Beta-Alanine is an amino acid that, in conjunction with histidine, forms carnosine in your muscles. Carnosine reduces the build-up of lactic acid so you can train harder for longer.
But, for many people, beta-alanine comes with some unpleasant side effects, including tingling in the face, neck, and back of the hands.
That’s why there’s a market for people who are after a beta-alanine free pre-workout that still provides the energy boost and performance improvements that you expect in a pre-workout.
Top 4 Beta-Alanine Free Pre-Workouts Tested/Ranked:
- Best Beta-Alanine Free Pre-Workout Overall: 4-Gauge
- Best Proprietary Blend Pre-Workout: Gaspari Super Pump
- Best Caffeine & Beta-Alanine Free Pre-Workout: Performance Lab Sport
- Best Pump Inducing Pre-Workout: BPI Sports Pump HD
How Much Do Beta-Alanine Free Pre-Workouts Cost?
Beta-Alanine Free pre-workouts break down to between $1.00 to $1.60 per serve. That puts it up there in terms of price. If you’re after a budget pre-workout, you’re probably gonna have to put up with the tingles that are part of the beta-alanine experience.
Best Beta-Alanine Free Pre-Workout Overall: 4-Gauge
Roar Ambition, the makers of 4-Gauge, has scored a hit when it comes to standing out with their unique shotgun cartridge packaging. It’s designed to hype you for the coming war in the gym by getting you locked and loaded for action.
Instead of beta-alanine,4-Gauge is packed with 500 mg of acetyl-l-carnitine, 150 mg of anhydrous caffeine, 200 mg of l-theanine, and 100 mg of Rhodiola Rosea. These ingredients combine to deliver a powerful energy boost, while also increasing your mental focus, enhancing vasodilation for greater blood and nutrient transportation, and offsetting fatigue.
4-Gauge will keep you hydrated thanks to the addition of coconut water while the citrulline will provide a blood enhancing pump effect.
4-Gauge is available in just one flavor, but it’s pretty delicious. They call it fruit blast and it is similar to a strawberry fruit punch. Still, it would have been nice to have a few more taste options.
Who Should Buy 4-Gauge:
- People who want a beta-alanine free pre-workout
- Those after a non-nonsense supplement with no fillers
- People who hate proprietary blends
- People after a clean, side-effect free energy7 boost
Who Should Not Buy 4-Gauge:
- People who want a range of flavors
- Those who want beta-alanine in their pre-workout
Best Proprietary Blend Free Pre-Workout: Gaspari Super Pump
Super Pump Max from Gaspari Nutrition provides a stacked ingredient profile to deliver muscle pumps, increased endurance, reduced fatigue, and strength gains in the gym. It’s put together in the form of 6 proprietary blends, with such ingredients as taurine, l-citrulline, l-carnitine l-tartrate, l-ornithine, BCAAs, creatine monohydrate. l-tyrosine and caffeine.
The big problem here is that, because all of these ingredients are combined as a proprietary blend, you don’t know how much of each one you’re getting. That means that some ingredients might be underdosed while others may be overdosed (though that’s pretty unlikely).
The reason that we’ve added Gaspari Super Pump to our list of 4 best beta-alanine free pre-workouts, despite it being a proprietary blend product, is simple – it works!
User reviews are unanimous that this product does exactly what it claims to do – deliver a serious workout boost to keep you going for longer while offsetting lactic acid build-up. We would have liked to have seen full transparency in terms of the ingredient label, but the results suggest that Gaspari hasn’t been underdosing here – which begs the question as to why Rich felt the need to go down the proprietary blend route!
Who Should Buy Gaspari Super Pump Max:
- People who want a beta-alanine free pre-workout
- Those who want a creatine infused pre-workout
- People who want a variety of flavors
Who Should Not Buy Gaspari Super Pump Max:
- People who are anti proprietary blends
Best Caffeine Free Beta-Alanine Free Pre-Workout: Performance Lab Sport
Not only is Performance Lab Sport free of beta-alanine, but it is also absent caffeine, which makes it doubly unique in a pre-workout. The packaging on this product is far more clinical than on most pre-workouts and is a foretaste of its minimalist, no-nonsense ingredient profile.
There are just five key ingredients in Performance Lab Sport:
- L-Citrulline
- Creatine Monohydrate
- Maritime Pine Bark
- L-Carnosine
- Himalayan Pink Salt
Maritime Pine Bark is believed to have the ability to vasodilate blood vessels to enhance blood flow, bringing more oxygen and nutrients to the working muscles and quickening up the removal of waste products.
