Alpha Lion Flips The Switch: SuperHuman Pre-Workouts Go All Red

Alpha Lion built its reputation on SuperHuman, the pre-workout family that put the brand on the map. Now the entire lineup is getting a head-to-toe rebuild, and the brand is leaning hard into a new idea: the switch.

Alpha Lion rebuilt the entire SuperHuman pre-workout lineup and everything went red. New SUPERHUMAN ENERGY® system, retooled caffeine ratios, a clean 21 servings on every label, and no artificial colors. Five formulas, five different switches.

On Alpha Lion's original black-label lineup, the products were about building capability. The new red SuperHuman lineup is about "flipping a switch": activation energy, on demand, across five different flavors of intensity. On Episode #228 of the PricePlow Podcast, Alpha Lion's VP of Sales, Darin Decker, walked through the full relaunch with us, and the story behind the mentality is a fun one. Longtime staffers on the Alpha Lion team trace it back to a line from a classic Sylvester Stallone arm-wrestling movie "Over the Top", where flipping a hat backwards means it's time to get serious. That's the energy (literally) behind the new branding.

Flip The Switch with the SuperHuman Pre-Workout of Your Choice

Underneath the new red tubs, the changes go deeper than color. What used to be Alpha Lion's SXT Energy System is now the SUPERHUMAN ENERGY® System, with retooled caffeine ratios across the board. Every label in the line is also standardized to a clean 21 servings, doing away with the old 42/21 split-scoop panels that made effective dosing more confusing than it needed to be. Artificial colors are gone across the board as well.

Five Products for Five Activation States

Here's the lineup, each one built around a different switch: SuperHuman Original is the daily driver, SuperHuman Extreme is the high-stim option for when a normal scoop won't cut it, SuperHuman Jacked is built around a dual-peptide muscle-building stack, SuperHuman Burn keeps its fat-burning formula exactly as-is, and SuperHuman Pump is the stim-free, hydration-and-focus option for late-day training. All five land at a standard mid-tier pre-workout price point at retailers like GNC and Vitamin Shoppe.

We'll start with the formula getting the deepest breakdown today: SuperHuman Original. First, sign up for PricePlow's Alpha Lion news alerts, and then let's flip the switch to science mode.

SuperHuman Original: The Daily Driver Switch

The OG SuperHuman is Alpha Lion's everyday pre-workout, one built for training you'll actually repeat five or six days a week rather than saving for a single max-effort session. It's a full-label formula with no proprietary blends, affordably priced, and every dose is printed and accounted for below.

Each 17.8g scoop (1 serving) provides:

• L-Citrulline – 4,000mg

  L-Citrulline is a non-essential amino acid the kidneys convert into L-arginine, the substrate that nitric oxide synthase uses to produce nitric oxide, driving the vasodilation behind a pre-workout pump.^[1] Unlike arginine itself, citrulline skips first-pass metabolism in the liver and gut, making it the more reliable way to raise circulating arginine. SuperHuman Original uses a full 4,000mg of pure L-citrulline rather than citrulline malate, so the entire dose lands as citrulline with no malic acid diluting the label claim.

  A meta-analysis restricted to acute doses of 3 grams or more taken before training found significant improvement in strength and power output,^[2] and a separate crossover trial found 6 grams of citrulline improved time to exhaustion and total work completed during high-intensity cycling.^[3]

  At this point, we know it and love the ingredient, and if you need more, there are other options discussed below that will go even bigger.

• Beta-Alanine – 3,200mg

  Beta-Alanine combines with the amino acid histidine to form carnosine, a dipeptide stored in skeletal muscle that buffers the hydrogen ions responsible for the burning sensation and pH drop during high-intensity training.^[4] At 3,200mg, SuperHuman Original lands right in the well-studied daily range shown to raise muscle carnosine over several weeks of consistent use. A meta-analysis of 40 studies found a significant overall performance benefit, with the largest effects in efforts lasting 30 seconds to 10 minutes, exactly where most working sets and finishers live.^[5]

  Of course, we all know the tingles by now: The only consistently reported side effect is paresthesia, the harmless tingling some people feel in their skin shortly after dosing.^[4]

• Betaine Anhydrous – 2,500mg

  

  Betaine, also known as trimethylglycine, works two ways: as an osmolyte that helps cells hold onto water under exercise stress, and as a methyl donor that feeds the conversion of homocysteine back into methionine.^[6] SuperHuman Original's 2,500mg dose sits at the standard research level used in most performance trials.

  A 2024 meta-analysis of 17 studies found a significant overall strength benefit from chronic betaine use, driven mainly by lower-body strength gains, though the authors noted the effect size was fragile and didn't hold up across every sensitivity analysis they ran.^[7] Betaine needs days to weeks of consistent use to build up in tissue, so don't expect an acute one-scoop effect the way you would from caffeine or citrulline.

