Mutant MADNESS Pre Workout Review //Can It Preserve My Sanity?
Mutant MADNESS Pre Workout Review First Look:
So I decided to test this pre workout by not actually working out.
Yes, I had the best made plans in place. I was going to come home and hit the deadlifts.
I have my rugby tour on Friday so it was deadlifts Wednesday plus some other back exercises and then Thursday was going to be chest, stomach and shoulders with some tricep pull downs.
However..!
Wednesday morning involved a big quarterly meeting I have at work.
I essentially have to present to the board of directors the performance of my region and go through a detailed profit and loss account. No stone shall be left upturned.
Normally I am quite a laid back person, I do not tend to worry about too much unless my cat hasn’t returned home after a night of the beers.
However, these meetings have not gone particularly to plan in the past, especially one whereby I had completely forgotten about it and had just returned from a week in Ibiza. To say it didn’t go well would be an understatement.
Therefore, I tend to go overboard with my preparation and seeing as this was an early morning meeting I was up at 5am and in the office by 7am finishing off everything.
Problem was, I hadn’t gone to bed until about 1am the previous night.
Needless to say come 2pm I was very tired, when I got home I had that horrible tight forehead feeling whereby I just felt a bit fried.
I wanted to hit the gym but felt exhausted, I also wanted to write a few articles but couldn’t really focus so instead of just heading to bed I decided to bang a sachet of Mutant MADNESS in my shaker and knock it back.
Obviously being called Mutant MADNESS I turned in to some sort of scaled behemoth with traps like boat sails and my eyes changed shape to look like a lizard.
Okay, none of that happened but it does have biohazard looking symbols on the sachet so that’s what I was expecting.
Ingredients:
Niacinamide (Vit B3) – Higher amounts of niacin can improve cholesterol levels and lower cardiovascular risks and maybe symptoms for Alzheimer’s . However, the jury is out on these real benefits.
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/924.htm
Folic Acid (Vit. B9) – There’s many benefits of Folic Acid, treating kidney problems is one of them. Folic acid can also help produce more testosterone along with B12 but also necessary to form red blood cells and is also necessary in the formation of DNA.
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1017-folic%20acid.aspx?activeingredientid=1017&
Magnesium – Research into magnesium supplementation also increased testosterone production in men.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20352370
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) – Gives you more energy and boost your metabolism, helping you shed unwanted pounds. Ensure you are not deficient in Vitamin B12 so you can do that quick 10 miler at 5am…
http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/vitamin-b12-cobalamin
Creatine – A well regarded supplement.
Supplementation increases creatine storage and promotes a faster regeneration of adenosine triphosphate between high intensity exercises. These improved outcomes will increase performance and promote greater training adaptations.
http://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1550-2783-9-33
http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/creatine.html
L-Citrulline – This is used as a sports performance and cardiovascular health supplement. L-Citrulline supplementation results in reduced fatigue and improved endurance for both aerobic and anaerobic prolonged exercise.
An increase in growth hormone has been noted with exercise, but not at rest.
L-citrulline boosts nitric oxide production in the body. Nitric oxide helps your arteries relax and work better, which improves blood flow throughout your body.
Supplementing can help lower blood pressure in people with prehypertension.
This is often found in the best pre workouts.
https://examine.com/supplements/citrulline/
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/l-citrulline-uses-and-risks#1
Arginine – This is found in many pre workout supplements or products designed to make you more vascular. L-Arginine opens up the blood vessels and arteries to assist with blood flow.
This may assist with any impotency issues that are not helping you attain that hot chick in the gym who is 15 years your junior, but only if you have 5g a day!
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-875-l-arginine.aspx?activeingredientid=875&
Malic Acid – In high doses, it has been reported to cause diarrhea, nausea and even panic attacks.
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/malic_acid#section=Chemical-Vendors
Citric Acid – A compound that, in the body, is created for production of cellular energy via the TCA cycle.
Supplementation with it has not been shown to increase energy levels as enough is made by the body.
https://examine.com/supplements/citric-acid/
Caffeine Citrate – Caffeine citrate is a central nervous system stimulant.
Yet can causes a number of unwanted issues such as, hypertension, tachycardia, irritability, restlessness, hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia, fluid and electrolyte imbalance.
https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnfc/current/3-respiratory-system/35-respiratory-stimulants-and-pulmonary-surfactants/351-respiratory-stimulants/caffeine-citrate
Dicaffeine Malate – Caffeine and Malic Acid bonded. Malic acid is found in apples and the two combined help prevent the crash once the caffeine has worn off. This is found in Mr. Hyde Cutz but very little in terms of scientific studies to be found.
Beta-alanine – Supplementation of this non essential amino acid aids the production of carnosine. That’s a compound that plays a role in muscle endurance in high-intensity exercise. That said, studies have been small and not entirely conclusive.
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1222-beta-alanine.aspx?activeingredientid=1222&activeingredientname=beta-alanine
Caffeine Anhydrous – The purest form of caffeine available.
It stimulates the central nervous system (CNS), heart, muscles, and the centers that control blood pressure to give you an extra boost and hit that PB.
This is found in Instant Knockout which is the best fat burner available at present.
