If you’re looking for a budget pre-workout, do not buy Cellucor’s C4 pre-workout. I can’t recommend this to anyone. For any reason. Whatsoever.

Sure, there’s a couple coffee mugs worth of caffeine in here, but that’s about it. It’s cheap because Cellucor underdoses all other ingredients. 

I tested this for two weeks and actually used it for years before I knew any better. Years ago, Cellucor got me to waste my money on its product just like any clueless pre-workout novice: with flashy marketing and paid influencer promotions. 

Allow me to save you the trouble of reading more about this terrible product. Here’s a better alternative to C4:

Alternative to C4 Original: Transparent Labs BULK

Transparent Labs BULK should be your number-one choice if you can spend a bit more money on a pre-workout that hits the minimum effective dose of all the essential ingredients. 

It does cost $1.66 per serving ($1.49 if you subscribe), but considering the ingredients, it’s quite reasonably priced.

You can read my Transparent Labs BULK review here. 

Or read all my previous pre-workout reviews.

This is a joke of a pre-workout, regardless of Cellucor’s massive marketing budget and sell-out celebrities like Kevin Hart (sorry Kevin). Despite pumping this full of caffeine, Cellucor is all show and no go, a true example of a marketing company masquerading as a supplement brand. 
Best For:

C4 is best for no one, but I’ll indulge your curiosity.

C4 pre-workout is an option if you simply want a caffeine kick before the gym but don’t care about the pump. Or anything else really.

Not For:

Anyone who takes training and supplement investment seriously.

Besides caffeine, there’s just nothing here that will improve your performance.

Anyone who wants to avoid wasting money on an overpriced, underdosed supplement.

I don’t know how many different ways I can say that C4 is a shit pre-workout. But I’ll say it in French too: Ce produit est de la merde.

C4 Pre-Workout Ingredients

[image showing the ingredient label]

Actually, here’s something positive. Unlike in the past, C4 Original no longer hides its shittiness behind proprietary blends. Instead, Cellucor now proudly lists every underdosed ingredient in this product. So that’s something. 

However, this product doesn’t contain betaine, one of the most important ingredients for pre-workouts. It doesn’t even underdose betaine, it just leaves it out entirely.

Here’s what it does have:

Caffeine Anhydrous

200 mg

Unless your daily caffeine intake is stratospheric, there’s definitely enough caffeine here to power you through your training. 

The upper daily recommendation of caffeine for most people is 400 mg (about four cups of brewed coffee), so C4 Original covers about half of that.^[1] 

CarnoSyn® Beta-Alanine

2,000 mg

CarnoSyn is a licensed, branded (and patented, of course) version of the single amino acid beta-alanine. The claim is that this patented formula is more effective or better absorbed than your stock-standard beta-alanine. 

Licensed ingredients come from B2B (business-to-business) companies that license their products for B2C (business-to-consumer) companies to use in their pre-workouts. Reputable B2B supplement companies prioritize the potency and purity of their products, putting them through strict internal and external testing to maintain their brand integrity. 

Beta-alanine doesn’t improve performance unless you hit the 176,000 mg saturation point. To give you an idea, you’d have to take the dose in C4 Original for 88 days straight before getting there, without missing a single day in between.^[2]

Once you reach that saturation point, the minimum effective dose to deliver the performance benefits is 3,200 mg. C4 Original doesn’t meet that.

Pre-workouts have beta-alanine in them to give you the tingles. This feeling by itself isn’t a sign that the beta-alanine is doing anything but rather a side effect of the acute high dose. 

Still, the tingles can act as a mental trigger to get ready for training, which can help you shift yourself into the training mood.

L-Citrulline

1,200 mg

L-citrulline may help you train harder and allow you to squeeze out a few extra reps. While it doesn’t directly increase muscle strength, it can enhance muscular endurance. L-citrulline has also been shown to reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after training and boost anaerobic performance.^[3]

The minimum effective dose of L-citrulline is 4,000 mg and C4 Original doesn’t get anywhere close to that.

