Kraken: The Extreme Pre-Workout You Need In Your Regime
When you walk into a supplement store, or type supplements into the Google search engine, do you get dizzy with feelings of being overwhelmed? You aren’t alone! With literally thousands of different products out there, it’s hard not to wonder which product is going to help you go that extra mile. You read a few ingredient labels and that may make you feel even worse. Half the ingredients you can’t even pronounce.
If a pre-workout supplement is what you’re after here, there’s one in particular that you’ll want to take note of: Kraken Extreme Pre-Workout.
This supplement has been rated as one of the best out there and for good reason. Before we dive into what it has to offer though, let’s look at some of the important points you need to know about selecting a pre-workout supplement in the first place. When you can understand a few basic points, making that decision becomes far easier.
What A Pre-Workout Will Do
First let’s address what a pre-workout will do. Pre-workout products are designed to enhance the effort you put in and the results that you see. They are not going to do the work for you.
Some people have this misconception about supplements in general that if you take the right supplement you don’t need to put in the work. This is not the case. No supplement will ever replace a proper diet and exercise plan.
What they will do is ensure that the effort you put in will have the greatest pay off. So in essence, a pre-workout will help to:
- Increase your focus and alertness so that you can give 110% of your energy to each and every lift you perform
- Decrease fatigue-build-up, meaning you can perform an extra rep or set in each workout session
- Accelerate the rate of recovery you experience, which allows you to get back into the gym and do more work sooner.
- Enhance your endurance level, making it easier to carry out higher rep sets for maximum hypertrophy
- Ensure your muscles are well nourished so they perform as best as they can and build back up as quickly as they can after the workout session is completed.
Many people think that a pre-workout is only going to help out going into the workout and while that is the primary focus, this is definitely not to say that there aren’t benefits that will linger, helping you out after the workout is completed as well.
What A Pre-Workout Will Not Do
So what won’t a pre-workout do? A pre-workout on its own won’t help you magically get stronger. While you may feel stronger while on it thanks to all the effects it’s having on your physiology, you still need to put in that work. You still need to lift the heavier weights, overload your system, and then provide adequate rest for the strength progression to occur.
The value of hard work cannot be overstated enough.
Likewise, a pre-workout on its own won’t burn a lot of fat. Some people do lump pre-workout supplements in with fat burners as often, they can contain some of the same ingredients.
And while you very likely will get a slight boost to your metabolism from the pre-workout you are taking, you aren’t going to see pounds of fat being melted from your frame.
What will melt the fat is if you perform more work during your workout session, add additional cardio to the program now that you have more energy, and you find yourself eating fewer calories because of the appetite suppressing effects it may have.
If these come about indirectly from using the pre-workout, then that can help you lose the fat you’re carrying.
Having this clear picture on what a pre-workout can and can’t do is important so that your expectations are in line with reality.
Your Pre-Workout Check List
So what should you be looking for when hunting for a pre-workout? There are some basic things to look for and questions to ask yourself.
- What are you looking for in a pre-workout?
This is a question that most people don’t ever consider, but is important to ask. Some people may be only looking for a psychological boost before entering their workout and that’s all they really feel they need.
Others may want to also be improving muscle pumps and delaying the onset of lactic acid (causes muscle fatigue).
Still yet, others may be primarily after increases in muscular endurance if they are planning on doing a higher rep, higher volume program.
By pinpointing what it is that you are looking for in a pre-workout product, you can more carefully check to see that whichever you find, addresses these concerns. If you only want mental alertness, a simple caffeine tablet may be enough.
Most people will want, and benefit from, a more complex pre-workout supplement, so that is what you’ll likely be after.
- Is the supplement a proprietary blend?
This is perhaps the next most important question you must ask yourself – is the supplement a proprietary blend or does the label tell you exactly what you are getting? This is one very nice thing about Kraken pre-workout. There are no secrets. You know exactly what you are getting with each scoop you take, which makes it very easy to know how your body is going to react.
When a supplement essentially hides behind a proprietary blend, it becomes next to impossible to know how much of each active ingredient you are getting. This can be troublesome as often there are ‘filler’ ingredients, so to speak, which are basically ingredients that don’t offer much benefit. You might be getting a lot of these ingredients and not much of the ones that you are actually looking for.
Companies use proprietary blends for two reasons. The publicly stated reason: so no one copies their formula, and the private reason: to help keep costs down. When they can fill the product with cheaper ingredients and less of the active ingredients, this can make for a better mark-up for them. Clearly their product does still need to be somewhat effective to stay on the market and have people continuously buying it, but it doesn’t make your life any easier when supplement shopping.
