Transparent Labs BULK Black Pre-Workout Review

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If you’re looking for a hard-hitting, clinically dosed pre-workout, then you’ve come to the right place. In this product review, we’re checking out one of the most powerful pre-workout supplements available: Transparent Labs BULK Black. The BULK Black formula is an upgraded version of Transparent Labs popular BULK pre-workout supplement, which is already one of the more potent pre-workouts on the market.

Designed with Transparent Labs’ commitment to innovation and dedication to providing the best supplements on the market, BULK Black was created to meet the demands of dedicated athletes, gym-goers and bodybuilders alike.

This article will focus on breaking down the individual ingredients in every scoop of BULK Black’s massive 21-gram serving size. We’ll also discuss customer reviews, the flavor options available, my own personal experience using this product and how BULK Black stands up to the competition.

This content is meant to be informative, but should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention or treatment of health problems. Always speak with your doctor before starting any new supplement or exercise regimen.

Key Features

• Each scoop contains over 17 grams of clinically dosed active ingredients
• High-stimulant formula with 275 milligrams of caffeine per serving
• Third-party tested with Certificates of Analysis for all of their batches
• Four unique flavor options, including Cherry Kiwi, Blue Raspberry, Peach Mango and Sour Gummy
• No artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors or preservatives

What is Transparent Labs BULK Black?

Transparent Labs BULK Black is a high quality pre-workout supplement formulated to improve strength, endurance, focus and drive during a workout. Each scoop, designed to be taken prior to a workout, contains over 17 grams of clinically dosed active ingredients. A few of the key components include 275 milligrams of caffeine anhydrous, 8,000 milligrams of citrulline malate, 4,000 milligrams of beta-alanine, 2,500 milligrams of betaine anhydrous, 1,300 milligrams of taurine and 1,000 milligrams of L-tyrosine. These ingredients, along with the rest of the formulation, work together to fuel even the most intense training sessions.

Who Transparent Labs BULK Black Is Best For

Transparent Labs is one of the most reputable supplement companies in the industry, providing consumers with clinically dosed formulas that never contain artificial ingredients. This makes BULK Black a great pre-workout option for consumers looking for a supplement void of extra additives and filler ingredients.

Additionally, BULK Black is one of the most powerful pre-workout supplements on the market, containing 12 active ingredients and five beneficial vitamins and minerals. These ingredients are all clinically dosed, meaning they are included in amounts that have been proven to provide performance enhancing benefits. Due to the high dose of stimulants in BULK Black, including 275 milligrams of caffeine and an additional 30 milligrams of dicaffeine malate, this product is intended for seasoned gym-goers, bodybuilders and athletes who are able to handle this substantial dosage.

Who Transparent Labs BULK Black Is NOT Best For

BULK Black contains 305 total milligrams of caffeine per serving, making each scoop of powder stronger than consuming three eight-ounce cups of coffee. This product will cause even the biggest stim junkies to feel the energizing effects, making this pre-workout one that caffeine sensitive individuals should avoid. These caffeine levels also make BULK Black a poor supplement choice prior to engaging in cardio-based activities like running, biking, swimming and high intensity functional fitness sports such as CrossFit. This is because this amount of caffeine will increase your heart rate, something endurance-based athletes need to regulate and keep as steady as possible to optimize performance.

The pump ingredients (like citrulline malate), while great for resistance training, may negatively affect functional fitness athletes when performing a similar exercise or movement pattern for multiple repetitions. This will cause increased blood flow to the specific muscles they’re training, which can impact their grip on a pull-up bar, kettlebell, barbell or dumbbell.

Lastly, some individuals like a pre-workout that covers all of their bases and includes additional ingredients like BCAAs and creatine. If you’re looking for an all-encompassing pre-workout with these two ingredients, then you’ll have to look elsewhere, since BULK Black doesn’t contain either.

Pricing and Where to Buy

Transparent Labs BULK Black is available for purchase from the Transparent Labs website, as well as through online retailers like Amazon. The 30-serving tub is listed at $54.99, and you can reduce that to $49.49 if you take advantage of Transparent Labs 10 percent off subscribe and save discount that also includes free shipping.

