What’s up, guys?
Sean Nalewanjy here; www.SeanNal.com-www.BodyTransformationTruth.com, and in this video today I’m going to be
doing another supplement review; this time on the very popular Cellucor C4 pre-workout.
Now, this has been one of the top selling pre-workout on the market for quite a while
now, a lot of hype behind it.
And in this video I’m going to be giving you a completely unbiased, science-based look
at the product so you can decide if it’s really worth your money.
You’ll find a lot of other C4 reviews online but if you look, you’ll see that they’re
usually either put out by supplement retailers who are ultimately just trying to sell the
product to you, or they’re put out by people just giving really vague generalized overview
without any real explanation of the actual formula.
So I’m going to just break this down step-by-step.
The main components of the C4 pre-workout are beta-Alanine, creatine nitrates and arganine
akg.
And then you have the energy blend, which is caffeine and L-tyrosine and tetramethyluric
acid.
So, first off we have beta alanine at 1.6 grams.
Now, beta-Alanine is a good research backed supplement.
It’s something that I think is worth a try if you already have the basics covered, so
nothing wrong with that.
However, the proper dosage for beta-Alanine is typically between 3.2 to 6.4 grams; so
one scoop of C4 gives you half of the minimum recommended dosage.
Now, you could take two scoops to get the full dosage but I’ll mention later on why
I don’t recommend that.
Next up is creatine-nitrate, now creatine itself is also a highly research backed supplement.
It’s actually the most studied sport supplements out there and it’s the single best natural
muscle building compound there is.
However, there’s no research at all to show that any form of creatine out there is more
effective than basic creatine mono-hydrate.
The mono-hydrate form has an extremely high absorption rate in the body and it will fully
saturate the muscles with creatine after about two to three weeks of use.
And all of the so called advanced forms of creatine that have come out over the years;
ethyl-ester, hydro-chloride, creatine-nitrate, these are really just over priced version
of creatine mono-hydrate.
So it’s not that creatine-nitrate is necessarily bad, but it’s just a more expensive, hyped
up version of creatine that will most likely give you the same benefits as mono-hydrate.
Now, after that is arginine akg which is typically used for boosting nitric oxide levels in the
body and increasing blood flow to the muscles.
So two thing on this; first off the research on arginine akg for that purpose is actually
very weak and unreliable.
There are some studies that show minor benefits but there are just as many that showed no
benefits.
And this is probably because L-arginine is really poorly absorbed in the intestines,
so a lot of it can’t even be used by the body.
But regardless of that, standard pre-workout dose for L-arginine is usually between 3-6
grams and the C4 pre-workout gives you 1 gram.
So a very low dose even if you were to use two scoops.
Now, this next point is also really important, like I said, creatine and beta-Alanine are
good research backed ingredients; I do recommend them, but keep in mind that the benefit that
you get from those supplements comes from continual daily use over the long term.
You take them every day, and then that gradually builds up the levels in your body, and then
any time you train the benefits are going to automatically be there.
However, they don’t actually have any immediate direct effects on performance, so there’s
no specific benefit to taking them right before your workout.
Then since they have to be taken daily to get the proper benefits, even if you’re
using C4 you’re going to have to buy creatine and beta-Alanine separately on their own to
take on your off days anyway.
So after that we have the “explosive energy blend”.
The first ingredient, of course is caffeine, which is by far the most effective performance
boosting ingredient there is; it’s dirt cheap, it works and that’s why it’s included
in pretty much every single pre-workout formula on the market.
The standard dose for caffeine is usually between 100 to 300 milligrams, and C4 gives
you 150 milligrams so that’s completely fine.
The second ingredient is L-tyrosine, and this something that I also do recommend for pre-workout
purposes because it pairs well with caffeine and it’s good for increasing mental focus.
But the big problem here is that the amount of L-tyrosine that you’re getting is actually
extremely low.
You’ll notice that the energy blend is based off of a proprietary blend, that means that
they show you the total amount for all of the ingredients combined but not the specific
dosage for each one other that the caffeine; and the reason why companies do this in pretty
much all cases, is so that they can intentionally under-dosed some ingredients in the product
without the average consumer noticing.
Now if you look at the energy blend, you’ll see that the total amount combined is 371
milligrams.
And if we know that the caffeine is 150 milligrams than that only leaves a very small amount
left over for the other ingredients.
My recommendation for L-tyrosine if you actually want to get real noticeable effects from it
is to use a minimum of 1,000 milligrams up to around 3,000 milligrams.
So the amount included here is very minimal.
For example, Pre JYM which is another very popular pre-workout, probably even more popular
than C4, that formula uses 1,500 milligrams of L-tyrosine just to give you an example.
So, in C4 the amount of L-tyrosine included is honestly pretty much useless.
And then after you have tetramethyluric acid, and I can’t really say much on that ingredient,
because it doesn’t really had any human research on it in terms of training benefits.
And since it listed last in the blend, we know that the dosage is going to be even lower
than the tyrosine, so it would have to be a really small amount by default.
So, that covers the actual science behind the C4 ingredients.
In terms of taste the product is fine this is the Icy Blue Razz flavor.
I gave it a try, it taste fine but I honestly don’t see how taste should really be considered
a big selling point because most pre-workout these days do taste fine and as long as the
taste is tolerable then if you’re actually really serious about your training then it’s
the effects that we should be focusing on anyway.
Now, in terms of effects; yes, if you use the C4 pre-workout you will get an increase
in energy and strength.
I used it before my back workout yesterday and it gave me that typical pre-workout buzz,
however, the key thing to understand is that any pre-workouts formula that include caffeine
will technically work.
That’s because caffeine is by far the strongest ingredient that any of these products used
and so it really doesn’t matter what else is included or how anything else is dosed.
Because as long as that caffeine in there you will feel the product’s working.
However, that doesn’t mean that you need all the other stuff listed in it, or that
you need to pay $30 a bottle for it.
But when you factor in the marketing behind it and the placebo effect, a lot of people
will use it and think that it’s doing way more than it actually is.
Now, you could use two coops to bump up the effects a bit, but in that case you’re only
going to end up with fifteen servings per bottle, and the price per serving ends up
going really high.
And even then some of the ingredients are still going to be under-dosed, even with the
two scoops.
So, in terms of practical recommendations remember that even if you’re using C4 you’ll
still need to buy creatine and beta-Alanine separately anyway, to take on your off days.
So, your best bet is to do that, buy those two on their own and then to replicate and
actually improve the direct pre-workout boost that C4 gives.
You can just buy a bottle of caffeine and hydrates on its own for pennies per serving,
and then buy some L-tyrosine on its own which is also dirt cheap.
And then just take the L-tyrosine at the actual proper dose.
So just buy those four ingredients separately, and you’ll get stronger effect than you
will from C4 itself, and for way cheaper, probably less than half the cost per serving,
and will taking all the ingredients at their full proper dose.
So, I hope you guys find this advice helpful.
If you appreciate the no B.S., science-based approach to fitness and you want to get all
the tools you need to gain muscle and lose fat as effectively as possible; the workouts,
the meal plans, the supplement guides along with one-on-one coaching then you can download
my Body Transformation Blueprint by clicking here or by heading over to www.BodyTransformationTruth.com
using the link in the description box.
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Thanks again for watching guys, and I’ll talk to you again soon.