Platinum Labs DEFCON 1 Pre Workout Review // Is It Better Than Death?
Platinum Labs DEFCON 1 Pre Workout Review First Look:
After using the pre workout known as Convict Stim yesterday that left me staring at the ceiling as I lay in bed as if I had just come in after a night on the pills in some club it may come as a bit of a surprise why I would throw myself back in to it again just 1 night later.
Well, I am determined to find the best pre workout that can benefit my training and rugby. I’m not getting any younger and it is increasingly more difficult to muster the courage and energy to do a big weight session after a long ass day at work and a long ass drive home.
This one stuck out at me because unlike all the other sachets I have before me this one is bright yellow in a sea of black and white sachets.
It sounds quite militaristic too which means it must be serious and effective…
Ingredients:
L-tryptophan – An essential amino acid. Is a precursor for the product of serotinia, which is a chemical transmitter in the brain.
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/L-tryptophan
Choline BiTartrate – Choline is mostly used for either its cognitive boosting properties or as a liver health agent, able to reduce fatty liver buildup.
It may also be a stimulant although this is based on anecdote. Requires around 250-500mg per day for cognitive benefits. Choline does not offer any significant benefits for aerobic capacity, fatigue or training capacity.
https://examine.com/supplements/choline/
Taurine – It has been touted that Taurine can help mental performance.
Early clinical research suggested that taurine, in combination with caffeine, glucuronolactone, and B vitamins, can improve attention and reasoning in adolescents, but does not improve memory.
However, there is insufficient evidence to prove this is always the case.
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1024-taurine.aspx?activeingredientid=1024
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
Vitamin B6 – This helps the body use and store the energy from protein and carbohydrates.
http://www.webmd.boots.com/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-b6-pyridoxine
L-Tyrosine – Tyrosine is taken for depression, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the inability to stay awake (narcolepsy), and improving alertness following sleep deprivation.
It is also used for stress, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome(CFS).
https://examine.com/supplements/l-tyrosine/
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
Caffeine – 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.
Caffeine Anhydrous is the purest form of caffeine so always look out for it.
This is found in 4 Gauge which is the best pre-workout.
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-979-caffeine.aspx?activeingredientid=979
Agmatine – Agmatine is a metabolite of L-Arginine. It shows promise for alleviating neuropathic pain and drug addiction. Agmatine supplementation can also protect from strokes and benefit cognitive health.
https://examine.com/supplements/agmatine
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
Beta Alanine does give many users that tingly/itchy feeling. Some love it, others hate it.
I think it is best described at Chillblains – i.e when you go in to a warm room after your hands have been exposed to the cold and they start to feel itchy.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491570/
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
Betaine (trimethylglycine) – Betaine has been recommended as a performance enhancing compound, although with quite unreliable results.
When taken at 1.25g twice daily, betaine has at times been linked to increased power output (only to fail in other instances) and minor increases in workout volume and endurance (a bit more reliable than power output, but still not a consensus).
https://examine.com/supplements/trimethylglycine/
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
Higenamine – Data shows an increase in energy expenditure and kilocalorie expenditure. It also results in a moderate increase in heart rate and systolic blood pressure similar to caffeine.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24139127
Synephrine – This increases fat oxidation rate whilst reducing carbohydrate oxidation rate during low to moderate exercise.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27038225
Dose:
1 sachet with water which is 7300mg. Which is pretty piss poor in my opinion when there are products offering twice as much as that, if not more.
This is red cream soda flavor and while it smelled really nice, it tasted like dog shit.
The consistency when mixed with water was fairly watery.
Effects:
There’s a grand total of 15 ingredients present. Potentially that is a shit load of benefit right there, sir.
Also a potential of a fucking nightmare or uselessness which we don’t want, not when it looks so promising in its yellow packet like a Tour de France rider.
Citrulline is often found included in the best pre workouts due to being able to increase performance as well as offering cardiovascular benefits.
Tyrosine is another ingredient used for focus and attention this is also the same for Agmatine and Choline but only if dosed correctly, these ingredients occasionally turn up in nootropics, read more about those here.
Agmatine offers a double whammy of benefits by helping cognition and helping prevent that stroke you maybe concerned of when suffering from those heart palpitations after drinking the combined strength of 8 coffee’s.
Tryptophan can increase your mood considering it is a precursor to serotonin. When taking ecstasy your secrete loads of serotonin which makes you feel all loved up.
B12 and B6 helps provide your body with energy.
Caffiene is a great stimulantand often found in pre workouts and fat burners due to its thermogenic effects.
Creatine is often found in pre workouts due to its effectiveness at increasing muscular strength and size, it does need to be taken often and continuously for best effects.
Beatine offers mixed results but it does seem to increase power output.
Higenamine and Synephrine are often found in fat burners due to increasing fat oxidization and increasing energy expenditure.
So how did it feel?
The massive 2000mg of Beta-Alanine made itself present within minutes.
As for the rest…I didn’t really notice any effects. I didn’t feel anymore ‘wired’ or awake or energetic.
I couldn’t say that I felt anymore focused either. I probably could say that I wouldn’t use it again in the future.
The taste was shite too.
READ: Read about our favorite pre workout that turned me in to a beast on the rugby pitch
Video:
Negatives:
It just didn’t seem to work apart from the massive dose of Beta -Alanine, however, that is more of a sensation rather than improvement in endurance or performance and is therefore quite misleading.
Taurine doesn’t seem to have any proven added benefit plus there’s a couple of ingredients that are suited to fat burners but not necessarily a pre workout supplement.
I think the overall dose and number of ingredients that the 7.3g has to be divided in to is just not enough to provide an effective dose.
So from my first hand experience I would not say it was particularly effective or at least it wasn’t noticeably effective and I felt no increase of performance or focus. I am also battling to keep my eyes open too.
Platinum Labs DEFCON 1 Pre Workout Review Conclusion:
There are a goo number of ingredient present here and most of them are seen as being effective and beneficial according to studies.
However, only on the right scale.
We all know cars are an effective way to travel, but what if we reduced the size of that car so it became one of those ride on plastic electric toys that kids ride around in? It is still a car ut at that scale it isn’t effective transport.
That is a bit like this pre workout supplement.
The ingredients are pretty much all good and have good results in trials and studies but if they are dosed insufficiently they are not going to be effective or offer any real world benefit.
As a result I cannot recommend the use of this.
Score:
1/5
