If there’s one thing that “As Seen On TV” products do well, its overhype and under-deliver. I mean it’s become a running joke in our generation that late night infomercials can be death to your wallet, and that’s what gets me. People still buy that shit in truck loads! So when I was asked to try Knockout Abs directly from the inventor, I was like “meh”. Also, I didn’t want to ruin his hopes and dreams since A) I’m very much into combat sports so if a product is being marketed towards fighters, it better live up to the hype or I’ll crush it with the might of my pen and B) I know how to get abs – and the secret isn’t in using ab machines.

Still, somehow he convinced me and I decided, why the hell not. Plus, pre-judging something isn’t my thing. At least, not usually. Below is the official description of Knockout Abs

Product Name: Knockout Abs
MSRP: $60
Availability: High

Straight From The Horse’s Mouth

KnockOut Abs(R) is the all new boxing ab workout machine with mma inspired moves that will rock your core and challenge every muscle in your body. Lose weight fast, sculpt your abs and obliques with this amazing as seen on tv ab machine complete with DVD.

The Backstory

[Note: If you’re just interested in the review itself, skip this section. But if you want to know how late night info marketing companies fuck shit up, read on]

I want to get into WHY I decided to give this thing a try – I mean all my friends were like “dude, an ‘As Seen On Tv’ product? You know that’s gona be shit, why bother?” And true enough, when I did a little research on Knockout Abs I laughed my ass off at it’s commercials. You have these bimbos and douchebags who clearly know nothing about boxing, hopelessly trying to punch a speedbag, but failing miserably. I’ve seen better timing in drunken bar fights.

So out of curiosity, I decided to dig a little deeper and as it turns out, the communication between the inventor (who shall not be named, for obvious reasons) and the marketing execs was non-existent.

The basic story goes like this: Man invents product over a decade ago and gets rejected for reasons that weren’t popular at the time (mma was non-existent and men in general weren’t buying shit off tv). Fair enough. Then, after a bunch of waiting, he notices the rise in combat sports and intelligently decides that ‘now is the time’ to get this product out there. He patents the thing (which is an expensive process) and get’s some sort of deal from a big-time marketing company. The detail of the deal is probably similar to something you see on Dragon’s Den but I didn’t dig too deep, so I don’t know who owned what percent of the company.

For half a year, inventor is left clueless about the product he came up with and then suddenly gets the call that they are shooting the infomercial. The investment made into shooting this infomercial was ridiculous from what he told me and from what I gathered personally, all the cash was spent in the WRONG areas. Instead of finding people who knew how to use a speedbag, they created an expensive set and hired a bunch of monkeys and hot chicks that looked good on camera – playing it safe by executing marketing 101.

Inventor realizes that he created the product for a different market (serious fighters and athletes) and that the infomercial is marketing this to every Joe Blow in America. But once so much money has been spent on shooting, a re-shoot is not possible. After the dust settles, the product (surprisingly) doesn’t do as well as intended and is stuck in a weird position. To people who train in combat sports, it looks like a fucking joke. To general North Americans, it looks like “another scam tv product”. So what to do? Inventor takes it upon himself to prove it’s the real deal and urges me to try it out.

Quite the story isn’t it? I still don’t understand why marketing guys think that throwing money on shit will instantly make it a success. All they had to do was make sure the guy who MADE the damn product was involved in the marketing process, but they didn’t. That’s like the marketing department of BMW selling the M3 (a sports car) as a comfortable, family saloon. It doesn’t matter how much money is thrown into marketing, if the message goes out to the audience, it won’t sell. Period.

So after hearing about this, I wanted to see if Knockout Abs really did get a bad rep or not. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I have any sympathy for the product, it’s inventor (who is a nice dude btw) or the marketing company. This is business and business is harsh, there’s no way around that. But it made for an interesting backstory. So, on with the actual review.

First Impressions

In the box you get the Knockout Abs system and a DVD. Now I was told by the inventor that the DVD was made by the marketing douches we talked about earlier and as such, he said he did not back the workouts listed. Therefore, I’ve decided to leave the DVD out of the review. I mean, it’s nice that it’s there but he’s working on making a new one. So on to the hardware itself.

My overall impression is that the construction is pretty sturdy. It’s mostly metal and rubber with very few plastics (thank god). It’s a bit on the hefty side but folds down nicely and can be tucked away under the bed or table. With the system, you get these two resistance bands which attach to the bottom of the seat. Oh and the seat itself is extremely comfortable and has a decent finish.

The anchor points are height adjustable and the speedbag is, I’m glad to say, a high quality piece of equipment. It can be detached so you can do similar drills that fighters use when swinging a medicine ball against a wall (See pics below).

Real World Results

The obvious question is, does it work? Well duh. And it works because it’s simple and builds upon a concept that is tried and true – bringing a general sit-up/crunch seat to your home. Gyms have had them for years and the only difference is that they anchor your ankles instead of your knees. And as I said earlier, the seat is very comfortable so as a general ab bench, it gets and A+ from me.

But this is not just an ab bench, so let’s get into some of faults… or should I say “fault” as there really is only one. The resistance bands. Not only is their placement completely ridiculous for punching, but it can probably teach you bad technique. The problem lies in the angle. The angle of the resistance pushes your punches DOWN instead of back. If you read my review of the MASS SUIT, it had the exact same problem.

The solution to this would be dead simple – place the anchor points at the back of the seat, so the bands come around over your traps. And it would be nice if you could order this thing with a choice of resistance as the bands that I got had the tension of overcooked spaghetti strings. Hardly useful.

Still, the good news is that the speedbag is awesome. You can’t time your punches as fast as you can on a regular speed bag since this is spring based, but you can still get one helluva workout. You can also elbow the shit out of it and my personal favorite – practice slipping. I’m not sure if this was a design flaw or intentional but if you punch this thing hard while sitting upright, it can come back and smack you in the chin, which makes it perfect for punching and slipping (known as dodging, for those that don’t know boxing terminology). My favorite combo would be to punch hard, slip, sit-up and elbow. Then do the other side and repeat till I felt like puking. Excellent.

I even asked a buddy of mine, who actually trains with world class boxers to try it out. To my surprise, he had good things to say about it as well. Praise doesn’t come any higher than that.

Conclusion

So while the resistance bands aren’t exactly useful, Knockout Abs does what the inventor intended – gives you a decent ab workout while also providing a nice speedbag for home use. And it tucks away nicely under your bed to boot. So, should you buy one? Well that’s when the price comes into play. For $60, it’s a product that sits on the fence. If you have no equipment and no gym membership then there’s no point. This will not give you a full body workout. I mean it can, but you can only do so much with a specialized piece of equipment.

On the other hand, if you’re into combat sports and already have a training program in place and want to either take things to the next level or just want to challenge yourself differently, then I say go ahead. You won’t be disappointed with the product quality, I can say that much with confidence. I put this thing through hell and besides some odd scuffs and scratches, it’s performing just fine. I give it 3.9 stars outta 5 in it’s current state. However, if the price ever drops to $40, and you can get better bands, I’d easily give it a 4.5 and there would be no reason why every home gym shouldn’t have one for comfortable, weighted crunches.

Update: The inventor told me that he’s planning on ditching the bands as their inclusion wasn’t his call. The marketing exces threw it in there because they felt like it. Go figure. 

Pics

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© 2012, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

In the pursuit to become strong, fast and athletic, we humans have come up with some pretty radical solutions to add resistance and make training increasingly challenging. The king of all resistance forces is and always will be gravity, or should I say, working against gravity. It’s in our DNA. It’s what has influenced the structure of our bodies and the way you look. If you’re butt-ugly, now is your chance to blame this universal force… along with your parents for good measure.

However, there is one big limitation to gravity – it works in only one direction. What a bitch, huh? This is where MASS SUIT comes into play. It attaches to your body and using resistance bands, provides resistance in almost every imaginable direction. When you put it on, you feel like you’re part of a physiological experiment… which is pretty cool. Let’s see what the company as the say.