L-Arginine

1,200 mg

Although L-arginine is often marketed for its positive effect on performance, there is no science to support its use to improve training sessions.^[4] 

However, there is some evidence of its effect on improving VO2 max in male soccer players. But even if you’d like to use L-arginine to improve your VO2 max, the dosage in C4 Original isn’t enough to get you there.^[5] 

Creatine Nitrate (NO3-T®)

1,000 mg

Creatine is the most studied and proven supplement to improve performance and muscle gain. 

However, the minimum effective dose of creatine is 5,000 mg daily. And compared to that, the dosage in C4 Original is laughable.^[6] 

You’re much better off taking creatine alone, daily, than you are getting it from your pre-workout.

PeptiPump® (Bioactive Lentil Peptides)

100 mg

Lentil peptides are short chains of amino acids found in lentils. Peptides from plant sources can provide antioxidants and antimicrobials, as well as reducing inflammation. But you can get those same benefits by just eating a bowl of lentils. You’d get some fiber too.

Anyway, there’s some evidence that bioactive peptides (not specific to lentils) can improve performance, recovery, and tissue repair. ^[7] One study that showed improvements in performance used 3,000 mg of bioactive peptides every single day for eight weeks.^[8]

So even if peptides were the best thing since creatine, the minuscule 100 mg dose in C4 Original won’t do anything for you.

Choline Bitartrate

225 mg

Choline is an essential nutrient that can improve brain development, muscle movement, nervous system function, and metabolism, as long as you hit the daily target (550 mg for men and 425 mg for women) of choline per day. For reference, an egg has about 150 mg of choline.

Based on the current evidence, choline supplementation does not consistently improve physical performance.^[9] 

Toothed Clubmoss (Huperzia serrata)

5 mg

The main active ingredient in clubmoss is huperzine-A, which can improve cognitive health and provide a neuroprotective effect for people with Alzheimer’s. 

But there’s zero science to prove that it improves performance, not even as a cognitive enhancement. In one study, taking huperzine-A had a worse effect than the placebo.^[10] 

Vitamin B6

3.4 mg

Supplementing B6 makes sense if your levels are inadequate. But if that’s the case, talk to your doctor about it instead of taking a random dose in your pre-workout. B6 won’t have any immediate effect on your training anyway.^[11] 

Folate

100 mcg

Folate plays a part in cellular processes and energy metabolism, so technically, it can improve performance and recovery. But if you’re eating a balanced diet, supplementing folate is likely to be pointless.^[12]

Besides, the tiny amount of folate in C4 Original isn’t going to do anything for you. An average adult multivitamin has about 10 times the amount in C4. If you’re really concerned about your folate intake, don’t trust Cellucor and Kevin Hart to see to it.

Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin)

6 mcg

Supplementing B12 is important for anyone deficient in it. Usually, older people and hardcore vegans.^[13] But I’d rather you talk to your doctor about B12 supplements than take a random dose in C4 Original.

As with B6 and folate, your pre-workout is not the place to look for vitamin B12.

[table showing ingredients and minimum effective doses]

My Experience Using C4 Original Pre-Workout

I ordered C4 Original (without them knowing I would review it — I don’t think they would’ve shipped it if they’d known I was about to spill the beans on it) and used it for two weeks. In all honesty, I should’ve stopped after a week and moved on to pre-workouts that actually work. 

Especially considering that back in the day I wasted years on C4 before learning more about pre-workouts. But I wanted to give you an accurate, current review of this product.

As for performance effects, the energy was there from the 200 mg of caffeine, though no better than a cup of coffee. The pump was a nonevent — no surprises there considering the contents of the jar.

C4 failed to deliver anything other than a modest caffeine kick. For the price, it’d be much better to have a cup of coffee — or better yet, one of the alternatives I listed earlier.

Price

[image of the serving size]

C4 Original is cheap. At $1.16 per serving ($0.82 if you subscribe), it’s no wonder you see this on supermarket shelves everywhere. But instead of a great deal, you’ll get an underdosed, overpriced (because it should be priced at $0.10) product.

Cellucor offers free shipping for orders over $55. But seriously, don’t do it.

Third-Party Tested and GMP Certified

[screenshots of third-party test results]

C4 Original hasn’t undergone third-party testing and isn’t manufactured in a GMP-compliant facility. Not that it matters. You shouldn’t take this shit anyway.

