Does Pre Workout Give You a Pump?

There’s nothing better than a good pump.

When the blood flows to your muscles during a tough workout, you look jacked, and you feel amazing. Luckily, there are supplements that can help you get even better pumps every time you hit the gym. In this article, we’ll explore whether pre-workout supplements can give you that pump we all want.

We’ll go over key ingredients that contribute to this effect, see how they work and what you need to look for if you’re buying a pre-workout for this purpose.

Why Take Pre-Workout for Pumping?

The scientific name for a pump is Hyperemia, and it is many weightlifters favorite part of going to the gym. The satisfying feeling of blood rushing to your muscles makes you look fuller, and can give you an improved mind-muscle connection.

As a result, many lifters look for supplements to give them a better pump, which is where pre-workouts come in.

The key to getting a better pump is improving your blood flow, allowing more blood to rush to your muscles. This is primarily accomplished through the common pre-workout ingredient L-Citrulline, which we focused on in this list.

While other active pre-workout ingredients (beta-alanine, betaine, & creatine) play valuable roles in improving performance, they don’t contribute as much to pumps as L-Citrulline.

It’s worth noting that betaine has a similar (albeit a lower) nitric oxide elevating effect to L-Citrulline which will help your pumps as well, just not as significantly.

Creatine will also help your muscles hold more water, which will lead to a more pumped appearance. While all these ingredients are beneficial for pumps, we recommend prioritizing L-Citrulline if you’re looking to maximize your pumps with a pre-workout supplement.

It’s worth noting that achieving a better pump likely doesn’t have much correlation with overall performance or progress in the gym. With that being said, it’s still an incredibly satisfying feeling, so there’s nothing wrong with prioritizing getting a great pump when you hit the gym.

Just keep in mind that a great pump doesn’t necessarily mean you’re optimally growing muscle or getting any stronger.

What Key Components Provide and Enhance Pumping Effect?

In this article, we primarily focused on L-Citrulline, as it’s the active ingredient that will provide the most noticeable pumping effect. However, the active ingredients beta-alanine, betaine, and creatine may provide some level of increased pump as well.

1. L-Citrulline

The reason we focused so heavily on L-Citrulline in this article is because it acts as a vasodilator. This essentially means it will increase blood flow, and when you’re working out, this is responsible for better pumps.

While L-Citrulline also appears to enhance performance and reduce soreness, its vasodilating properties are what’s responsible for the increased pump.

2. Beta-Alanine, Betaine, Creatine

These 3 ingredients along with L-Citrulline are the most useful active ingredients in a pre-workout formula for their science-backed results. 

Beta-alanine improves power output and reduces fatigue, but out of the 3 ingredients here has the least effect on pumps. Betaine increases total force production as well as endurance, as well as elevating levels of nitric oxide in the blood, which should create a more significant pumping effect.

Finally, creatine improves overall high intensity exercise performance, as well as helping the muscles hold more water, for a fuller, more pumped appearance.

While none of these ingredients will directly increase the pumping effect at the same level of l-citrulline, they will have some positive effects which will likely help give you a better pump.

How to Find the Best Pump Pre-Workout?

There are several factors you’ll want to consider before deciding on which pump pre-workout to purchase. Here they are covered in more detail.

1. L-Citrulline Content

The primary ingredient we focused on in this article is L-Citrulline because of its inherent pump-increasing properties. If you’re specifically looking for the best pump-booster possible, we recommend prioritizing L-Citrulline content when comparing products.

The range on our list is around 4-6g of L-Citrulline and 6-8g of Citrulline Malate. Products on the higher end of this range will likely deliver slightly better results in terms of pump.

2. Stimulation

Of course, when deciding on what pre-workout to buy, you should consider what stimulation level you’re looking for.

You may want intense stimulation in the >300mg range, or you may want to stick to the milder stimulation of a <200mg product. You may also prefer a completely stimulant-free option. Whatever you decide is right for you, be sure to double check the caffeine content before making a purchase.

3. Other Active Ingredients

While L-Citrulline is the star ingredient for helping get better pumps, don’t forget about the other active ingredients in pre-workout. These primarily include beta-alanine, betaine, and creatine.

They all have their own unique advantages, so you’ll ideally want some of these ingredients present on top of L-CItrulline in whatever formula you’re buying.

4. Value for Money

Of course, another one of the most important factors when making a decision is the value you’re getting for your money. The pre-workouts on our list range from just over $1 per serving to well over $2.

Be sure you understand what ingredients you’re looking for in a pre-workout, and how much their effects are worth to you. Comparing products in this way will help you make an informed choice, letting you get the best possible value for your money.