• L-Tyrosine – 1,500mg

  L-Tyrosine is the amino acid precursor to the catecholamines dopamine and norepinephrine, and the enzyme that makes this conversion, tyrosine hydroxylase, isn't fully saturated with substrate under normal conditions.^[8] This is useful because when demand on those pathways spikes (like during a hard/stressful training session), supplemental tyrosine can help keep catecholamine output from running low.

  A review of the research consistently finds this benefit shows up under real stress or cognitive load, but not at rest, which lines up with why it's positioned here as a pre-workout ingredient rather than an everyday nootropic.^[9] A rapid evidence assessment of the available trials reached a similar conclusion for cognitive performance under environmental and physical stressors.^[10]

• Agmatine Sulfate – 1,000mg

  Agmatine forms when the body decarboxylates L-arginine, placing it at the same metabolic crossroads as the nitric oxide synthase pathway that citrulline and arginine also feed into.^[11] That shared pathway is the mechanistic rationale for including agmatine sulfate in a pump-focused stack, though the human research base for agmatine is generally in the mood, pain, and neuroprotection departments rather than exercise or pump-specific trials.

  

  With that said, animal research has shown agmatine shifts vascular nitric oxide signaling toward the beneficial endothelial form of the enzyme while suppressing the inflammatory inducible form after vascular injury,^[12] which supports the mechanism without yet confirming a direct human performance benefit at the 1,000mg dose used here.

• Taurine – 1,000mg

  Taurine is one of the most abundant free amino acids in skeletal muscle, where it helps regulate cell volume and calcium handling during contraction.^[13] A three-level meta-analysis of 23 randomized trials found that a single acute dose of 1 to 6 grams produced a small-to-moderate improvement in exercise performance, with the clearest effects in aerobic endurance and strength or power tasks.^[14] At 1,000mg, SuperHuman Original's dose sits at the lower end of that studied range. Taurine and betaine are both osmolytes working through overlapping mechanisms here, so staying hydrated matters more than usual when a formula leans this heavily on cell-volume-related ingredients.

• Choline (from VitaCholine® Choline L(+) Bitartrate) – 500mg, providing 200mg Choline (37% DV)

  Choline is the direct precursor to acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter responsible for communication at the neuromuscular junction and for cognitive functions tied to attention and motor control. You'll see choline listed twice on the label: the 200mg figure is the elemental choline amount used to calculate %DV, while the 500mg VitaCholine® line is the branded choline L(+) bitartrate source that supplies it.

  These describe one ingredient counted two ways, not two separate choline sources, since 500mg of choline bitartrate works out to almost exactly 200mg of elemental choline once the bitartrate salt weight is subtracted. In a placebo-controlled trial, 2 grams of choline bitartrate improved visuomotor accuracy and produced measurable pupil constriction, a biomarker of central cholinergic activity, about 70 minutes after ingestion.^[15]

  Research generally shows that exhaustive exercise depletes acetylcholine, and it's smart to "refill the bank" to continue feeling SuperHuman. You can learn more about VitaCholine in Episode #216 with Balchem's Tom Druke.

• SUPERHUMAN ENERGY® System: Caffeine Anhydrous, zümXR® Extended Release & zümXR® Delayed Release – 325mg Total Caffeine

  

  Caffeine works primarily by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain and body, the same receptors that build up throughout the day and make you feel tired, and blocking them drives caffeine's effects on alertness, focus, and reduced perceived effort during exercise.^[16]

  SuperHuman Original splits its 325mg total caffeine yield across three release profiles rather than relying on anhydrous alone: 275mg hits immediately, while 41mg of zümXR® Extended Release and 26mg of zümXR® Delayed Release are engineered to release their caffeine later, extending the curve instead of letting it spike and crash.

  There isn't yet any independent clinical research specific to zümXR's release kinetics, but it's very easily felt (especially that delayed release pop). So treat the extended and delayed timing as the brand's formula design rather than a clinically-verified pharmacokinetic curve. The overall 3mg to 6mg per kilogram of bodyweight range shown to reliably improve endurance, strength, and power performance is well covered here for most bodyweights.^[16]

• Vincamine – 10mg

  Vincamine is an alkaloid derived from the Vinca minor periwinkle plant, and it's been used clinically in Europe for decades as a cerebral vasodilator meant to support blood flow to the brain.^[17]

  Clinical research on vincamine has generally used doses in the 30mg to 60mg range, well above the 10mg included here, so this is a supporting nootropic touch alongside the caffeine and B-vitamins rather than a clinically-dosed standalone ingredient. On our podcast with Darin, he told us Alpha Lion added vincamine across several SuperHuman formulas specifically for the blood-flow-to-the-brain angle, aiming to amplify the nootropic and focus experience relative to the brand's previous formulas.