Kraken pre-workout has no secrets so this allows you to most accurately dose to your needs and to feel good about what you are putting into your body.
- A reasonable level of stimulants
Finally, the last thing you really want to look for when selecting a pre-workout supplement is that it contains a reasonable amount of stimulants. Unless you are someone who has become extremely immune to caffeine and stimulants (in which case, a detox/desensitization period may be in order!), it’s best to err on the lower side of the caffeine content.
Some pre-workout products derive most of their benefits from one powerful hit of caffeine, with levels upwards of 300 grams or more. Some on the market even contain 500 mg of caffeine per serving. That is just too much for any healthy individual to be taking and not see serious unwanted side effects. Take this much caffeine and you will put yourself at risk for very high blood pressure, racing heart rates (and likely irregular heart beats), and when you crash, prepare to crash.
These pre-workouts may seem to work well and soon you will feel like you need them, but make no mistake, that is only because you have now become a caffeine addict. Breaking free of 500 mg of caffeine+ per day is not going to be a fun time.
Keep in mind that your average red bull has about 125 mg of caffeine, so if you have a pre-workout containing 500 mg, that’s basically like drinking 4 red bulls all at once. Beware!
A better level is around 125-250 mg of caffeine. For most people this is a reasonable and safe amount depending on how sensitive to caffeine they are and won’t cause adverse side effects. Instead, it’ll just give that smooth dose of energy they’re looking for.
Now that you have a better idea what to look for, let’s take a closer look at what Kraken has to offer.
Introducing: Kraken
The nice thing about Kraken pre-workout is that you get the stats for both one scoop and two, so you can adjust based on your overall level of sensitivity.
The ingredient line-up in this supplement consists of Vitamin B3, Vitamin B12, L-Citrulline, Beta Alanine, HydroMax, Taurine, N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine, Vaso-6, TeaCrine, Caffeine Anhydrous, Theobromine, N-Methyl L-Tyramine, and Cocoa Extract.
So what does all this mean?
Vitamin B3 and B12 both help with improving energy metabolism and ensuring that you get a naturally occurring source of energy. Because these two ingredients are in the supplement, this means it doesn’t have to rely as heavily on caffeine, which has the positive benefits noted above.
Next in the ingredient line-up is L-Citrulline, which is hands-down one of the best pump ingredients out there. L-Citrulline will help to increase both your strength and stamina, allowing you to put in an optimal workout session. L-Citrulline gets converted to arginine in the body, which then serves as a nitric oxide booster. Why not just take arginine directly?
The body will begin to rapidly break down arginine when consumed in supplemental form, while this is not the case with L-Citrulline. So by taking L-Citrulline, you get more benefit for the dosage taken. And, the dosage of L-Citrulline in Kraken is huge. Most pre-workout supplements don’t give enough to really make for an effective dose, however that is not the case here.
Beta Alanine is another ingredient you’ll see in Kraken pre-workout and is the one that gives you that ‘pins and needles’ feeling. This supplement helps to buffer hydrogen ion build up, which occurs during those high rep sets thanks to the presence of lactic acid. This allows you to do more work before resting.
Taurine in Kraken will help to boost endurance and strength levels, helping you push harder in the gym while possibly giving you a cell volumizing effect as well. It will compliment the effects of L-Citrulline in giving you the most powerful muscle pumps you’ve ever had.
N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine, also sometimes referred to as NALT, is an ingredient with the primary purpose of boosting dopamine and adrenaline metabolism. It is also involved in the regulation of motivation, so you might find that on this compound, you feel far more motivated then when off it, thus you really go into that ‘attack’ mode when in the gym. It’s a great mental booster for allowing you to get the most of each of your workout sessions. Teacrine has similar effects and will also help to boost your motivation levels.
Finally, the addition HydroMAX and caffeine help to promote better overall endurance levels, which will also take your performance up to the next level. This means you won’t tire out as quickly when taking Kraken and more work performed means better results overall, assuming that you are recovering from that work of course.
Who Should Use Kraken
So who should use Kraken pre-workout? Anyone who is interested in taking their workout to the next level will benefit from having this supplement in their protocol. It’s also great for those who do want to use a stimulant of some kind but don’t want an overly powerful stimulant that becomes very addictive and may wear them out.
Kraken pre-workout is an excellent option for those who are simply training hard, focusing on building muscle or losing body fat with the performance enhancement goal always in the back of their mind.
With this supplement on your side, you will be one step closer to achieving your goals.
So keep these points in mind about pre-workouts in general and give some strong consideration to Kraken by Sparta Nutrition. It’s one of the top rated pre-workout supplements for good reason: pure results, no filler.