Product Name: Mass Suit
Company: Juke Performance Inc.
MSRP: $299.95
Availability: Low (From company only as far as I can tell)

Official Description

The MASS suit is a unique patented design used by many professionals to provide resistance training to your entire body by using rubber resistance bands. The resistance starts as soon as you clip the bands while just standing before doing any type of athletic movement. The MASS Suit increases the resistance to your shoulders, arms, back, core, hip flex, quads, and hamstrings by attaching the MASS sleeves, straps and rubber cords to your body, elbows, hands, knees, and feet. This will create more speed, strength, power, stamina, fast twitch muscles and a more grounded stable balance while cutting calories and losing weight. By intensifying your training you will increase the levels of your red blood cells which will amplify your endurance and muscle speed.

Your breathing will also increase and that will create more oxygen intake and that too will help multiply red blood cells for increased stamina and power. The unique design of the MASS Suit is ideal for every type of athlete in every sport to intensify their training routine. The MASS Suit is adjustable which will able you to increase or decrease in resistance depending on how strong or fatigued you are. As your body adapts to your workouts and you need to pick up and push your conditioning, the MASS Suit will intensify your training up to 75% by adding more resistance to your punches, elbows, kicks, knees and core.

First Impressions

I usually get a lot of emails from companies asking me to test out their “revolutionary” new product. Well here’s a surprise – most of them aren’t. This though, had me more excited than a fat kid who discovered a stale oreo under his couch. I saw that champs such as Anderson Silva were using it to improve their game so surely, it must be something special because let’s face it, whether you’re a fight fan or not, The Spider Silva is the shit!

But it’s not just the MMA application which put a huge grin on my face. I saw that it could be used with other sports such as swimming, football, basketball etc. It’s customization options were practically limitless. Awesome.

Once it arrived, I was glad to see it came in a handy little gym bag. it’s a perfect fit and doesn’t look cheesy as hell unlike other branded products you might have to carry around. Inside you get a brochure, manual and some instructions – which you’ll need because putting this on for the first time is a pain in the ass. Partially because there are a few different variations of the suit and the instructions you get inside the box aren’t exactly the same as the product you receive. Either way, help was just an email away but I would like to see consistency across the board.

Once you manage to get on the basics such as the chest vest, elbow wrap, ankle boots and knee wraps, it’s time to attach the bands. Again, if it’s your first time then I would highly recommend some third party assistance since once you start piling on the resistance, you’ll move like you walked out of the special needs gym class.

It feels… different. Almost every action you take requires wayyy more effort than you would regularly want to put in. This includes, walking, sitting, grabbing, reaching etc. The website claims you can easily conceal this under clothing and burn extra calories doing normal daily activities. Uh, bullshit. The only way you’re going to conceal this is if the clothes you buy are twice your normal size and more baggy than a thugged out wankster.

Real World Results

I’m going to start off with disappointments and possible suggestions to anyone listening from the company since that’s how I like to roll. First up, this “once size fits all” thing is stupid. I realized that anyone at 140lbs or less (which is me during summer time) is in for a watered down experience. When you “suit up”, the straps are all maxed out and sticking out, which makes you look like you’re peeling black Velcro skin from every angle. Then there’s the problem of resistance. See, Mass Suit relies on bands which provide a challenge when stretched. So the resistance my training partner felt (who is taller and weighs about 30lbs more) was much higher than the resistance I felt.

So I almost felt cheated since I would be paying to make my training more challenging, but I’d end up feeling 2/3 of the resistance a man slightly taller than me would feel. Uncool. I suggest that the Mass Suit come in two sizes, small and large. No need for medium since the straps are adjustable and should easily cover that range of people.

Next is the issue of comfort. If you’re planning on suiting up with just a light T-shirt and shorts, I’d think twice because after just a 15 minute kickboxing session, my training partner had marks left over from the plastic part of the straps (see pic below). This isn’t a huge deal at first, but if you’re planning on using this suit 3 or even 4 times a week, expect to get rashes. Of course, this can all be mitigated by wearing long sleeves and pants. I found that the Under Armour type of material is an excellent option to use with Mass Suit. It also makes you look incredibly sexy.

Other than those two shortcomings, it’s pretty much uphill from there. You can ditch the elbow and the handles for resistance for sports that just need your lower body such as soccer, basketball etc. Or you can attach everything and go full out. The only thing I would say is that when doing kickboxing (which is a huge push for this product) the angle of resistance that you get from the handles isn’t optimal. It attaches to your hips, which means it pulls your hands DOWN. The force vector of a punch is pretty much perpendicular to the body, therefore the resistance should be in the complete opposite direction (attached to the shoulders). For this reason, I don’t recommend you train punches with the handles, just leave the elbow bands attach and that’s good enough.

When it comes to KICKS however, it’s all aces. Everything is in the right spot to provide some serious challenge to your front, round and side kicks. I’ve thrown together a video below where I’m helping my trainer partner perfect the explosiveness of his kicks. As you’ll probably notice, he looks a little awkward doing them since it was his first time with the Mass Suit. After some practice though, he was kicking almost as fast as he used to, and when the suit came off, we found some untapped power coming from his legs. His hands did pretty well too.

Besides combat sports, I tried this with soccer and gymnastics. For soccer you can just leave the upper body bands to the side and get a serious workout running around with the knee and ankle bands. Since my bike had a flat ass tire, I couldn’t really test it thoroughly but I can definitely see it as a useful tool for the tools that love biking in their tight pieces of clothing. Couple that up with some uphill pedaling and you’ve got yourself a challenge, my friend.

Then there is gymnastics. When it comes to tumbling and floor skills, it’s only useful some of the time because there are certain tricks that involve your body to contract instead of expand making the bands useless.  But for events such as rings, parallel bars and vault I can see it come in handy since you need to hit the handstand position quite often, and the Mass Suit is fucking awesome for handstands. I was going to throw it on some of the high level male gymnasts that train at my gym but these guys just weren’t big enough for it to be of any use. Oh well.

And obviously, besides using the suit for sport-specific training, you can use the Mass Suit during your normal gym session as well. It’ll add some extra pain to your squats, deadlifts, bench presses, overhead presses etc. One of my favourites with the Mass Suit was the seated dumbbell clean and press. Shit was tough as hell and the bands helped me get past my plateau and add 10lbs to each side in a few weeks. I was more explosive too… can’t complain with those results.

Conclusion

So the Mass Suit is pretty effective most of the time, but is for you? Well if you’re a smaller person, do recreational sports and have no money then no, it ain’t. You’re better off spending the 300 bones on a year’s worth of gym membership fees and training hard against gravity. However, for the serious athlete that has done everything under the sun and needs the extra edge to get ahead, I would say it’s a pretty hefty but worthwhile investment. I’m talking college/NFL level football players, college/NBA level basketball players, professional fighters, national/international level soccer players, competitive Olympic weightlifters etc.

Overall I was quite impressed with the Mass Suit and will give it 4/5 stars. It works great and I love the innovation but it’s got some kinks to work out such as comfort, proper sizing and that price could use a drop as well. I’m going to give it my…

…I haven’t given these out in a while but I figured the Mass Suit is pretty deserving. If you’re a serious athlete, I’d give this piece of equipment a try. It’ll take a few tries to get used to but once you do, it’ll serve you well.

- FitJerk

Pictures

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© 2011 – 2012, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

Product Name: Core Trainer
Company: Dynamax Pro
MSRP: $299.99
Availability: Medium (Website & Some retailers)

Fitness gadgets will come and go, but their insanity will only increase as time passes (and as people get fatter). The ShakeWeight™ currently holds the crown for the most absurdly popular fitness device ever created. So when I was offered the opportunity to review the Core Trainer, I (understandably) had mixed feelings about it. But the company had produced a decent product that I reviewed a in the past – the PowerBall so I was like “why the hell not?”

