Apollon Nutrition Bare Knuckle V6: Insanely Massive Doses, Zero Stimulants

Zero stimulants. Ten grams of citrulline. Apollon Nutrition Bare Knuckle V6 sits at the research ceiling on nearly every ingredient, plus 508mg VasoDrive-AP for a pump pathway most non-stims skip.

Apollon Nutrition Bare Knuckle V6 is the latest version of the brand's fully disclosed, stimulant-free pre-workout, built to sit alongside Hooligan, Apollon Nutrition's flagship high-stimulant pre-workout, for lifters who want the pumps and focus without the jitters. Where Hooligan leans on a heavy caffeine stack (and more), Bare Knuckle V6 skips stimulants entirely and leans instead on massive doses of pump, focus, and endurance ingredients.

Apollon Nutrition has built its reputation in the hardcore training space on clinical dosing and fully transparent labels, a story founder Robert Samborsky walked through in detail on our podcast covering Apollon Nutrition's origin story, Hooligan, and its 2026 roadmap. Bare Knuckle V6 continues that approach with zero proprietary blends and zero fillers, an important detail in a stim-free category where "stim-free" often ends up meaning underdosed.

Bare Knuckle V6 ships in a half scoop (20.5g) or full scoop (41g) serving, good for 40 or 20 servings per tub, and is currently available in flavors including Grape, Pineapple Blackout Margarita, and Strawberry Margarita.

Brand copy for V6 frames it as a push past what "the original" Bare Knuckle offered, with heavier doses across the board. What's on this V6 label stands on its own regardless of what came before it, and we'll walk through it ingredient by ingredient below. First, sign up for our Apollon news alerts, and then let's dive in:

Apollon Nutrition Bare Knuckle V6 Ingredients

Each full scoop (41g) serving provides the following (a half scoop provides half these amounts):

• L-Citrulline - 10,000mg

  L-Citrulline is a non-essential amino acid best known in pre-workout formulas for its role in the nitric oxide pathway. Unlike arginine, which the liver and gut break down heavily before it reaches circulation, citrulline passes through untouched and gets converted to arginine primarily in the kidneys, making it a more efficient way to raise plasma arginine levels and support nitric oxide production.^[1] That pathway is the basis for citrulline's reputation around pumps and vascularity.

  The performance research is smaller in magnitude than the marketing built around it. A systematic review and meta-analysis limited to acute doses of at least 3g found a small but statistically significant benefit for strength and power performance.^[2] Bare Knuckle V6's 10,000mg full-scoop dose sits well above that 3g threshold and above the 6g to 8g range used in most of the citrulline malate literature specifically, though isolated L-citrulline and citrulline malate aren't always interchangeable gram for gram in the research. But there's even more to this:

  Why 10 Grams Is the Go-To Ceiling

  Bare Knuckle V6's 10,000mg full-scoop dose lines up with a specific data point in the citrulline research, not just a round number picked for the label.

  A dose-ranging pharmacokinetic study gave eight healthy men single loads of 2g, 5g, 10g, and 15g of citrulline and tracked plasma arginine over the next eight hours. Arginine's area under the curve, the standard measure of total exposure, rose in a roughly linear pattern through the 10g dose. At 15g, that pattern broke: renal conversion of citrulline into arginine appeared to saturate, so citrulline built up in the blood instead of continuing to convert as efficiently.^[3] A later review of the citrulline literature cited this same saturation point in concluding that the maximal effective dose sits at roughly 10g per day, with the minimum effective dose as low as 3g.^[1] Past that point, added citrulline runs into the law of diminishing returns: each extra gram adds cost and gut volume without a proportional gain in arginine delivery. At 10,000mg, Bare Knuckle V6's full scoop sits right at that research-backed threshold instead of past it. Perfect.

• Beta Alanine - 6,400mg

  Beta Alanine is the rate-limiting precursor to carnosine, a dipeptide stored in skeletal muscle that buffers the hydrogen ions produced during hard anaerobic efforts. Because carnosine itself isn't efficiently absorbed from food, beta alanine supplementation is the standard way to raise its levels.^[4]

  

  The clearest performance benefit shows up in efforts lasting roughly 30 seconds to 10 minutes, the range where acid buildup is the limiting factor. A 2017 systematic review and meta-analysis of 40 studies found a significant overall effect, with capacity-to-exhaustion tests responding more than fixed-distance time trials.^[5]

  Why 6.4 grams wins, if you can handle the tingles

  The 6,400mg full-scoop dose here sits at the top of the International Society of Sports Nutrition's recommended 4g to 6g daily range.^[4] Loading takes about four weeks of consistent use to reach its full effect, so the benefit builds over time rather than showing up in one session. The well-known tingling sensation some people feel (paresthesia) is harmless and dose-dependent, and splitting doses reduces it... but that's not really the Apollon way now, is it?

