Pre Workout NT vs Jack3d vs BioCharge - My Analysis
The following is an analysis of two products which I have developed (BioCharge and Pre Workout N) vs a popular product on the market “Jack3d”.
Some people have enquired about this, so I will post my analysis which many may have read before.
Unfortunately there seems to be more myths and misinformation than ever since the latest bunch of U.S pre workout supplements have exploded on our market, this article is to look into what makes a good pre workout product, why proprietory blends should be avoided as well as why you just can’t trust those yanks when it comes to being honest with what is in your supplement.
Please note that while I have attempted to analyse all the facts as accurately as possible, a lot of this comes down to my personal opinion, particularly in terms of what ingredients I believe are most beneficial.
Keep in mind I have developed two of these products, so obviously I have an interest in driving the fact that both are superior to jack3d here.
Ultimately it is up to the individual to keep them all a whirl if they are interested.
First, let’s look at what pre workout products are for.
Pre Workout products are specifically designed to assist workout performance. They can do this in a number of ways, the first, and perhaps most important way of increasing performance is the inclusion of aminos acids that assist blood flow, nutrient uptake, strength, endurance and recovery and so on.
Those who have put time into researching amino acids and what they do, will be familiar with which aminos are useful here, all of the products mentioned contained some “performance aminos”, however the amount and number of which, varies significantly.
There is no text book definition of "Performance Aminos", IMO they are aminos which are primarily used to increase workout performance rather than enhance recovery as many aminos are.
Carbohydrates can be included to enhance energy levels directly, which is why they often get a look in. The problem with carbs is that they are as cheap as chips (in fact potatoes are a great form of carbohydrates). Sugars and other short chain carbs can be had for a few dollars a kg, which is why they have NO place in any pre workout product give their cost.
Can carbohydrates around training time be useful?
Absolutely, however if you want to add them you are much better off purchasing them separately, it’s cheaper and you can control levels better. If you are paying the equivalent of $200 a kg for a pre workout supp, the last thing you want is half of it to be sugar which is worth less than $2 a kg!
I assume most people reading this understand this already.
Stimulants are the third group of ingredients which are commonly found in pre workout products and due to their potencty have become the most popular. As they are incredibly powerful per dose, the result if that they can be used to make a powerful product incredibly cheaply.
Stimulants are very misunderstood, which is why you commonly hear people taling about how they 'give you energy", when the reverse is actually true. Stimulants work by increasing nervous system activity (usually through dopamine and adrenal channels) the problem with stimulants is that they have a great effect on the body, what goes up must come down, with the end result a crash when used in high doses.
That said, stimulants do play an important role in pre workout products, the word here is use with caution as too much can be a real negative. The stimulants used in these products are caffeine, DMAA (geranium extract) as well as Schizandrol A in the case of jack3d.
Now, we know what goes into pre workout products and their method of action, let's compare thes one's in question here (BioCharge, Jack3d and Pre Workout NT).
All are quite similar in that compared to most they are what would be deemed high quality. All of these are virtually carbohydrate free, and contain a mix of amino acids and stimulants to improve performance.
Calorie free?
Before we go any further something needs to be straightened out. If you purchase a powdered pre workout product which claims to be "calorie free" it is nothing but lies, yes lies. Unbelievably the yanks get away with listing amino acids as having no caloric value.
WTF?
Well, some bright spark figured as they are incomplete proteins (remember amino acids in combination make up protein structures) they don't need to be given a caloric value.
Obviously, they do have a caloric value, one that is identical to other proteins. To calculate the KJ's of protein in any pre workout supp just mutiply the number of amino acids by 17, though keep in mind that aminos with esters attached (ethyl ester, malic acid) will have slightly lower caloric values as the salt attachments have no caloric value.
So apart from being annoyed that you are being lied to on a label, just keep in mind when you are dieting that the "calorie free" pre workout products (or any amino product for that matter which claims as such) does indeed have plenty of calories in it.