Official Description

At Dynaflex International, we understand that you demand the very best in cutting-edge fitness equipment. That’s why the DynaMax Core Trainer 2 is guaranteed to exceed your expectations by miles! Nearly a decade in the making, the DynaMax Core Trainer 2 is the ultimate in hand-held exercise gyroscopic fitness technology! The DynaMax Core Trainer 2 is designed to deliver an intense upper body, fat burning, and core training workout in just minutes a day!

Powered by a high speed, 2-axis gyroscopic rotor, this lightweight exercise breakthrough produces up to 200 lbs. of dynamic resistance. A quick pull of the instant starter cord… and you’re in for the most amazing core-training workout of your life! But don’t take our word for it… it’s one of those experiences that must be experienced to be believed!

The DynaMax Core Trainer 2 features built-in LED lights, allowing you to visually see how fast the gyro is spinning. The faster yourDynaMax Core Trainer 2 spins, the more magnificent the light show.

Originally designed for the US Military Special Forces, the DynaMax Core Trainer 2 is now available to you! But be forewarned… once you try the DynaMax Core Trainer 2 — you won’t want to put it down! It’s the “hard core”, patented, hand-held fitness machine that’s been missing from your workout program!

First Impressions

The description sounds quite promising and I know the oddly effective nature of gyros first hand. To this day, I still use my Powerball at least a couples times per week since it sits on my desk. Either as a stress reliever or a show off toy to the friends that drop by.

The packaging works – it shows off the product nicely while smothering eager prospects in attractive promises such as “The Ultimate 5 Minute Workout”. Hmm, not too sure about that, but whatever. In the box you get a wall chart, a DVD (featuring the oddly creepy Mr.Bicep) and the Core Trainer itself.

The exercises on the wall chart look ok and the ones included in the video sometimes look questionable, but do end up giving you a nice burn. I just wouldn’t be caught dead performing them in public. That’s one of the perks of owning a Core Trainer, you have an excuse to seclude yourself in a dark corner and create your own club scene. See my little video montage below to see what I mean…

When I first got my hands on this thing, I had no clue how to start it up. The documentation on the box (and the video) talk about a mysterious power button which jump starts the gyro for you, VIA battery power. But this button was no where to be found. It was after a few minutes that I realized I had a different model. One which featured a starter cord – just like those old ass toys from the 70’s. Or was it 80’s? Can’t remember.

The device itself has really comfortable padding on the handles which provide ample grip, should palm perspiration be a huge problem for you. Maybe a little too much grip. One early mistake I made was gripping this beast as if it’s about to jump out of my hands at any moment, like the Powerball tried to do. Not necessary.

Real World Results

I spent an entire day going through all the exercises and came away with mixed feelings. The massive gyro itself is an awesome feat of design and engineering, I’ll give them that. It provides good resistance, runs smoothly and the pretty red lights make me want to keep this thing spinnin’ and spinnin’. Needless to say this gadget is the real deal, especially in comparison to all the hoopla that’s out on the market right now.

However, one thing I realized is that the name “Core Trainer” is completely off. Since you’re holding this thing in your hands for everything, you end up working your arms harder than you’ll ever work your core – even if you’re on a Bosu ball in a planked up position. Not that I’m a fan of Bosu Balls in the first place. It didn’t matter which exercise I tried, (I even started inventing my own insane movements) my arms were always exhausted well before my abs. There’s just no way around it.

And while you do feel the resistance, it’s mainly only for the upper body. If you want to throw in leg training, you’re limited to your body weight – which is not enough for intermediate and advanced trainees. I mean, I can do bodyweight lunges and squats for FREE. This barely provides any additional value to those exercises.

So at this point you’re probably itching to know the final verdict: “Can you get a good workout with the Core Trainer?”

I’ll hesitantly say “yes”. But only for the upper body. Most people won’t be able to keep the gyro going at a decent pace for more than 10 continuous minutes without needing to take a break due to their arms being exhausted. In 30 minutes you can manage to get some pretty solid bro pumps in your arms. I had veins popping out of my biceps as if I spent an entire hour doing curls at the gym. Not bad. But then that’s just it, we come full-circle to this device’s inability to work anything other than arms/shoulders/triceps. This is a Gyro “Arm Trainer” first, and “Core Trainer” second.

For 300 bucks, I also would’ve liked to see a rev counter on this thing. I mean their high end PowerBalls come with it, and they cost a helluva lot less. So why not include it on such a flagship product? Progressive overload is one of the most important aspects of weight training, and yet there is no way to know how much “load” you’re generating on this piece of equipment. So besides increasing reps, there’s really no way to measure progress. A shame.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that the Core Trainer is a very specialized piece of equipment but it seems that Dynaflex has tried to market it to everyone and their fat uncle. Companies need to make a profit, understandable. But I just don’t see how any normal person could justify spending a year’s worth of gym membership fees on one piece of equipment that can’t do everything. I mean it tries to, but not well.

I can see this finding a home in physio clinics, specialized sports training facilities, disability centers or maybe mental institutions. But I just don’t see it in every home across North America. The Core Trainer needs to go through a price drop and an identity change… then it’ll make perfect sense. But right now, it seems a bit confused. As such I’m going to give this gyro a satisfactory 3/5 stars.

Pics

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© 2011, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

Product Name: Body Rush
Company: Force Factor
MSRP: $64.99 [Click HERE To Get It For 34% OFF!]
Availability: High (Most supplement stores & Online retailers)
Servings: 30 ($2.16/serving) *Update: The original 15 servings at $4.3/serving was due to the fact that I received the smaller tub than what’s on sale

It seems that pre-workout supplements are slowly getting divided into two categories (other than bullshit and legit ones). The first category is filled with no-compromise products that stick their asses in the air and point the middle finger to every major sporting organization which has a stupid ban on certain compounds. 1,3 – Dimethylamylamine (1,3-D) being one of those compounds, which also got banned in Canada recently. FML.

Then there are companies that follow every rule in the book in an attempt to create products that are certified and apparently, “just as effective, if not more”. Body Rush happens to fall into this latter category and Force Factor actually uses the absence of 1,3-D as a selling point – mighty smart of them. Along with the absence of creatine – mighty stupid of them. Either way, I’m here to test this beast to see if it’s worth 3/4 of a solid, crisp bill!

Official Description

Introducing one of the most explosive, best-tasting pre-workout drink available: BODY RUSH.* New from the sports nutrition experts at Force Factor, BODY RUSH shows that pre-workout drinks can taste as awesome as the results they produce.* Ready to look strong, powerful, and stacked with muscle?* Ready to feel on top of your game andloaded with stamina?* Then you’re ready to try BODY RUSH!*

Top Ingredients Deliver Top Results

…and BODY RUSH contains only the best. Formulated to intensify even the most grueling practices and workouts of pro sports athletes, Body Rush can take workouts to the next level.*

Body Rush contains a highly sophisticated blend of essential B vitamins, electrolytes, energizers, carnitines, BCAAs, and nitric oxide boosters.* All of the high-quality ingredients in Body Rush work together to provide your body with an incredible workout*:

• Energy Blend – explosive, sustained energy for workouts*
• Focus Enhancer Blend – stay as intent on building muscle as you were before you hit the gym.* Body Rush will keep your head in the game*
• Strength Blend – with 4000mg of BCAAs in its strength blend, Body Rush will have you powering through your heaviest lifts*
• Muscle Glucose Primer – prepare your muscles to endure longer and achieve stronger pumps*
• Rapid, Lightweight Hydration – support your body with the refreshing hydration it needs to stay dynamic*

Unlike other pre-workouts, Body Rush represents the NEW pre-workout solution: it’s safe and effective. Other pre-workouts contain hundreds of mystery chemicals, unresearched ingredients with dubious claims, and dangerous side effects. Body Rush is approved for use in pro sports. It’s safe, effective, trusted, and powerful enough to give dramatic results.*

First Impressions

I’m not sure if it was a wise marketing choice to make their container look like the retarded cousin of the whole BSN product line. People will either see it as a knock-off and won’t buy it, or confuse it for a BSN product and buy it. Either way, I would stay away from the whole translucent red container path since it’s already been done. It’s like those silly tech companies that tried to release everything in white after Apple came out with the iPod and white ear buds.