Nutrition Facts

Transparent Labs BULK Black is sweetened with stevia, so it doesn’t contain any sugars or carbohydrates. There are also no sources of protein or fat in this formula, so BULK Black is calorie-free. The ingredients list is extensive—17 in total—and starts with five inactive vitamins and minerals, including Vitamins D (75 micrograms), B6 (five milligrams) and B12 (250 micrograms), as well as the mineral electrolytes sodium (150 milligrams) and potassium (100 milligrams).

The 12 active ingredients are citrulline malate, beta-alanine, betaine anhydrous, taurine, L-tyrosine, AlphaSize Alpha-GPC, caffeine anhydrous, L-theanine, theobromine, Astragin, Infinergy dicaffeine malate and boron. These are the ingredients that will have noticeable physical and mental benefits.

Ingredients

Citrulline Malate (8,000 milligrams)

Citrulline malate is a 2:1 combination of L-citrulline and malic acid. The main benefits of this ingredient are increased muscular endurance, better aerobic capacity and reduced muscle soreness. This is because L-citrulline is a precursor to the amino acid L-arginine, which is a powerful nitric oxide booster in the body. Nitric oxide boosters increase blood flow to muscles, which causes that classic “pumped” feeling. This also increases the amount of oxygen and nutrients that get to the muscles, which ultimately improves performance and enhances recovery. A clinically effective dose of citrulline malate is around six to eight grams prior to a workout session.

Beta-Alanine (4,000 milligrams)

Beta-Alanine is a non-essential amino acid that’s combined with the essential amino acid L-histidine to form carnosine. Carnosine’s role in the body is buffering the lactic acid produced in the muscles during long durations of intense exercise. This reduction in lactic acid build-up improves endurance and performance during training and competition. An effective dose of four to six grams per day is suggested to elicit performance enhancing benefits. This dosage may also induce a possible side effect of beta-alanine supplementation known as paresthesia, which is a sensation of prickly or tingly skin. However, the symptom is temporary, and there is no evidence that it causes any harm.

Betaine Anhydrous (2,500 milligrams)

Betaine, also known as trimethylglycine, is an amino acid derivative that’s naturally found in beets. Studies suggest that betaine in dosages between two and three grams may provide several performance enhancing benefits, including improved body composition, increased strength and better muscular endurance.

Taurine (1,300 milligrams)

Taurine is characterized as a conditionally essential amino acid, which means that the body is usually able to produce this compound in sufficient amounts unless otherwise impacted by certain health issues. Taurine is found in pre-workout powders because of its demonstrated antioxidant capabilities and potential athletic performance benefits. These benefits include improvements in endurance, peak power generation, electrolyte balance and improved recovery. The recommended dose of taurine is one to two grams taken prior to exercise.

L-Tyrosine (1,000 milligrams)

L-tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid that’s beneficial for athletic performance by enhancing focus and mood. It’s the precursor to the “feel good” hormone dopamine. Taking L-tyrosine prior to a workout has been shown to improve feelings of well-being and result in a reduced sense of fatigue. Although we think of workouts as stress relieving, intense cardio and resistance training sessions put the body under a significant amount of strain. L-tyrosine is found to work best in these stressful situations, such as intense training sessions or athletic competitions. L-tyrosine is effective in dosages between 500-2,000 milligrams.

AlphaSize Alpha-GPC (300 milligrams)

AlphaSize Alpha-GPC is a trademarked ingredient meant to support cognitive function, enhance muscular power output and delay fatigue. The science supports these claims, as Alpha-GPC has been shown to improve both mental and physical performance at a dose of 200 milligrams. This is due to its ability to prevent exercise induced reductions in acetylcholine levels, which is the brain's primary neurotransmitter molecule.

Caffeine Anhydrous (275 milligrams)

Aside from stim-free supplements, caffeine is found in almost every pre-workout on the market. This is due to caffeine’s properties as an adenosine receptor antagonist, which basically means that, instead of providing the body with energy, it instead prevents you from feeling tired. This action stimulates the central nervous system, which leads to improvements in athletic performance, cognition, power output and endurance through a reduced perception of fatigue.

