EMISGOD’s BodyBlog

These are companies that I have spent extensive time both researching and testing their products on my most valuable resource — myself. I have encountered zero problems or anything that would give me pause and recommend any of them without reservation. These are in no order of preference; if a company appears on this list, they are solid. Of course, if they don’t appear on this list…they may need further investigation…I will try to keep this updated as time permits.
Athletic Edge Nutrition — For a while, I was using their entire line religiously. The products are well-designed and very effective and Sebastian Balcombe is, in my view, possibly the most ethical owner on these boards. I once told him that he was running AEN the exact same way I would if I were ever inclined to conduct a supplement company. His devotion to making high quality products is making AEN a huge success story and the future only looks bright for this stellar company, particularly given that he has made one product and one product category into household names from when they were formerly nothing.

Champion Nutrition — I have no favorites of any of these companies as I think they all have strengths, but if I had to choose only one line to ever use again, it would probably be these guys. They’ve been around for nearly 3 decades with nearly everything in the entire line geared around performance. There are very few stones unturned in their extremely comprehensive product line and according to the company, it is all manufactured in America, in their own plant, vs. being imported or subbed out. I have found all of what I’ve used to be of very high quality, very effective and very affordable.

AOR — It is difficult to the point of being impossible to surpass the strict quality control of AOR and it shows in their products, which are at or near the top in terms of quality for every single thing they make. Well worth the cost.

Xtreme Formulations — If it all comes down to taste of the protein, XF is very likely going to emerge the victor. Their quality control measures are beyond compare and the taste of many of their proteins is best defined as divine.

Prolab — Never a question about their quality and I typically keep at least one of their products on hand at all times. They also are very strong in their support of bodybuilding and the inherent lifestyle and I would not hesitate to ever use them.

Driven Sports — From the ashes of the dearly departed Designer Supplements comes a new leaner, meaner company.  I can’t say enough about how much I think of Matt Cahill and the rest of the staff of both companies and the products I’ve usually found to be inventive, innovative and nearly always effective. One of the most underrated companies out there.
OTHER NOTABLES — these are not included above because I either have misgivings about some of the product line or there is one thing in particular that stands out about them to me…the above list is more indicative of what I currently am finding more suitable to my current lifestyle and habits.
Controlled Labs — They keep a top notch staff of board reps and take a very innovative approach to their supplements. Purple Wraath, in particular, is simply marvelous for what it is. No matter what they come out with, CL is always someone to watch.

Fusion Bodybuilding — In addition to a fantastic staff, Fusion also makes some interesting, almost boutique products, very specially tuned to the bodybuilding culture. They will always maintain a certain fondness to me for a few other reasons beyond their products, which themselves I’ve mostly found very useful.

RPN — One of the most intriguing companies out there. They have a great deal of inventiveness and their Gut Health product is nothing short of fantastic.

Olympian Labs — I’ve liked the majority of what I’ve tried from them and many of their products are at a solid price.

I will continue to update the ones I have, but I have no new plans to write new ones. The reason for this is that bodybuilding.com, despite proclaiming that they want user feedback, does not support their own ideal. Sure, they’re spending a bunch of money defending themselves and the persons sued in court vs. S103/Syntrax, however, part of me believes this is done so that bodybuilding.com itself does not face a bunch of lawsuits or one gigantic class-action suit over that same privacy of information. It is a baseless suit and could have been handled much more effectively had bodybuilding.com simply told S103/Syntrax to stop that stupid shit or find themselves ejected from the bodybuilding.com store and site entirely. The reverberations of this, particularly timed around one of the industry events, such as the Arnold or Olympia weekend would have been immediate and profound, for which retail outlet would dare risking continuing to sell a line that sues the customers of that retail outlet?

No, instead, bodybuilding.com attempted to negotiate and be reasonable and make them see the light. What happened with that? The goddamn thing has been drug on for almost 2 years now. bodybuilding.com cannot seem to get it through their heads that you cannot negotiate with terrorists, even if those terrorists operate under the guise of being a supplement manufacturer.