Next up we have the ingredient profile. For $64.99 I was expecting a gold-plated scoop and crushed diamonds sprinkled in crystal meth. But alas, when I opened the container I found nothing of the sort. The ingredients are not only lacking for an expensive product, they are just plain lacking, period. Let’s dive in…

Focus Enhancer Blend: 1700mg

I have no complaints when it comes to this blend. All good stuff such as Tyrosine, Carnitine and different sources of Caffeine. The only thing I would’ve liked to see is the exact amount of caffeine included (from my guesstimate, it’s probably 150mg or lower). And some NADH would have been nice too.

Energy Rush: 4250mg

Again we have some more types of Carnitine along with Beta-Alanine (awesome). The only problem I see here is the dose. I’ve said it a billion times already, but it bares repeating: If you’re going to take a supplement with Beta-A, a minimum of 5g is required (unless you’re taking CellRush, in which case 2.5g will be more than enough). So with 4250mg, I’m hoping at least half of that goes to Beta-A to make it worth my time and your money.

Strength Blend: 4000mg

All we’ve got is some BCAA’s: L-Leucine, L-Valine, L-Ispleucine. Excuse me, but where the fuck is creatine!? You know, only the most researched, most economical and best performing strength enhancer ever to have surfaced in the sports supplement industry? Yeah I’ll tell you where it is. Not in here. What a shame.

Advanced 3x Nitric Oxide Booster: 3000mg

A whole bunch of different Arginine blends that won’t do jack shit for your pumps. There’s no such thing as a N.O boost from Arginine and studies prove it. More on the Arginine nonsense HERE – it’s a shame that supplements which are supposed to be “backed by science” are actually ignoring scientific data that’s right in front of them.

Rapid Hydration Surge: 1172mg

Basically a bunch of electrolytes and vitamins. If your workout tends to go for more than an hour and a half, then the inclusion of this blend could come in handy. Sort of like how the inclusion of a comb in a Swiss Army knife would come in handy while you’re lost in the woods. Truth be told, this space could’ve been better utilized for more effective ingredients.

Muscle Glucose Primer: 4000mg

Basically 4 grams of insulin spiking sugar. Carb haters beware. Carbophopic ass bags should run for cover. The rest of you sane individuals need not be worried.

Real World Results

Let’s start with taste. Force Factor was kind enough to send over the Strawberry Kiwi flavor. If you follow the instructions, the taste turns out OK but if you eyeball it and add an adequate amount of water, you’ll come across a fantastic sweet spot where this supplement is downright delicious. It nears the territory of the best tasting (and the worst performing) supplement I’ve ever tried: Super Dump Pump 250. I give it a solid 4.5/5 assuming you manage to find this sweet spot.

So how did my workouts go? Well besides getting the Beta-Alanine tingles it was nothing special. No above-average focus, no above-average intensity and definitely no pumps (but you already expected that). And to make sure these effects weren’t just my body being odd, I gave it to 3 of my friends who workout regularly hit up the weights harder than the seat on your pink bicycle. All reported back with the same conclusion: “meh”.

Body Rush is like a more delicious RedBull that you have to make yourself and has some Beta-A in it. And they both cost about the same per serving, so you’re basically paying for maybe a 10% increase in performance and some inconvenience. And that’s not even comparing it to really effective supplements that will blow it out of the water for much less (1.M.R & Razor 8 Blast Powder).

Conclusion

If Body Rush had a hefty amount of creatine, a bigger dose of Beta-A and maybe a few other ingredients instead of the Hydration Surge formula and the stupid N.O formula I think you could justify it’s price, given that it can be safely used in pro sports without a drug test banning your ass. And I know first hand, that athletes will pay for safety.

But for the rest of us who are warriors in the gym and could give less of a shit whether an ingredient is on the ban list or not, Body Rush fails to meet expectations. As such, I’m giving it a par at 2.5/5 stars.

LIKED THIS REVIEW? SUPPORT THE SITE AND TRY BODY RUSH AT 34% OFF BY CLICKING HERE!

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© 2011, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

Product Name: CreMagnaVol
Company: Allmax Nutrition
MSRP: $59.99 [Click HERE To Get It For 50% OFF]
Servings: 60 ($1 per serving)

It doesn’t matter how many forms of creatine come and go, the original kid on the block (monohydrate) has been proven, time and time again, to be the best performing while also being the most cost effective. Even Kre-Alkalyn is basically monohydrate with a “buffer”, which is a fancy ass word for baking soda. So when I heard about Creatine Magnesium Chelate my BS alarms went off while curiosity came from behind and grabbed me by the ass. I had to give it a go. Before jumping in, let’s hear the official description from AllMax Nutrition…

Product Description

“Can you commit to 30 Days of Strength, Power and Size training? Do you have what it takes to become more than you are today? CreMAGnaVol 3MPD™ has the power to deliver mind-blowing results.

Never in the history of supplementation has 3MPD™ pharmaceutical delivery technology been combined with a Creatine-Magnesium Chelate (Creatine MagnaPower®); extreme bio-availability with fully-patented absorption matrix. 3MPD™ has the power to change everything you thought you knew about supplementation technology.

CreMAGnaVol™ is a complete 30-Day program of extreme tri-layer creatine-chelate CapTABS comprised of a potent formula PROTECTED BY MULTIPLE PATENTS designed to deliver astounding power, strength and size gains fast!* As a Creatine-Chelate myotrophic muscle expander, CreMAGnaVol provides 5 grams of the highest-grade multi-patented Creatine-Chelate available on the market.*

Creatine MagnaPower® delivers more free Creatine to the body than creatine monohydrate!*

Creatine MagnaPower® provides more bio-available active Creatine to the bloodstream for maximum uptake and maximum uptake by muscle; the result, more muscular utilization, more size and more strength.* Coupled with 3MPD Technology, CreMAGnaVol pushes you past your limits with research-directed dosages that will leave lesser, older supplements eating its dust.”

The Theory

The main goal of these new creatine formulations is this: to be able to deliver the same results as monohydrate while using less product. Misinformed supplement whores need to understand that creatine is creatine, no one form is going to vastly out-perform the other unless it’s combined or stacked with another substance. So basically, the supplement companies are racing to find the most “effective” creatine formulation possible. 

So how does CreMagnaVol work? Well to keep things simple, it’s is basically creatine that has been attached to a bit of magnesium. So while traditional creatine mohohydrate enters your cells using a sodium-dependant transporter, CreMagnaVol finds a secondary pathway. A side-door entrance, if you will. In theory, it sounds nice but in reality there has been no conclusive scientific evidence that creatine magnesium chelate is superior to creatine monohydrate.

You might hear of a study being mentioned by any one of the few companies marketing magnesium chelate about how it’s superior.  But those studies compared creatine magnesium chelate to magnesium oxide creatine (which sucks). So obviously, the chelate formulation outperformed it now they brag like they’ve found the next best thing. But that’s hardly a fair comparison; it would be like setting up a fight between Mike Tyson and Justin Beiber. You don’t need to conduct “experiments” or do any form of “science” to come to an accurate conclusion.

First Impressions

You basically get about 2.5g of creatine magnesium chelate along with 800mg of Beta Alanine. If you’ve read my previous reviews than you know that Beta A is only legit in higher doses and needs to be loaded. This 800mg is a measly amount and won’t make much difference. The other junk included is just nonsense. To be honest, I would have preferred it if the entire 3.7g of space was used just for the creatine.

