Pre-workout with no proprietary blend: why dose transparency changes everything

You turn a tub of pre-workout over. On the back, one line catches your eye: “Energy Blend — 6 g”. Underneath it, a list of ingredients. But nowhere the breakdown of the doses. How much beta-alanine? How much citrulline? You will never know. You have just run into a proprietary blend, also known as a “prop blend”. And that is exactly the kind of label this article is going to teach you to walk away from.

At MyNutriLab, the French 100 % custom pre-workout brand, we built our entire approach on one simple conviction: every athlete deserves their own formula, and for that, they need to know what they are swallowing, down to the milligram. The proprietary blend is the exact opposite of that right.

What exactly is a “proprietary blend”?

It is a group of ingredients displayed as a single total, with no individual dose for each active. Instead of reading “Citrulline 6 000 mg / Beta-alanine 3 200 mg / Tyrosine 500 mg”, you only read “Pump & Focus Blend — 9 700 mg”. You know what is in there; you do not know how much. And in sports nutrition, the dose is the whole difference between an active that is present and an active that is genuinely useful.

Problem no. 1: you cannot check the doses

Most actives are only worth having above a certain threshold. With a blend, that check is confiscated from you: “9 700 mg” could hide 9 200 mg of citrulline and 500 mg for all the rest, or the other way round. You are buying blind.

Problem no. 2: “fairy dusting”

Fairy dusting means adding a token dose of a fashionable active purely so it can be printed on the label. On a transparent label, the trick would be glaring. Buried in a blend, the decorative active becomes invisible. Opacity is not a side effect of the blend — it is often its whole reason for existing.

Problem no. 3: hidden under-dosing

A properly dosed active costs more than one that has merely been sprinkled in. The blend makes it possible to cut costs on the expensive ingredients while keeping a flattering headline total. The overall figure looks generous; what sits inside it can lean heavily towards the cheapest powders.

Problem no. 4: no comparison is possible

How do you compare two pre-workouts if neither of them shows its real doses? You cannot. The blend does not just withhold information about one product: it makes the whole market unreadable. It is that fog that keeps the standard in place.

The alternative: total transparency, down to the milligram

There is another way, and it is ours: display every milligram of every active. No catch-all total. This transparency is not a marketing argument: it is a right, the right to know what you are putting into your body before you train. A few examples where the displayed dose changes everything:

• Caffeine — you want the exact figure, for a safety reason: ANSES sets a benchmark of 200 mg per serving for an adult. With a blend, how would you know where you stand?
• Creatine monohydrate — “increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise” (authorised claim, EU Regulation 432/2012), for 3 g/day. That dose only means something if it is displayed.
• Citrulline, beta-alanine, tyrosine… — each one has its own usage benchmarks. Only an mg-by-mg display lets you check that you are above the useful threshold.

The opaque blend is the athlete's enemy

We are not targeting any brand in particular. We are attacking a practice: the one that consists of selling you a format whose very opacity works against you. Steering clear of proprietary blends is not a purist's whim — it is refusing to buy blind.

FAQ

Are proprietary blends legal?

Yes: showing a total without breaking down each dose is still allowed as long as the ingredients are listed and the labelling is compliant. Legal does not mean transparent: displaying every milligram is a voluntary commitment.

How do you spot a “proprietary blend”?

Look for a range name followed by a single total weight (“Energy Blend 6 g”) with, underneath, a list of ingredients with no dose next to each one. If the dose of each active is not written down, assume it is being hidden from you.

Does a displayed dose guarantee a good product?

It is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. But without that information, you cannot even begin to judge. Transparency is the starting point that makes your decision possible.

Why does MyNutriLab display every milligram?

Because personalisation demands it: you cannot build a made-to-measure formula if the doses are opaque. You choose your actives, you see your doses, you keep control from beginning to end.

👉 Build my formula — every mg displayed, zero blend.