Pre Kaged Pre-Workout Review 2023 For Energy, Focus & Pumps

About The Brand

Kaged Muscle makes dietary supplements to help you build muscle, lose weight, and recover better after exercise. Their range includes protein powders, amino acids, pre-workout supplements, and general health and wellness supplements. All their supplements are made without refined sugar and artificial flavors. They also promote a healthy diet for exercise and offer online training programs.

Kaged Muscle Pre–Kaged is their leading pre-workout dietary supplement, which is proposed to boost mental focus and improve your stamina before hitting the gym. But does Pre-Kaged really work? Read our Pre-Kaged pre-workout review to find out.

What Is Kaged Pre-Kaged?

Pre-Kaged is a powdered supplement that combines essential vitamins, amino acids, and non-essential nutrients to help improve energy levels and boost sports performance. It also contains coconut water powder for optimal hydration and a range of natural, whole-food extracts rich in antioxidants.

Pre-Kaged is flavored naturally, containing no artificial colors or flavors, with positive reviews for being one of the best-tasting pre-workout supplements. It comes in several flavors, including Berry Blast, Pink Lemonade, Fruit Punch, Krisp Apple, and Grape.

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Does It Really Work?

Pre-Kaged combines scientifically-proven ingredients to enhance performance at recommended dosages for the best effects. 

Many verified buyers have said in their reviews that the supplement gives them a big boost in energy and performance – most likely from the caffeine content, which is quite high at 274 milligrams.

Alongside ingredients with specific performance-enhancing benefits, Pre-Kaged provides essential B vitamins that help with energy production and metabolism, ensuring you’re never deficient in nutrients crucial for energy production.

Pros

• Third-party tested for quality assurance
• No artificial sweeteners
• Comprehensive ingredients list
• Most reviewers like the flavors
• Vegan-friendly
• 100% natural, non-GMO ingredients
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Cons

• Contains sweeteners such as sucralose
• Doesn’t provide all ingredient information on the website
• Doesn’t use the most bioavailable form of some ingredients, such as creatine
• Contains a proprietary formula, the Spectra blend

Kaged Pre-Kaged Ingredients

Organic Caffeine

One of the main ingredients in Pre-Kaged is caffeine, a stimulant that comes from the coffee extract and green tea extract. Studies suggest that caffeine significantly boosts sports performance^[2], reduces the perception of pain after exercise, and may even improve recovery. 

Caffeine seems to be best for improving aerobic and high-intensity sports performance^[3]. But dosage is key: studies suggest that caffeine improves performance most consistently when taken at a dose of 3-6 milligrams per kilogram of body mass^[2]. One serving of Pre-Kaged provides 274 milligrams of caffeine, which is about the same amount of caffeine as a large coffee and optimal for people weighing between 45-90 kilograms (99-198 pounds). 

However, a new study comparing caffeinated and non-caffeinated pre-workout supplements suggests otherwise. They found that both supplements improved performance^[4] similarly, while the caffeinated supplement only increased subjective energy ratings, meaning the participants felt they had more energy but didn’t actually perform better.

Pre-Kaged contains organic caffeine, meaning the caffeine comes from organic coffee and green tea. 

L-Citrulline

L-citrulline is an amino acid proposed to boost performance by boosting nitric oxide and L-arginine availability^[5]. Citrulline is present in various fruits, especially melon. However, studies show that eating foods rich in citrulline^[6] doesn’t affect sports performance. 

Studies say that citrulline works as an ergonomic aid, helping boost resistance training and high-intensity performance^[7] and recovery. It also seems to improve cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure^[8] in those with high blood pressure and increasing blood flow^[5].

However, the exact dosage of supplemental citrulline that works best to help promote performance is still unclear, with most studies using eight grams. Also, a recent meta-analysis found that, overall, citrulline doesn’t significantly impact aerobic performance, so more studies are needed to confirm whether or not citrulline can improve performance..

Pre-Kaged provides 6.5 grams of L-citrulline per serving. 

Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid that humans can make from other amino acids and attain from eating meat. Nevertheless, beta-alanine is a well-researched compound for improving sports performance^[9] and is even a recommended supplement for military personnel^[10] as a safe nutrient for its ergonomic and neuroprotective benefits, improving mental focus and alertness under stressful conditions.

Beta-alanine is the rate-limiting substrate for producing carnosine, which is responsible for limiting the build-up of lactic acid. Too much lactic acid may adversely affect exercise performance and endurance. 