I’ve never taken a product from S103/Syntrax or any of their shell companies and never will. This includes samples I got when I bought actual good product. I tossed it in the trash, where it and everything else from that company belongs, rather than give it away. I have given away tons of supplements I don’t want or won’t wind up using (including sometimes a year’s worth of NO products, for which I took not one cent), but not shit from this garbage company. Further, I not allow anyone I know to ever use any of their crap, if I can help it. They are a disreputable, untrustworthy company and this action only solidifies that.  Their entire history documents this thoroughly and for the greater good of not only America, but the entire supplement industry, they should be put out of business permanently. The reason I was in the lawsuit was by observing that I distrusted them so much I would rather pitch their samples into the landfill than either use them myself or pass them on.

bodybuilding.com cannot have it both ways. They cannot follow the example of Neville Chamberlain and continue a policy of appeasement or negotiation with pissant tyrants and still have persons here believing that they are safe to comment as they please. They must put anyone who attempts these bullying tactics down entirely and forcefully, including with counter-suits for frivolous wastes of time, if nothing else. Since they will not do this, I find I cannot contribute any further commentary towards new product Reviews, which is a shame. Sure, I’m only one person and maybe don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but I will be damned if I compromise my principles. I believed in the site and its mission of creating a community; it’s a pity that bodybuilding.com itself doesn’t.

I’ve pulled all of the current supplements out of my list. The reason for this is that bodybuilding/exercising has become such a secondary activity that I’m going off of almost everything. I’m not out of love with it or anything, other than a grave disappointment with this year in that department overall, but I’m far too busy to spend the time worrying about maintaining the list, etc. and sometimes even to work out at all. I don’t know how long this will last, but it will be at least into or maybe through October.I will still maintain reviews on the stuff I do use that’s new.
There is other stuff as well. I’m spending less and less time here because I’m getting more and more tired of the bullshit that comes with this industry. I can’t tell any of you specifically what I’m doing — though I would love to let you all in on it — because those shitheels at S103/Syntrax elected to sue me for pointing out publicly that they are not a trustworthy company.  While they may not silence my voice, it makes little sense to push my real identity here while such a situation exists as any information will help their stupid suit and I will not intentionally do that.

The other file was getting too big, so here’s this…(updated 07/06/09)
Scivation Dialene 4/Sesamin stack: I ran this recently. Dialene 4 is an energy thief ala CEL’s N-Cinerate, but this seems to be a very effective stack. I still had Sesamin leftover, so I’m taking that until it’s gone, but it is somewhat less effective solo. There were no real sides here, except towards the end of the bottle of Dialene 4, when the pills were sweaty. I still like AMP2 better.
Blender Bottle: All the hype is real.  Everything else in the shaker bottle category is a piece of **** next to this. Everything. The only thing that came close was my beloved old GNC shaker, that I finally wore out.

Turbo Shaker: This cap will never come off, which makes it kind of convenient and it’s very easy to clean. However, unless you have something that mixes readily and easily, such as my PWO formulation, this thing is hopeless.

RPN Gut Health:  This is much like DS Vigor in that it doesn’t seem like much, but you have no idea how much you’re missing it until after you start taking it for a while. Digestion is better on the order of about a thousandfold and I feel overall much better and healthier than I did before…hopefully, this will mean I will never get sick again.

ZizZazz Extreme Energy:  This is sort of like a powdered version of Twinlab’s Energy Fuel in how it acts, both in curve to energy and dropoff. This one gives a slightly higher energy charge than Energy Fuel. I will update how it tastes once I’ve tried all the flavors. Lemon Fizz is excellent. Tangerine Tango is ok, but not as good as Lemon. Pom Mango is junk and Cherry Lime is average, at best. If you’re going to go with this (and I might, as it is more convenient than Energy Fuel at the moment),  stick with the Lemon Fizz.

Optimum Nutrition Lift Bar Peanut Butter:  Very good tasting, decent texture. Profile is very suspect.

DZL Gear Fitness Drink: Flavoring is pretty decent…sort of like a very expensive protein drink with not very much protein for the price…decent array of vitamins. Worth trying, but I wouldn’t make a habit of it.