Recommended Pre-Workout

BULK by Transparent Labs

• Form: Powder
• Best for: Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance, Reducing Fatigue, High-Intensity Exercise Performance, Training Volume, Enhanced “Pumping” Effect
• Flavor: Strawberry Kiwi, Pina Colada, Blue Raspberry, Black Cherry, Peach Mango, Tropical Punch, Sour Grape
• Caffeine: 200mg
• Special Ingredients: Beta-Alanine, Betaine, Citrulline Malate
• Package Size: 1.35lbs
• Serving: 20.5g
• Price Per Serving: ~$1.67
• Company Founded: 2012
• Recommended by Athletes: Hafthor Bjornsson, Paul Sklar, Sean Harris

CHECK LATEST PRICE

Overall, this is one of the most balanced Pump pre-workouts available on the market. With 200mg of caffeine in each serving, which will give you a solid boost of energy without being too much.

Featuring 4g of beta-alanine, 2.5g of betaine, and 8g of citrulline malate, it has most of the active ingredients you should be looking for in a pre-workout.

Transparent Labs also comes in a wide variety of 7 flavors. Also, like all of Transparent Labs products, it’s formulated with no artificial ingredients whatsoever.

The reason why we recommend this product is because of its quality in every metric. It contains high doses of all its active ingredients, a solid amount of caffeine, as well as a good assortment of flavors, a budget-friendly price, and an all-natural formula. Overall, it’s tough to find anything too bad about Transparent Labs Bulk pre-workout.

How to Take Pre-Workout for Pump?

With any pre-workout, we recommend following the instructions on the package. Typically, it’s recommended you take 1 scoop of pre-workout with 1-2 glasses of water or a beverage of your choice.

The time you take it may vary, but to get the most out of L-Citrulline’s pumping effect, we recommend taking the pre-workout around an hour before you hit the gym. This will also give the caffeine plenty of time to enter your system before your workout.

It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t take more than the recommended serving size of pre-workout. With many of the products on our list featuring well over 200mg of caffeine, taking double or triple this amount at once poses some serious health risks.

Possible symptoms include restlessness, nervousness, vomiting, rapid heart rate, and tremors.

How to Increase the Pumping Effect without a Pre-Workout?

To maximize the pumping effect without pre-workout we recommend doing high reps of isolation exercises. The reason for this is that high reps will allow more blood to flow to your muscles throughout the set.

By doing isolation exercises, you’ll also be targeting a smaller area of your body, allowing more blood to concentrate into one specific muscle group. By doing several high rep sets of an isolation movement, you’ll be sure to get a solid pump.

FAQ

Does Pre-Workout Give You a Pump?

While pre-workout itself won’t give you a pump without actually working out, there are certain ingredients – L-Citrulline in particular – that will noticeably increase your ability to get a solid pump in the gym.

How Do You Get a Crazy Pump?

To get the best pump possible, we recommend taking a pre-workout with high L-Citrulline content, and focus on high-rep isolation movements during your workout. This will help you get a solid mind-muscle connection, and get the craziest pump possible.

How Long Do Pumps Last?

A pump will typically last anywhere between 2 hours, but results will vary depending on how much volume you got in during your workout, and what types of exercise you were doing. The pump will be most noticeable during and immediately after your workout, and will slowly lessen over the next few hours.

Conclusion

Overall, pre-workouts – especially those with high doses of L-Citrulline – can be a great way to improve the pumps you get while working out. If you’re looking to get the best pump possible, you now know how to pick one and what to look out for! As far as us, we love BULK by Transparent Labs because it has everything you would want in a product of this kind.

Let us know if you decide to try it or if you have any other recommendations! We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Also read:

• Best Caffeine Free Pre Workout
• Creatine vs Pre Workout
• Pre Workout vs Coffee
• How Long Does Pre Workout Last
• Why Does Pre Workout Make You Itch
• Best Healthy Pre Workout
• What Is Intra Workout
• What Is High Stim Pre Workout
• What Is Non Stim Pre Workout

References:

1. Rogers, J. Health, “Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses” https://scholarworks.uark.edu/hhpruht/75/ (accessed August 13, 2023).
2. Marjorie S. Miller “To beet or not to beet? Researchers test theories of beet juice benefits” 
3. MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) “Hyperemia” https://profiles.umassmed.edu /display/113005 (accessed August 13, 2023).
4. Joaquín Pérez-Guisado “Citrulline malate enhances athletic anaerobic performance and relieves muscle soreness” 2010 May;24(5):1215-22.
5. Eric T Trexler “International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine” 2015 Jul 15
6. Jenna Mae Apicella “The Effect of Betaine Supplementation on Performance and Muscle Mechanisms”
7. Richard B Kreider “International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine” 2017 Jun 13
8. Harvard “Caffeine” https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ nutritionsource/caffeine/  (accessed August 13, 2023)
9. Photos are made by Torokhtiy Media Team