Pre workouts are designed to increase a few things: energy, power output, and endurance. One of the mechanisms for doing this is by increasing nitric oxide output, which in turns increases the size of the blood vessels (aka vasodilation). In turn, vasodilation can aid in achieving a “pump” during your workout, which can potentially be beneficial to overall muscle growth, though more research is needed in this area.
But if you’re interested in a pump inducing pre workout, you probably know all of this already.
So let’s get into it: here are the best pre workouts for achieving a massive pump.
Contents
Best Pre Workouts for a Pump
The absolute killer here is Super Bio Break OMG, with a monster 10 grams serving of Citrulline Malate 9:1 with 1.5 grams of agmatine sulfate. You’ll get massive pumps with this, but it does contain WADA banned ingredients, so if you compete in tested federations this is a no-go.
The next up here is Pre Fitt Carnage by Nutrifitt, which has 6 grams of Citrulline Malate with 1.5 grams of agmatine sulfate. This will be give you very, very solid pumps while still delivering 350mg of caffeinie and 40mg of synephrine for energy & focus.
- Global Formulas – Super Bio Freak OMG* ($2.00/serving)
- 10g Citrulline Malate 9:1
- 1.5g Agmatine Sulfate
- 350mg Caffeine
- 3.5g Beta Alanine
- Nutrifitt – Pre Fitt Carnage ($1.67/serving)
- 6g Citrulline Malate
- 1.5g Agmatine Sulfate
- 350mg Caffeine
- 3.2g Beta Alanine
- 1UP Nutrition – 1UP for Men* ($1.98/serving)
- 8g Citrulline Malate
- 1g Agmatine Sulfate
- 412.5mg Caffeine
- 3.2g Beta Alanine
- Storm Labs – Zeus* ($1.53/serving)
- 8g Citrulline Malate
- 1g Agmatine Sulfate
- 400mg Caffeine
- 3.2g Beta Alanine
- Pure Cut Supplements – Perma Pump ($1.75/serving)
- 5g Citrulline Malate
- 1.25g Agmatine Sulfate
- 0mg Caffeine
- 3g Beta Alanine
- Apollon Nutrition – Hooligan ($1.90/serving)
- 6g Citrulline Malate
- 1g Agmatine Sulfate
- 700mg Caffeine
- 3.2g Beta Alanine
- Performax – Hypermax* ($1.75./serving)
- 6g Citrulline Malate
- 1g Agmatine Sulfate
- 400mg Caffeine
- 3.2g Beta Alanine
*Contain ingredients that are banned by WADA.
Best Pre Workouts by Category (Spreadsheet)
To determine the best pre workout for pumps, I created a “pump score” that looked at the amount of citrulline malate and agmatine sulfate in the pre workout. This focused on ingredients with the most research supporting their usage – there are lots of pre workouts that contain fringe ingredients that have minimal supporting research. Those ingredients may be amazing, but I focused on tried and true ingredients for this analysis.
If you think I missed a pre workout or ingredient I should be including, please let me know.
You can see the pump ratings, along with all other ratings, in the spreadsheet below. See the “Pump Score” sheet.