  If you're feeling more SuperHuman than with previous formulas, there's a good chance that this, combined with VitaCholine, is why.

• Black Pepper Extract (95% Piperine) – 10mg

  

  Black Pepper Extract, standardized here to 95% piperine, is included as an absorption enhancer rather than an active ingredient in its own right. The classic supporting research comes from a curcumin bioavailability study, where 20mg of piperine increased curcumin's bioavailability in human volunteers by 2,000%.^[18] That specific result is about curcumin rather than the other actives in this formula, but it's the mechanism piperine is best known for: inhibiting the liver and gut enzymes responsible for breaking compounds down before they reach circulation. At 10mg, SuperHuman Original doubles the 5mg dose used in the brand's previous formula.

• Niacin – 17mg NE (106% DV)

  Niacin is a B-vitamin your body converts into NAD+ and NADP+, the coenzymes that drive hundreds of energy-producing reactions in nearly every cell, including the pathways that fuel a training session.^[19] SuperHuman Original uses niacin as inositol hexanicotinate, a slower-converting ester form associated with less of the skin flush some people get from high-dose nicotinic acid. At 17mg, this dose sits well within standard B-vitamin support territory rather than the multi-gram range used in cholesterol research, so think of it as rounding out the energy-metabolism side of the label rather than a standalone active.

  A Different Form of Niacin Than Usual!

  Interestingly, this is coming from inositol hexanicotinate, a different source than the standard nicotinic acid (flush niacin) or niacinamide versions we normally see.

  Inositol hexanicotinate is another "flush-free" form of niacin in which six nicotinic acid molecules are esterified to an inositol backbone. It's designed to release niacin more gradually than free nicotinic acid, potentially reducing the characteristic skin flushing associated with conventional niacin. Those who like nicotinic acid over niacinamide (which really just comes from a "recycling pathway" of sorts) but don't want the flush may enjoy this far more.

• Vitamin B6 – 50mg (2941% DV)

  Vitamin B6 becomes the coenzyme pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) once metabolized, and PLP-dependent enzymes handle amino acid metabolism along with the synthesis of neurotransmitters including dopamine, serotonin, and GABA.^[20]

  

  SuperHuman Original uses the pyridoxine HCl form at 50mg, well above the RDA and in line with doses used in stress and mood research, though not yet at the levels associated with toxicity. Because B6 shows up in a lot of multivitamins and energy products, it's worth tracking your total daily intake across everything you take, since chronically high cumulative doses have been linked to nerve-related side effects in case reports.^[21]

• Vitamin B12 – 500mcg (20833% DV)

  Vitamin B12 supports red blood cell formation and is a coenzyme in the methionine cycle, and low status is a well-documented driver of fatigue. SuperHuman Original delivers 500mcg as methylcobalamin, well beyond the RDA. In athletes specifically, research on hemoglobin formation has found that benefits plateau once serum B12 reaches a healthy range, meaning more isn't necessarily better if you're not deficient to begin with.^[22] Isolated B12 hasn't shown strong standalone ergogenic effects in people who aren't deficient,^[23] but a 28-day protocol combining B1, B2, B6, and B12 improved time to exhaustion and reduced exercise-induced lactate and ammonia buildup versus placebo, supporting its role here as part of a broader B-vitamin stack.^[24]

Flavors Available

Original launches in Lion Blood (Red Gummy Bear), carrying over the flavor profile Alpha Lion built its reputation on, alongside the rainbow-profile flavor now called Flexual Healing, previously known as Unicorn Juice. Here's an up-to-date list of all Alpha Lion SuperHuman Original flavors:

What's New, What's Changed

SuperHuman Original isn't an all-new formula so much as a rebuild of the version Alpha Lion sold right before this relaunch. Comparing label to label, here's what's different:

• Energy system renamed and retooled: The old SXT™ Energy System is now the SuperHuman Energy System. The 275mg of immediate-hit Caffeine Anhydrous carries over completely unchanged, but both timed-release components got a bump: zümXR® Extended Release goes from 30mg to 41mg and zümXR® Delayed Release goes from 20mg to 26mg. Total caffeine yield climbs from 311mg to 325mg, a modest increase concentrated entirely in the sustained tail of the curve rather than the initial hit.
• SantEnergy™ Nu is gone: The previous formula carried 400mg of this Eriodictyon californicum extract. It didn't make the cut in the new version, but has been kept in SuperHuman Burn.
• A new B-vitamin and nootropic stack was added in its place: A unique form of niacin, very high dose Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Choline (as Vitacholine®), Agmatine Sulfate, and Vincamine are all new to this formula.
• The core amino and pump stack is untouched: L-Citrulline (4,000mg), Beta-Alanine (3,200mg), Betaine Anhydrous (2,500mg), L-Tyrosine (1,500mg), Taurine (1,000mg), and Black Pepper Extract (10mg) all carry over at identical doses from the previous formula.
• Serving size simplified: The old label showed two serving counts on one panel, 42 servings at a half scoop (8.2g) or 21 servings at a full scoop (16.4g). The new label shows one clean 17.8g scoop as 1 of 21 servings, no half-scoop math required.
• Artificial colors removed across the board, with Alpha Lion saying flavor profiles carry over unchanged despite the formula work.

The net effect: the core amino and pump backbone stays exactly where it was, the energy system gets a modest, back-loaded caffeine increase, and a swapped-in B-vitamin and focus stack takes the place of the single botanical extract that used to round out the label.

SuperHuman Extreme: The High-Stim Switch

Extreme is Alpha Lion's website-exclusive ceiling formula, built for stimulant veterans who've built a tolerance to standard pre-workouts and want something to actually push against.

Extreme shares its foundation with Original, but the ratios shift toward the aggressive end. L-Citrulline jumps to 6,000mg (up from Original's 4,000mg) and L-Tyrosine climbs to 2,000mg (up from 1,500mg), while Niacin (12mg) and Vitamin B6 (28mg) both come in lower than Original's doses. Taurine drops out of the formula entirely, which makes sense (it can smooth out caffeine, but Extreme users may not want that).

Betaine Anhydrous, Beta-Alanine, Agmatine Sulfate, Vitamin B12, Choline, Vincamine, and Black Pepper Extract all carry over at the same doses covered in the Original breakdown above, so we won't repeat the science on those here.

The headline change is caffeine: Extreme's SUPERHUMAN ENERGY® System delivers 376mg total, about 50mg more than Original, plus four ingredients Original doesn't touch at all.

• Bitter Orange Extract (min. 25% p-Synephrine) – 120mg

  Bitter Orange Extract, standardized to a minimum of 25% p-synephrine, supplies at least 30mg of the compound here. Synephrine shares some structural similarity to ephedrine, which raised early safety questions, but the most comprehensive human review to date concludes that at commonly used doses it doesn't produce the stimulant-like cardiovascular effects that similarity implies, based on roughly 30 human studies and about 360 subjects.^[25]

  Its main studied benefit is increased fat oxidation during exercise, with human trials showing acute doses of 2mg to 3mg per kilogram of bodyweight raising the rate of fat burned during moderate-to-hard cardio.^[26] It's definitely for the more "extreme" users, who are willing to take on the higher metabolic intensity.^[27]

  

  This is exactly the kind of formula Alpha Lion recommends starting with a partial scoop to assess tolerance.

• Ivy Extract (std. 10% Hederacosides) – 100mg

  Ivy Extract, standardized to 10% hederacosides, is a well-studied European herbal remedy, most often as a cough syrup ingredient for acute bronchitis, backed by a postmarketing safety study of nearly 10,000 patients and multiple randomized trials showing it reduces cough severity.^[28] That respiratory research base doesn't translate directly to a pre-workout use case, but there's some interesting stuff at play here: one lab study looking specifically at ivy's effect on adrenergic receptors found that alpha-hederin, a different ivy compound, affected beta-2 receptor behavior, while hederacoside C, the compound actually standardized on this label, showed no such effect.^[29]

  We couldn't find exercise-specific human research on ivy extract, so treat this one as a traditional respiratory-support botanical riding along in a high-stim formula rather than a performance ingredient with its own track record. With that said... there could definitely be some added stimulatory behavior here, depending on what else is in the standardization.

• Huperzia Serrata Extract (1% Huperzine-A) – 20mg

  

  Huperzia Serrata Extract, standardized to 1% Huperzine-A, provides about 0.2mg (200mcg) of the active alkaloid. Huperzine-A works by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, raising levels of the neurotransmitter tied to memory and cognitive function.^[30] Nearly all of the human clinical research at this dose range comes from older adults with cognitive impairment, where 200mcg to 400mcg taken twice daily improved memory and cognitive scores over 8 to 24 weeks.^[31] The dose here lands within that per-dose range, though the research population is a world away from a healthy pre-workout user chasing mind-muscle connection, so think of this as a well-studied nootropic mechanism borrowed from a different context rather than a pre-workout-specific benefit.