The tablet itself is also quite disappointing, even if those 3 layers look cool. The reason being that it’s not coated. So the instant you put it on your tongue and swallow, you get a dry feeling in your mouth and a bitter chalky after taste. I think if you ever get punched in the face with a fist made of saw dust, the experience would be similar. And that’s only one pill… you need to take 3 more in order to get the one full recommened serving. God damn it!

Real World Results

I’ve been using creatine for a long time, so I have a pretty accurate guess when it comes to knowing whether a product is working or not. I know how my body responds to it in the gym and when I look at my old logs, there are clear indications when pre/post workout creatine supplementation is present. Since my creatine of choice has always been some form of monohydrate (Creapure or Kre-Alkalyn) I had something to compare this to.

The first day I tried CreMagnaVol, I barely noticed a difference. The dose is just way too low to have any influence on my already bullish strength, so the next workout I took double dosage (8 dusty tabs). This resulted in the insides of my mouth feeling like the Sahara dessert. It was at this point that I noticed a difference in the gym. What I couldn’t tell was whether the effectiveness of CreMagnaVol was any better than regular monohydrate. Bummer.

Conclusion

So it’s not any better and nor is it any worse. But in my opinion that’s only if you take double the recommended dose. This reduces the overall servings per bottle to 30 and increases the price per serving to $2. Compare this to the highest quality monohydrate which costs only $0.2 per serving or even Kre-Alkalyn which costs $0.6 per serving and you have a serious problem. There are uses for creatine formulations that enter the cells through different pathways but those situations are rare.

Lean individuals seem to be the best responders to monohydrate so if you’re a little on the chubby side, or if monohydrate for some reason doesn’t do anything for you but cause bloating, then I’d pony up the cash for CreMagnaVol. But as it stands, monohydrate is still king. It’s cheaper and works just as well if not better.

Because of this, I’ll give CreMagnaVol a 2.8/5 stars.

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© 2011, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

Product Name: Razor 8 Blast Powder
Company: Allmax Nutrition
MSRP: $44.99
Servings: 40 ($1.12 per serving)

I’ve got in my hands a new pre-workout supplement that I put to the test. By now, you know the deal with these products – they are stuffed full of stimulants to give you a kick in the ass to get you through the workout. Obviously, every product tries to differentiate itself by claiming it will give you the most pumps, dumps, clumps and all that other nonsense. You should also know that those are empty promises – minus the dumps, there were a few that had me sprinting to the washroom over and over again. Regular gym goers thought I was doing interval cardio, but little did they know I was undergoing involuntary caloric deficit.

So, what exactly is Razor 8 Blast Powder? Can it substitute gun powder? Will it explode in your face? Maybe, and maybe not. Below is the official description from Allmax Nutrition…

Official Description

BLAST POWDER is a no-nonsense, highly concentrated pre-workout energy stimulant with no fillers and zero sugar. We’ve delivered what you need to rip through your training and left the rest out. An ideal combination of five key stimulants that will ramp up fat burning hormones and make weights feel lighter than they ought to.

The buzz about the buzz: We all know that 1,3-Di-Methyl-Amylamine (commonly known as Geranamine) has a seriously potent stimulant effect. What you don’t know (due to (PB) Proprietary Blends) is that with most formulas, you’re getting a “pixy-dust” amount, or at best 5 to 10 mg.

We knew that competition-level athletes would know the difference. And as you all know, we believe in transparent-protocol labeling, so you can see the detail for yourself. There is 19 mg per scoop. Yes, you will feel this!

First Impressions Of The Ingredients

I need to clear something up: the tub I got in the mail a while back and the tub you buy now have slightly different formulations (I, of course getting the better version.) You’ll notice the difference between the ingredient profiles as you compare the tub you buy to the one I used in this review. But to put it simply, Allmax backed off the gas pedal slightly from their original formula for what I theorize to be legal reasons.

Still, I’ve got to review the supplement at hand and while the new formulation is weaker by what I can guess to be 5-10%, it shouldn’t make much of a difference to most of you. On with the ingredient list.

Caffeine: I’m not going to beat around the bush here, this thing has a LOT of caffeine. How much? Well you might want to sit down because there is no easy way to say this… I honestly didn’t think numbers went this high in supplements, but it turns out they do. Are you ready?

400mg! Yup, one 13.5g scoop has enough caffeine to equal 4 cups of coffee. 354mg comes from Synthetic Caffeine and 46mgs come from di-caffeine malate. So basically, it’ll gave you a punch in the face along with a spank on the ass. Most people talking about this stuff online have (intelligently) started using half scoops because of this absurd amount and have managed to turn 40 servings into 80. Can’t blame them.

Geranamine (Geranium Stem Oil Extract): This is the same ingredient which gave the original MuscleSpeed a nice kick so its certainly welcomed in this formulation. You get 51mg which along with the high caffeine amount should prove to be useful.

Hordenine: This is an alkaloid which is supposed to stimulate the release of norepinephrine. You know, the stuff that triggers your “fight or flight” response. This involves increasing heart rate, increased rate of oxygen to the brain, increase blood flow to skeletal muscles and the release of glucose from energy stores (hopefully fat). You get 32mg of this stuff, and whether it’s sufficient enough to trigger such a response is uncertain. It’s hard to tell whether other ingredients are working or not when you have 400mg of ass busting caffeine raging through your veins. I’ll give Allmax the benefit of the doubt.

Creatine Monohydrate: You get 5g of this superior form of creatine. Nice. Unlike most idiotic companies that use CEE, Allmax should be commended for using a form of creatine which has consistently shown to be superior in studies.

Beta-Alanine: I have let beta-alanine into my umbrella of “raw supplements I like and would recommend.” And judging by all the crap I’ve reviewed in the past, this is quite the accomplishment. The only problem is that you only get 325mg of it. Beta-A needs two conditions to be effective. First, it needs to be “loaded” and two, the loading phase needs an amount of 5-7g per day. Those that love beta-a know the tingle it gives you when you take it. None such tingle will be found here, the dosage is much too low.

Arginine AKG: Why, why in 2011 do companies still use this garbage ingredient is beyond me. Studies have busted it to be completely useless as a vasodilator – especially in doses found in current supplements. A disappointing waste of space at 3.7g.

Yerba Mate Green Tea Extract: 20mg won’t do anything but the caffeine from Yerba Mate tea has been shown to be effective without the negative side effects such as jitters and crashes.

Phenylethylamine Hydrochloride:  At 12mg it is useless since most orally ingested phenylethylamine is metabolized before it even reaches the brain for the supposed “well being” effect it’s supposed to deliver.

Real World Results

What do you want me to say? This shit kicks ass, and how could it not? Which that much caffeine I was pretty much expecting SOMETHING spectacular to happen and the 5g of creatine along with geranium extract is just the icing on the cake. I’m curious as to how effective it would be if the caffeine were removed… my guess is that it wouldn’t be half as effective. Still, it’s in there and that’s the reality.

But the other reality is that the after-taste is nasty bitter. It’s not so bad going down but once you finish chugging it, you might want to consider a chaser because this shit is gross. Then there’s the crash, oh boy you better be next to a comfy ass bed or couch because you will plop down like a fat man’s morning dump. Just knowing that, I wouldn’t recommend you take this unless absolutely necessary. Use it when going to the gym feels like a chore. Use it when you really need a pick-me-up. But if you’re just feeling “meh” than down a cup of coffee and get on with it.

Unlike other supplements such as Anadraulic State which disrupted my workouts, Razor 8 Blast Powder kept me going, and then some. I had enough juice after a heavy squat session to hit up the heavy bag for some boxing training. All cylinders were firing at full speed and there were no compromises to my lightning fast jabs and devastating hooks. Overall, I was happy with the performance.

I’ll give this stuff a 3.9/5 stars. If you want an alternative supplement with a great kick and don’t want to bother with wrestling with your taste buds, check out MuscleSpeed.