Let's look at the aminos used in these products
Jacked contains a combination of AAKG, (Arginine Alpha Ketogluterate), Creatine Monohydrate and Beta Alanaine - 3 in total
BioCharge uses a combination of Arginine, Creatinol Phosphate, Beta Alanaine, Citrulline Malate, Phenylalanine, Acetyl Tyrosine - 6 in total
Pre Workout NT contains a combination of AAKG (Arginine Alpha Ketogluterate) Creatine Tri Malate, Beta Alanine, Citrulline Malate and - 4 in total
There is more to this story though, and the biggest difference with BioCharge and the others. BioCharge also contains Glycerol Monostearate along with calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium, which are included for the benefits of hydration, as well as niacin for it's nitric oxide effect. Whether this is of benefit is up to you, the longer you train and the more your training is endurance based, the more it the electrolytes and glycerol mono will help.
BioCharge also contains a very special ingredient that neither other does, adenosine disodium tri phosphate this is the closest thing availale to the actual molecule ATP, which is the key player for muscular contractioms.
Now let's look at what percentage of each product is active ingredients.
This is one of the most important part of analysing any product. What percentage of ingredients are actually in their to assist you performing better.
For this purpose, the defintion of "active ingredients" is amino acids and stimulants.
98% - 9800mg in a 10,000 mg dose of BioCharge is active ingredients
75% - 4145mg in a 5550mg dose of Jack3d is active ingredients.
97% - 9700mg in 10,000mg dose of Pre Workout NT is active ingredients.
So, what makes up the rest of these?
In the case of Pre Wokout NT and BioCharge nothing but a touch of sweetener (sucralose) and flavourer, in the case of Jack3d you have citric acid, ace k (a very cheap artificial sweetener), sucralose, grape extract and silicon dixide, which is used as an anti caking agent.
Are these other ingredients usefull, I'll leave that up to you, but IMO they don't add anything in the way of maximising performance however, and rather are used for the benefits of taste and mixability.
The problem with adding anything like this, is that it means less of the good stuff, which is why I have an issue with non active ingredients being used.
So, how much of each ingredient is in each one and which ingredients are the best?
If the number of ingredients is a key part, even more important is the actual amount of each ingredient, so let's take a look at that.
Per 10g (10,000mg) serve BioCharge contains -
Citrulline Malate - 2000mg
Creatinol Phosphate - 2000mg
Glycerol Monostearate - 1400mg
Beta Alanine - 1500mg
Arginine - 1500mg
Phenylalanine - 450mg
Acetyl Tyrosine - 450mg
Magnesium - 150mg
Caffeine - 150mg
Potassium - 100mg
Adenosine Tri Phosphate - 100mg
DMAA 50mg
Sodium - 50mg
Calcium 30mg
Niacin - 20mg
Per 10g (10,000mg) serve of Pre Workout NT contains -
2500mg - Beta Alanine
2500mg - Citrulline Malate
2500mg - AAKG
2050mg - Creatine Tri Malate
100mg - Caffeine
50mg - DMAA
Per 4.145 (4145mg) dose of Jack3d contains -
A blend of creatine monohydrate, beta alanine, aakg, caffeine, dmaa and schizandrol a.
Yeah, but how much? I can hear you say
Here, we have stumbled across another common problem with U.S supplements. The damn proprietory blend. Yep, proprietory blends are made so you don't know what amounts of each ingredient is actually in there. Why?
Well, a supplement company would tell you because they must keep their special recipe secret, so no one copies it.
a sceptic however would say so they could include a lot of cheap ingredients, and less of the better ones. The result is a supplement which is much cheaper to produce than you may expect.
Throwing Creatine Monohydrate in there is a bit of a worry. A good supplement alright, it certainly is, however at $25 a kg from this randon supplier
CREATINE MONOHYDRATE - 1KG do you really want it in your pre workout supp which is costing you over $200 a kg?