  A handful of studies used this exact 6.4g dose, and they make a strong case for going this high instead of the more common 3.2g. The original beta-alanine dose-response trial found 6.4g per day for four weeks raised muscle carnosine by 64.2%, versus 42.1% at 3.2g.^[6] That 6.4g result nearly matched the 65.8% increase from ingesting an isomolar dose of carnosine directly, suggesting oral beta-alanine isn't leaving much on the table at this dose. A 2024 meta-analysis backs up that dose-response pattern, finding 5.6g to 6.4g per day produced a significantly larger effect on maximal-intensity exercise performance than lower doses.^[7]

  The case holds up outside the lab, too. An 8-week trial in elite male basketball players using this same 6.4g dose found a significant jump in anaerobic peak power along with reductions in C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), inflammatory markers that tend to climb over a demanding in-season training block.^[8] A separate 6.4g trial found a 13.2% improvement in isometric knee-extensor hold time, the kind of sustained-effort benefit that lines up with Bare Knuckle V6's own positioning around strength and endurance work.^[9]

  So if anyone's wondering or asking if the extra tingles are worth it... look at the above two paragraphs and decide for yourself. We know that true Apollon users say yes.

• L-Tyrosine - 6,000mg

  L-Tyrosine is the amino acid precursor to dopamine and norepinephrine, the catecholamines tied to alertness and drive. The body's synthesis of these neurotransmitters isn't fully saturated with tyrosine at baseline, so supplementation mainly helps when catecholamine demand rises, such as during a hard training session, rather than at rest.^[10] That stress-dependent pattern is why tyrosine shows up in non-stimulant formulas built around focus and drive without caffeine.

  

  A systematic review of dietary supplements for cognitive performance in healthy young adults and military personnel found tyrosine improved outcomes under conditions of sleep deprivation and physical stress specifically, though the authors rated much of the underlying research as inconsistent in quality.^[11]

  Most research protocols land somewhere between 2g and 10g-plus depending on body weight, but most pre-workout supplements stop at 2g. Bare Knuckle V6's 6,000mg full-scoop dose sits comfortably above the average, and inside that research window.

• Betaine Anhydrous - 5,000mg

  Betaine Anhydrous, also known as trimethylglycine, is best known as a methyl donor that feeds into the body's creatine and cell-hydration pathways, and as an osmolyte that helps cells and enzymes hold up under physical stress.

  A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of 17 studies found betaine supplementation produced a significant improvement in maximal muscular strength, an effect driven mostly by lower-body movements.^[12] In young athletes, a 14-day crossover trial using 2,500mg daily found betaine improved total repetitions completed at 80% of 1-rep max while lowering post-exercise lactate and cortisol.^[13]

  Why 5 Grams, Not 2.5 Grams

  Most of the betaine research above lands at 2 to 2.5 grams daily because that's the range most trials have chosen to test, not necessarily where betaine's effects run out. A pair of companion studies out of the University of Connecticut's Human Performance Laboratory pushed straight to 5,000mg, delivered as a single pre-exercise dose in a liter of rehydration fluid before 75 minutes of treadmill running and a performance sprint in a 31°C environment. That trial found betaine shifted plasma volume, oxygen consumption, and lactate during the sprint, with a non-significant trend toward a longer time to exhaustion.^[14]

  A companion analysis using the same runners and protocol tracked how that same 5g dose moved homocysteine, lipid, and glucose markers over the exercise bout.^[15]

  

  The Armstrong researchers noted their protocol tested a single acute dose rather than repeated daily loading, and pointed to creatine as a reason a larger dose might still be needed to build a measurable performance edge over time. That definitely applies here, since a pre-workout gets used acutely, but also session after session, a mixture of both a loading protocol and a one-off. Betaine also runs on two dose-dependent systems, an osmolyte effect that needs enough intracellular buildup to hold cell volume, and a role feeding BHMT for homocysteine clearance. A full 5,000mg scoop gives both more to work with than the 2.5g most other formulas settle for.