Taking between four and six grams of beta-alanine daily for four weeks has been shown to significantly increase muscle carnosine levels^[11] by up to 64% and improve short-term sports performance. However, more evidence is needed to see whether beta-alanine can improve performance for more than 25 minutes after consumption.

Fermented BCAAs

Branched-chain amino acids, also known as BCAAs, are three of the most important amino acids for athletes – valine, leucine, and isoleucine – because they’re the rate-limiting factors for muscle growth^[12]. BCAAs are also important for brain health^[13].

If you’re not getting enough BCAAs, you won’t be able to repair and build muscle efficiently. On the other hand, supplementing BCAAs is associated with increased protein synthesis, reduced mental fatigue, and the regulation of food intake.

Studies suggest that supplementing BCAAs might attenuate muscle damage and muscle soreness^[14] in some people at doses of up to 255 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day. However, studies also show that the results may vary from person to person.

Timing is crucial to get the most benefit from consuming BCAAs. While most athletes consume protein supplements with BCAAs after exercise, studies suggest that taking BCAAs works better for reducing exercise-induced muscle damage when taking them before you exercise^[15].

Creatine HCL

Creatine is an ergonomic aid popular among weightlifters because it improves resistance training performance. 

Although creatine isn’t essential (meaning your body can make all it needs from other nutrients), studies consistently show that supplementing creatine increases the concentration of creatine^[16] in muscle cells. 

This seems to have a positive impact on muscle performance. A recent study shows that basketball players supplementing creatine monohydrate^[17] perform much better than those who didn’t take creatine. Further studies suggest that supplementing creatine as part of a pre-workout supplement improves performance in resistance trainers by increasing power output and reducing the time to fatigue^[18].

Additionally, creatine seems to speed up recovery time by acting as an antioxidant and reducing muscle damage.

However, Pre-Kaged provides creatine in the form of creatine hydrochloride (HCl), while most of the evidence for the safety and efficacy of creatine^[19] is for creatine monohydrate. Creatine HCl has been marketed as a more bioavailable form of creatine^[20], meaning it might raise creatine levels more than monohydrate, but these claims aren’t backed up by evidence^[19].

Spectra Antioxidants

“Spectra” is a branded antioxidant blend of plant polyphenols from 29 fruit and vegetable whole food extracts. Studies show that consuming plant polyphenols reduces muscle soreness^[21] and improves muscle function in athletes.

Antioxidants can improve sports performance by reducing oxidative damage in cells. Studies show that consuming foods or juices rich in polyphenols improves sports performance^[6], speeds up muscle recovery^[22] and reduces muscle pain post-exercise. 

Slow recovery and muscle pain can hinder performance the following day, so supplementing antioxidants may be particularly important for athletes with a short interval between training sessions.

One serving of Pre-Kaged provides 100 milligrams of antioxidants.

Taurine

Taurine is a non-essential amino acid that is also used to improve sports performance. Taurine is important for energy production in muscle and fat cells^[23], and supplementing it may increase muscle performance and improve weight loss outcomes^[24].

However, more isn’t always better. It turns out that taking one gram of taurine before or after exercise significantly reduces muscle lactate levels^[25], which reduces muscle fatigue when doing power sports such as sprints. On the other hand, taking six grams before exercise may not reduce lactate levels but increases glycerol levels, which is better for prolonged exercise.

For the best results, combine taurine with caffeine – as in Pre-Kaged. Studies suggest that the combination of caffeine and taurine^[26] works better for improving performance, improving agility, balance, and reaction time, than taking them alone.

L-Tyrosine

Tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid and the precursor to the brain neurochemicals dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine^[27]. You can also synthesize it from the essential amino acid phenylalanine.

The evidence for supplementing L-tyrosine isn’t very strong for improving sports performance^[28], but it does seem to improve cognitive function, which is also beneficial for athletes. This may be especially important during times of stress^[10] when cognitive function is usually diminished.

Nevertheless, improved cognitive function can still help with physical movement. In particular, studies suggest that combining L-tyrosine with low-dose caffeine might improve movement accuracy^[27] when doing exhaustive exercise.