Zantrex 3 Energy Shot: I’m coming to the belief that all shot-type energy drinks (ErgoPharm ClearShot does not count as it is not really a "shot", per se) are basically bull****.  This one does nothing to disprove it, from the toxic and vile "orange-kinda" taste to the ramp-up time (not particularly fast), to the energy charge itself (minimal, at best).

Fusion Shut-Eye: Have not had enough time or samples to really tinker with this. Usually I have no problems sleeping. Lately I have. This does not seem to induce slumber, but I do wake up feeling generally rested, so I think it has some value. Seems to work better with 2 caps rather than 4. I will mark this for future testing possibly.

Vault Zero: Coke Zero is great. Regular Vault is crap and gives me headaches. I had to buy this in 12 pack cans, but I did it. Taste is better than regular Vault, but sort of a lighter, more noxious version of Diet Mt. Dew. Better than Diet Mt. Dew in a can, worse than Diet Mt. Dew in a bottle. There is no real energy gains and no real point to bothering with this.

Full Throttle Zero: Taste is tolerable. Energy gain is weak but detectable. My favorite zero calorie carbonated energy drink by a long way.

Dymatize Elite Whey Shots: I enjoyed these. Taste is excellent and they are very handy. Price is a bit higher than I would like, but not completely out of line, either. Worth a shot.

I know I’ve been promising this for a while, but I avoided this for a while because it looked momentarily like the supplement industry was somewhat kinda sorta heading in the right-ish direction. It seems very clearly that this is not the case and since there is very little barrier or entry into it, bull**** mish-mashed together can be mistaken for things of quality. Some think we should let this **** slide and just consider it part of the territory and par for the course and that can be done, I suppose, but I’m not wired like that, I guess.

I’m going to keep updating this (and if you want to submit someone for future/further consideration, drop me a PM and a start spot) as the situation warrants. This is not intended to represent companies with questionable or bad formulations (oh HAI Nutrabolics), but the worst of the worst…this means nothing of any value in their respective lines and everything that is there carries my Recommendation To Avoid.
1) S103/Syntrax and all related companies, ZIMA Nutrition, Forge Nutrition, Creative Compounds, Thrive and Source Nutrition. Here we have a company that has created products that killed and badly damaged many people. When news of an FDA ban was coming because of this nagging aspect, instead of pulling the product, as a respectable company would do, they dumped it to distributors at a "fire sale" price. That distributors were stupid enough to fall for this is perhaps partly due to the former aura surrounding Derek Cornelius, architect of death and damage and ace supplement formulator. After losing a number of lawsuits in relation to this, the company promptly declared bankruptcy to avoid paying those pesky judgments and resurfaced under a variety of different companies, which has not stopped them from being in repeated lawsuits, including one filed by their former legal team for non-payment (shocking, I know). The most recent brilliant move by tacticians who would probably struggle with hopscotch conceptually was to sue a number of bb.com posters and then bb.com itself. If you buy anything from these disreputable ****heads, that is what you are supporting, a company that poisons and abandons their customers and tries to SLAPP anyone who points this out.

2) SSE/Supreme Sport Enhancements has finally made it into the bb.com store, after making endless threads with RANDOM and POINTLESS capitalization about something called Androgenerator. The only product is Omnibolic, which is evidently a direct ripoff of Thermolife’s E-BOL with the trendy supplement du jour, citrulline malate added in. Whoo, stop me now before I order the entire run of a handful of bottles…if you support this company, you support a little rich kid’s hobby horse. You also support someone who is not innovating anything, but merely copying existing supplements, stealing write-ups and who is perhaps a chronic fabricator. In short, you support disingenuous with every purchase. Ross Erstling, proprietor of this mess, represents everything that is the very worst of this industry and is, in fact, the poster child of the adage about knowing enough to be dangerous; he knows a little, very little, but not enough to be selling products to impact the health of consumers. He is the exact wrong person to be selling supplements as he formulates apparently by putting ingredient names on a wall and throwing darts at them, then quickly guessing or writing down whatever amounts his competition is using. Very clearly, he is just trying to make a buck and its at the expense of whoever is gullible or ignorant enough to buy into his noxious capsules.
3) IBE still gets to make the list. Supposedly, they are turning the company around, which only mark the 40 thousandth time I’ve heard that. Their formulator is "Phat Daddy" Steve Dunlop, who deserves his very own Google search. Once again, we have a company ripping off other stuff and behaving in general like a bunch of disgraceful cretins. Their antics richly deserve a bb.com Forum search, so you very thoroughly witness what kind of company you support if you buy anything from them.

