprietary ingredient blends. A proprietary blend is when an ingredient label doesn’t disclose the amount of each ingredient, instead showing the ingredients that are included and the total amount.

As an example, here’s an example of an ingredient label that uses a proprietary blend. The “Jefe Stim Matrix” is the proprietary blend. All we know is that the cumulative volume of the ingredients in that blend is 1,321 mg per scoop, but we don’t know how much of each ingredient is included.

All of the pre-workout supplements in this article use a fully-disclosed and transparent ingredient label. You know the exact amount of each ingredient.

Avoid Excessive Caffeine

There’s really no reason for a teenager to be exceeding 200 mg of caffeine in a serving of pre-workout. In fact, the AACAP recommends that children aged 12-18 don’t exceed 100 mg of caffeine per day.

Don’t Assume You Need a Pre-Workout Supplement

It might not be cool or exciting, but the most important tool for recovery, muscle growth, and increased performance is sleep and protein consumption. This has been shown time and time again.

Don’t believe me? Here are nine studies showing the importance of sleep for growing muscle.

Pre-workout is not a shortcut to success, it’s just a small tool that can be used to achieve athletic success. It is not mandatory by any means.

FAQs About Pre-Workout Supplemens for Teenagers

About Kyle Risley

Kyle Risley founded Lift Vault in 2016 to make finding great powerlifting programs easier. Since then, the site has grown to include hundreds of programs for strength, bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, and more. He currently lives in Massachusetts and continues to compete in powerlifting.