Controlled Labs White Warped Pre Workout: Great Value and Better Flavors

Since the start of PricePlow (over ten years ago!), Controlled Labs has forever been a fan-favorite brand. We’ve always loved their formulations, and greatly appreciate brands who live ahead of the curve. This is evidenced in them starting — and winning — the EAA vs BCAA battle over a decade before most others with Purple Wraath, but also their amazing Orange Brainwash nootropic powder.

The next in the “white” line of pre workout supplements from Controlled Labs, it’s time to get White Warped!

Now it’s time to give the “White” pre workout series a refresh. Coming off of a successful campaign in White Flash, Controlled Labs is bringing it back to their roots with the White Warped pre workout supplement.

Flavor and Energy that won’t cost you $2.00 in stores

This is the newest addition to their colorful selection of products, and appears to be a great one at that – especially for the users who are sick of us reviewing workout supplements that cost multiple dollars per scoop. White Warped is here as a lower-cost option for the gym goers who know what they want, while still providing great effects and an awesome taste. The company is touting White Warped as a better-tasting pre workout than their previous formulas, which we’ll never complain about.

A lot of the dedicated fanbase of Controlled Labs comes from various forums, but with this new product, they are trying to get their product out to the masses, where cost and flavor are two high priorities when deciding on a supplement. Controlled Labs is a great brand, and we’re glad to see them expanding their sphere of influence in the market.

Before we get into the ingredients of this new product, be sure to sign up for PricePlow’s coupon-driven deals, and don’t forget to sign up for Controlled Labs news alerts to stay ahead of the game on this brand:

White Warped Ingredients

Right off the bat, let us state that this has about 325mg total caffeine, so it’s a true one-scooper, which makes the price even more attractive.

• L-Citrulline (3,000mg)

  

  Providing ~323mg caffeine, White Warped is a true one-scooper at a true value! Spectra brings some added nitric oxide potency too!

  Starting off this label is a nice 3g clinical dose of pure L-Citrulline to get our pumps going. Citrulline as a pump ingredient was the market’s answer to the poor bioavailability of supplemental arginine. Originally arginine was the king for pump ingredients, but research quickly showed that it was broken down by the gastrointestinal tract, leaving little, if any, to be converted into nitric oxide. To circumvent this bothersome process, citrulline was used instead.

  Citrulline converts to arginine in the body, but comes with one massive advantage: stability in the gastrointestinal tract. Instead of being broken down, it enters the bloodstream and gets converted into arginine later on, which then helps promote higher nitric oxide levels.^[1]

  In addition, citrulline has some other effects that make it a valuable addition. It can help to reduce fatigue, as well as post-workout soreness, and can increase your training capacity.^[2,3]

  A 3g dose, like we have here, is exactly what we like to see to start getting some serious pump benefits. This is where we have clinical studies (either in 3g straight citrulline or 6g citrulline malate, which would then yield ~3g total citrulline).

  A brand ahead of its time

  Interestingly enough, Controlled Labs switched to citrulline well before most others, who were still using arginine! Arginine was in the original White Flood classic pre workout, but shortly after that, it was time to move to citrulline. Ahead of their time indeed.

• L-Tyrosine (2,000mg)

  Focus time!

  

  Energy, focus, pumps, and… best flavor yet! See also ControlledLabs.com

  Up next is L-Tyrosine, a powerful ingredient for euphoria and focus, and we have a hefty dose here. 2g is about double what we normally see in many preworkouts, and paired with the caffeine, we expect some great feelings from this one.

  Tyrosine is the body’s precursor to feel-good, “energetic” catecholamines: norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine.^[4] In addition, it also has the benefit of alleviating the symptoms of stress and anxiety as well.^[5,6]

  Tyrosine/Caffeine Synergy

  Tyrosine is great as a standalone, but it truly shines when it gets to be paired with caffeine, as it is here in White Warped. Caffeine causes your body to release catecholamines,^[7] the very same molecules that tyrosine just worked to build up in your body. This synergistic effect leads to a more intense euphoria than either ingredient by itself.

  You often see L-Tyrosine on labels, but you don’t often see it dosed at 2g. Well done, Controlled Labs.

• Taurine (1,500mg)

  Taurine is an “organic acid” that has several functions in the body, yielding benefits to the muscles, brain, and heart. Taurine also functions as an osmolyte, facilitating the movement of water between cells. This helps with cellular hydration, as well as increased endurance.^[8,23]

  

  The Taurine Endurance Research Data from the Meta Analysis^[23]

  Epic endurance boosting… nearly instantly!