4) Garbage is one of the reasons that a good majority of the masses out there think the entire supplement industry is full of ****…well, that and the before/after pics taken in reverse order that dot so many of the ads out there. Perhaps the most aptly named product on the market, yet someone is buying enough of this to keep them around. It should go without saying, but in case it doesn’t, buying from them means you get EXACTLY what you pay for. At least they are truthful, if probably unintentionally.

5) Fizogen should not be around and I’d like to know which one dumb ****er out there is still buying their stuff. One look at their product line should be all you need to know to understand the contempt in which they hold you and if you don’t believe me, take a look into a little something called "The Strap." If you support this company, you should shoot yourself for being stupid.

6) MuscleTech would have made my "Questionable" list, had I ever gotten to it, for making products that contain very dubious attached claims. I have found their product line to be basically overhyped, overpriced nonsense that does not deliver anywhere near to claims. This is not to say their products are junk or unsafe, but I would put them solidly in the middle of the field in terms of effectiveness. The reason they make this list is not because of their duplicitous claims in advertising, but rather because they are pricks in suing Forum members and I will not now, nor will I ever, support that. If they feel other companies are engaging in predatory tactics, they should do the proper thing and sue the actual companies, not individual Forum members. It is stupid **** like this, spurious laws devoid of merit, along with gross hyperbole in ad claims, both of which MuscleTech is now guilty of, that will eventually derail the supplement industry and screw it all, as we know it. In fact, my prediction as of today, 01/03/09, is that MuscleTech will be the death of bodybuilding as we now know it…

You can figure out how to get to the full list yourself, but I thought I would comment briefly on the nominees for the bb.com Awards for 2008.

I imagine they are doing the list now so that they can hand out whatever trophies are appropriate at Mr. Olympia, but what is some great stuff comes out between now and September? If they are keying on the O, why not make it from O to O, meaning the "year" would start after last year’s Olympia?

Anyway, I have eliminated a number of categories for consideration, largely because I think they’re somewhat irrelevant. Here, then is the list, with both what I voted for, out of the available choices and what I feel a more accurate answer is (* = best out of choices, bold = the more accurate answer:
Best Breakout Brand of the Year

* VPX

The growth of this company is astronomical and before anyone starts talking about anyone else, you can’t swing a dead cat over your head without hitting a bottle of Redline somewhere. Their market penetration is awesome.

VPX. At this point in the year, I would still not change this answer. I believe AEN has done and continues to do great things and probably are deserving of at least consideration for this, I think also that next year will be the year they break. For now, it is VPX.

Best Labels of the Year

* Muscle Asylum Project

I chose these because they were the most visually interesting, but I didn’t like any of these choices.

Fusion Nutrition: I really like what they did with their packaging. Just excellent.

Best Weight Gainer of the Year

* Prolab N-Large II

I have always been a big fan of CytoGainer and think Champion’s Gainer also has a lot of strength going for it, but since I use none of these, I deferred to Vanessa’s wisdom on this.

N/A - This choice is as good as any other…I think the entire category is kind of silly.

Brand of the Year

* Controlled Labs

What the Hell….they have no real shot, but just in case they do…this is an interesting experiment, in a way, on the effect, if any, of the Forums…

Athletic Edge Nutrition: So far everything Sebastian does is magic and his is the only product line I would say carries all “ringers”. I use every single thing AEN makes regularly and can say that about literally no one else.

Creatine Product of the Year

* Controlled Labs Green MAGnitude

I almost skipped this one, but again, let’s run with the experiment some more.

MAN Orotine: I don’t use creatine at all, but this one worked by far the best.