P.S – If you’re looking for a kick ass workout to go along with Razor 8 Blast Powder, sign up below for my FREE report and get a 3 week Super Set workout that’ll kick your ass into shape… unless of course you’re one of those idiots that doesn’t want awesome stuff for FREE.

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© 2011, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

When it comes to entertainment, I want you to think really hard for a second and guess which medium has made the biggest leap in terms technology, value, fun, stick ratio, growth and profitability. If you guessed music, you’re a tool. If you guessed movies, you’re an idiot. However, if you guessed video games, then spank yourself on the ass for being the smart individual that you are. When done right, video games are much, much more profitable than music and movies and their replay value is something that just cannot be matched.

And it makes sense, humans love to play. What do children want to do all the fucking time? Sit and listen to shit? Watch movies all day? No they want to play. Adults want to play too, sometimes it’s with themselves, sometimes it’s with others… it doesn’t matter. Bottom line is that play is in demand. Now, what do humans not want to do? Anything that involves work, discipline, and effort. Unfortunately, if you’ve let yourself go into the land of fat asses then hard work, discipline and effort is exactly what you need to turn your body around… or is it?

The newly funded start up called Keas doesn’t think so. Their philosophy is based around the fact that “you cannot change human behaviour by nagging and lecturing.” And I agree to an extent. Positive reinforcement is usually superior to negative reinforcement and so they’ve turned getting “healthy” into a game that rewards you with points, levels and even cash ($50 is what I heard when the CTO gave an interview on TechCrunch.)

That sounds all well and good on paper, but how does it actually fair when you take it for a spin?

The Test Drive

As per usual tradition, I’m going to start off with shit that really annoys me about this “game.” The first thing you need to (unfortunately) accept is that Keas is aimed at teams over individuals. It’s meant for companies with employees which have to team up with at least 6 people to be competitive when it comes to points and getting rewarded. I think this is lame sauce. Take a look at the screenshot below, it says “If you have less than 6 people, it’ll be tough to get those 1,000 points – or reach your health goals. Choose teammates that will work hard and support each other”

Can you see what’s wrong with this picture? The amount of maximum points you earn, as well as achieving your health goals is dependant upon 5 others. While having accountability is good, basing each individual’s success on a team of six people is retarded. Basic group theory states that a team is only as strong as it’s weakest link, so if you have inactive and/or sick people on your team, you cannot earn the maximum potential points. That’s absurd. It would be nice if things were a little more interdependent than dependant. Give me the opportunity to reach the same number of points and goals as a full team but have me do more work – I’m ok with that. But don’t handicap my ass because I don’t feel like mingling in a team. I’m a lone wolf and I like it that way. But that’s just me. For others, I can see this whole team accountability thing work out rather well.

You Call Those Goals?

There are a couple of ways you can earn points on Keas, one of these ways is by completing goals you’ve selected. Again, in theory that’s great, but the execution of it is an insult to my intelligence and unique human potential. First of all, it seems that pretty much everyone starts off with similar basic goals such as “walk 20minutes 3x this week” and every time you walk, you check it off. Once you check this off 3 times, you’ve completed your goal and can do others. This might be ok for a 300lbs individual that thinks walking for 20 minutes is almost as challenging as climbing Mt.Everest, but for someone who’s active, it’s a damn laugh.

Why not instead ask me questions and collect data about what I already do, assess my current fitness level, then recommend goals that are ACTUALLY challenging. If I was on a team (I did join one later, called Team Wonder Women) I’d be raping the point system to it’s absolute potential in about a day.

Then there are the frequency of goals. You can only work on 3 goals a week, and once you complete them you have to wait till the next week to select more, which brings me to my next point. Any activity you do OUTSIDE of the three goals selected on Keas cannot count towards points. Uhm, I’m sorry but I thought the whole fucking point was to encourage healthy behaviour, so why is individual initiative not being rewarded?

The answer, it seems, is because they don’t want people to “game” the system and move far ahead, out of reach of other teams… or whatever. Below is the thread I started on Keas and got responses from someone official, I think.

My last comment got cut off so here’s what I said. “…I’m not saying have unlimited goals, but allow me to add up to 3 additional activities so I can earn points. Most people who LIFT, do it 3-4x a week.” It seems they are so caught up in the game and not being scammed element of Keas that you end up with a watered down list of things to do which most people can easily accomplish. While Keas is starting your off (extremely) slow to help build a habit, it also shoots itself in it’s own foot by not rewarding those that take initiative. As I recall, they philosophy is positive reinforcement… well where the hell is it? It’s a shame, really.

The Front End Experience

So that’s the core of how Keas works, now let’s talk about the little things. First, you should know there are a few other ways that you can earn points – answering quizzes and inviting friends. That’s cool, I see nothing wrong with rewarding a little word of mouth (or even, mouth to mouth *wink*) However, I think they should add a few more ways to encourage interaction and then reward users for it. Actions such as, throwing up posts into the live feed (which work like FB status updates), throwing up an avatar, allowing you to write a bio, creating custom challenges to add to the database and logging your weekly weight improvements are all things that Keas should be looking into. What REALLY blows my mind is that Keas has the ability to be the online version of The Biggest Loser. You already have teams, you already have a point/reward system, why the hell not add the ability to track everyone’s weight and reward the team with the most weight lost?

Or maybe they are blind to the opportunity… but that’s cool, because it’s why I exist. Let’s hope someone at Keas is reading this. Let’s dive into something they got mostly right, their UI. It is simple and pleasant on the eyes. The font choice is effective but could be bolder and easier to read, but that’s a minor nitpick. Their facebook-like status updates also work great. Adding/managing/interacting within your team is also a painless experience. But even in their UI, there are some things that need to be looked into. For example, there is no notification system as far as I can tell. When the dude above responded to my post, I got an email which led me to the thread, but Keas itself never showed anything which would tell me someone took action on my post. So if I never looked at this email, I would’ve never known he responded.

Game Over

Now I know I ripped these guys a new asshole, but it is what it is. You can’t be a start up and not expect some constructive heat. As it stands right now, Keas is a weak product meant for a select group of individuals that basically live in homeostasis as far as physical activity is concerned. I give it a 2/5 stars. If I was the investor that dumped the $10 million into this venture, I’d crack that whip and tighten some leashes to get this game to be more effective. They need to accept the fact that any digital game, regardless of all the safeguards in the world can be “gamed” and need to focus on rewarding those that put in the time.

In the end, a fat ass could sit at his desk and start doing fake challenges all day and get his panties wet about having the most points but who is he really fooling? Himself. Those that play the game legitimately will feel good about the rewards they received because they know they put in the sweat equity… and isn’t that the whole point of this start up? To help people live healthier? At least that’s what I thought. Who cares if BillyBob17 has a bazillion points? People know he’s a loser trying to feeling good about nothing. So when it comes to fitness games, I’ll be sticking with one that’s doing it right, by letting me log real workouts whenever I do them and how I do them while still allowing group challenges.

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© 2011, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

Product Name: Mind Boost
Company: Mastermind Supplements
MSRP: $39.95
Availability: Med (Online & Some Stores)
Servings: 30 ($1.3 per serving)

Are you the type of person that parties hard, then wakes up the next morning beside a warpig and wonders, “how the hell did I end up with that!” Or do you frequently forget the name of gorgeous young lady (or gentleman) after 5 minutes of meeting them? Well then you probably suffer form a disorder called “shitty memory” and Mastermind Supplements has just the product for you!

It’s called Mind Boost and as always, before I dive in and give you the low down, let’s hear what the company has to say…

Official Product Details

Cognitive enhancing formula designed to give that extra boost of energy, confidence, focus and learning ability. Mind Boost provides the perfect balance for cognitive functioning. Piracetam is known to increase brain cell metabolism, augment mental strength, intensify vitality, and improve memory retention. It also may protect neurons from hypoxia (low oxygen) and stimulates the function of the brain’s vital neurotransmitter acetylcholine (essential for healthy mental function, especially verbal processing). Choline is a precursor for acetylcholine proven invaluable for its ability to make more acetylcholine. To complete the blend we included a small amount of caffeine for added mental alertness.