As an raw ingredients the Citrulline Malate used in Pre Workout NT and BioCharge and the Creatinol Phosphate cost us over 5 times as much as creatine monohydrate as raw ingredients.
While all of these aminos are great, not knowing how much of them are in each dose is a bit of a worry. Given that 1500mg - 2000mg of each is a good minimum, you have to question whether there is enough in there to make much of an effect (just over 4000mg of total dose)
Of course, that is where the stimulants take over.
Again, unfortunately we have no idea of how much is actually in each serve, so again you take the gamble. It's only your body after all! With Biocharge and Recover X you know exactly how much of each ingredient is in there including the stimulants.
I don't care about the numbers let's look at the cost?
Ok, well for many if not most it all boil down to cost and those numbers are quite clear.
Pre Workout NT at 97% active ingredients is $69 per kg or more precisely $71.13 per kg of active ingredients.
(970 grams of active ingredients in a 1kg tub.)
BioCharge at 98% active ingredients is $79 per kg, or more precisely $80.61 per kg of active ingredients.
(980 grams of ingredients in a 1kg tub.)
Jack3d at 75% active ingredients is generally about $45 per 250g or more precisely $240 per kg of active ingredients
(187.5 grams of active ingredients in a 250g container).
Given all of this information I think it is fair to make the following conclusions.
BioCharge and Pre Workout NT contain a significantly higher % of active ingredients than Jack3d.
They both provide a large advantage in that all ingredients are properly disclosed.
Both provide higher spec ingredients, Citrulline Malate, Creatines with esters in place of creatine monohydrate.
Both provide a larger number of key ingredients which assist with performance as well as higher inclusion rates per dose.
Finally, both are less than 1/3 of the price of jack3d when inclusion rates are taken into account.
If you want what is potentially the world's most pure pre workout product , containing a great combination of aminos, stimulants and ingredients for hydration at a great price - BioCharge is a great choice http://www.bioflexnutrition.com.au/biocharge.cfm
If you want an extremely pure pre workout product with nothing but effective performance enhancing aminos and stims at a fantastic price, you cold do a lot worsen than Pre Workout Nt - PRE WORKOUT POWDER NT - 250G
Unfortunately there seems to be more myths and misinformation than ever since the latest bunch of U.S pre workout supplements have exploded on our market, this article is to look into what makes a good pre workout product, why proprietory blends should be avoided as well as why you just can’t trust those yanks when it comes to being honest with what is in your supplement.
Please note that while I have attempted to analyse all the facts as accurately as possible, a lot of this comes down to my personal opinion, particularly in terms of what ingredients I believe are most beneficial.
Keep in mind I have developed two of these products, so obviously I have an interest in driving the fact that both are superior to jack3d here.
Ultimately it is up to the individual to keep them all a whirl if they are interested.
First, let’s look at what pre workout products are for.
Pre Workout products are specifically designed to assist workout performance. They can do this in a number of ways, the first, and perhaps most important way of increasing performance is the inclusion of aminos acids that assist blood flow, nutrient uptake, strength, endurance and recovery and so on.
Those who have put time into researching amino acids and what they do, will be familiar with which aminos are useful here, all of the products mentioned contained some “performance aminos”, however the amount and number of which, varies significantly.
There is no text book definition of "Performance Aminos", IMO they are aminos which are primarily used to increase workout performance rather than enhance recovery as many aminos are.
Carbohydrates can be included to enhance energy levels directly, which is why they often get a look in. The problem with carbs is that they are as cheap as chips (in fact potatoes are a great form of carbohydrates). Sugars and other short chain carbs can be had for a few dollars a kg, which is why they have NO place in any pre workout product give their cost.
Can carbohydrates around training time be useful?
Absolutely, however if you want to add them you are much better off purchasing them separately, it’s cheaper and you can control levels better. If you are paying the equivalent of $200 a kg for a pre workout supp, the last thing you want is half of it to be sugar which is worth less than $2 a kg!
I assume most people reading this understand this already.