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-979-caffeine.aspx?activeingredientid=979
3, 7-dihydro-3,7-dimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione (Theobromine) – Theobromine can reduce sleepiness and in large quantities produces a jittery sensation.
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/CIIEcompounds/transcripts/theobromine.asp
Green Tea – well known to have many powerful health benefits. Clinical studies suggest that green tea extract may boost metabolism and help burn fat.
One study found that the combination of green tea and caffeine improved weight loss and maintenance in people who were overweight and moderately obese.
Some researchers think that substances in green tea known as catechins are responsible for the herb’s fat-burning effect. Green tea extract is found in many a good fat burning supplement.
http://news.psu.edu/story/310179/2014/04/02/research/research-suggests-green-tea-exercise-boost-weight-loss-health
Cinnamon – Helps diabetics avoid blood sugar spikes and it also improves glucose use in the cell itself. It does contain a liver toxin called coumarin, which can be harmful in high doses.
https://examine.com/supplements/cinnamon/
Hordenine – Technically Hordenine can be used as a stimulant and fat burner due to its associated with tyramine and noradrenaline, but not enough evidence exists currently to support its usage as nutritional supplementation.
https://examine.com/supplements/hordenine/
Black Pepper Extract (Piper Nigrum) – Black Pepper is a source of piperine, a molecule that does not do much on its own but can inhibit enzymes that would attack other molecules. Due to this, it is ingested alongside some supplements to increase their absorption rates.
https://examine.com/supplements/black-pepper/
Olive – Olive oil is widely used in many foods and its ability, like avocado, to reduce the bad (LDL) cholesterol is fairly well known. These are great to have in your diet.
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/all-about-olive-oil
Dose:
1 sachet with water is 5500mg.
This is a lot less than most pre workout supplements we try and almost a third of the best pre workout supplement.
It was quite watery in it’s consistency, as if it was weak.
Effects:
There’s a whopping 19 ingredients included in this supplement, that’s a hefty amount.
12 of which offer benefit to the user.
And I can tell you that the Caffeine, Citrulline and Theobromine worked to literally pull me out of a black hole.
Folic Acid is good for the forming off red blood cells which carries oxygen to your muscles and Magnesium is a great mineral that most people are deficient of, it is good to increase testosterone levels.
Having B12 is good to also convert fuel into energy giving you the ability to physically work hard and put in the reps/laps/sprints.
If used regularly Creatine is a proven supplement that is able to increase muscular strength and size.
Arginine can also open up the arteries feeding your muscles with more blood and oxygen while taking away waste products.
Green Tea is full of antioxidants and is a proven fat burner, not far behind in the weight loss camp is Cinnamon which can help control blood sugar spikes.
Bioperine then ensures that all of these ingredients are then made available to your body.
So how did it feel?
Well, I was quite amazed but I also understand why…there’s a large dose of Caffeine.
I did feel quite revitalized if I am honest, the headache/tension across my forehead did disappear.
I managed to pull myself together and write a couple of articles for the site but I did not have the energy to get in the gym to be honest.
So, I perked up, I felt better mentally and had the focus to do something other than head straight for bed.
I didn’t feel particularly enthralled to do anything else other than actually feel less tired.
So there wasn’t any heightened aggression or feeling of purposefulness or wanting to hit the gym.
I would say that I did feel perkier though for about 2 hours after taking it so what effect on me it dd had was sustained for a while longer than what I normally experience.
The consistency was watery but the taste was nice enough to chug down.
Check out my thoughts in the video below.
READ: Read about our favorite pre workout that turned me in to a beast on the rugby pitch
Video:
Negatives:
One thing that struck me immediately is that Magnesium, Olives and Niacin are great for producing more of the hormone Melatonin.
Melatonin is what helps you sleep and is a naturally produced hormone, so these inclusions almost fight against all of the stimulant trying to keep you awake.
Creatine requires dosing on a regular basis to be effective, this should be used everyday and needs more per day that the 1500mg present here.
Arginine also needs 5000mg to be effective and open up those bllod vessels yet we have a miserly 1000mg…what’s the point?
Beta-Alanine merely produces a tingling sensation yet I didn’t even feel this…this could be down to the low overall dose.
Malic Acid can cause the shits, thankfully I didn’t experience that but it’s not what you would want in the gym or doing gymnastics in front of a baying crowd.
Then there’s a further 2 ingredients that have no scientific proof that they do anything useful in this context.
Mutant MADNESS Pre Workout Review Conclusion:
So this did help me crawl from my exhausted slump and I can help you too.
But it didn’t get me in the gym working out, therefore I feel it is lacking…and lacking a larger dose it is.
I really get the impression that if this was twice or even three times stronger in certain areas.
The Creatine needs more as does the Arginine for sure to really feel any benefit there.
Beta-Alanine seems to have very little effect other than a sensation but even I couldn’t feel this.
So while the large amount of Caffeine helped me focus and rid me of that horrible tiredness tension headache there’s was no urge to get out and lift some weights, there was no aggression or tunnel vision you sometimes experience with other pre workouts.
This could well be the best tonic for long distance drivers!
As is, I wouldn’t bother touching it, there’s too many alternative pre workouts which are effective and you can feel it.
Score:
2/5