Energy Supplement of the Year

* NOW Dextrose

I thought all the choices here were useless for energy and just picked the one that was more or less food…

ErgoPharm ClearShot: While not as great as some of the predecessors out there have been historically, it is far and away the best thing on the market currently.

Fat Loss Product of the Year

* MAN Scorch

Out of that list, this is the only one I would consider purchasing or recommending.

Tie: Designer Supplements Lean Extreme/ErgoPharm AMP2: I should try stacking these two together sometime to see what happens. Both of these products are at the top of their prospective categories (stim & non-stim fat reducing agents).

Glutamine Product of the Year

* Prolab Glutamine Powder

Not sure why this is a category, but again, voted along brand lines.

N/A: I have no issues with Primaforce’s Glutaform, but have no doubt Prolab is as good, if not better.

Joint Supplement of the Year

* TKE Joint Boost With MSM

Again, rather useless choices, so I went with the one with the coolest name.

Labrada Elasti-Joint: Tastes like shit, but has been effective for many years. The best formulation out there, without question.

Multivitamin of the Year

* Controlled Labs Orange Triad

Normally would have picked Activite, but again with the experiment…

AOR Multi Basics 3: Once again, nothing is even remotely close. I wish bb.com carried this.

Muscle Builder of the Year

* ErgoPharm 6-OXO

This category is the biggest mess of all of them. Again, voted on brand lines.

N/A: This seems to be a test booster category, but it is a bit of a misnomer. Test will not build by itself; it needs protein, so protein in general is the best protein. WPH is the best protein, so any WPH is the best muscle builder. If they mean test boosters, then I’d pick Designer Supplements ActivaTe Extreme.

New Brand of the Year

* Jarrow Formulas

Again, no shot in Hell of winning, but Jarrow is a fairly well established line and seems to have a lot of quality stuff.

N/A: I don’t know what they mean by this category.

New Product of the Year

* Blender Bottle Blender Bottle

Because, I figured, you know, why not…again not a lot of good choices.

Athletic Edge Nutrition IntrAbolic: This is one of the best things put out by anyone and should have been in the list.

Nitric Oxide Product of the Year

* VPX NO Shotgun V.3

A very solidly named product…which is the only one that has anything going for it at all, in my view.

N/A: Could really care less about this. NO products have historically not worked for me.

Protein Bar of the Year

* VPX Zero Impact Bars

As long as they make Zero Impact bars, this category will never be close.

VPX Zero Impact: Once again, nothing is even close.

Protein of the Year

* BSN Syntha-6

This has a lot of excellent tasting flavors, if nothing else. This category again has some less than solid choices…

Champion Nutrition Pure Whey Stack: One of the most underlooked and undersung products out there. I’d also include ErgoPharm’s GF-Pro V2 for consideration as well as Black Star Labs Whey Supremacy, were it still around.

Supplement of the Year

* Controlled Labs Purple Wraath

On with the experiment…

Athletic Edge Nutriton IntrAbolic: This has been phenomenal right out of the gate, since Day One. I’m hoping that my PWO formulation will be available this time next year, as I think that has the potential to rule this category…<strong />

So, somewhere along the lines this year, I got it into my head that I wanted to get a bike and once I got it, to start training to race it. Prior to this, I have never owned a bike with more than 1 working gear, nor had I ridden one in over 2 decades. Now, almost 3 months removed, I race cars on the city streets with it.

I put up a post in my Archive Journal in the OV-35 section about some of my goals. I also put dates of completion, but I’ll address that in that Journal. For now, here are those Goals:

* - Inverted Leg Press @ 20 plates, which is 1,025 lbs - Status is on track.
* - Equal or over 40 mph on bike - Status is that I’ve hit 33 mph.
* - Maintain 20 mph on bike as a standard riding speed — I can currently maintain 17 - 18.
* - Break 10% bf barrier - Status is that I’m closing in but probably a couple months away.

Getting sick twice this year (super-sick in February) and considerably less in early June has not exactly done me any favors. It confuses me when I get ill at all. I’m in easily the best shape overall of my life and yet still get tagged. The recent sickness killed my steady progress to lower bf%. I do not believe I will see single digits until late July or possibly August, but I will see it this year.