First Impressions

The marketing department at Mastermind certainly did their job. From the fancy graphics, the website and even the name itself… their shit is on-point. As someone who reviews a shit load of supplements and someone who’s curious as to where the supplement industry is headed in general, it makes me want to pick up a bottle and try it out.

But, is the beauty only skin-deep? Let’s take a look at the ingredients…

Mind Boost is one of those rare supplements where I don’t have to spend 10 minutes reading the ingredient list. It’s got 3 ingredients mixed into amounts that Mastermind Supplements deems reasonable. Let’s start from bottom up.

Caffeine Anhydrous – proven to increase power output, mental alertness and the overall key ingredient to 99% of all pre workout and mental enhancing formulas. The only thing I didn’t like is the measly 100mg amount per serving. That’s about as much as you get from a cup of coffee… and most people on planet earth drink at least 2 cups a day so I doubt this is helping much.

Choline Bitartrate – A water-soluble essential nutrient. Essential because it cannot be synthesized by the body, so you need to stuff some down your throat to get some. It’s found in foods such as eggs and beef. Now here’s the important bit, Choline is the precursor molecule for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine which is involved in many functions including memory and muscle control. It’s probably based on this fact, that it’s included in Mind Boost.

Also, it seems choline is used as a treatment in neurological disorders and Alzheimer’s disease but I’ve found nothing concrete or the dosages used in treatments. Here’s another interesting tidbit: In a study, trained cyclists supplemented with 2.43 g of choline bitartrate 1 hour before or short suprmaximal (150% peak power) or prolonged submaximal (70% of full power) test stress, choline supplementation increased plasma choline levels of 37 to 52%, but no significant changes were observed for measures of fatigue and exercise performance in both studies (Spector et al., 1995). Since Mind Boost as a total of 1.7g of “stuff” in it, I can’t see how a minimal amount of this stuff would help. But, that’s just theory for now.

Piracetam – An nootropic drug usually prescribed by doctors for a condition called myoclonus (muscle twitches). Most of the stuff on it is irrelevant to us except for one double-blind, placebo-controlled study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/826948 Below is the the abstract.

“Nootropyl (Piracetam) a drug reported to facilitate learning in animals was tested for its effect on man by administering it to normal volunteers. The subjects were given 3×4 capsules at 400 mg per day, in a double blind study. Each subject learned series of words presented as stimuli upon a memory drum. No effects were observed after 7 days but after 14 days verbal learning had significantly increased.”

This means that the test subjects took 1.2g per day and only after 14 days showed signs of progress. Again, remember that Mind Boost has 1.7g of total stuff per serving of which 100mg is taken up by caffeine, leaving us with 1.6g of space. Assuming Mastermind used 1.2g of Piracetam (unlikely) that leaves us with 0.4g of space for Choline Bitartrate… which renders it useless. My guess is that they spread out the space evenly but even still, there is just not enough “supplement” for an immediate effect in one serving.

Real World Results

The capsules are regular sized and rather easy to take. Given what I saw in the ingredient list, I was highly temped to pop 4 at once but to judge the review fairly, I took the recommended serving, 3 times per day for about 3 weeks straight. For the first week I was like “What the hell is this?” since I didn’t feel much of a difference besides slight increase in alertness… as one would expect when you take in an extra 300mg caffeine per day. Nothing like the initial “hit” from the original MuscleSpeed though.

It was around the second week that I noticed that I had more “vivid” dreams at night. Nothing too over the top but noticeable. Around the third week my mental state was noticeably better/alert than the first week but again, I wouldn’t say it was over the top. It was a result I could have achieved with just about any other caffeine infused per-workout formula. Now, Mind Boost isn’t marketed as a per-workout formula, but it’s still an nootropic.

Overall, this stuff will work if you give it time since it probably has some kind of “loading” phase. But is it worth $39.95 a month for bottle after bottle? Yeah, not sure about that one.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, I personally can’t recommend Mind Boost and give it 2 and a half stars. There are some changes that I’d like to see in order for this supplement to justify it’s price. Supplements are about instant gratification, or as close to it as you can get. So a 2 week loading phase is fine for creatine, since bodybuilders are dedicated and muscle mass takes time. People know that. But for an nootropic to take this long? That’s just lame sauce!

So here are my changes: First up, add some Bioperine to help with absorption. Then throw in some NADH, Geranium Extract, L-Carnitine and L-Tyrosine. I would also increase the size of the caps from the current #00 setup and up the dosage of the caffeine to 200mg per serving and Piracetam to 1.2g based on the study. Not only should you get an instant mental kick, but overtime things should improve. Will my formula work? Hard to say since I just threw it together off the top of my head based on other products I’ve tested. But I know for a fact that it’ll work a helluva lot faster than their current formula.

[UPDATE: Mastermind Supplements got back to me and the supplement does indeed contain 1.2g of Piracetam. So if you want to experience the effects of the study, you can now give it a shot knowing exactly how much you're taking in]

I would like to give props to MasterMind Supplements for sending me a free T-Shirt and bottle to try. As you know, most companies don’t have the balls to be reviewed on my site. Look out for another one of their products I’ll be testing soon called Mind Release.

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© 2011, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

Product Name: EatSmart Bathroom Scale
Company: Health Tools LLC
MSRP: $28.95
Warranty: 2 Years

I’ve often said that if you aren’t tracking your progress, you’re aiming in the dark. When people aim in the dark, they end up shooting themselves in the foot. Constantly. Repeatedly. It’s actually quite funny… so don’t be the one that ends up being laughed at. There are a few key tools you’ll need, to track how your body is doing and one of these tools is obviously the scale.

While not the most accurate tool to track progress (muscle weighs more than fat) it’s still necessary; and the old spring loaded analog dial scales just don’t cut it anymore. You want an accurate digital scale that tracks your progress to the tenth of a pound and today I happen to have such a product that might be worth your time. It’s called the EatSmart Bathroom Scale… simple enough.

Official Description

The EatSmart Bathroom Scale is versatile, easy to use digital bathroom great for any home. Simply step on the scale and in seconds you’ll have an accurate readout on the EatSmart’s oversized 3.5″ LCD display.

Features

• Large 3.5″ LCD display – Easy to read from any distance
• 4 high precision sensors – Consistent and accurate measurement
• Max weight 400 lbs / 180 kgs
• Sturdy tempered glass top and large 12″ x 13″ platform
• Auto Calibrated; Auto Power-Off; 4 AAA batteries (included)

First Impressions

The packaging isn’t exactly inspiring, it’s quite generic and the color scheme is kind of odd with off-red, almost orangy look. It looks like someone spilt fruit punch all over a white surface and then it dried up. Still, the box protected the scale quite well and I was delighted to know that they included 4 AAA batteries inside. 

The scale itself is sturdy and well built, here’s what I liked about it…

• It’s got a very large LCD display with bright blue back-lighting which makes it very easy to read
• Their “Step On” Technology is a… er, step in the right direction. Most digital scales I’ve used ask you to tap to turn on then make you wait like at the doctors office while they take their sweet time to “zero” themselves. Not this one. Step on it and off you go. Simple and brilliant.
• Glass seems to be made of high quality; so your probable fat (or skinny) ass won’t be able to break it. I think.
• It’s got three different modes. Pounds, Kilograms and the stupid British “stones”. I never bothered with “stones” as it’s a ridiculous measurement but I was always curious about it. Now I know that I weigh like 10 stones or some shit. It’s nice to know that EatSmart thought about everyone while making their product.
• And finally, the scale actually looks quite classy. The whole glass look is very modern and I wouldn’t mind having this scale showcase itself where others could see it.

