Woke AF vs. Bucked Up: Which Pre-Workout is Better?

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The FeastGood team has personally tested and reviewed nearly 30 different pre-workouts, putting each one through real workouts to see how they stack up in terms of energy, pump, focus, and overall performance.

If you’ve ever shopped pre-workouts, you’ve probably come across both Woke AF and Bucked Up, two popular formulas made by the same brand. But while they share a label, they don’t deliver the same kind of workout.

In this article I put these two pre-workouts head-to-head, and compared them using specific criteria such as:

• Price
• Taste & Mixability
• Energy
• Pump & Strength
• Ingredients & Clinical Dosing

After going through each one of these criteria, Woke AF pre-workout came out on top, but only slightly.

Woke AF really delivers on increased energy and mental focus, which is one of the main reasons why people use a pre-workout in the first place. This makes it the winner of the two, you can get it here.

However, if you are someone who can’t do high stim products, then Bucked Up pre-workout will be a better product for you.

Key Takeaways

• Woke AF pre-workout contains slightly more clinically dosed ingredients, along with more caffeine and stimulant ingredients which will ultimately provide more energy.

• ·If you are on a budget, Bucked Up could be a better option, since it costs about 17 cents less per serving. However, where you are saving slightly, you will be compromising on clinically dosed beta alanine and stimulant ingredients like Synephrine and Dendrobium.

• If flavour is your concern, both of these pre-workouts offer a ton of different flavour options (21 for Bucked up and 18 for Woke AF) , and since they are made from the same company, the taste of each flavour will be the same no matter which one you choose.

Note: If you want to try Woke AF or Bucked Up, I’ve already done the research on the most affordable places to buy them.  If I find better prices, I always update the links below.

What Is Woke AF?

Woke AF is a pre-workout that is made by Bucked Up, and is a fantastic all around pre workout choice that contains clinical doses of key ingredients that help increase pump and performance.

It costs $1.83 per serving, which is slightly more than the average cost of other pre-workouts on the market ($1.61 per serving). I would consider its price to be reasonable given its high-quality formulation.

This pre-workout is marketed to be a higher stimulant, hard hitting, “hardcore” product, and it delivers on its advertising.

It provides great energy and focus being that it contains a whopping 333mg of caffeine, making it a great choice for someone with a lot of experience with pre-workouts and/or a higher caffeine tolerance.

It also contains two extra stimulants in dendrobium and synephrine. Pairing these stimulants with a high dose of caffeine creates a euphoric energy and sharp mental focus.

While Woke AF contains some clinically dosed ingredients, not all of the ingredients listed hit the clinical dose requirements.

It contains clinical doses of citrulline and beta-alanine, which both help support muscle pump and endurance.

It falls short on clinical dosing on a few ingredients; Alpha GPC, Taurine, AstraGin and ActiGIn.

You can get Woke AF pre-workout in 18 different flavours (most of which are sweet or sour juice flavours), which is a really impressive variety. The hardcore marketing even extends to the names of the flavours, which include KO Kiwi, Blood Raz, and Killa OJ.

From my experience, this pre-workout mixes smoothly and never gave me any stomach issues, even during intense training sessions.

Ingredient	Dose	Clinical Effective Dose	Meets Dosing Standard
Citrulline	6000mg	6000-8000mg	YES
Beta-alanine	3200mg	3000-6000mg	YES
Caffeine	333mg	n/a	n/a
Alpha GPC	200mg	300-600mg	NO
Taurine	100mg	1000mg	NO
Dendrobium	100mg	n/a	n/a
Deer Antler Velvet Extract	50mg	n/a	n/a
Synephrine HCl	40mg	10-50mg	YES
AstraGin®	25mg	50mg	NO
ActiGin®	25mg	50mg	NO

Pros:

• Provides a Mood Boosting Energy: The combination of the ingredients like Alpha GPC, dendrobium, and caffeine help to give you a boost in energy while also giving you more mental focus and enhancing your mood.

• Gives a Good Pump: This formula provides a clinical dose of citrulline malate, an amino acid that boosts nitric oxide levels and helps to provide your muscles with a pretty good pump. If you’re looking for an even bigger pump, you could consider adding in additional pump producing ingredients like glycerol or agmatine.

• Tastes Great and Mixes Well: It mixes easily in a shaker cup with water or mixed with a spoon. There are a ton of different flavours to choose from, most of which are sweet or sour. The variety of flavours allow you to choose a taste that you can enjoy and don’t have to “choke” down.

Cons:

• May Be Too High Stim for Some People: While I am listing this under the con section, for certain people a higher stim product will be a positive (those who have a high caffeine tolerance). However, 333mg of caffeine is A LOT, which might be too much for some people and scare them away from the product entirely.

Who Should Take It?

Woke AF Pre-Workout is a great option for:

• Individuals with a higher caffeine/stim tolerance

• Individuals who want a large variety of flavour choice

• Individuals experienced with using pre-workouts with their main desire to be increased energy, mental focus, and endurance.

Want more info?  Read my in-depth review of Woke AF here.

What is Bucked Up?

