Click here to see the latest price on .50 Caliber Pre Workout
I had previously written an article on Cellucore C4 and went on about how it was my favorite supplement out there. Since I have posted that, almost a full year has passed and some things have definitely changed. The first being that I no longer use C4 because it does not have that great of an effect on me anymore. Pair that with continued rising costs and I knew I had to find something else.
And try other products I did, which all were a let down. I missed the days where I would take my scoops and feel those tingles right before I ran to the gym to get my sets in. No product seemed to be giving me what I wanted. That was until I started looking into the actual ingredient profiles of different products. You see, so many companies that put out pre workouts put all there ingredients in some super secret complex formula and do not tell you the amounts that actually go into the product. They call these proprietary blends and they love to hide behind them.
All of that changed when I tried out .50 Caliber by Grenade. Not only does this product not hide behind a proprietary blend, but their ingredient profile is amazing. Let’s get into it!
Grenade .50 Caliber Pre-Workout Review
Effectiveness: 10/10
.50 Caliber is one of the fastest acting pre workouts I have ever used. I mentioned in the intro that I like what the tingles do for me during my lift sessions. Keep in mind that I lift heavy at least 5 days a week.
Now, the instructions on the container tell you to take 1 serving (which is 2 scoops) and mix it with water and to drink it 30 minutes before your workout. Other pre workouts I have tried said similar and I always thought they took too long to start feeling the effects.
After I mixed up my drink and slammed it down, within 5 minutes my handles were tingling and I was getting excited. I through on my clothes and started walking to the gym (which is 2 blocks away) and by the time I got there, tingles everywhere! Thank you Beta Alanine!
If you are like me, and had become numb to other pre workouts, you will love this one. Take a look at the over 300 mg of caffeine in 50 caliber. That is a lot of caffeine and you can really feel it (especially if you drink coffee before the gym, which is not recommended). If you are sensitive to stimulants, you may want to pass on this, but if you are looking for something stim heavy that helps you lift heavy every single day, this is most likely for you.
Knowing I was taking in all that caffeine, I honestly expected to crash right after my workout. This did not happen. Endurance was excellent. It worked so well in fact that the first day I ended up taking this which was on a leg day, I set a new PR of 365 pounds (almost to 4 plates!).
Focus while taking .50 Caliber was great, and lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. Not only was I doing well on the way to the gym (visualizing my lifts) and in the gym, but it lasted well past when I got home. Since I work at home, there are lots of distractions that usually take my attention away. After .50 Caliber though, I came home from the gym and sat down and busted out 2-3 hours of workout without once thinking about doing something else. Not a bad external benefit!
Finally, everyone talks about “the pump”. Well, the pump is real here. The second day I took this it was a chest and tris day. Well, tris were not enough and I ended up doing a full arm workout. Felt like my arms were going to rip out of my skin on the way home. 11/10!
Taste: 10/10
I got 2 flavors from Grenade in the mail. These are Orange Pineapple and Wild Punch. I have not yet tried the wild punch, so further comments will only be made about the Orange Pineapple.
I was excited about this flavor before it finally came. This is not really your typical flavor for a supplement and the normal punch flavors get old (and some of them just plain taste bad).
Following the directions on the container, which is 2 scoops into about 8-10 ounces of cold water, I drank it down. The first thing I thought was WHOA that is strong. Way way too much citrus in that amount. Honestly, I was not very happy with the taste but LOVED the effects in the gym.
That was until I doubled the water…
If you use 2 scoops as the recommended dose, then double the water! After I did that, this stuff tastes amazing! It actually reminds me of the orange pineapple concentrate juice we got from the store as a kid and then you mixed it with water.
If you go with the orange pineapple, just remember to add some more water if you do not want citrus overpowering everything.
Mixability: 8/10
I first tried mixing these with a spoon. While this works, you may still get some floaters in your water. That being said, I usually put my pre workout supplements in a shaker cup and this worked perfectly. If you use more water like I recommend above, this product mixes very well and tastes great to boot!
Price
So many different pre workouts have increased in price recently. It seems the new average is right around $1 per serving, and a lot of these products have inferior ingredient profiles to .50 Caliber. When it is in stock, Grenade has priced this right around $34 for 30 servings give or take if they are running a promotion or not. On their website here, you can see the price is a lot higher. I hope that they keep the $34 price on Amazon as I want to keep purchasing it!
Wrapping It Up
You probably all know the general side effects that you can expect when you take a pre workout. If you have been lifting for any amount of time, you know that these effects typically tend to taper off and you are left looking for something else to try. Well, I can finally tell you that my search is over. This gives me the insane energy, focus, pump, and tingly goodness that I wanted. There was no crashing while using this product and the focus lasted a lot longer than I expected.
If you want to check it out, feel free to visit the link below. I also got some other goodies from Grenade so more reviews coming soon!
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