Energy

Since C4 Original has 200 mg of caffeine, I was expecting a decent hit of energy. But it was lackluster at best. But hey, at least I didn’t have a crash.

Pump

The L-citrulline in C4 Original is so low that even my goldfish would struggle to get a pump with it.

Taste

[screenshot of flavors from the website]

C4 pre-workout comes in four flavors:

• Icy Blue Razz
• Watermelon
• Rainbow Blast
• Hawaiian Punch

I can’t lie — I really like the flavoring. So maybe there’s a case for using C4 Original as a mixer in your cocktails.

But…a good flavor often reflects inadequate dosage of key ingredients. They’re easier to mask when there’s not a lot to cover up, which is definitely the case here.

Mixability

[image of the pre-workout mixed up]

C4 Original mixes well and it’s pleasant to drink. There’s no grittiness or such. Another case for using this as a mixer for your cocktails.

Customer Experience

Navigating the website was easy, as you’d expect from a well-oiled marketing company. The ordering process was also straightforward. Cellucor works hard to keep the schmucks happy.

How I Tested C4 Original Pre-Workout

I test each supplement across eight categories, pouring over studies and combining them with personal feedback.

When I conduct tests and write my pre-workout reviews, my commitment is to the truth, even if it ruffles a few feathers. There are no hidden agendas, no fluff — just rigorous research.

1. Ingredients

I care mostly about two ingredients in pre-workout supplements: caffeine and L-citrulline. Then there are two that might be worth your dollars: beta-alanine and electrolytes. But those two are far from mandatory.

Once I know a pre-workout has the two ingredients I care about, I check that the dosage of both ingredients is where it should be to provide the stimulation I need. 

Besides those two, most other ingredients serve a different purpose: marketing. The fewer ingredients I see on the label, the better. 

You can read more about the ingredients I look for on my how I test ingredients page. 

2. Price per serving

I care whether a single serving will give me enough of the two ingredients above for the needed stimulus. Ultimately, I want the best bang for the buck per serving. 

Often, the key ingredients are about the same in most pre-workout supplements. It’s the proprietary blends and trademarked ingredients that raise the price. Both of which rarely contribute to the quality or effectiveness of the supplement. 

Another reason why fewer ingredients are better is that it keeps the cost down.

You can read more about how price factors into my scoring system here.

3. Third-party testing and Good Manufacturing Practice certification

When a supplement company wants third-party testing and certification, it pays an outside organization to test for ingredient potency and accuracy.

Getting certified means an independent organization has reviewed the product and determined it complies with safety, quality, and performance standards.

The absence of third-party testing doesn’t immediately mean a poor product. But knowing the dishonest bullshitting going on in the supplement industry, third-party testing gives me peace of mind knowing a product is safe and has — and does — what it says on the box. 

GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification means the manufacturing facilities comply with the rigorous quality standards of regulatory authorities. It covers the entire manufacturing process, including sourcing of raw materials, production processes, packaging, and labeling. 

These guidelines provide minimum requirements that a manufacturer must meet to ensure its products are consistently high in quality.

In short, third-party testing is about the product, and GMP compliance covers the manufacturing.

Read more about third-party testing and GMP compliance here.

4. Energy

Out of all the effects I look for in a pre-workout, this is the one I care about the most. I want to feel psyched and focused for my strength training. And I want to finish without getting the dreaded post-workout caffeine crash.

You can read more about how the energy factors into my scoring system here.

5. Pump

The second most important thing I need from a pre-workout is the pump. The product must have enough L-citrulline (4,000 mg) to increase the blood flow into the muscles I’m working. In most cases, anything less than 6,000 mg, and I’d rather spend my money elsewhere.

Read more about what I look for when scoring the pump.

6. Taste

Let’s face it: Making a decent-tasting pre-workout shouldn’t be that difficult. Yes, a pre-workout with high-quality ingredients in high doses often tastes worse because it’s hard to mask the flavor of the ingredients, but anything less than 8/10 is only acceptable if the product is otherwise exceptional. 

Then again, taste is subjective, so don’t get too hung up on this.

You can read more about how taste factors into my scoring system here.