Stimulants are the third group of ingredients which are commonly found in pre workout products and due to their potencty have become the most popular. As they are incredibly powerful per dose, the result if that they can be used to make a powerful product incredibly cheaply.
Stimulants are very misunderstood, which is why you commonly hear people taling about how they 'give you energy", when the reverse is actually true. Stimulants work by increasing nervous system activity (usually through dopamine and adrenal channels) the problem with stimulants is that they have a great effect on the body, what goes up must come down, with the end result a crash when used in high doses.
That said, stimulants do play an important role in pre workout products, the word here is use with caution as too much can be a real negative. The stimulants used in these products are caffeine, DMAA (geranium extract) as well as Schizandrol A in the case of jack3d.
Now, we know what goes into pre workout products and their method of action, let's compare thes one's in question here (BioCharge, Jack3d and Pre Workout NT).
All are quite similar in that compared to most they are what would be deemed high quality. All of these are virtually carbohydrate free, and contain a mix of amino acids and stimulants to improve performance.
Calorie free?
Before we go any further something needs to be straightened out. If you purchase a powdered pre workout product which claims to be "calorie free" it is nothing but lies, yes lies. Unbelievably the yanks get away with listing amino acids as having no caloric value.
WTF?
Well, some bright spark figured as they are incomplete proteins (remember amino acids in combination make up protein structures) they don't need to be given a caloric value.
Obviously, they do have a caloric value, one that is identical to other proteins. To calculate the KJ's of protein in any pre workout supp just mutiply the number of amino acids by 17, though keep in mind that aminos with esters attached (ethyl ester, malic acid) will have slightly lower caloric values as the salt attachments have no caloric value.
So apart from being annoyed that you are being lied to on a label, just keep in mind when you are dieting that the "calorie free" pre workout products (or any amino product for that matter which claims as such) does indeed have plenty of calories in it.
Let's look at the aminos used in these products
Jacked contains a combination of AAKG, (Arginine Alpha Ketogluterate), Creatine Monohydrate and Beta Alanaine - 3 in total
BioCharge uses a combination of Arginine, Creatinol Phosphate, Beta Alanaine, Citrulline Malate, Phenylalanine, Acetyl Tyrosine - 6 in total
Pre Workout NT contains a combination of AAKG (Arginine Alpha Ketogluterate) Creatine Tri Malate, Beta Alanine, Citrulline Malate and - 4 in total
There is more to this story though, and the biggest difference with BioCharge and the others. BioCharge also contains Glycerol Monostearate along with calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium, which are included for the benefits of hydration, as well as niacin for it's nitric oxide effect. Whether this is of benefit is up to you, the longer you train and the more your training is endurance based, the more it the electrolytes and glycerol mono will help.
BioCharge also contains a very special ingredient that neither other does, adenosine disodium tri phosphate this is the closest thing availale to the actual molecule ATP, which is the key player for muscular contractioms.
Now let's look at what percentage of each product is active ingredients.
This is one of the most important part of analysing any product. What percentage of ingredients are actually in their to assist you performing better.
For this purpose, the defintion of "active ingredients" is amino acids and stimulants.
98% - 9800mg in a 10,000 mg dose of BioCharge is active ingredients
75% - 4145mg in a 5550mg dose of Jack3d is active ingredients.
97% - 9700mg in 10,000mg dose of Pre Workout NT is active ingredients.
So, what makes up the rest of these?
In the case of Pre Wokout NT and BioCharge nothing but a touch of sweetener (sucralose) and flavourer, in the case of Jack3d you have citric acid, ace k (a very cheap artificial sweetener), sucralose, grape extract and silicon dixide, which is used as an anti caking agent.
Are these other ingredients usefull, I'll leave that up to you, but IMO they don't add anything in the way of maximising performance however, and rather are used for the benefits of taste and mixability.
The problem with adding anything like this, is that it means less of the good stuff, which is why I have an issue with non active ingredients being used.
So, how much of each ingredient is in each one and which ingredients are the best?