Bucked Up is a pre-workout that has the same name as the company that produces it. It is a well-rounded formula without using extreme amounts of any ingredients, making it a pre-workout suitable for even a beginner user.

It has a very reasonable cost of $1.66 per serving, which is only slightly above the $1.61 average on the market.

This pre-workout contains 200mg of caffeine, which is less than many pre-workouts on the market. It also does not contain any other added stimulants, making it a good choice for anyone who is sensitive to caffeine and stimulants.

Like Woke AF, Bucked Up uses a really distinctive ingredient called Deer Antler Velvet, which has been shown to help increase strength and performance while also aiding in muscle repair.

Unfortunately, Bucked Up only succeeds in meeting clinical dosing requirements for one ingredient: citrulline malate. It falls short on other ingredients like Beta-alanine, Taurine, Alphasize®, AstraGin®, and ActiGin®.

With that said, even with the underdosed ingredients, I personally felt really good on this product. I felt really energetic with an elevated mood while also feeling really dialed in and ready to dig deep on the last reps in my workout.

The clinically dosed citrulline allowed me to get a decent pump during my workout which I was happy with.

Another plus was that I didn’t have any GI issues with this product, and the lower caffeine content allowed me to still consume my morning cup of coffee without going over the RDI (recommended daily intake) of 400mg.

Bucked Up comes in a whopping 21 different flavours, giving you a lot of different choices including a flavour that you can’t get in the Woke AF version: Swole Whip.

Ingredient	Dose	Clinical Effective Dose	Meeting Dosing Standards
Citrulline Malate	6000mg	6000-8000mg	YES
Beta-Alanine	2000mg	3000-6000mg	NO
Caffeine Anhydrous	200mg	n/a	n/a
AlphaSize®	200mg	300-600mg	NO
Taurine	100mg	1000-3000mg	NO
Deer Antler Velvet Extract	50mg	n/a	n/a
AstraGin®	25mg	50mg	NO
ActiGin®	25mg	50mg	NO

Pros:

• Provides Good Energy and Focus: The combination of caffeine and AlphaSize® (a patented form of Alpha-GPC) help to provide energy and promote focus for your workout. The caffeine content isn’t extreme, so you would still be able to have other caffeine sources throughout your day without overdoing it.

• Tastes Good With a Wide Variety of Flavours: The wide variety of flavours makes it more likely that you will find a taste that you enjoy. All of the flavours offered are fruity or juice-like flavours.

• Gives a Good Pump: The one ingredient that is clinically dosed in this formula is citrulline malate, which can help you achieve a good pump in your workout. Similar to the Woke AF formula, it does not have any other pump ingredients, but these could easily be added to your supplement regime.

Cons:

• Minimal Clinically Dosed Ingredients: Like I mentioned above, citrulline malate is the only clinically dosed ingredient in the Bucked Up pre-workout. This means that you could be missing out on strength and performance gains that could be provided by a full clinical dose of ingredients like beta-alanine, taurine, AstraGin®, and ActiGin®.

• May Not Be Enough Stimulant For Experienced Pre-Workout Users: Again, this could be viewed as a pro or a con depending on the person. But, for an experienced pre-workout user and someone who prefers a lot of stimulants, Bucked Up will likely not be enough.

Who Should Take It?

Bucked Up Pre-workout is a good option for:

• Individuals on a budget

• Beginners or anyone who wants steady energy without going overboard on stimulants

• Those who want a large variety of flavours to choose from

Want more info?  Read my in-depth review of Bucked Up here.

Main Differences: Woke AF vs. Bucked Up

Price

The Winner: Bucked Up

Winning by 17 cents per serving, Bucked Up is slightly more cost effective at $1.66 per serving. However, with the slight decrease in price, you are giving up stimulant ingredients like Synephrine and Dendrobium, as well as a clinical dose of beta-alanine.

Taste & Mixability

The Winner: Tie

While Bucked Up does offer a few more flavours than Woke AF, they both deliver when it comes to the taste of those flavours, and the majority of the flavours are the same. In addition, both of them mix well and easily either in a shaker bottle with water or mixed with a spoon, leaving very little residue at the bottom of your cup.

Energy

The Winner: Woke AF

There was no debate on this one, since Woke AF contains more stimulant ingredients as well as 133mg more caffeine. The result is more energy and increased strength and performance during your workout.

Pump & Strength

The Winner: Woke AF

In the pump department, both of these pre-workout options are very comparable. They provide a decent pump overall, but nothing crazy. However, Woke AF takes the cake in the strength department, mainly due to the fact that it is overall a higher stim product compared to Bucked Up.

Ingredients and Clinical Dosing

The Winner: Woke AF

While only slightly beating Bucked Up, the Woke AF pre-workout formula does contain slightly more clinically dosed ingredients, giving you more bang for your buck, and it justifies the slightly higher cost.

When it comes to ingredient quality and integrity, both formulas earn a good rating, as their ingredients are tested for quality as they arrive at their GMP and NSF certified facility. However, there is no indication that their products are tested again by a third-party facility after being mixed together.