Best Beta-Alanine Supplements For Purity, Pre-Workout, and More

If you’re a big fan of pre-workout supplements, you’ve likely felt that tingly feeling before — this sensation comes from beta-alanine. One of the most common pre-workout ingredients, beta-alanine is a naturally occurring beta-amino acid that your body produces on its own. But just because your body makes it doesn’t mean a supplement is worth nothing. Why? Because research has shown that supplementing with beta-alanine might be able to help you perform better in the gym. (1)

Studies have linked beta-alanine to a decrease in perceived exertion during training, which means that it might help you exercise longer and harder. (2) By potentially helping to increase your exercise capacity, beta-alanine supplementation may be able to help you work harder and recover better. (3)(4) If you continue programming your training and recovery well, increasing your work capacity and exercise volume could potentially lead to more overload and growth adaptations. When a product is this popular, it’s hard to decide on a particular brand. That’s why we built this list with some of the best beta-alanine supplements on the market.

Best Beta-Alanine Supplements

• Best Pre-Workout With Beta-Alanine: Transparent Labs BULK
• Best Beta-Alanine Pills: NOW Sports Beta-Alanine Capsules

Editor’s Note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. When starting a new training regimen and/or diet, it is always a good idea to consult with a trusted medical professional. We are not a medical resource. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional.

Best Pre-Workout With Beta-Alanine: Transparent Labs BULK

Who Should Buy Transparent Labs BULK

• Anyone looking for a super stacked pre-workout and beta-alanine supplement. This formula contains 4,000mg of beta-alanine, 6,000mg of citrulline, and 2,500mg of betaine, among other ingredients.
• Athletes looking for a hit of caffeine will like the 180mg present in this supplement.
• If you want beta-alanine with flavoring, this pre-workout comes in 10 unique flavors.

Who Shouldn’t Buy Transparent Labs BULK

• People uncomfortable with a natural tingling sensation that could be caused by beta-alanine may want to avoid it in their pre-workout.
• Athletes who may want an unflavored option.
• Folks sensitive to caffeine may want to look elsewhere, as this pre-workout has 180mg. 

Many people crave the tingles that beta-alanine provides in a pre-workout supplement. For those folks, this pre-workout is dosed with plenty of beta-alanine and other popular ingredients (like citrulline and betaine). “Transparent Labs BULK packs in the citrulline malate with 8 grams per serving, which is on the upper end of what research has shown beneficial to exercise performance,” says Chelsea Rae Bourgeois, RD. “Same with the beta-alanine — you get 4 grams per serving. Talk about bang for your buck.” She rates it an impressive 4.25 out of 5 for formulation.

This pre-workout contains 19 ingredients to help focus, muscle pumps, and energy. Transparent Labs includes 6,000mg of citrulline, which may aid in better blood flow, 2,500mg of betaine, which may increase volume loads, and 3,500mg of beta-alanine. 

Beta-alanine can help improve strength and recovery rates, while citrulline may potentially help you metabolize nitric oxide —potentially improving your performance during high-intensity activities, like cycling or running. (6)(7)(8)(9) This formula is rounded out with the addition of 180mg of caffeine to provide you with extra energy on the days you feel like you’re lagging. As a quick aside: You cannot separate the caffeine from this supplement, so if you’re sensitive to caffeine or are a coffee drinker, it may benefit you to opt for a standalone beta-alanine supplement 

This formula comes in 11 unique flavors to choose from, including Strawberry Kiwi, Pina Colada, and Watermelon Peach, to name a few. At $1.67 per serving, this is priced pretty reasonably, considering this is a complete pre-workout that contains a full dosage of beta-alanine. 

Read our full Transparent Labs BULK Review. 

Best Beta-Alanine Pills: NOW Sports Beta-Alanine Capsules

Who Should Buy NOW Sports Beta-Alanine Capsules

• Athletes who are vegan, vegetarian, or want to avoid animal products in their supplements will appreciate that this capsule is made of cellulose, not gelatin.
• Anyone who prefers taking a pill rather than having to mix powder will like the mess-free, portable nature of these capsules.
• If you’re looking to take beta-alanine in lower doses, you’ll probably like that this product contains 2.25 grams of beta-alanine per serving.