• Rauwolscine (Alpha-Yohimbine) – 1mg

  

  Oh boy, here we go! Rauwolscine, also called alpha-yohimbine, is a more receptor-selective isomer of the better-known stimulant yohimbine, and it works by blocking alpha-2 adrenergic receptors that otherwise put the brakes on fat release from fat cells.^[32]

  Direct human trials on rauwolscine itself are still lacking, so most of what's known is extrapolated from yohimbine, its close relative: in one 21-day trial in soccer players, 20mg per day of yohimbine significantly reduced body fat percentage without affecting muscle mass or performance test results.^[33] Note that this mechanism gets blunted by food, since a standardized meal completely blocked yohimbine's fat-mobilizing effect in controlled testing.^[34] At 1mg, Extreme's dose sits on the lower end of what's typically used, consistent with rauwolscine's greater potency relative to yohimbine HCl. Most users will enjoy this dose -- too much can be, well... too much. 1mg is just right.

SuperHuman Jacked: The Growth Switch

Jacked was a GNC exclusive in its previous form. In this relaunch, Alpha Lion repositioned it around a dual-peptide technology stack instead of what Darin Decker candidly called a "kitchen sink" formula on our episode together.

A few dose differences from Original before heading into the new ingredients: L-Citrulline sits higher at 6,000mg, while L-Tyrosine comes in lower at 1,000mg (versus Original's 1,500mg). Betaine Anhydrous (2,500mg), Taurine (1,000mg), Choline and Vitacholine® (200mg/500mg), Vitamin B12 (500mcg), and Black Pepper Extract (10mg) all match Original's doses.

Vitamin B6 lands at the same 50mg as Original, but in a different chemical form, Pyridoxal-5'-Phosphate here versus Pyridoxine HCl in Original. Jacked also skips Agmatine Sulfate and Vincamine entirely, adds a unique 150mg of Sodium from Pink Himalayan Sea Salt, and carries less total caffeine than Original at 242mg versus 325mg. Now, the actives that make Jacked its own product:

• PeptiStrong® (Fava Bean Protein Hydrolysate) – 2,400mg

  PeptiStrong® is a fava bean (Vicia faba) protein hydrolysate identified through an AI-driven peptide discovery process, and it's one of the more human-research-backed novel peptides in the pre-workout space. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial using this exact 2,400mg dose, 30 healthy men who took PeptiStrong for 14 days showed significantly better strength recovery over the 72 hours following an intense resistance workout, along with reduced muscle fatigue and suppressed plasma myostatin, a protein that puts the brakes on muscle growth.^[35]

  

  A separate 56-day trial in 72 men and women found significantly greater leg strength gains from resistance training combined with the hydrolysate compared to training alone, along with improved muscular endurance.^[36]

  Alpha Lion positions this as a no-loading-phase addition(which makes sense given the removal of creatine), and the dose here matches exactly what's actually been studied.

• PeptiPump® (Lentil Protein Hydrolysate Powder) – 200mg

  PeptiPump® is a companion peptide fraction derived from lentil protein, dosed here at 200mg alongside PeptiStrong's much larger 2,400mg. Bioactive peptides from legume and dairy proteins have a real research history in the ACE-inhibitory peptide space, where certain sequences have been shown to support blood vessel function in other contexts, but we still don't have any published research specific to PeptiPump itself.

  Until PeptiPump-specific data is published by Nuritas, its inclusion here rests on category-level bioactive-peptide plausibility rather than a demonstrated effect of its own. With that said, we're led to believe it's an ACE inhibitor, playing "defense" for the pumps. When new data comes, PricePlow will be the first one on it, and it'll be on our main PeptiPump page.

• Tensia™ (Lactiplantibacillus plantarum DSM 21380) – 20mg

  

  Tensia™ is the ingredient Alpha Lion is most excited about in this reformulation, and Mike and Ben agreed on our podcast that it's a legitimately novel find: a probiotic strain, formerly classified as Lactobacillus plantarum before a genus-wide reclassification, being used in sports nutrition for what appears to be the first time.

  The strain has a real publication history, just not in a pre-workout context. Human trials out of Estonia have studied it delivered through probiotic cheese and yogurt, generally in adults with elevated blood pressure, where three-week consumption periods showed reductions in blood pressure alongside a clean safety profile across age groups.^[37] None of that research measured pump, nitric oxide, or exercise performance directly, and none of it used a standalone powder dose like the 20mg included here. The hope here is that it's actually using the gut to metabolize lactic acid, turning it into something more anabolic.

  The blood-pressure angle is at least mechanistically pump-adjacent, but this is genuinely new territory for the ingredient, and it's one we'll be watching for dedicated sports-nutrition research on as it develops.