If the number of ingredients is a key part, even more important is the actual amount of each ingredient, so let's take a look at that.
Per 10g (10,000mg) serve BioCharge contains -
Citrulline Malate - 2000mg
Creatinol Phosphate - 2000mg
Glycerol Monostearate - 1400mg
Beta Alanine - 1500mg
Arginine - 1500mg
Phenylalanine - 450mg
Acetyl Tyrosine - 450mg
Magnesium - 150mg
Caffeine - 150mg
Potassium - 100mg
Adenosine Tri Phosphate - 100mg
DMAA 50mg
Sodium - 50mg
Calcium 30mg
Niacin - 20mg
Per 10g (10,000mg) serve of Pre Workout NT contains -
2500mg - Beta Alanine
2500mg - Citrulline Malate
2500mg - AAKG
2050mg - Creatine Tri Malate
100mg - Caffeine
50mg - DMAA
Per 4.145 (4145mg) dose of Jack3d contains -
A blend of creatine monohydrate, beta alanine, aakg, caffeine, dmaa and schizandrol a.
Yeah, but how much? I can hear you say
Here, we have stumbled across another common problem with U.S supplements. The damn proprietory blend. Yep, proprietory blends are made so you don't know what amounts of each ingredient is actually in there. Why?
Well, a supplement company would tell you because they must keep their special recipe secret, so no one copies it.
a sceptic however would say so they could include a lot of cheap ingredients, and less of the better ones. The result is a supplement which is much cheaper to produce than you may expect.
Throwing Creatine Monohydrate in there is a bit of a worry. A good supplement alright, it certainly is, however at $25 a kg from this randon supplier
CREATINE MONOHYDRATE - 1KG do you really want it in your pre workout supp which is costing you over $200 a kg?As an raw ingredients the Citrulline Malate used in Pre Workout NT and BioCharge and the Creatinol Phosphate cost us over 5 times as much as creatine monohydrate as raw ingredients.
While all of these aminos are great, not knowing how much of them are in each dose is a bit of a worry. Given that 1500mg - 2000mg of each is a good minimum, you have to question whether there is enough in there to make much of an effect (just over 4000mg of total dose)
Of course, that is where the stimulants take over.
Again, unfortunately we have no idea of how much is actually in each serve, so again you take the gamble. It's only your body after all! With Biocharge and Recover X you know exactly how much of each ingredient is in there including the stimulants.
I don't care about the numbers let's look at the cost?
Ok, well for many if not most it all boil down to cost and those numbers are quite clear.
Pre Workout NT at 97% active ingredients is $69 per kg or more precisely $71.13 per kg of active ingredients.
(970 grams of active ingredients in a 1kg tub.)
BioCharge at 98% active ingredients is $79 per kg, or more precisely $80.61 per kg of active ingredients.
(980 grams of ingredients in a 1kg tub.)
Jack3d at 75% active ingredients is generally about $45 per 250g or more precisely $240 per kg of active ingredients
(187.5 grams of active ingredients in a 250g container).
Given all of this information I think it is fair to make the following conclusions.
BioCharge and Pre Workout NT contain a significantly higher % of active ingredients than Jack3d.
They both provide a large advantage in that all ingredients are properly disclosed.
Both provide higher spec ingredients, Citrulline Malate, Creatines with esters in place of creatine monohydrate.
Both provide a larger number of key ingredients which assist with performance as well as higher inclusion rates per dose.
Finally, both are less than 1/3 of the price of jack3d when inclusion rates are taken into account.
If you want what is potentially the world's most pure pre workout product , containing a great combination of aminos, stimulants and ingredients for hydration at a great price - BioCharge is a great choice http://www.bioflexnutrition.com.au/biocharge.cfm
If you want an extremely pure pre workout product with nothing but effective performance enhancing aminos and stims at a fantastic price, you cold do a lot worsen than Pre Workout Nt - PRE WORKOUT POWDER NT - 250G