I’ve also moved away from testing every single supplement under the sun, to the point where I’m now struggling to find things to Log. This is partially why I made the Journal in the OV-35 section. I find it helps me to record things and I do enjoy doing Logs overall.

There is a lot going on beyond this, but this is mainly the bodybuilding/fitness part of things. I should have the PWO formulation finished very soon and might wind up shopping it, depending on what advance interest I have. More on this later…

I’ve decided to keep updating this post indefinitely:

Stacker 2’s Black Jax may be the only thing worse-tasting than Stacker 2’s Yellow Jacket. Black Jax is useful if you want the niacin flush, I guess, though it is remarkably short-lived. Stacker 2 seems to like to make ill-tasting junk.

Designer Supplements ActivaTe Xtreme: Once this kicked in, it really kicked in. This definitely turned up aggression and pushed strength gains fairly quickly. With the additions in this formulation, anti-Es are superfluous. This is one of the better test-boosters on the market, as far as I’m concerned. I’ll probably run it again in a few months.

Designer Supplements Rebound Reloaded:  I did not use it solo, but in conjunction with ActivaTe Extreme, it managed to create some undesirable sides, such as patches of extremely dry skin and some random vague joint pains. Matt Cahill warned me that it was very strong and he sure wasn’t kidding…

Millenium Sports MVP-365 : This seems to be a nice mid-level multi. There are a lot of vitamins out there that I like better and even more that are junk in comparison. I’d put this one squarely in the middle.

Millenium Sports ZMK: I’m not especially sold on the current Zinc craze. Used as directed at full dosage, this put me out and kept me out, which made waking up even more difficult than usual. This is extremely detrimental, of course. Even at a reduced dose, it still created too much of a head fog that I will never be able to afford and I eventually had to discontinue usage.

Hard Nutrition Vita-X: This is the first "pack" multi-vitamin I’ve liked at all. I’m not with the idea of taking it more than once per day, however and I find it to be over-packaged, though not grossly overpackaged like the other current popular vitamin "pack" on the market. I like this one better than MVP and probably better than any multi I’ve ever taken to this point. It’s kind of interesting how easily vitamins can be overlooked until you stumble across one that creates a vastly noticeable difference, such as this one. This trend is one of the reasons I like to switch up vitamins, until the one day that I find the perfect one.

VPX Redline Power RUSH: Another of the "shot"-type drinks, apparently aimed at the 5-Hour Energy Drink market. Unlike that particular drink, this one actually works, though I’m not sure what to make of it entirely. The first bottle I had gave me a very mild energy charge and lots of focus, the second one didn’t start doing anything until about 4 hours after I took it and then just kept me awake and the third bottle was more or less a duplicate of the first one, minus the focus. The third was mostly mindless energy, though not huge amounts of it. This might do in a pinch if you’re driving or something, but it leaves much to be desired in terms of workout applications and does not seem consistent.

Steaz Energy Drink: So-called "organic" energy drink…let’s hear it for holistic hype. Not very good tasting and did a great job of giving me a headache, which usually means cheap ingredients. No energy increase to speak of.

Sport Pharma Thermadrene: From the formulation, I didn’t expect really anything from this and was somewhat surprised to see that it yields a slight energy charge as well as a noticeable metabolic increase and at times a slight thermal increase.  One bottle yields about 2 weeks (4 tabs/day), which puts it at around $25/month. It is not comparable with the stuff at the top of the market, but is worth having a bottle around here and there for $12. I did not use it regularly enough with the intent of actual fat burning to really comment on direct numbers, but every time I did use it, effects were noticeable.