  What’s cool is that a new meta-analysis recently showed that taurine not only works incredibly for endurance, but it works on the first use!^[23] It would seem that many are too deficient of it (and the sulfur it provides), and as little as a gram will give you nearly instant benefits. For this reason, we’re seeing an excellent resurgence of the ingredient, but Controlled Labs always knew it was beneficial and had it in White Flood for quite a while too!

  In addition, taurine, when used with caffeine, helps to improve focus and mental performance, giving us another synergistic effect in this product.^[9]

  To get the most out of this ingredient, be sure to drink plenty of water to get the “water pump” from its osmolytic action.

• Agmatine Sulfate (500mg)

  

  It wouldn’t be a Controlled Labs blog post without an animated gif!

  Up next we have the pump extender Agmatine Sulfate. Basically, this ingredients improves the amount of time that arginine can stay in the body to continue producing nitric oxide for us. It does so by inhibiting arginase, which is the enzyme that the body produces to break down arginine.^[10,11] When used with a nitric oxide booster like citrulline, you can expect fuller, sharper, and much longer lasting pumps in the gym.

  So agmatine is the defensive side of getting better pumps by allowing us to have them be longer lasting, while a direct pump increaser, like our citrulline, is like our offense.

  This dose of 500mg is a bit on the starter end for us, but is just enough to give most people a noticeable effects in the pump department.

• Caffeine Anhydrous (250mg)

  The go-to stimulant in the pre workout world, caffeine is the backbone of nearly every stim-based blend out there. Here, we’re getting a nice dose of the anhydrous version, which is the straight-forward “without water” version compared to blended/bonded forms like malate (which we also have below). Caffeine comes with a whole slew of benefits, ranging from performance to focus to fat loss, and is one of the most useful ingredients you can possibly put into a tub. We’re happy to see a respectable 250mg dose here, but if you demand over 300mg, then don’t worry, we have another form coming in soon as well.

  Some strength benefits, depending on size

  

  The energy and performance benefits are important, but let’s be honest, the fat kid in us is really excited about this Strawberry Jelly Bean flavor!

  As for our performance enhancing effects, caffeine has been shown to have strength increases when doses in the 5 to 6mg/kg of bodyweight.^[12,13] For reference, a 154lb individual would be looking at a dose of 350 to 420mg to achieve this. While we are a tad shy of that with caffeine anhydrous, our next ingredient will help close the gap.

  In addition to aiding our performance, it can also be used as a lipolytic oxidizer, which basically means that it has to ability to help you burn fat, especially when combined with exercise.^[14,15,16]

  Cycling? Not the cardio kind

  Caffeine is one of those substances your body quickly starts developing a tolerance to. Anecdotally, just going through a singular tub of a pre workout can cause a noticeable difference from the first to last scoop (which is why we love the added theanine and other stimulants discussed later on). To remedy this issue, try to occasionally cycle your usage on and off stimulants to help reset your tolerance.

• Di-caffeine Malate (100mg)

  Our next form of caffeine comes as di-caffeine malate, which is similar to caffeine anhydrous in that it’s used for its stimulant properties and provides caffeine. Where it differs, however, is that the malate (from malic acid) causes the caffeine to take longer to kick in. This gives you longer-lasting energy, and seems to help smooth out any possible crash that accompanies some straight-caffeine pre workouts.

  Di-caffeine malate is about 73% caffeine by weight, meaning this dose will give you about 73mg caffeine, bringing our total in White Warped to 323mg. By giving us two different versions of caffeine, Controlled Labs is giving us a quick hit of energy, followed by a longer lasting energy to keep us going at the end of our workouts.

• Spectra (100mg)

  

  Enhance Nitric Oxide and Defeat Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) with just 100mg!

  SPECTRA is a blend of powdered fruits, vegetables, and other botanicals that is aimed to support the body’s immune and antioxidant defense systems. Any time we exercise, we break down muscle fibers and trigger the release of free radicals in the body. Antioxidants counter the effects of oxidative stress on the body induced by exercise.

