Over our 8 years of reviewing pre workout supplements, there really hasn’t been a go-to organic pre workout available. The demand just wasn’t big enough, until now.
At no surprise, Garden of Life answers the call to this demand with their completely organic and plant based Energy + Focus pre workout.
But, is this pre workout any good?
After all, the majority of pre workouts that include the harsh ingredients still can’t get it right…
Let’s talk about that.
Garden of Life Pre Workout Quick Review: Energy + Focus is completely plant based and delivers an organic anti-oxidant energy blend paired with an organic nitric oxide blend, together delivering 14 grams per serving. If you are bent on your health, and generally avoid caffeine, then this pre workout will provide you with a good boost. However, if you are a caffeine or pre workout regular, and looking or a safer version… This pre workout may not live up to your expectations.
Quick Pros: Fully organic and plant based.
Quick Cons: While ‘healthy’, not nearly as effective as other non-organic pre workouts.
How to take Garden of Life Energy + Focus: In our experience, the sooner the better. The caffeine is very limited in this pre workout so it’s likely to wear out quickly if you have a tolerance.
Assessing Energy + Focus: Our Review
On this site, we spend a lot of time reviewing pre workout supplements. With that, has brought a lot of sketchy pre workouts with risky ingredients our way.
Due to this, we were pretty hyped to get our hands on Energy + Focus by Garden of Life… We thought, “finally, a pre workout that isn’t going to slowly kill us with artificial this, and GMO-that”.
So, we didn’t even try to contact Garden of Life for a free bottle, instead we ordered from Bodybuilding right at the products release.
Initial Expectations:
There is only so much that an organic pre workout can do, we get that… So we didn’t set our expectations to the moon and back. Rather, we put ourselves in the shoes of the strict organic eater who simply doesn’t use pre workouts because there hasn’t been a healthy option…
With that frame in mind, we were relatively pleased.
Experience in the Gym:
While we were pleased at the idea behind Garden of Life’s organic pre workout, the results just didn’t make it worth it for us.
The energy was there, but not a lot of it.
If you’re not used to caffeine, then you’ll fair alright, but for us it wasn’t enough.
Digging deeper, nitric oxide benefits and general endurance wasn’t present either. It really panned out to be just an antioxidant drink with caffeine.
Our Conclusions:
While we love the idea of this pre workout, it just wasn’t enough… At all.
But that’s us.
For you, the case may be different.
If you don’t consume caffeine often, nor do you take stimulant pre workouts… Then taking Garden of Life’s will give you a noticeable boost of energy which will improve your workout experience. For you, this may be a win.
But for the rest of us, not so much, unless you are willing to sacrifice experience for peace of mind.
What we would’ve liked to see…
The excuse that it’s hard to make a quality organic pre workout isn’t something that we’re buying. Heck, we could home-make a better organic pre workout than this one honestly…
Home-Made Organic Pre Workout Idea:
- A few grams of organic Beet Root Powder for endurance and pump
- Some Matcha green tea for energy
- And some natural fermented BCAAs for endurance and recovery
There you go, a simple pre workout that will be more effective than Garden of Life’s and probably cost less. No excuses!
What About ‘Other’ Pre Workouts?
Are you going to catch us taking the above pre workout? Probably not, but we’ll recommend it to those who care about keeping it organic.
For us, we aim for natural pre workouts that avoid artificial dyes, sweeteners, preservatives, etc… Organic? No… But as close as we can get without compromising athletic performance.
Choosing Non-Organic pre workouts wisely…
The 3 things to watch out for in pre workouts are:
- Artificial Dyes: they will be in the “other ingredients” section below the active ingredients, typically towards the end.
- Artificial sweeteners: These will be towards the beginning in the “other ingredients” section.
- Preservatives: Not all that common, but if you find a pre workout with them, avoid!
- BCAAs: Branch chain amino acids are freaking great, but make sure that they are pant-based. Otherwise, they came from who knows what part of the animal…
Using these principles, we filter through pre workouts to find what best meets our needs. Hopefully it can benefit you as well!
