Jack3d Pre-Workout: The Energy Supplement That Killed Soldiers and Was Manufactured by the Same Company That Caused a Hepatitis Outbreak
USPlabs' first attempt at poisoning the fitness industry — before OxyElite Pro, there was a pre-workout with a leetspeak name and a body count
If you've already read our review of OxyElite Pro, you know about USPlabs — the Dallas supplement company that somehow managed to manufacture two of the most dangerous consumer products in modern fitness history. OxyElite Pro caused a hepatitis outbreak in Hawaii. Jack3d came first, and it came with a body count.
Jack3d (pronounced "jacked," because the name was styled by someone who learned to spell from Xbox gamertags) was a pre-workout supplement containing DMAA — 1,3-dimethylamylamine — a synthetic stimulant so powerful that the military banned it from PX stores after two soldiers died during exercise after taking it. Two soldiers. In the United States Army. People whose job involves physical endurance and cardiovascular stress, dead after taking a product they bought at the base commissary.
The FDA received reports of at least five deaths and over 86 adverse events linked to DMAA-containing supplements, with Jack3d being the most popular brand in the category. The adverse events included heart attacks, cardiac arrest, and hemorrhagic strokes — the kind of cardiovascular catastrophes that aren't supposed to happen to young, fit people taking a supplement before lifting weights.
In 2013, the FDA banned DMAA from dietary supplements, declaring it was not a legitimate dietary ingredient despite USPlabs' claims that it was derived from geranium plants. Independent labs found that the geranium plant story was fabricated — the DMAA in Jack3d was synthetically manufactured in Chinese chemical plants. USPlabs was telling consumers their stimulant came from flowers. It came from a factory. The same factory, incidentally, that was later implicated in the OxyElite Pro fiasco.
Two products. One company. Multiple deaths. A hepatitis outbreak. Criminal convictions. And product names that look like they were generated by a 14-year-old's Call of Duty clan tag.
The Vision: Energy, but Lethal Amounts of It
DMAA is a powerful central nervous system stimulant originally developed by Eli Lilly as a nasal decongestant in the 1940s. It was discontinued and largely forgotten until the supplement industry rediscovered it in the 2000s and began putting it in pre-workout formulas at doses far exceeding anything the original pharmaceutical application imagined.
Jack3d's appeal was real: DMAA produced an intense, almost manic energy surge that users described as "the best workout of their lives." Heart rate spiked. Focus sharpened. Fatigue disappeared. It felt like a cheat code for the gym. The problem was that the cheat code occasionally crashed the system — permanently.
DMAA constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. In combination with the cardiovascular stress of intense exercise, this creates conditions where otherwise healthy hearts can fail. The soldiers who died were not unhealthy. They were not elderly. They were young, physically fit men in active military service. The supplement added a variable their cardiovascular systems couldn't handle.
The Glorious User Experience
Kyle from Fort Bragg, NC — ★☆☆☆☆
"I took Jack3d before every workout for six months. My arms were shaking before I touched a weight. My heart rate hit 180 during warm-up. I could feel my pulse in my teeth. I told myself this was the product 'working.' Then two guys at other bases died and the PX pulled it from the shelf and I realized the pounding in my chest wasn't energy. It was a warning. One star."
Megan from Phoenix, AZ — ★☆☆☆☆
"My boyfriend used Jack3d and became a different person on gym days. Aggressive. Wired. Couldn't sleep until 3 AM. Sweating sitting still. He called it 'dialed in.' His doctor called it 'sympathetic nervous system overstimulation' and told him to stop immediately or risk a cardiac event. His doctor said 'cardiac event' the way you might say 'there's a bomb in the building.' He stopped. One star."
Marcus from San Diego, CA — ★☆☆☆☆
“Jack3d came first, and it came with a body count”
Click to Tweet"The tingling. Nobody talks about the tingling. Ten minutes after taking Jack3d your face tingled. Your hands tingled. Your scalp tingled. This was the DMAA hitting your nervous system like a truck. We called it 'the tingles' as if naming it made it normal. It was not normal. It was a synthetic stimulant reorganizing your circulatory priorities. One star."
Anonymous Military Forum Post — ★☆☆☆☆
"The PX sold this next to protein bars and Gatorade. Like it was the same category. Like a product containing a synthetic stimulant strong enough to kill healthy 24-year-olds belonged on the same shelf as sports drinks. That's not a product failure. That's a system failure. Zero stars."
The Truth: From Geraniums to Federal Court
USPlabs claimed DMAA was naturally derived from geranium plants — a claim that, if true, would have classified it as a legitimate dietary ingredient under DSHEA. The claim was not true. Extensive testing by independent laboratories, the FDA, and international food safety agencies found no detectable DMAA in geranium plants. The compound was synthetically manufactured.
This matters legally because synthetic stimulants cannot be sold as dietary supplements under U.S. law. USPlabs wasn't just selling a dangerous product. They were selling a pharmaceutical-grade stimulant disguised as a supplement, with a fabricated origin story, to people who thought they were buying the herbal equivalent of strong coffee.
The company that manufactured Jack3d went on to manufacture OxyElite Pro. They were eventually indicted by the Department of Justice. Executives received prison sentences. The company pleaded guilty to introducing adulterated supplements into interstate commerce.
Jack3d was the first act. OxyElite Pro was the second. The federal indictment was the third. And USPlabs' product naming convention — "Jack3d," like a 13-year-old spelling "jacked" for a forum username — remains the most honest thing about the company. The names look unserious because the safety testing was unserious. The leetspeak was truth in advertising.
The Verdict
Jack3d is a dead pre-workout from a dead company that killed living people. It contained a synthetic stimulant marketed as a plant extract, sold on military bases where soldiers trusted it wouldn't kill them, and resulted in federal criminal charges against the executives who made it.
The DMAA era is over. The FDA ban stands. But the regulatory framework that allowed Jack3d to exist — where supplements can be sold without pre-market safety testing — hasn't changed. The next Jack3d is, statistically, already on a shelf somewhere, waiting for enough adverse events to trigger the next investigation.
Drink coffee. It's 200mg of caffeine for a quarter. It's been tested for centuries. Nobody has ever been indicted for selling it.
We rate it 1 out of 5 heartbeats.
If you want pre-workout energy without gambling on synthetic stimulants from indicted companies, see our alternatives below.
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✅What to Buy Instead
Momentous Pre-Workout
NSF Certified for Sport — tested for banned substances and verified for safety. Used by professional athletes. No leetspeak in the name.
Coffee
200mg caffeine per cup. Proven safe for centuries. $0.25 per serving. No synthetic stimulants. No federal investigations. The original pre-workout.
Transparent Labs BULK Pre-Workout
Every ingredient and dose published on the label. Nothing hidden. Nothing banned. Nothing that will result in a DOJ indictment.
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