• Arginine Nitrate (as NO3-T®) - 4,200mg

  In the podcast with Robert Samborsky, he explained how he was going big with this ingredient, and here it is!

  Arginine Nitrate, patented and sold under the brand name NO3-T®, pairs the amino acid arginine with a nitrate salt, giving the body two separate routes toward nitric oxide production: the classic arginine-to-NO enzymatic pathway, and the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway that doesn't require an enzyme at all.

  Most human research on dietary nitrate comes from beetroot juice and nitrate salts rather than this specific arginine-bound form, but the findings are still relevant to how the nitrate portion of this ingredient works. A 2025 umbrella review covering 20 separate meta-analyses concluded dietary nitrate supplementation benefits several domains of exercise performance.^[16] A narrative review of that literature reports effective doses cluster around 300mg to 1,041mg of nitrate taken two to three hours before exercise.^[17]

  As you can see, the compound dose here is a substantial one - you're getting a solid amount of arginine and a tremendous amount of nitrate here!

• Taurine - 3,000mg

  Taurine is a sulfur-containing amino acid abundant in skeletal muscle, where it supports calcium handling, mitochondrial function, and antioxidant defense.

  

  A 2025 meta-analytic review of 23 randomized trials found acute taurine supplementation produced a small-to-moderate improvement in exercise performance across aerobic endurance, strength and power, and agility tasks, with no clear dose-response relationship inside the commonly studied 1g to 6g range.^[18] A broader review of taurine's cardiometabolic and safety profile places the observed safe level for healthy adults at 3g per day, based on the available clinical trial data.^[19] As expected at this point, Bare Knuckle V6's 3,000mg full-scoop dose sits right at that ceiling, so anyone stacking additional taurine from other sources, like energy drinks or other supplements, on top of a full scoop should keep the combined total in mind.

• Alpha GPC 50% (as GPCgold™) - 800mg

  Alpha GPC, standardized here to 50% as GPCgold™, is a choline compound that crosses into the brain and is a direct building block for acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter tied to focus and the mind-muscle connection. At 800mg of the 50% material, this dose delivers roughly 400mg of active alpha-GPC.

  A randomized, double-blind, crossover study in resistance-trained men found that both 630mg and 315mg doses of alpha-GPC improved Stroop test performance and reaction time compared to placebo, measured about three hours after a resistance training session.^[20] That range brackets the roughly 400mg of active alpha-GPC delivered here. A broader review of choline supplements notes alpha-GPC's phospholipid structure makes it more bioavailable than choline salts like choline bitartrate.^[21] Unsurprisingly, it's another large dose, beyond the 600mg we normally see.

• Vaso-Drive AP® (Casein Hydrolysate) - 508mg

  Vaso-Drive AP® is where Bare Knuckle V6 breaks from the usual non-stim pump playbook. Most stim-free pump ingredients, like citrulline, arginine, and dietary nitrates, work through nitric oxide production. Vaso-Drive AP works through a different mechanism entirely: it's a casein-derived hydrolysate standardized for two milk-derived tripeptides, Val-Pro-Pro (VPP) and Ile-Pro-Pro (IPP), that inhibit angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), the same enzyme pharmaceutical ACE-inhibitor blood pressure medications target.

  

  Peptides are having a moment in sports nutrition. VasoDrive-AP® didn't arrive with the wave. It's been a clinically studied cardiovascular ingredient for 30 years, and a new 2026 study finally tests it for muscle pump in lifters.

  This ingredient is supplied by Maypro, a PricePlow ingredient partner, and it's worth spending extra time on given how much clinical history these tripeptides carry. PricePlow covered the ingredient's full research history and mechanism in a dedicated deep dive if you want the complete picture.

  The research base goes back nearly two decades and centers on cardiovascular and vascular endpoints. A randomized, double-blind trial in patients with high-normal blood pressure or first-degree hypertension found a 6-week course of these lactotripeptides significantly reduced office systolic blood pressure and improved pulse wave velocity, a marker of arterial stiffness.^[22] A separate randomized trial in hypertensive subjects found the same VPP/IPP combination improved central blood pressure and reduced arterial stiffness over an 8-week intervention.^[23] A crossover trial in men with mild hypertension found the same tripeptides improved vascular endothelial function, measured via reactive hyperemia in the forearm, independent of any blood-pressure-lowering effect.^[24]

  Closer to how this product actually gets used, a 2026 placebo-controlled study in resistance-trained men tested low and high doses of these tripeptides directly against muscle pump and hypertrophy markers. The high-dose group saw significantly greater pre-exercise thigh circumference and lean body mass versus baseline, plus a significantly greater increase in post-exercise thigh circumference versus placebo, while the low-dose group reported significantly better subjective pump ratings.^[25] That's a direct line from this ingredient's vascular research to the pump and training-motivation claims a pre-workout formula actually makes.