Caffeine is one of the most studied supplements when it comes to enhancing athletic performance, and has shown to be effective in doses of three to six milligrams per kilogram of body weight. This means that, for a 150-pound individual, an effective caffeine dose for enhancing athletic performance is between 200-400 milligrams. For reference, most pre-workouts contain 150-300 milligrams of caffeine per serving. When using a pre-workout at these dosages, it's important to monitor your total daily caffeine consumption. The recommended daily allowance of caffeine for healthy adults is 400 milligrams per day.

L-Theanine (200 milligrams)

L-theanine is an amino acid that works in conjunction with caffeine to improve cognition, reaction time and focus. This ingredient has also been shown to attenuate some of the unwanted side effects of high caffeine consumption, which include an increase in heart rate, restlessness and anxiety. The effective ratio of L-theanine to caffeine is 2:1.

Theobromine (50 milligrams)

Theobromine is a product famous for being naturally found in chocolate. It’s sometimes included in pre-workout supplements as a vasodilator (blood vessel widener), which increases blood flow to the muscles. It may also have a small stimulating effect similar to caffeine.

AstraGin (50 milligrams)

AstraGin is a dietary adaptogen supplement that’s a combination of Astragalus membranaceus and Panax notoginseng. Trademarked by NuLivScience, this ingredient is marketed as a way to improve athletic performance and support the natural absorption of nutrients from food. While found to be safe at 0.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day, the effectiveness of AstraGin has not been well-studied, and there’s limited scientific evidence to support the performance claims.

Infinergy (30 milligrams)

Infinergy (DiCaffeine Malate) is a trademarked ingredient from the supplement company Creative Compounds. It’s a combination of approximately 75 percent caffeine and 25 percent malic acid. Since it’s buffered with the malic acid, it may help promote a longer lasting sense of energy and prevent the subsequent crash associated with high caffeine dosages.

Boron (Three milligrams)

Boron is included in BULK Black as boron citrate, which is an important trace mineral for optimal health and recovery. Boron’s beneficial effects appear at intakes greater than three milligrams per day, and an upper limit of 20 milligrams per day was established for individuals over 18 years of age.

Other Ingredients

The other ingredients included in BULK Black include three vitamins and two minerals. They are sodium, potassium and Vitamins D, B6 and B12. The B vitamins specifically are linked to the metabolism of nutrients for energy. Sodium and potassium are two important mineral electrolytes in the body that help with hydration and assist in the communication between the brain and muscles during muscle contraction.

What to Consider Before Buying

Ingredients

When looking to purchase a pre-workout supplement, make sure you’re getting one containing high-quality ingredients that will actually work. In the case of BULK Black, you have nothing to worry about because this is one of the most robust pre-workout formulas on the market. BULK Black has a total of 17 clinically dosed ingredients, 12 of which are active ingredients designed to boost your performance in the gym. If you do decide to choose BULK Black as your next pre-workout, you can feel confident knowing you’re purchasing a cutting edge supplement that can take your training to the next level.

Dosages

In almost all cases, I would prefer to have a pre-workout supplement with a few well-dosed ingredients than a bunch of underdosed ingredients that don’t do anything. Not only does BULK Black have an abundance of powerful ingredients, Transparent Labs also makes it a priority to include all of their ingredients in doses that are clinically effective. This means that every ingredient is included in an amount that expresses its performance enhancing benefits.

Transparent Labs also avoids the use of proprietary blends—or blends that bundle ingredients in undisclosed amounts. This practice negatively impacts consumers because there’s no way to tell the exact dosage of specific ingredients in the blend. Less reputable supplement companies purposefully underdose ingredients and hide that fact by including them in a proprietary blend.

Price

My recommendation when it comes to the cost of a pre-workout is that you never spend money you don’t have on supplements. This is because these products are truly just the cherry on top when it comes to sports performance. If you don’t have your workout routine, nutrition, recovery and proper sleep schedule dialed in, then these supplements won’t have much of an effect. Regarding Transparent Labs BULK Black, this is a premium pre-workout powder that also comes with a premium price point. That being said, this is one of the more affordable options when it comes to the top tier bracket of pre-workout supplements. BULK Black is priced at $54.99 and can be lowered to $49.49 with the 10 percent off subscribe and save plan. In my opinion, this is one of the best pre-workouts on the market, and the ingredients and dosages easily justify the price point.