  Spectra helps inhibit free radical production, optimize cellular metabolic activity, and increase nitric oxide levels within the human body. It has been shown to reduce total blood reactive oxygen species (ROS) by 20%, reduce cellular inflammatory response by 34%, and decrease mitochondrial ROS by a whopping 42%.^[17]

  This is hugely important for the proper cell functioning nearly everywhere in your body, which we believe should equate to performance and endurance. Too much ROS is bad news in that it can cause significant damage to cell structures (ROS is often dramatically increased during times of environmental stress).^[24]

  

  Courtesy SPECTRA. Data based upon Fink, et al^[17]

  The end result: human trials showed an increase in nitric oxide by 64%!^[17] Certainly we will take any further increase to our pumps that we can get, especially when it comes with great health benefits as well.

  Meanwhile, cellular oxygen consumption increases 140% and mitochondrial oxygen consumption increased by 141%, so Spectra seems to be a unique way to fine-tune your cellular engine machinery.

  Looking at the list of biologically active compounds in Spectra from the study cited above,^[17] we see many of the following familiar faces that are often not in pre workouts:

  • Quercetin
  • Lycopene
  • Chlorogenic acids
  • Vitamin C
  • Catechins
  • Vitamin E
  • 

    Influence of SPECTRA on circulating NO concentration in blood of human volunteers.^[17]

    Beta-carotene
  • Folate
  • Vitamin K
  • …others like Glucosinolates, Allicin, Alliin, and Anthocyanins
  • …and even minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium

  Given how few fruits and vegetables we know many of our followers get, this is a fantastic low-sugar way to get some of the benefits without the cons.

  Too much of a good thing? Nope

  Some may note that consuming huge amounts of high potency antioxidants like Vitamins E and C can actually have a negative effect on hypertrophy and strength gains.^[18,19] However, we’re not concerned since those cited studies used substantially higher doses, so this is likely not an issue with 100mg like we have here, as the Spectra assayed in the study had 1.2mg Vitamin C and 13.4μg Vitamin E – so Spectra is far more than “glorified Vitamin C”.

• Huperzine-A (100mcg)

  Finishing up the label, we have 100mcg of the nootropic compound Huperzine-A. It acts as an indirect acetylcholine increaser by preventing the enzyme acetylcholinesterase from breaking down our acetylcholine.^[20]

  Similarly to agmatine playing defense for nitric oxide, Huperzine acts as our defense for acetylcholine. Beyond just boosting our focus, it even has neuroprotective benefits by inhibiting glutamate, the molecule that induces neuron cell death.^[21] Best of all, it can help regenerate brain cells via neurogeneration!^[22] Now that is a great addition to your daily supplement routine.

Thankfully, with its caffeine blend, White Warped won’t over-stim you and have your brain warped.

A word from Controlled Labs on the label

We’re always into what Controlled Labs is up to, so we asked for their thoughts on this formulation:

We went with a great core formula on White Warped that will produce great effects. It also is much cheaper per serving (almost half the price than flash at $29.99 for 30 servings) and way better tasting than previous formulas. We anticipate that this will surprise people as to how well it works, and that by including Spectra for it’s nitric oxide enhancing effects alongside citrulline and agmatine that it’ll be a great powerhouse product.

— Controlled Labs

We’ve seen Spectra before, but this was honestly our first time doing a bit of a deep dive on it, and we have to say that we’re excited for the combo.

Flavors Available

Controlled Labs exploded back on the scene with a powerhouse nootropic supplement titled Orange Brainwash. Can you tell we’re huge fans of this one?!

Below is an up-to-date list of the flavors available:

All sound great, but we’re most looking forward to Strawberry Jelly Bean!

Branching Out and Keeping to their roots

On the note of those flavors, Controlled Labs added that they are committed to bringing the best possible formulas for their target audience, and that premium products like Orange Brainwash, Blue Sugar, etc. are here to stay. We hope people enjoy our new products with an emphasis on improved taste while still providing the best formulas possible.

Takeaway: Another in the great line of Controlled Labs pre workouts

Finally, PricePlow covers a pre workout with some mojo that’s internationally compliant and won’t bankrupt you!

Controlled Labs is touting serious flavor improvements with this one!

Controlled Labs has generally been a tight-knit, forum based community, delivering high quality products with some insane labels, but also with a higher price tag. They are clearly still dedicated to bringing high quality products (Orange Brainwash and Orange Triad anyone?), but they are now offering some unique, cost effective, and better tasting options, which should appeal to a much wider audience.

We’re looking forward to getting White Warped in for some taste and performance tests, especially the unique sounding Strawberry Jelly Bean.

The Full White Warped Label