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Pre-workout
BOOST ENERGYPENDING CLINICAL VALIDATION

Pre-workout

Five ingredients in one dose, 30 to 60 minutes before you train. Caffeine and citrulline are there for the session in front of you. Creatine and beta-alanine build up over weeks of daily use, which is why this formula runs in cycles, with a pause, and is never served after 16:00.

WHEN30–60 min before training, never after 16:00
WITH FOODPreferably. A light meal is enough
DOSE VOLUME3.6 ml, in eighteen 0.2 ml pulses
INGREDIENTS5 active, 0 fillers
CARTRIDGE45 ml · up to 12 training days
SLOT1 of the 6 in your device
See if it is in your plan Back to the library

WHAT IS IN IT

Five actives. Nothing else.

These are the reference doses of the formula. Your device pours them in steps of 0.2 ml, so what you actually take on a given day can sit below the reference when your profile calls for less. In our interaction library, beta-alanine is recorded as complementary to creatine, with no added risk, and as complementary to citrulline in a high-intensity performance formula. Creatine and caffeine have mixed data together: some studies see a small loss of effect.

INGREDIENTFORMPER DOSE% NRVWHAT IT IS THERE FOR
Creatine monohydrate—5 g—Physical performance in successive bursts of short, high-intensity exercise
L-citrulline malate—6 g—Precursor of nitric oxide. Included on published sport work. EFSA rejected its performance claim
Beta-alanine—1.6 g—Builds muscle carnosine over weeks. EFSA rejected its performance claims
Caffeine—150 mg—Alertness and concentration
Vitamin B3 (niacin)Nicotinamide16 mg100%Normal energy-yielding metabolism
Total volume3.6 mlEighteen pulses of 0.2 ml, the smallest step the device can serve
Creatine monohydrate—5 g—

Physical performance in successive bursts of short, high-intensity exercise

L-citrulline malate—6 g—

Precursor of nitric oxide. Included on published sport work. EFSA rejected its performance claim

Beta-alanine—1.6 g—

Builds muscle carnosine over weeks. EFSA rejected its performance claims

Caffeine—150 mg—

Alertness and concentration

Vitamin B3 (niacin)Nicotinamide16 mg100% NRV

Normal energy-yielding metabolism

Total volume 3.6 ml 

Eighteen pulses of 0.2 ml, the smallest step the device can serve

No proprietary blends, no "complex" hiding the amounts, no bulking agents. If an ingredient is in the bottle it is in this table, with its form and its dose.

No proprietary blends, no bulking agents. If an ingredient is in the bottle it is in this table, with its form and its dose.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT

Three of these five have an authorised claim. Two do not.

In the EU, only a short list of health claims is authorised. Creatine, caffeine and niacin are on it. Beta-alanine and citrulline are not: EFSA looked at their performance claims and turned them down. We would rather show you which is which than write one sentence that sounds the same for all five.

Creatine monohydrate

AUTHORISED CLAIM

WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY

“Creatine increases physical performance during successive bursts of short-term high intensity exercise.”

Regulation (EU) 432/2012. The claim needs a daily intake of 3 g, and you have to be told that is where the effect comes from. This formula carries 5 g. That meets the condition, but it is above the 3 g a day EFSA assessed as safe for long-term use in adults. Sport use justifies it, and it is recorded in your file rather than left unsaid. Creatine also raises creatinine in blood tests without meaning kidney damage, so tell your doctor before one.

Reg. 432/2012 · EFSA Journal 2011;9(7):2303 · 7 sources on file

L-citrulline malate

NO AUTHORISED CLAIM

WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY

Nothing. EFSA rejected its exercise performance claim, in 2012 and again in 2014, so we do not attribute an effect to it.

Your body turns citrulline into arginine, and arginine into nitric oxide, which widens blood vessels. The sport literature we hold uses 6 to 8 g before training, and this formula carries 6 g, at the low end. That is a reason to include it, not a permission to promise anything.

EFSA Journal 2014;12(7):3650 · 9 sources on file · claim rejected

Beta-alanine

NO AUTHORISED CLAIM

WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY

Nothing. EFSA rejected its exercise performance claims twice, so we do not attribute an effect to it.