Who Shouldn’t Buy NOW Sports Beta-Alanine Capsules

• Anyone who doesn’t want to consume rice flour and other fillers may opt for a product with fewer ingredients.
• Athletes who don’t like swallowing pills or capsules might prefer beta-alanine in a powder form.
• Folks who want a higher dose of beta-alanine might be disappointed that you need to take three capsules just to get 2.25 grams of beta-alanine.

For those who want a more portable form of beta-alanine that you can bring to the gym or on the go, NOW Sports Beta-Alanine Capsules are supplement pills you can bring anywhere — without the potential mess from a powder scooper.

If you’re the kind of person who can’t stand taking your supplements in powder form, NOW Sports Beta-Alanine Capsules might be a winner for you. These pills are vegetarian and vegan-friendly — instead of being made with gelatin, the capsules are held together by hypromellose, a plant-based cellulose. The capsules are also Kosher-certified and GMO-free.

Each container comes with 120 capsules, and you have to take three capsules to get a full serving. That means that there are 40 servings per container, which is still more than some competitors. Each serving contains 2.25 grams of beta-alanine, which comes in the form of CarnoSyn®. 

For athletes who are all about supplements but prefer to avoid powder, NOW Sports Beta-Alanine Capsules eliminate the potential mess and grittiness of beta-alanine powder.

[Related: Intermittent Fasting 101: A Guide To Benefits, Muscle Gain, And More]

Benefits of Beta-Alanine

If you’re the type of athlete who loves going hard in the gym, you know how important it is to not run out of gas mid-set. Enter beta-alanine, which might be able to help you feel like you have more endurance as it can potentially fight fatigue at a cellular level. (3)

Improve Endurance

Beta-alanine is a naturally-occurring beta-amino acid and a building block of carnosine, which seems to help buffer acid in muscles. (14) What that means is beta-alanine may help neutralize the acid in the body. This can be significant to athletes because during intense exercise, processes that help to rapidly provide energy can also cause pH to drop, acidity to increase, and muscles to fatigue. (15)(16) Beta-alanine seems to mitigate this effect.

Possibly fighting fatigue and therefore potentially helping to improve endurance during exercise is perhaps the most popular reason people seek out beta-alanine supplements. There is research that suggests that beta-alanine can potentially help to improve sprinting speed by three percent, VO2 max by over ten percent, and improve strength workouts in the eight to 15 rep range. (17)(18)(19)

More Muscle

Limited evidence suggests that beta-alanine might have a “hypertrophic” effect — meaning it may help increase muscle and decrease body fat. (19)(20)(21) This may be because the people taking it are able to handle more exercise than they would have without it, so the mechanism is a little unclear. But either way, it seems that beta-alanine may be able to help you well on your way toward certain body composition goals.

[Related: Nutrition For Bulking: 10 Tips For Intelligent Muscle Gain]

Anti-Aging Benefits

Beta-alanine increases the amount of carnosine in the body, which is an antioxidant that reduces oxidative stress and combats free radicals that contribute to some components of the aging process. (22)(23)(24) Carnosine also appears to increase nitric oxide production, which may improve heart health. (25)

Improved Recovery

When it comes to adequate recovery, beta-alanine may be beneficial to add to your supplement stack. One study found that those who exercise intermittently benefitted in their recovery tests from supplementing with beta-alanine due to increased muscle buffering capacity. (26) 

Another study found that performance and recovery improved for athletes who were running ten-kilometer timed running trials. They found that the athletes improved their running times and had less lactate concentration in their muscles when supplementing with beta-alanine. (27) Although the studies are not abundant and more research is needed, there are studies that point to beta-alanine being an effective tool for potentially improving recovery in athletes.

How We Chose the Best Beta-Alanine

As with any supplement, the quality of the supplement itself — as well as what other ingredients are included in it — are influential factors in deciding which supps are the best. Based on our supplement testing methodology, here is what influenced our choices.

Third-Party Testing

All things being equal, an overwhelming majority of customers will likely desire better quality ingredients in their supplements — and for good reason. If you’re performing high-quality workouts, you want your supplements to match that quality.

There are several third-party testing services that can clear a product for having no banned substances or other impurities in its ingredients. If a company goes out of its way to get its product third-party tested, they will most likely share that information — and if a product was graded well by a third-party testing service for its ingredients, then it was given more points in our scoring system.