Real World Results

As you might expect, the scale is pretty straightforward. You step on it and it does the work for you. You step off, and it shuts off. However, there were a few quirks that are worth mentioning. First, the LCD display has a horrible viewing angle. It’s fine when you’re looking at the display while you are standing in the center of the scale but if you look at it from any other angle, it starts to get washed out. See picture below.

You could say that this is a privacy/safety feature so that others won’t know how much you weigh but I think it’s just the screen quality that’s lacking. Also, when someone over 200lbs steps on the scale, you can see the “liquid” effect start to pop up… the same cool effect you get when you take your finger and press it up against an LCD computer monitor. The scale says it can handle 400lbs and I haven’t bothered with that much load yet but let’s hope the display doesn’t give out.

And finally, it would’ve been nice if this scale came with a few extra features such as bodyfat percentage calculations. Most scales aren’t super accurate with these calculations but then again, most folks aren’t good with callipers either and as long as your method of measurement stays consistent, it’s better than nothing. It wouldn’t be hard to implement some conducting plates on the surface of the glass.

Conclusion

If you’re still rocking the old ass analog scales, then it’s time to enter into 2011. The EatSmart scale is just a hair under 30 bucks, comes with batteries, decent warranty and measures your weight in three different settings with high accuracy. It does what it’s supposed to without any fancy frills, and for that I don’t see why I can’t recommend it. I give it a solid 4/5 stars.

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- FitJerk

Content originally written by FitJerk for www.fitjerk.com – © 2010 All Rights Reserved – This post is NOT to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face.

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© 2011, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.

When it comes to building muscle, there are plenty of methods that are available and all of them promise results. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while then you know that usually, everything works at least once. The basis for building muscle is simple; apply a heavy load which causes hyperplasia (or hypertrophy… or both) and feed yourself with ample calories. If you were to dumb down muscle-building into one sentence, I doubt it gets any simpler than that.

However, the process of building muscle can become very complicated when your body starts to adapt, and that’s when we humans, in our quest for everything big, try and invent new techniques. Today I’ll be looking at a system from Nick Nilsson. It’s called Muscle Explosion: 28 days to maximum mass.

Product Name: Muscle Explosion
Publisher: Price World Publishing
MSRP: $10.17 >> from Amazon (soft cover)

First let’s get one thing straight, building the maximum amount of possible mass in 28 days is kind of ridiculous. I’m not saying you cannot gain mass in 28 days, but don’t expect to look like the Hulk or reach  your “maximum” potential. The process of building mass is a marathon, not a sprint. Small progress over a long period of time.

First Impressions

I like the cover of the book… it would most definitely make me stop and take a skim through it if I was roaming around in a book store looking sexy as hell. Which I do quite often. So congrats to the cover artist on a job well done.

What I don’t like is the ridiculous size of the book compared to the amount of content that’s inside. Also the font. Maybe it’s because I’m used to reading thick bricks with a standardized font size… but hell, it’s been that way for a reason. Ease of reading. This book measures 7’x10’ and the font size is massive (my guess would be 14px). There really is no reason for this size as far as I’m concerned. It just makes it more cumbersome to carry and slightly annoying when you’re a quick reader and are having to turn pages every 5 seconds.

Does It Work?

Still, let’s get down to what this book is all about. Here are the chapters that lie within:

The Muscle Explosion Program

> Muscle Explosion Weekly Training & Nutrition Charts

> How and Why the Program Works

Muscle Explosion Training Techniques

> Metabolic Acceleration

> Tissue Remodeling

> Interval Training

> 5 Day Structural Attack

> Stretch Pause Training

> The Core Combo

Nutrition

> Week 1: Low Carb Eating

> Week 2-4: Eating For Maxx

> Post Workout Nutrition

> Supplementation

> Caloric Intake

Maybe it was just me but while reading through, there were times where I felt slightly lost. It was hard to relate one thing to another and I found myself going backwards for a quick re-read and a glance at the table of contents to know where I was. Still, not a big deal. The big deal lies in the heart of Nick’s techniques… which I found were mish-mashes of other tried and true methods that are already pretty well known. Nothing wrong with that but it made me question the effectiveness of this whole 28 day system.

For example, take “Metabolic Acceleration”… where Nick suggests you do resistance training with cardio without any rest periods as a form of glycogen depletion. In my opinion this is kind of counter productive. His logic is that doing “everything” taxes your phosphocreatine system, Glycolytic system and Oxidative system. However what you end up doing is training in a way that makes you good at nothing. Do cardio if you want to have muscles that are efficient and are good at producing ATP through the oxidative process (breathing). Do heavy ass resistance training if you want muscles that are awesome at power production and short bursts (by relying on glycogen stores). Doing both types of training in one session doesn’t help you. Also, you can deplete your glycogen stores by doing JUST higher volume resistance training… no need for silly cardio.

Then there is Tissue Remodelling, which I found to be a mix of Partial Rep Training + DC’s Power Stretching + High Volume Training. All methods that have known to work and deliver results so I can’t hate. However, I do have to say that personally I would do high volume followed by DC’s power stretching and partial rep on a separate day. The point of partials is to 1. Improve your CNS efficiency and 2. Improve your strength during the last half of a repetition (or first half). It’s used to strengthen the weak links in your chain. The perfect example is the bench press… everyone knows that the distance from your chest to the half way point is the hardest to press where the distance from the halfway point to full extension is the easiest.

Another similarity is “Stretch Pause” training. Again this is basically the well known method of Rest Pause training coupled with DC’s Power Stretching and Partial Rep Training (this is something Nick openly admits to). The way it works is like this: Do a full range exercise (barbell bench) then rest 20 seconds and do an exercise that will stretch the muscles (Dbell Flys), rest 20 seconds then go back to the bench but now do only partial reps. Seems pretty legit but again, I would put the stretching portion at the end. Heavy static stretching of any kind usually results in loss of power. This has been well documented. This means when you rest 20 seconds and go back to the partial rep set, you won’t be able to do as many reps as you COULD have done.

Time to move away from the physical and into nutrition. Overall you can’t really argue with this nutrition advice… if you eat the way he tells you,  you should end up with a caloric surplus and will gain mass. What didn’t grace my eyevalls very well is how he favours CEE (Creatine Ethyl Ester) over good ol’ monohydrate. Especially when a quick search through PubMed will reveal that CEE is complete garbage when compared to monohydrate. It’s more expensive while being less effective. So, that ain’t cool Nick. Get you shit straight.

Let’s Wrap It Up

I don’t want to go on and scrutinize every little detail because I’ll end up writing my own book. However I will say that as a reviewer, it’s my job to surface the faults where I see them, but I’ll also throw in praise where I see fit. And I have to be honest, most dudes who pick up this book and follow the method (once they understand everything… which will take 2 readings) will see results. No doubt. Nick’s methods are based on methods that have already been successful, so for his plan to utterly fail is unlikely. It’s like telling someone if they eat 500 calories less than maintenance every day that they will lose weight. Well duh, that’s inevitable. And that’s how I see Nick’s book. Whether you’ll gain mountains of muscle in 28 days is kind of up in the air and unlikely but I don’t see why a solid gain of 5lbs is impossible.

In conclusion, for about 10 bucks it’s a pretty good deal. I’ll give this book 3.8/5 stars. You’ll learn a new twist on old methods and can probably incorporate it into your current plan. Any type of new stimulus is great in my opinion so the more you can keep you body guessing the better. Grab your copy from Amazon.

- FitJerk

Content originally written by FitJerk for www.fitjerk.com – © 2011 All Rights Reserved – This post is NOT to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face.

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© 2011, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Only LOSERS have nothing to say or discuss. Put your thoughts, comments or general rants in the comment section below. FJ does not use censorship but obvious racial slurs and over-the-top stupidity will be deleted.