Alternatives To Kaged Pre-Kaged

Health Benefits Of Kaged Pre-Kaged

The variety of ingredients in Kaged Pre-Kaged provide a range of potential health benefits, including:

• Improved sports performance
• Increased muscle synthesis
• Faster muscle recovery after exercise
• Reduced exercise-induced muscle damage
• Improved perceived energy levels
• Better cognitive function – especially when under stressful conditions
• Improved weight loss
• Provides essential nutrients, such as vitamins B12, B6, and B3

Potential Side Effects

Most studies suggest that taking pre-workout multi-ingredient performance supplements is safe^[29] and does indeed improve body composition by increasing lean body mass. 

However, the long-term effects of taking these supplements haven’t been well assessed. Most studies on the effects of multi-ingredient performance supplements are short-term, lasting less than eight weeks.

What’s more, it’s not clear whether these supplements help improve endurance and performance. Moreover, there may be some side effects from some of the ingredients.

Paraesthesia (Tingling)

Studies suggest that beta-alanine can cause tingling^[9] in some people. However, this isn’t dangerous and can usually be mitigated by taking a slow-release supplement or dividing the recommended dose into multiple smaller doses (e.g., 1.6 grams) throughout the day.

May Interact With Some Medications

Some of the ingredients in Pre-Kaged might interact with certain prescribed medications. For example, L-tyrosine may interact with thyroxine^[30], a medication for hypothyroidism, and L-dopa^[31], a medication for Parkinson’s disease, potentially leading to altered thyroid hormone levels or dopamine levels that are excessively high.

Headaches

Pre-Kaged is quite high in caffeine, and consuming too much (or too little) caffeine can trigger headaches^[32] in some people.

Insomnia

Depending on when you exercise, taking Pre-Kaged too late in the day might cause sleep issues^[33] due to the caffeine content. Most recommendations suggest consuming caffeine before noon to avoid sleep disruption.

Initial Weight Gain

Creatine can trigger water retention in the first few days^[34] of supplementing, leading to weight gain due to water weight, but this is only a short-term side effect.

Blood Sugar Imbalance

The product contains sucralose, which has been shown in scientific studies^[35] to adversely affect the gut microbiome causing aberrations in blood sugar control. In some individuals, it may also cause headaches, visual disturbances, weight gain, and even epilepsy.

Dosage

Pre-Kaged comes with a measuring scoop for easy dosing. On their website, Pre-Kaged recommends mixing one scoop (30 grams) with 16-20 ounces of water and drinking 30 minutes before your workout. However, studies suggest that consuming caffeine 60 minutes before^[2] your workout may be best for performance.

Kaged recommends using Pre-Kaged as part of their “PIP” stack: Pre-, Intra-, and Post-workout supplements.

Kaged Pre-Kaged Review: What Do Real Users Say?

Pre-Kaged has 4.8 stars in reviews from more than 1,200 verified buyers on their website. 

Let’s check out some real Pre-Kaged pre-workout reviews from their website.

First time I tried Pre-Kaged with a full scoop it was way too much caffeine for me personally. Loved the pump but the energy after was still hitting me throughout the day. I will definitely get the Pre-Kaged stim-free on my next purchase.

Andre L.

I can feel this supplement within 15 minutes of taking it. Huge boost. I’d almost be nervous to take it if I wasn’t doing harder workouts – at least for me. Tastes great and goes down easy. Great product that does exactly what it says it will.

Ben K.

Pre-Kaged has been my go-to for years! Have literally tried dozens of pre-workouts throughout my years of lifting and when Pre-Kaged came out I was intrigued by all the actual testing and high-quality ingredients it had, I tried it and haven’t had another pre-workout that works like this and knowing the quality and scientific research that goes into making it, I feel very comfortable using it.

Allen H.

Final Thought

Pre-Kaged is one of the most comprehensive pre-workout supplements on the market, using ingredients with scientifically-proven performance-enhancing benefits for athletes. While it might seem expensive, it’s not as expensive as some similar supplements on the market, and Pre-Kaged includes a wider range of ingredients too.

With so many positive Pre-Kaged pre-workout reviews, we recommend Pre-Kaged to any amateur or serious athlete. However, some reviewers say it contained too much caffeine for them, with others saying they feel a huge boost in energy after taking it. So, if you’re sensitive to caffeine, this might not be your best pre-workout supplement.

If you compete, you can be rest assured that Pre-Kaged has been third-party tested for a range of banned substances. Remember that no supplement should replace a balanced diet and that Pre-Kaged should go alongside proper nutrition for your physical activity.

Frequently Asked Questions

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