What's Changed

Jacked's reformulation goes deeper than Original's or Extreme's. Here's the label-to-label comparison against its previous formula:

• Creatine Monohydrate and HMB are both gone: The previous formula's 2,500mg Creatine Monohydrate and 1,786mg Calcium HMB (providing 260mg of calcium) don't appear anywhere on the new label. If you were buying Jacked specifically for either of those, this version doesn't have them, and you'll need your creatine + HMB separately.
• The ElectroPrime® and NutriGP® blends were removed: That drops the previous formula's magnesium and potassium entirely, along with most of its chloride. Sodium survives, now sourced solely from Pink Himalayan Sea Salt at a slightly higher 150mg.
• Citrulline form and dose both changed: The old formula's 4,500mg of 2:1 Citrulline Malate worked out to roughly 3,000mg of actual citrulline. The new formula's 6,000mg of pure L-Citrulline doubles that.
• PeptiStrong doubled, from 1,200mg to 2,400mg (clinical dose), and Betaine Anhydrous increased from 1,600mg to 2,500mg (also a more clinically-studied dose).
• A new B-vitamin stack was added: Niacin, Vitamin B6, and Vitamin B12 are all new to this formula.
• PeptiPump and Tensia are brand new additions, rounding out the dual-peptide-and-probiotic angle covered above.
• Caffeine more than doubled: the previous SXT™ Energy System delivered a 100mg total caffeine yield per scoop. The new SUPERHUMAN ENERGY® System delivers 242mg per scoop.
• Serving size simplified: the old label showed both a 42-serving count (1 scoop, 17.1g) and a 21-serving count (2 scoops, 34.1g) on the same panel. The new label is one clean 19.3g scoop as 1 of 21 servings.

This is the most substantially rebuilt formula in the relaunch. Where Original kept its core amino stack fully intact, Jacked drops two long-established muscle-building actives in favor of a newer peptide-and-probiotic approach paired with a significantly stronger energy system.

It'll be interesting to see how this one lands with its userbase, as Alpha Lion's only creatine-based pre-workout is now just the Amazon-based SuperHuman Core pre-workout.

SuperHuman Burn: The Heat Switch

Burn is Alpha Lion's 2-in-1 fat-burning pre-workout, and it's the one formula in this entire relaunch that didn't change. On our podcast, Darin said Burn is "staying exactly the way it is, just a new look and feel", and both Ben and Mike agreed on air that they wouldn't have touched it either, calling the formula close to timeless. Same doses, same label, just the new red packaging and switch-based positioning.

Burn skips the B-vitamin stack, Agmatine Sulfate, and Vincamine entirely, and it's the only product in the line so far without any Betaine Anhydrous at all (although there is some fat loss research on it, so stacking it back in isn't a terrible idea).

L-Citrulline (4,000mg) and Beta-Alanine (3,200mg) match Original exactly, while L-Tyrosine (1,000mg) and Taurine (500mg) both come in lower than Original's 1,500mg and 1,000mg. Choline is handled differently too: Burn lists one flat 1,000mg Choline Bitartrate line, twice the amount. Total caffeine lands at 304mg, just under Original's 325mg. What makes Burn its own product is the thermogenic stack layered on top:

• MitoBurn® (L-β-aminoisobutyric Acid) – 500mg

  NNB Nutrition's MitoBurn® delivers L-β-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIBA), a molecule your muscles naturally produce during exercise and release into the bloodstream as a signaling compound sometimes called a myokine. In mouse research, BAIBA promotes fat browning, the conversion of energy-storing white fat toward the more metabolically active brown fat type, and boosts fatty acid burning in the liver.^[38] In humans, higher circulating BAIBA has been linked to lower fat mass in observational research, including in heart failure patients tracked by DEXA scan.^[39] Nearly all of this evidence describes BAIBA your body makes on its own through training. Supplementing it directly at a fixed 500mg dose, rather than waiting for exercise to raise it naturally, is MitoBurn's core premise, and we didn't find a controlled human trial testing oral BAIBA supplementation against a placebo for fat-loss outcomes specifically.

• SantEnergy™ Nu (Eriodictyon californicum) – 400mg

  

  SantEnergy™ Nu is a proprietary extract of Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon californicum) standardized to at least 4% homoeriodictyol, one of the plant's characteristic flavonoids. SantEnergy Nu itself has actually been studied in humans, too: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, overweight and obese women supplemented with 400 milligrams of SantEnergy Nu twice daily for 12 weeks. Among the women with obesity, supplementation significantly reduced body weight and body fat compared to placebo, while the combined overweight-and-obese population showed only a nonsignificant trend toward lower body weight. ^[40]

  The mechanistic data is interesting for a pre-workout as well. Yerba Santa extract demonstrated dose-dependent binding to the adenosine A2A receptor and increased locomotor activity in C. elegans, suggesting a possible stimulant-adjacent metabolic effect. However, these findings should not be confused with evidence of acute exercise enhancement in humans. Burn supplies 400 milligrams per serving, matching each individual dose used in the clinical trial, although the study administered that dose twice daily rather than as a single pre-workout dose.