  Most of the clinical trials behind these effects used VPP and IPP in the low single-digit milligram range, since that's how potent the isolated tripeptides are relative to the full casein hydrolysate they're extracted from. The doses equate to 254mg of actual VasoDrive-AP on the low-end, and 508mg on the high end. As you can tell, Apollon Nutrition did what they do - they went big.

  At this point, you have to believe that this formula is going to give otherworldly pumps.

• Himalayan Pink Salt - 500mg

  Himalayan Pink Salt supplies the bulk of this formula's sodium (200mg, 9% DV per full scoop) along with a small amount of potassium (50mg). Sodium is the primary electrolyte lost in sweat, and it does more than replace losses: it sustains the drive to keep drinking and helps the body retain fluid rather than losing it straight back out through urine.^[26]

  

  Apollon Nutrition Overtime V6 is here, and it doesn't pull punches. The rebuilt formula runs a dual-PEA stack (ThinFen + NeuroPEA), 700mg theobromine, and ~500mg caffeine. Noopept's gone. Start at 4 caps, because this one gets you wired.

  Sweat sodium losses vary enormously between individuals, from roughly 15 to 99 mEq/L in one study of professional football players, which is part of why the National Athletic Trainers' Association recommends adding sodium chloride to fluid replacement in the 0.3 to 0.7 gram-per-liter range for longer or hotter sessions, rather than one fixed number for everyone.^[27] The 200mg of sodium in a full scoop is a modest contribution toward that range, best thought of as a supplement to fluid and food intake rather than a replacement for it, especially on longer or hotter training days.

• Grape Seed Extract (Vitis vinifera) (Seed) - 400mg

  Grape Seed Extract is a concentrated source of proanthocyanidins, polyphenol compounds that activate the same endothelial nitric oxide pathway targeted by this formula's other pump ingredients, while also providing antioxidant support.

  In a 14-day crossover study, elite collegiate basketball players taking 300mg of grape seed extract daily showed significantly lower submaximal oxygen consumption and longer time to exhaustion compared to placebo, alongside a roughly 22% increase in flow-mediated dilation, a marker of blood vessel function.^[28] In prehypertensive men, a single 300mg dose blunted the rise in blood pressure during cycling and improved flow-mediated dilation by about 6 percentage points versus placebo.^[29] Both studies used doses close to the 400mg found in a full scoop of Bare Knuckle V6... another knockout dose.

• AstraGin® [Panax notoginseng (Root) and Astragalus membranaceus (Root)] - 50mg

  AstraGin®, made by NuLiv Science, is a standardized blend of Astragalus membranaceus and Panax notoginseng root extracts included here in a supporting role, to help the body absorb more of the aminos and other actives sitting alongside it. PricePlow's podcast conversation with NuLiv Science covers the ingredient's broader research portfolio in more detail.

  In a randomized, double-blind, crossover trial in healthy adults, 50mg of this extract taken alongside 5g of L-arginine increased arginine's area under the curve by 17.3% and boosted the arginine-to-ADMA ratio, a marker tied to nitric oxide availability, by 167% compared to placebo.^[30] Given how much of this formula leans on arginine-related pathways between the citrulline and arginine nitrate, that absorption boost is directly relevant here. The 50mg dose used in that trial matches the full-scoop amount in Bare Knuckle V6.

• Huperzine A - 400mcg

  

  Most collagen supplements stop at one ingredient. Apollon Nutrition Collagen stacks five around a 15g marine base, covering exogenous supply, endogenous production, enzymatic protection, and joint support in one scoop.

  Huperzine A is a plant-derived alkaloid that inhibits acetylcholinesterase, the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, the same focus-and-mind-muscle-connection neurotransmitter that Alpha GPC feeds into from the supply side. By slowing acetylcholine's breakdown, huperzine A works from the other end of the same pathway.