It is the building block of carnosine, which buffers acid in your muscles during hard efforts of one to four minutes. It works by building up over weeks, not on the day. The ISSN position stand describes 4 to 6 g a day for at least 2 to 4 weeks. This formula carries 1.6 g, below that range, and we would rather tell you than round it up. Taken in one go above 800 mg it can cause a harmless tingling in the face, scalp or limbs that passes in 60 to 90 minutes. This formula serves the whole 1.6 g at once, above that 800 mg threshold, so the tingling is possible. If it bothers you, the source says the intake can be split into portions under 0.8 g every three to four hours.

EFSA Journal 2010;8(10):1729 + 2014;12(7):3755 · 9 sources on file · claim rejected

Caffeine

AUTHORISED CLAIM

WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY

“Caffeine helps to increase alertness and to improve concentration.”

Our register lists it as authorised, on the condition of 75 mg per serving. This formula carries 150 mg, twice that, and inside EFSA's limits for healthy adults of 400 mg a day and 200 mg in a single dose. Caffeine stays in your body for three to five hours, which is why this formula is never served after 16:00.

Reg. (EU) 1169/2011 + 432/2012, as our register has it · EFSA Journal 2015;13(5):4102 · 8 sources on file

Vitamin B3 (niacin)

AUTHORISED CLAIM

WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY

“Niacin contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism.”

Regulation (EU) 432/2012, for a product that is at least a source of niacin. This formula carries 16 mg, 100% of the NRV, as nicotinamide, the form that does not cause the flushing nicotinic acid can cause from 30 mg. The EFSA upper limit is 900 mg a day for nicotinamide (10 mg a day for nicotinic acid taken as a supplement); this formula carries 16 mg as nicotinamide, 32 mg together with Energy & vitality. The same 16 mg sits in Energy & vitality, so the engine adds the two up across your plan.

Reg. 432/2012 · EFSA Journal 2009;7(9):1224 · NRV 16 mg

HOW IT IS POURED

Eighteen pulses. Not always eighteen.

The full dose of this formula is 3.6 ml, which the device serves as eighteen pulses of 0.2 ml. When your sex and body weight call for less, it pours fewer and tells you why. It rounds to the nearest whole pulse and never serves a fraction of one. A scoop has one setting. This has eighteen.

TONIGHT'S POUR

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2.8 ml of 3.6 mladjusted to your sex and body weight

30–60 MIN BEFORE TRAINING

Why then

The whole formula is taken as a single dose before you train, at most once a day. Caffeine and citrulline act on the session itself; creatine and beta-alanine ride in the same dose but work by building up over weeks. Caffeine lasts three to five hours in your body, so the formula is never served after 16:00, to keep it away from your night.

PREFERABLY WITH FOOD

Why a light meal

Beta-alanine is better tolerated with food, which softens the tingling it can cause. Citrulline is absorbed best on an empty or light stomach, and caffeine works either way: food slows how fast it starts, not how much it does. A light meal suits all three.

45 ML CARTRIDGE

How long it lasts

At the full 3.6 ml it is 12 training days. At a partial pour it lasts longer, so the app orders your refill from what you actually took.

HOW IT ENTERS YOUR PLAN

A BOOST formula is a cycle, not a base.

BOOST formulas sit on top of your base for a defined stretch and then step out. This one is put forward by what you tell us about your training, and it runs in cycles because one of its ingredients only works when taken for weeks.

  1. 01

    It comes from your answers on training

    Setting sport as a goal, or telling us you compete, is what puts this formula forward. It is shown to you as a suggestion, with the reason, and it only comes in if nothing in your profile rules it out.

  2. 02

    It is reviewed at 8 weeks

    Long enough for a change in your training to be measurable. If nothing has moved by then, the suggestion is reconsidered rather than kept out of habit.

  3. 03

    It stops at 24 weeks, for at least 4

    There is no safety data on beta-alanine beyond a year, so a cycle is capped at 24 weeks and followed by a pause of at least four weeks before it can come back.

  4. 04

    Cycles can repeat, season by season

    No source we hold sets a maximum number of cycles per year, so we do not invent one. Each new cycle starts with the same checks as the first.

SAFETY AND INTERACTIONS

What it never shares a window with.

Every pair of ingredients in our library is checked against the others before a plan is built. This is what that check does for this formula.