Himalayan Pink Salt has been proven to enhance hydration, which is essential for intense training. Even though it is designed for athletes as opposed to bodybuilders, Performance Lab Sport really delivers in terms of increasing workout energy, enhancing muscular endurance, and offsetting fatigue.
Who Should Buy Performance Lab Sport:
- People who want a beta-alanine free pre-workout
- Those who want a caffeine-free pre-workout
- Athletes and general trainers who aren’t after a ‘body-building’ supplement
Who Should Not Buy Performance Lab Sport:
- People who want caffeine in their pre-workout
- Those after a hardcore high stim pre-workout
Best Pump Inducing Beta-Alanine Free Pre-Workout: BPI Sports Pump HD
BPI Sports Pump HD is a powerful pump enhancer and energy booster that will give you a serious kick to power you through your workouts. Instead of beta-alanine, this formulation contains citrulline silicate to maximize your training pump effect, vitamin B6 for enhanced oxidation and muscle fullness, and green tea catechins for increased focus and performance.
Pump HD is available in a range of flavors and absorbs quickly into your system to do the business when you set foot on the gym floor. Containing natural vitamins and minerals, it promotes cell hydration and fast-track nutrients to your working muscles.
On the downside, Pump HD doesn’t mix very well and some of the flavors are a bit off-putting. When it comes to delivering the workout boost that it promises, however, this product delivers in spades!
Who Should Buy BPI Sports Pump HD:
- People who want a beta-alanine free pre-workout
- Those who want a great pump
Who Should Not Buy BPI Sports Pump HD:
- People are after an easy mixing powder
- People who put an emphasis on taste over performance
What to Look for in a Beta-Alanine Free Pre-Workout
When you’re shopping for a beta-alanine free pre-workout, be on the lookout for the following ingredients, which will do the job of beta-alanine:
- L-Carnosine
- L-Citrulline
- Maritime Pink Bark
How We Decide Our Picks
We went through a lot of pre-workouts before narrowing down on our top 4 beta-alanine free pre-workouts. Here are the key criteria that we took into account …
Value for Money
When it comes to specialty pre-workouts, you can pay big money. We wanted to keep with the $1:00 to $1:60 range to make it affordable for most people. Anything over $1.50 per serve is getting into expensive territory in this category.
Transparency
Transparency of ingredients is very important to us. That’s why we generally avoid proprietary blends. If you don’t know how much of an ingredient is in the product you are going in blind. We did make the exception for Gaspari Super Pump on the basis of its proven performance – but that’s a rarity.
FAQs
Why choose a beta-alanine free pre-workout?
Beta-alanine can produce an annoying tingling sensation in many people, especially in the face, hands, and neck. Taking a beta-alanine free pre-workout will avoid this problem.
What is a proprietary blend?
A proprietary blend is a product that does not display the individual ingredient dosages in a supplement. Instead, it only gives you the total dosage of a blend of products.
What does beta-alanine do in a pre-workout?
Beta-alanine combines with histidine to form carnosine. This, in turn, acts to reduce the levels of lactic acid in the muscle fiber to allow you to train longer and with more intensity.
What replaces beta-alanine in a beta-alanine free pre-workout?
You should look for such ingredients as l-citrulline, l-carnosine, and maritime pink bark in your pre-workout as a replacement for beta-alanine.
The Bottom Line
A good pre-workout will provide you with an extra 5-10 percent boost to your training energy, offset fatigue and boost your muscular endurance. Selecting a pre-workout that is beta-alanine free will do those things while avoiding the tingling side effect that is unique to that ingredient.
Keep in mind, though, that pre-workouts are only as good as the whole foods that underpin them. Unless you’ve nailed your meals in the hours before and after your workout, your pre-workout will do nothing for you. So, be sure to get the basics right before you consider supplementing.
References
- Effects of Beta-Alanine Supplementation on Physical Performance in Aerobic-Anaerobic Transition Zones: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32824885/
- Effects of supplementation with carnosine and other histidine-containing dipeptides on chronic disease risk factors and outcomes: protocol for a systematic review of randomized controlled trials: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5875615/
- Effects of Citrulline Supplementation on Exercise Performance in Humans: A Review of the Current Literature: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31977835/