  In rodent studies, oral huperzine A dose-dependently raised acetylcholine levels in the frontal cortex and hippocampus, with effects lasting several hours, and produced a comparable rise in cortical acetylcholine to donepezil, a prescription acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, at roughly one-eleventh the dose.^[31] In vitro comparisons put huperzine A at roughly 8 times more potent than donepezil and 64 times more potent than tacrine at inhibiting this enzyme.^[32] The 400mcg dose here is a common serving size in the sports nutrition space, well below the multi-hundred-microgram, twice-daily protocols used in most clinical research on cognitive populations, since this formula is built for a single pre-training dose rather than a therapeutic regimen.

Seriously, what more is there to say here? If you can't get a pump with this, then you may need to check your potassium levels -- that's the only thing remaining that could be slowing you down.

Flavors Available

Bare Knuckle V6 is available across Apollon Nutrition's flavor lineup, including Grape, Pineapple Blackout Margarita, and Strawberry Margarita.

Here's an up-to-date list of all Apollon Nutrition Bare Knuckle V6 flavors:

Apollon Nutrition is back with CreaSmash -- the first supplement featuring CreaSol SSAT! Research shows 28% greater strength gains and 51% better endurance vs creatine alone. If you're serious about your training, this could be the creatine upgrade you've been waiting for.

How to Use

• Dosing: Start with a half scoop (20.5g) to assess tolerance, since Bare Knuckle V6 is dosed heavily even without stimulants. Experienced users can move up to a full scoop (41g) for the complete effect.
• Other notes: Each tub provides 40 half servings or 20 full servings, so scoop size is a real trade-off between value and intensity, not just a suggestion.

You could legitimately make this tub last nearly two months. But if you're the Apollon type athlete, a month is where the sweet spot is at.

Stacks Well With

• Hooligan: Apollon Nutrition's flagship high-stimulant pre-workout. Bare Knuckle V6 was built as its stim-free counterpart, so the two stack cleanly for lifters who want to add caffeine back in on select days, or who cycle off stimulants periodically.
• Overtime V6: Apollon Nutrition's dual-PEA, dual-caffeine nootropic. Combining it with Bare Knuckle V6 layers mental intensity on top of Bare Knuckle's non-stim focus stack, an unconventional pairing for lifters chasing a specific kind of session.
• Apollon Nutrition Collagen: A dual-source collagen stack built for connective tissue recovery, a useful pairing given how much training volume Bare Knuckle V6's dosing is built to support.
• CreaSmash: Apollon Nutrition's creatine supplement. Pairing a dedicated creatine product with Bare Knuckle V6 covers the strength and lean mass side of training that a pre-workout formula alone doesn't address.

Who It's For

• Stimulant-free and late-night trainers: Lifters who train at night, are sensitive to caffeine, or are cycling off stimulants get a formula built to still deliver focus, pumps, and endurance support.
• Pump-focused lifters: With citrulline, arginine nitrate, Vaso-Drive AP®, and grape seed extract all working through different vascular pathways, this formula is built around blood flow from multiple angles at once.
• Strength and endurance athletes: Beta alanine, betaine, and taurine give this formula a base built for sets and sessions that push past a minute or two of sustained effort.
• Lifters who've tried weak "stim-free" pre-workouts before: The doses here are built to match, not just approximate, a stimulant pre-workout's intensity, minus the stimulants.

Conclusion: A Non-Stim Formula With Something to Prove

Robert "Robik" Samborsky, founder of Apollon Nutrition and owner of the legendary Apollon Gym in Edison, NJ, shares his full origin story from Soviet-era Ukraine through Muay Thai title fights in Thailand to building one of the most trusted hardcore supplement brands in the industry on Episode #211 of the PricePlow Podcast.

Insane. Absolutely insane formula here.

Bare Knuckle V6 is Apollon Nutrition's answer to a stim-free category that's often underdosed. Every ingredient here shows up at a serving size that matches or exceeds what's typically used in the research behind it, from a 10,000mg full-scoop dose of citrulline down to Vaso-Drive AP®'s decades-deep vascular research base.

It's also a nitrate dose we've never seen before. Robik warned us it was coming on our podcast, and he delivered.

The formula stays true to Apollon Nutrition's standard approach: no proprietary blends, no fillers, and doses printed in full on the label. That transparency matters most in a category where "stim-free" often becomes shorthand for underdosed.

Check PricePlow for current Bare Knuckle V6 pricing and availability across flavors, and sign up for Apollon Nutrition brand alerts to catch whatever's next for Hooligan and the rest of the lineup as soon as it publishes.