COUNTED ACROSS FORMULAS

Cognitive & focus · Acute energy

Cognitive & focus carries 100 mg of caffeine and Acute energy 75 mg. The engine adds up caffeine from every source in your plan, flags it from 200 mg a day and blocks anything that would reach EFSA's 400 mg. No single intake goes above 200 mg. Next to rhodiola above 200 mg, as in Chronic cortisol, the caffeine is capped at 75 mg, and ginseng and echinacea are watched too, because they can add to its effect or raise its level. Above 300 mg of caffeine a day, calcium balance is watched in postmenopausal or osteoporosis profiles, because Bones & joints carries 800 mg of calcium. Niacin is counted the same way against Energy & vitality: 16 mg here and 16 mg there, 32 mg in total, well under EFSA's 900 mg a day for nicotinamide.

KEPT APART

Sleep & circadian rhythm · Relax & fast sleep · Iron

The two night formulas carry melatonin and calming ingredients. A stimulant and a sedative are never served within eight hours of each other, which is one more reason this formula stops at 16:00. Iron is always kept at least an hour away from caffeine: that is a hard timing rule.

WHO IT IS NOT FOR

Not for everyone

Do not take it if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, or have heart disease, including a symptomatic arrhythmia, liver disease, an anxiety or panic disorder, reflux or a peptic ulcer, or cancer or cancer treatment: our source says to avoid each of these, not to weigh them up. Do not take it with sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil or nitrates either: citrulline adds to their effect on blood pressure. Ask a doctor first if you have glaucoma, gout, poorly controlled diabetes, low blood pressure, kidney disease (with moderate to severe kidney disease, or a single kidney, not without a nephrologist) or histamine intolerance, since caffeine blocks the enzyme that breaks histamine down. The same applies to medication: MAO inhibitors, where our source limits caffeine to under 200 mg a day, theophylline, blood pressure medication, anticoagulants such as warfarin, SSRIs or SNRIs, lithium, clozapine, anticonvulsants, quinolone antibiotics, oral contraceptives, decongestants or beta-agonists, statins, isoniazid, allopurinol, diabetes medication, diuretics, or drugs that load the kidneys such as long-term NSAIDs, ciclosporin or aminoglycosides. It can cause nervousness, poor sleep and palpitations. Keep well hydrated. The app asks before it ever assigns this one.

WHERE THIS COMES FROM

Regulation (EU) 432/2012 on permitted health claims · EFSA Journal 2015;13(5):4102 on the safety of caffeine · EFSA opinion on the safety of creatine monohydrate · ISSN position stand on beta-alanine (2015) · EFSA opinions on beta-alanine and L-citrulline malate. Every line on this page is tied to one of the 810 sources on file, and 443 of the 9,730 possible ingredient pairs in our library are documented so far.

WHERE IT COMES FROM

You can check every line of this page.

Seven documents hold up this formula: the regulation that lets us make two of its claims, the two EFSA safety opinions behind the caffeine and creatine limits, the position stand behind its cycle, and the three EFSA opinions that turned down the other two ingredients.

REGULATIONRegulation (EU) 432/2012 — list of permitted health claims made on foodsclaims for creatine and niacin
EFSAEFSA Journal 2015;13(5):4102 — Scientific Opinion on the safety of caffeine400 mg a day, 200 mg in a single dose; we serve 150 mg
EFSAEFSA Journal, doi 10.2903/j.efsa.2004.36 — Safety of creatine monohydrate as a novel food3 g a day for long-term use; we serve 5 g
ISSNJournal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2015;12:30 — ISSN position stand: beta-alanineno safety data beyond a year; basis for the 24-week cycle
EFSAEFSA Journal 2010;8(10):1729 and 2014;12(7):3755 — opinions on beta-alanineperformance claims rejected twice
EFSAEFSA Journal 2014;12(7):3650 — opinion on L-citrulline malateperformance claim rejected

Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026

WHAT IS NOT PROVEN YET

This formula has not completed clinical validation. Its five ingredients rest on published work and, in three cases, on an authorised EU claim, but the combination itself has not been tested by us in a trial. When it is, the result goes on this page, whatever it says.

Others in the same area

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YOU DO NOT PICK YOUR FORMULAS

Your data does.

The questionnaire and your first weeks of data decide which six of the 29 end up in your device. This page exists so you can read what one of them is before that happens.

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Food supplement. Does not replace a varied diet or a healthy lifestyle. VION does not diagnose or treat any condition. Nothing here replaces a healthcare professional.

Food supplement. Does not replace a varied diet or a healthy lifestyle. VION does not diagnose or treat any condition.