Additional Ingredients

In this case, additional ingredients are considered anything beyond the beta-alanine itself. You might want a beta-alanine supplement that includes other supplements (as in a pre-workout), or one that tastes great because of sweeteners.

If a product claims itself as a beta-alanine product combination but contains other ingredients, we took that into account and compared it to similar items across the market. For example, if a product claims to be a creatine plus beta-alanine supplement, then we graded it against other similar products harder than against products that were just beta-alanine. Conversely, for products that just contain beta-alanine, we ranked them against other products that only have that one ingredient.

This helped us find what we think are the better picks when it comes to flavored supplements and combination supplements, and you will see that spread reflected in our top picks.

[Related: The Lifter’s Guide To Magnesium: What This Nutrient Does For Strength]

How Much Does Beta-Alanine Cost?

Beta-alanine is in itself a fairly affordable supplement. When you opt for a supplement that includes beta-alanine but isn’t specifically a beta-alanine supplement, you may find it to be a bit more expensive. Our beta-alanine-specific picks are all less than $1.00 per serving in price, but the pre-workout picks are around $2.00 or more per serving.

On average, the beta-alanine supplements on this list cost $1.44 per serving, so anything under that is a great option for budget-friendly shoppers. The quality, ingredient list, and opportunities to buy in bulk will affect the price accordingly. You’ll have to decide what your most important needs are before picking your beta-alanine supplement, and then figure out which of the corresponding picks fit best within your budget.

What To Consider Before Buying Beta-Alanine

As with pretty much everything in fitness, your choices in the gym and in the kitchen are based on what you need personally. For example, you might want your beta-alanine to be as pure as can be if it’s one of the only supplements you want to take. Or, you might want a lower dose combined with another supp, like creatine. Whatever the case, here are some of the factors to consider before investing in beta-alanine.

Dose

The beta-alanine supplements on this list range in dosage from 1.6 grams per serving to five grams per serving. There is no “right” answer for determining the right dose for you, but — as with most supplements — it might be beneficial to start on the lower end of the dosing spectrum and increase gradually if desired. Studies have included doses ranging between four and six grams of beta-alanine, which seems to be safe. (19) 

Another thing to consider regarding dosing: beta-alanine is well-known for producing paresthesia, a “tingling” sensation on the skin. It doesn’t happen to most people, and it’s harmless, but some find it unpleasant. (26) This sensation may be avoided by taking smaller doses throughout the day instead of one large dose — this might mean taking smaller scoops of a powder, or taking only one pill at a time of a three-capsule serving.

Ingredients

In addition to considerations about dose and serving size, you’ll want to consider what other ingredients are included in your beta-alanine supplement. That might mean thinking about additives like sweeteners or other forms of flavoring, but it might also involve thinking about whether you’re looking to take beta-alanine on its own or in conjunction with other supplements.

Some evidence has suggested that combining beta-alanine with creatine may be more effective for increasing strength and body composition than taking either supplement alone. (12) Not every study agrees with this, but it’s worth considering taking both supplements together (though it’s not necessary to take them at the same time). (27) You may also decide that you want to include beta-alanine in your pre-workout, so keep an eye on what ingredients the pre-workout has if there’s anything you specifically want or want to avoid.

Final Word

When you’re working hard in the gym, it’s understandable to want a little kick in the supplement department to help maximize your gains. When you’re looking for as many tools as possible to conquer a workout, it’s worth considering beta-alanine. Athletes who want to potentially limit fatigue, aid in recovery, and maximize endurance during workouts may be able to benefit from adding beta-alanine into their supplement routine.

You might choose to add only beta-alanine in its purest form by taking a few capsules or tossing some powder into your shake. Or, you might decide that you want beta-alanine included in your pre-workout or creatine powder. Whatever you decide, adding beta-alanine to your supplement routine can be a plus. Whether your main goal is fighting fatigue during exhausting training sessions or adding volume to your routine in the interest of building muscle, there are excellent beta-alanine supplements out there that may be able to help you.

FAQs

References

1. Maté-Muñoz, J.L., Lougedo, J.H., Garnacho-Castaño, M.V. et al. Effects of β-alanine supplementation during a 5-week strength training program: a randomized, controlled study. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 15, 19 (2018). 
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