• CaloriBurn GP® (Grains of Paradise Extract) – 40mg

  

  CaloriBurn GP® is a standardized extract of grains of paradise also from NNB Nutrition, dosed here to deliver 6-paradol, the spicy compound behind its thermogenic reputation. In a randomized human trial using this exact 40mg dose, grains of paradise extract increased whole-body energy expenditure.^[41]

  Animal research backs up the mechanism, showing that 6-paradol directly triggers sympathetic nerve activity and heat production in brown fat tissue.^[42] In plain terms, this ingredient's real-world effect may depend on how much active brown fat you're carrying, which varies quite a bit person to person and tends to decline with age.

  There's a lot of interplay between MitoBurn and CaloriBurn too: MitoBurn can increase BAT, and CaloriBurn can activate it.

• Sensoril® Ashwagandha Extract – 250mg

  Sensoril® Ashwagandha Extract, standardized from Withania somnifera root and leaf, is best known in sports nutrition for a 12-week trial where 500mg per day improved 1-rep-max squat and bench press gains alongside a structured resistance training program, compared to placebo.^[43] Burn's 250mg dose is half of what that trial used, so think of this more as riding on ashwagandha's broader stress-and-recovery reputation than a guarantee of the same strength gains at half the studied amount.

  More importantly for weight loss, ashwagandha is well-known for modulating cortisol, so your body can potentially get out of its extended flight-or-fight response, relax, and get back to burning fat.

• GBBGO® (Gamma Butyrobetaine HCl) – 5mg

  

  GBBGO® supplies gamma-butyrobetaine (GBB), the direct metabolic precursor your body converts into L-carnitine in the final step of carnitine synthesis. That conversion pathway is well-established biochemistry, and at 5mg the dose here is a small addition relative to the rest of the label. To us, this is perfect, because it induces some serious sweating at higher doses.

  Some formulators include GBB alongside carnitine-supporting ingredients on the theory that supplying the precursor directly may work the pathway more efficiently than carnitine alone, while others just look to it for a raw thermogenic that gets the sweat moving. Either way, this is a friendly starter dose that should kick things up, but not tear you down.

• Rauwolscine (Alpha-Yohimbine) – 1mg

  Rauwolscine, branded here as Alphahim® rather than Extreme's Alfabin® (the same generic ingredient from a different supplier), appears at the same 1mg dose. We covered its mechanism and evidence in the Extreme section above, and nothing about the science changes here.

SuperHuman Pump: The Non-Stim Switch

Pump is Alpha Lion's zero-caffeine option, built for lifters who train late, are sensitive to stimulants, or just want a pump-and-hydration formula without adding to their daily caffeine total.

Pump carries no caffeine at all. L-Citrulline runs much higher than Original at 8,000mg (versus 4,000mg), and Agmatine Sulfate is higher too at 1,500mg (versus 1,000mg). Beta-Alanine (3,200mg), Taurine (1,000mg), Choline and Vitacholine® (200mg/500mg), and Vincamine (10mg) all match Original's doses exactly, and we won't repeat that science here. Vitamin B6 comes in lower at 28mg and, like Jacked, uses the Pyridoxal-5'-Phosphate form rather than Original's Pyridoxine HCl. Pump skips Niacin entirely, the same as Burn. Huperzia Serrata Extract appears at the same 20mg, 1% Huperzine-A spec covered in the Extreme section above. The real differentiator is a four-part electrolyte addition Original doesn't have at all: Magnesium (45mg), Chloride (250mg), Sodium (160mg), and Potassium (210mg), supporting the hydration angle Pump has built its reputation on.

• Lion's Mane Mushroom Extract (Hericium erinaceus) – 600mg

  Lion's Mane Mushroom Extract is a mushroom long used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine, and its research centers on two compound classes, hericenones and erinacines, both of which stimulate nerve growth factor (NGF) production relevant to neuron health and cognitive function. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in healthy adults aged 18 to 45 using 1.8 grams per day, a single dose improved reaction speed on a Stroop cognitive test within an hour, with a trend toward reduced stress after 28 days of continued use.^[44] Pump's 600mg dose is roughly a third of what that trial used, and most of the deeper cognitive research on Lion's Mane comes from older adults with diagnosed cognitive impairment rather than healthy exercisers, so the studied effects don't map onto this exact use case perfectly.

