First of all, I am a huge fan of Optimum Nutrition and that’s why I’m going this AmiNo Energy review. I consider them one of the most reputable supplement companies. I have never had any issues with the quality of their supplements and they have reasonable prices.
Recently, ON came out with Essential AmiNo Energy. It is supposed to be an essential amino acid supplement with some of the benefits of a pre workout supplement that can be taken pre/intra/post workout. (I’ll mainly be concentrating on taking it pre/intra for the rest of the article.)
The general precise of the supplement is good. However, the formulation is not. Make sure you read to the bottom where I have updated the AmiNo Energy review.
Why Take AmiNo Energy Or Other EAA Supplement Anyways?
There have been a few studies done on the benefits of supplementing with Essential Amino Acids (EAA). Since I’m lazy, Ill only reference one. In 2006, Bird and collegues in Metabolism – Clinical and Experimental found that supplementing with EAA and carbohydrates during resistance exercise resulted in suppressed cortisol release (catabolic stress hormone) and delayed muscle protein breakdown. The subjects used in the trial were “untrained”, but I believe similar results would be seen in individuals who trained regularly.
Back to Amino Energy Review
Looking at the ingredients label of Essential AmiNo Energy, you see that the first 3 ingredients are (meaning that they have the highest concentration per serving):
- Taurine
- Glatumine
- Arginine
So what’s the problem with the above ingredients?
Both taurine and glutamine are non-essential amino acids. Arginine is added for its nitric oxide effects and if you take a pre-workout supplement, such as jack3d, no-xplode, ect., those already contain shit loads of arginine.
Following those above, then you get all the goodies we are looking for aka leucine, valine, and all the rest.
AmiNo Energy also contains beta-alanine and caffeine which your pre-workout already may (most likely caffeine) contain. So you end up double dosing.
Conclusion
I think you are better off getting a different amino acid supplement that only contains the aminos you want/need and also using a pre-workout supplement. I have heard good things about xtend for an alternative. It contains the aminos without all the added stuff Amino Energy does at an affordable price. Here’s another Amino Energy review at the Bodybuilding.com forums.
AmiNo Energy Review Update
So my roommate got himself a tub of Amino Energy and gave me some. The taste was fine and needed more water to mix than I would normally expect. With a good amount of water though it mixes completely.
I took it before a cardio session, and was pretty pleased with the energy boost it gave me. Nice amount of caffeine and other stimulants that gave me a good “buzz” for my cardio.
So even though it does not contain the amount of aminos that I would like to see in an amino supplement, I think it is a good choice for a pre cardio supplement. I normally drink a cup of coffee and take a scoop of whey before my cardio, but this gives me the same affect that coffee does.
I think I will stick to coffee just because it is more cost effective for me to do so, but I think Amino Energy has its place and would work great for pre cardio if you are needing an energy boost and aminos. Please leave your own AmiNo Energy review and thoughts below.
What do you think? You like the formula?
Loading ...Related Reviews and Articles:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The point is you don’t take the other shit, you take this.
@ GM thanks for the comment,
I currently take USP Labs Bcaa supp, but this isn’t not all bad if you’re looking for a bcaa with stimulants added aka for cardio days. I would not recommend it if you were planning on taking it pre workout with a supplement like jack3d, which already has stims in it.
My only problem is that the bcaa’s are not the the main ingredients of the supplement. However, leucine is the fourth most abundant component, which is the bcaa most responsible for protein synthesis via the mtor pathway. So its not all bad.