7. Mixability

I need a pre-workout that’s easy to mix in a shaker. That means no powder clumps! I expect something smooth and grit-free that doesn’t get stuck on the side of the shaker. Most pre-workouts add silicon dioxide and calcium silicate as anti-caking agents, so look for that if you’re as annoyed by clumps as I am.

Read more about how mixability factors into my scoring system.

8. Customer experience

In this testing stage, I find and navigate the website, complete the ordering process, and accept delivery, evaluating each company every step of the way. I also review customer service in cases where I have problems with the order. I have high expectations for customer service and will harshly judge brands with missing links in their customer experience.

You can learn more about how customer service factors into my scoring system here.

Conclusion

C4 Original pre-workout from Cellucor is the epitome of an underdosed supplement from a company more interested in flashy marketing than actual product quality and efficacy. Just because it’s good for Kevin Hart doesn’t make it a good product.

While relatively inexpensive per serving, C4’s ingredients are so lacking that it fails to deliver any real pre-workout benefits beyond a modest caffeine kick akin to a couple of cups of coffee.

Although a bit more expensive, Transparent Labs BULK is a superior choice that gives you better ingredients and dosing for only a bit more money.

Don’t be lured by Cellucor’s seemingly ubiquitous marketing presence — C4 is all flash, no substance. Spend your hard-earned cash more wisely on pre-workouts that prioritize efficacy over celebrity endorsements.

FAQs

References

1. Guest, N.S., VanDusseldorp, T.A., Nelson, M.T. et al. (2021). International society of sports nutrition position stand: Caffeine and exercise performance. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 18, 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-020-00383-4

2. Trexler, E. T., Smith-Ryan, A. E., Stout, J. R., Hoffman, J. R., Wilborn, C. D., Sale, C., Kreider, R. B., Jäger, R., Earnest, C. P., Bannock, L., Campbell, B., Kalman, D., Ziegenfuss, T. N., & Antonio, J. (2015). International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 12, 30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-015-0090-y

3. Gonzalez, A. M., & Trexler, E. T. (2020). Effects of citrulline supplementation on exercise performance in humans: A review of the current literature. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 34(5), 1480–1495. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000003426

4. Pasa, C., Oliveira, R., Lima, T., Kommers, M., Figueiredo, K., Fett, W., & Fett, C. (2021). Effectiveness of acute L-arginine supplementation on physical performance in strength training: A systematic review and meta-analysis. F1000Research, 10, 1072. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.73905.1.

5. Pahlavani, N., Entezari, M., Nasiri, M., Miri, A., Rezaie, M., Bagheri-Bidakhavidi, M., & Sadeghi, O. (2017). The effect of l-arginine supplementation on body composition and performance in male athletes: A double-blinded randomized clinical trial. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 71, 544–548. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.266

6. Kreider, R.B., Kalman, D.S., Antonio, J., Ziegenfuss, T. N., Wildman, R., Collins, R., Candow, D. G., Kleiner, S. M., Almada, A. L., & Lopez, H. L. (2017). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z

7. Jacobs, P. (2015). Significant enhancement in the rate of body mass and lean body mass gains with supplementation of a bio-active peptide in conjunction with eight weeks of resistance training: A prospective, double-blind, placebo controlled randomized trial. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-12-S1-P47

8. König, D., Kohl, J., Jerger, S., & Centner, C. (2021). Potential Relevance of Bioactive Peptides in Sports Nutrition. Nutrients, 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13113997

9. Warber, J. P., Patton, J. F., Tharion, W. J., Zeisel, S. H., Mello, R. P., Kemnitz, C. P., & Lieberman, H. R. (2000). The effects of choline supplementation on physical performance. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 10(2), 170–181. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.10.2.170

10. Jędrejko, K., Catlin, O., Stewart, T., Anderson, A., Muszyńska, B., & Catlin, D. (2023). Unauthorized ingredients in “nootropic” dietary supplements: A review of the history, pharmacology, prevalence, international regulations, and potential as doping agents. Drug Testing and Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1002/dta.3529

11. Examine. Pyridoxine Vitamin B6. https://examine.com/supplements/vitamin-b6/

12. Examine. Folic Acid Vitamin B9. https://examine.com/supplements/folic-acid/

13. Examine. Cyanocobalamin Vitamin B12. https://examine.com/supplements/vitamin-b12/