• AstraGin® (Astragalus membranaceus and Panax notoginseng) – 50mg

  

  AstraGin® is a standardized blend of Astragalus membranaceus and Panax notoginseng root extracts marketed as an absorption enhancer rather than an active ingredient with its own primary effect. In a randomized, double-blind crossover trial in healthy adults using this exact 50mg dose alongside 5 grams of oral arginine, AstraGin significantly increased arginine absorption into the bloodstream and improved the arginine-to-ADMA ratio, a marker tied to how much arginine is available for nitric oxide production, by 167%.^[45] Downstream markers of actual nitric oxide production trended upward too but didn't reach statistical significance in this study, so the arginine-absorption boost is the best-supported piece of AstraGin's case here, with the pump benefit itself one step removed rather than directly measured.

What's Changed

Comparing to the previous Pump formula:

• HydroPrime® (Glycerol) is gone: the previous formula's 3,000mg of glycerol powder, the ingredient this product was originally built around for hydration, doesn't appear anywhere in the new label.
• AlphaSize® (Alpha-GPC) was removed: the previous formula's 300mg of Alpha-GPC, a premium choline source, is replaced by the same Choline Bitartrate and Vitacholine® structure used in Original (200mg/500mg).
• Niacin and S7™ are both gone: Niacin was previously included at 12.5mg NE, and the S7™ blend at 150mg. Neither carries over.
• Citrulline switched from malate to pure form: the old formula's 8,000mg of 2:1 Citrulline Malate is now 8,000mg of pure L-Citrulline, meaningfully increasing the actual citrulline delivered even though the headline number looks unchanged.
• Huperzine A increased: from 150mcg of Huperzine A to a 20mg Huperzia Serrata Extract standardized to 1% Huperzine-A, a larger raw dose.
• A new B-vitamin, amino acid, and nootropic stack was added: Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, Agmatine Sulfate, Taurine, and Vincamine are all new to this formula.
• The electrolyte blend was restructured: Sodium dropped from a 350mg Pink Himalayan Sea Salt source to 160mg (now paired with a newly disclosed 250mg Chloride line), Potassium increased from 75mg to 210mg, and Magnesium increased slightly from 35mg to 45mg.
• Serving size simplified: the old label showed both a 42-serving (1 scoop, 8.75g) and 21-serving (2 scoops, 17.5g) count on one panel. The new label is a single 20.3g scoop as 1 of 21 servings.

This one's for those who want huge citrulline doses and aren't into other novel pump ingredients. Losing glycerol and Alpha-GPC is a departure from what made the original Pump formula distinct, but the new B-vitamin, agmatine, and electrolyte additions build a different kind of hydration-and-focus case in their place.

Stacking & Choosing Your Switch

With five formulas built around five different goals, picking the right SuperHuman comes down to matching the switch to the session.

On our podcast, Darin shared his own stacking routine: taking SuperHuman Burn in the morning carries him through the day without needing more caffeine until around 3pm, since it's dosed lower than his usual energy drink habit. That's the kind of use case these five formulas are built around: pick the one that matches your schedule and goal instead of leaning on one aggressive formula for every session.

A few combinations worth calling out. Lifters training twice in one day might reach for SuperHuman Original or Extreme for a morning session and SuperHuman Pump for an evening one, since Pump carries zero caffeine and won't interfere with sleep. Anyone chasing a body recomposition goal might rotate between SuperHuman Burn and SuperHuman Jacked depending on whether that day's session is focused on cutting or building.

One obvious caution worth stating: Original, Extreme, Jacked, and Burn all contain caffeine, so don't stack two of these in the same session unless you've done the math on your total daily intake first.

Conclusion: Five Switches, One Standard

Darin Decker, VP of Sales at Alpha Lion, joins the show to unveil the brand's all-new red SuperHuman lineup and the debut of a novel ingredient called Tensia on Episode #228 of the PricePlow Podcast.

Alpha Lion rebuilt the energy system underneath SuperHuman's new red packaging and gave every formula in the line a reason to exist on its own. The formula that first built the brand's reputation is still recognizable in Original's core amino and pump stack, but the SuperHuman Energy® System, the added B-vitamin and focus ingredients, and the switch from citrulline malate to pure citrulline all point to a genuine formula update rather than a label refresh.

Whether you're after Original's daily-driver balance, Extreme's high-stim ceiling, Jacked's muscle-building peptide stack, Burn's untouched fat-loss formula, or Pump's stim-free pump-and-focus combo, the lineup is built so you can pick a switch instead of settling for a one-size-fits-all pre-workout. All five land in GNC and Vitamin Shoppe alongside Alpha Lion's usual online availability, and you won't miss those red tubs.

Check PricePlow for pricing and availability across the full SuperHuman lineup as it rolls out, and sign up for Alpha Lion price alerts to know the moment your flavor and formula of choice is back in stock.