If the main ingredient in all these pre workouts is caffeine then people should start buying bags of caffeine instead!
Very true. However, if people did a bit of research, there wouldn't be a supplement industry in the same way there is now.
Most of the stuff in pre-workout drinks is proven to have an effect in a very specific circumstance which - 99% of the time - is completely unrelated to an actual training/workout/whatever environment. As such, things like HMB, L-gluatmine, boluxamine and zomginine do
something in a laboratory environment, or are added because a given physiological process needs them, but in the real world they do not add anything when tested in a training/workout environment.
Simple, really.
Jack3d is different because the DMAA in it is a pseudo-amphetamine, which does actually work and there is a lot of very good evidence to demosntrate its efficacy. Which is why it is banned in amateur/professional sport.
Nitric oxide also has the proven vasodilation effect, but that in and of itself does nothing more other than give somebody big veins and the 'pump', as such. Neither of which helps growth/whatever.
So yes. If you're going for a pre-workout drink, make sure it's got BCAAs, carbs (if that's your thing), caffeine, and the correct amount of beta alanine and creatine in it. It will taste rank, but stands a much better chance of doing something than whatever else people may use as those ingredients have good biomedical/physiological science behind them.