Precision Engineered Proto Pure protein bars: I really liked the Choc Peanut Butter, Chocolate Deluxe was ok and the other one I had I didn’t really like. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of it…These were $2 and change at Vitamin Shoppe and while not worth it, definitely useful in a pinch…

Just for fun:

Highest weight 2007: 252

Lowest weight 2007 : 217

Weight as of 12/31/07: 219

Mini-Reviews to date: 62

Full Reviews to date: 75

Product Logs to date: 9

As to the year itself, it’s been a rather crazy one, plenty of ups, but also many downs. I wrote, shot, directed, starred in, scored, produced and completed my first movie this year. However, I have also cut loose two long-time associates who I felt were abusing my friendship. I have known both of them for 10 years and in that time, it would be accurate to say that I on and off considered them friends. My band is back together, but we have not reached a consistency in playing.

As to me personally as regards bodybuilding, the 219 is +9 from my desired goal of 210 by year’s end. I believe I would have made it were it not for the very late in the year attack of a pair of viruses that sidelined me for 2 1/2 weeks. However, I emerged considerably stronger than ever before and set numerous PRs this year. My cardiovascular conditioning, however, is not yet at the peak it once was. That, among the continued reduction of bodyfat, is paramount among my goals for 2008.

Also, for those of you following along in my Logs, you already know, but for those not, I will be trying my hand at formulating a PWO recovery shake next year sometime in January.

This is mostly a catch-up post…

First up is Prolab’s ThermoFire. This reminds me a lot of MAN Scorch, which has been one of my favorites for a while. ThermoFire does not seem to have any of the sides that Scorch sometimes does. The dosing is also very similar. This needs to be run at 3 caps or there is not much effect. This is a very smooth supplement and very enjoyable. If the sides of Scorch are troublesome, this presents an excellent alternative.

Next is 5 Hour Energy. I had both of these recently. The berry flavor was not very good, but the Lemon-Lime was very tasty. Both were good for somewhere between 2 -3 hours of energy, with an initial spike lasting for roughly an hour and then a rather linear downgrading line after that. These are also more expensive than they probably should be, which does not make them very useful, particularly considering that Twinlab’s Energy Fuel, which acts very similarly, can be obtained for about 1/2 of the price (or less). I also tried the Extra Strength version, which yielded a slightly higher amount of energy initially but was ultimately extra shitty and not worth the bother.
Nitro2Go’s Instant Energy is fairly similar, though it packs a ridiculous amount of stimulant-related material into that very small bottle. The taste is also pretty decent. This is a fairly new entry into the market, having a release date of August 2007. As much as they jam into the bottle, the price is acceptable, depending on where you buy it. 6 hours of energy is claimed, but, of course, there is nowhere near that. I’d put it around 3 hours, maybe a touch more. It’s definitely stronger than either 5 Hour Energy (the main target market) or Energy Fuel, but a large part of this results in an elevated heart rate, basically a spike in heartbeat, which does not necessarily translate into actual energy. Given how this acted, I have some doubt as to the safety of this particular drink, particularly if persons are stupid and take it either to wash down more stim pills or have a bunch of them in a row…

Xyience Xenergy: I got around to trying the Cranberry flavored one. This one resulted in no real energy gain whatsoever, though it tasted better than the "Clear" flavored one. I am not inclined to try Green Apple. This product is essentially worthless.

Resident Evil T-Virus Antidote: Capcom has moved their evil corporation "Umbrella" into the energy drink sphere, perhaps to compete with the Mario Power-Up drink (which I have not tried and probably will not). This tastes like a very, very cheap version of Redbull, albeit considerably more expensive (at least at FYE). I’m not sure who is bottling this for Capcom, but the cheapness in the taste is probably a reflection of the cheapness in ingredients. I say this because I notice that the cheaper energy drinks nearly always inevitably give me a headache and this one bordered right on the verge of that. There was approximately zero energy boost, even on an empty stomach after I hadn’t eaten for 4+ hours. Very cool looking can and nice tie-in. Too bad the product is junk.

The next one is Scivation Dialene 4. This is the same thing as Primaforce RAGE, so the comments from that posting in the BodyBLOG post before this one (I believe) applies here as well.

I also tried Stacker2’s Yellow Jacket energy shot the other day. It is by far the most noxious and disgusting-tasting shot I’ve ever had…it has to almost be experienced to be believed, but it is purely awful. This worked the fastest of almost anything I’ve ever used, but was only good for about 90 minutes…