T E S T O S T E R O N E J U N K I E

Cobra Labs The Curse Pre Workout Review First Look:

The Curse…yes the curse of getting older and certainly feeling more and more drained as the weeks go by.

So much so that even a short couple of steps to your on gym can become too much of an effort.

However, I wasn’t going to let that happen. Desperate to leave my house and move in to my new house (which is much older and built in the 1800’s) which will save me 4 hours per day of sitting in my car, until then fatigue will continue to set in.

So, what’s a bro to do? Well, sometimes a coffee and a conserve sandwich will just not suffice.

Nope, you need an extra kick up the ass to walk in to a room where you can see your own breath and start smashing the weights.

Let me introduce to you The Curse from Cobra Labs…

It looks a bit mental, has a skull on it and eyes like the terminator, just green.

Other than that the sachet is black.

Yet, when mixed with water it turns in to a vivid and solid green liquid and reeks of Apple Sourz liquor of which I drank way too much back in the day at University.

Ingredients:

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

Creatine Monohydrate – It is the simplest form and most popular of Creatine. It is an extremely fine powder that can be mixed in water for a high absorption rate.

There are many alternative forms of creatine, however, none are more effective than the basic creatine monohydrate.

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

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

Bet a 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/

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

Arginine-alpha-ketoglutarate (AAKG) – Tests on supplementation draw no real benefit that would not be found from resistance training itself.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21813912

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.

https://examine.com/supplements/citrulline/

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/l-citrulline-uses-and-risks#1

Citric Acid – Citric acid is 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/

Dose:

1 sachet with water which is 8000mg. There’s much better out there.

This sachet is apple envy flavor that was not too bad at all. Although it did bring back memories of waking up to a paramedic taking blood tests.

Effects:

Beta-Alanine can help with muscle endurance, although not entirely proven. It does feel a little that the tingly sensation from beta-Alanine does take over and become a diversionary tactic.

Arginine can increase blood flow, but I think you would require to at least 10x more than delivered here to feel the benefits.

Creatine is good to have, as already mentioned, nothing beats normal, regular Joe creatine monohydrate for performance. As with creatine supplementation this would need to be taken daily for real effects.

Caffeine is a great stimulant and good for energy and focus.

Citrulline is great because it helps the body produce more nitric oxide. It is also good for performance, warding off fatigue and increase growth hormone while exercising.

So how did it feel?

I was surprised by this, I reacted well to its effects.

A good number of pre workouts give me stomach bloat or at least a bit of discomfort but this didn’t.

I was tingling all over and had a real urge to get in the gym and hit the weights which I did.

My determination was there and I increase my bench and shoulder press, not to mention seated row as well. Only small increments but an increase all the same.

The only problem was as soon as it hit me, it seemed to wear off.

READ: Read about our favorite pre workout that turned me in to a beast on the rugby pitch

Video:

Negatives:

AAKG doesn’t really have an effect in studies.

Citric Acid while created for energy is not worth supplementing because your body produces enough already.

Olive extract does have its benefits, notably for lowering cholesterol. However, it doesn’t help with fat burn or indeed provide additional stimulation nor energy.

This is also a proprietary blend.

While you cannot hide ingredient amounts behind a blend with pre workouts because you can tell almost instantly if the ingredients are shit or not it still begs the question why they would do it.

This also raises the question that while dosed enough for a hit, it maybe isn’t dosed quite enough for a prolonged and sustained amount of time. There wasn’t a crash but the feeling wore off about half way through my session.

Cobra Labs The Curse Pre Workout Review Conclusion:

I liked this, I thought it gave me a nice rush and surge of energy that got me out of the chair, off YouTube and racing down to the gym.

I managed to increase the weight lifted on a few exercises which I was really happy about but it wore off a little too soon for my liking.

This is probably down to the low overall dose and it missing other vital ingredients usually found in other pre workouts which are able to offer a stronger and more sustainable hit.

It also has a few ingredients that do not really offer any benefit according to studies so these would be better being replaced with proven ingredients such as Beet, Sodium and Carnitine.

So, overall it’s pretty good, I would personally double dose or at least have another sachet about 30 minutes after the first.

Score:

3/5