COMPARING PRE WORKOUTS : STIMS VS PUMP

By: Biohackingdaily

The world of navigating supplements can be a tough one.  With all the marketing, confusing labels, and multitude of options it can feel impossible to select one that best suits your goals.  Today I wanted to compare two pre workouts that are both very effective, yet very different.  You will quickly notice that one of these is what's known as a “non-stimulant pre workout”, and the other one is one with stimulants.  

HC Platinum Reckoning Introduction

First let's jump into the stimulant one.  This one comes with 3 combined blends or “matrix’s”  to help provide you energy, increased bioavailability, and an amazing pump.  

The first matrix is the “heavy equipment matrix”.  This features a well dosed amount of L-Citrulline Malate at a 2:1 ratio.  This means that for every 2 grams of citrulline there is 1 gram of mallate.  This is enough to help deliver a pretty good pump.  Beta Alanine clocks in at 3500mg which is a sufficient dose for buffering lactic acid which is especially useful for people who like to do a high amount of reps. Lactic acid builds up in the muscle and causes fatigue before muscle failure.  Betaine Anhydrous is also in for increased performance in the gym. L-taurine is an amino acid that is extremely useful for tons of purposes.  It helps maintain proper electrolyte balance,  increase oxygen uptake, improve recovery, and a lot more.  It truly is such a versatile ingredient for performance and health that I love its addition here.  Pink Himalayan Salt is amazing for pumps and can deliver really effective pumps in the gym.  The inclusion of S7 I also love as it is a super high quality pump ingredient that always delivers amazing pumps to me.  Finally we have synephrine HCL which is useful for fat burning and for energy.  With all of these ingredients not only will you get a great pump, but you will get better fat loss, and better overall performance in the gym.

Next let's get into the overtime matrix.  First we have a solid dose of L-theanine at 350mg.  This is going to be really effective in reducing the jitters and anxiety that can come with these high stim formulas.  Next we have caffeine anhydrous at 350mg.  Which for me is a really good amount of caffeine, not too little, but enough for it to hit pretty hard.  Eria Jarensis is the next one up.  This one has been compared regularly to DMAA.  Yet while it is similar and can produce solid Euphoria it still is a bit weaker than DMAA, but do not worry the next one up comes pretty close to the old DMAA we loved so much.  Next up we have 2-aminoisophetane or DMHA.  This to me is extremely close to DMAA and provides me with laser focus and an insane amount of energy.  After that we have Infinergy or Di Caffeine Malate which has caffeine combined with malate.  The malate helps to effectively minimize potential caffeine crashes.  Finally we have the N Methyl Tyramine which is effective for helping increase motivation, focus, and energy levels.  The overtime matrix will have you focused, energized, and in a great mood for your workout. 

Finally we just have the bioavailability matrix which features astragin for better bioavailability. All in all this is an amazing product that really does a great job at covering literally all of your bases for a preworkout.  You will no doubt have improved mental clarity, fat loss, focus, performance in the gym, pumps and much more when using this.  

HC Pump Xl Introduction

Next let's get into the Pump version of this.  Before you ask, can you stack these?  The answer is yes 100 percent!  You will get some amazing pumps with amazing focus and energy.  What is extra cool about HC Pump is that it is not just a pump or performance product, but also has some great nootropic ingredients for improved cognition in the gym.  

So without further ado let's get into it.  The first four ingredients are the same as the 1st with citrulline malate, beta alanine, betaine, and L-taurine.  They are slightly higher though in the HC pump product.  The glycerol is where it starts to get a bit different.  I really like glycerol because it works by helping to volumize the muscle by hydrating the muscle with water, which is different from how normal pump products like L-citrulline produces a pump.  Next up we have capros otherwise known as Indian Gooseberry which is effective at boosting Nitric Oxide levels and delivering a skin splitting pump. Alpha GPC clocks in at 500mg but at 50% meaning it delivers only about 250mg.  Alpha GPC has been shown to help improve cognitive function and exercise performance in the gym. It is a really effective compound for both mental and physical performance.  Pine Bark is extremely versatile and effective for a multitude of things.  It is an antioxidant, helps improve blood flow, and can possibly increase testosterone levels. Pink Salt and S7 were both covered in the last formula, but they are still two of my favorite ingredients for amazing pumps in the gym.  Finally we finish this with another ingredient for focus in the gym.  Huperzine A is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.  Acetylcholinesterase is what breaks down choline in the brain so by inhibiting it we can effectively have higher choline levels.  As we know higher choline levels are extremely effective for both mental and physical performance. 

All in all this is a really cool formula that carries with it both effective ingredients for pumps, performance in the gym, and mental focus.  I always love when companies add in nootropics to their non stim formulas as there is so many compounds that can help with our cognitive function in a multitude of ways while not being stimulants

What is Best for Who?

So with both of these being broken down I really do not want to go in which one is better because they are two different products.  So I just simply want to dive into who is better for who.  Again you can definitely stack these two together for an amazing workout.  If you are someone who finds you are constantly tired in the gym, and get distracted easily then I think the HC Reckoning is what you should lean into.  Now if you are someone who trains at night, or hates that ultra stimmed out feeling, and you just want to focus on pumps with a bit less of the focus then I would lean into the HC Pump Xl.

I do always want to say that DMHA is an extremely powerful stimulant and I always recommend taking stimulant breaks after around 4-6 weeks.  Constantly hammering your body and adrenals with DMHA and never taking breaks can lead to issues.  Therefore you should always cycle off for a few weeks at about weeks 4-6