Flavor

The flavor profile of a pre-workout powder is an important factor because if you enjoy the taste, it will be easier to incorporate it into your daily workout routine. BULK Black comes in four flavor options, including Peach Mango, Blue Raspberry, Sour Gummy and Cherry Kiwi. These are all made without artificial sweeteners, colors or flavors, and are naturally sweetened with stevia. I’ve tried the Peach Mango flavor and thought it tasted great. It was definitely true to the mango flavor and wasn’t too sweet.

What Customers Say

Customers genuinely like BULK Black, and rate it 4.6/5 stars on the Transparent Labs website. Many consider it a step up from the original BULK formulation, while others comment on the delicious flavor profiles. The fact that this pre-workout is void of any artificial ingredients is also seen as a big plus. One user from the Transparent Labs website says: “Great pre workout. Amazing focus and great pumps. Just right on the stim. Will definitely be buying this again.” I think this is one of the best formulated pre-workouts on the market, and although I’ve only tried the Peach Mango flavor, it tasted great. I’ll be continuing to use this product on my heavyweight lifting days.

Transparent Labs BULK Black vs BULK

Transparent Labs BULK and BULK Black are very similar products. The most apparent difference is that BULK Black has almost 100 milligrams more of caffeine, 25 extra milligrams of AstraGin and an additional 2,000 milligrams of citrulline malate. However, the original BULK pre-workout has a few ingredients BULK Black does not. These include 4,000 milligrams of branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), 30 milligrams of zinc and 160 extra milligrams of L-theanine. Overall, these are two very comparable products that should produce similar results and are only separated by a $5 price difference. The only other disparity is that BULK comes in 11 different flavors, and BULK Black comes in only four.

Transparent Labs BULK Black vs C4

There’s really no comparison between BULK Black’s 17-ingredient formula and the original C4, which has a total of eight ingredients, only four of which are active. Aside from the 150 milligrams of caffeine, the rest of the ingredients are underdosed and won’t provide much of a benefit, although this product is significantly cheaper. A better option from Cellucor is C4 Dynasty, which has ingredients comparable to BULK Black. Dynasty has 10 grams of a citrulline complex, more than six grams of beta-alanine, five grams of creatine, 350 milligrams of caffeine and more.

Related Post: C4 Pre-Workout Review: Why It’s So Popular and Who It’s Best For

Transparent Labs BULK Black vs GHOST Legend

GHOST, a brand also know for their protein powders, is another well-dosed pre-workout supplement that can definitely hold its own against Transparent Labs BULK Black. The major difference is that GHOST doesn’t contain any betaine and instead contains a pump ingredient called Nitrosigine. Also, BULK Black is slightly more well-rounded with the inclusion of the vitamins and minerals. Aside from that, the rest of the ingredients are similar and included in similar dosages.

Related Post: GHOST LEGEND Pre-Workout Review: Is This Pre-Workout The Best For You?

Transparent Labs BULK Black FAQs

Is Transparent Labs BULK Black safe?

Yes, Transparent Labs BULK Black is considered safe as long as you follow the supplement label directions and don’t exceed the recommended single-scoop serving size. Since this is a highly-caffeinated substance with multiple ingredients, it’s best practice to consult with your primary healthcare provider and show them the supplement you plan on taking.

Is there creatine in Transparent Labs BULK Black?

There isn’t any creatine in Transparent Labs BULK Black, but I don’t see this as a negative, since creatine doesn’t have any active qualities and is instead meant to be taken daily for long term strength, size and endurance gains. In fact, I actually prefer to have a standalone creatine supplement so that I can still take it on my rest days without needing to consume a pre-workout powder with caffeine.

Does Transparent Labs BULK Black have testosterone?

No, Transparent Labs BULK Black does not contain testosterone.

Final Thoughts

The Transparent Labs BULK Black pre-workout formula incorporates all of the key ingredients I look for in a pre-workout supplement and includes them at clinically effective dosages. Transparent Labs’ commitment to never using artificial ingredients in their products is a nice bonus. If you’re looking to upgrade your pre-workout powder to one of the strongest supplements on the market, I encourage you to give BULK Black a try.

Prices are accurate and items in stock as of publish time.