I won a tub of the brand new PPK Shred in a promo. I couldn’t find the label anywhere online so here’s a picture of it.
Upon looking at the label, I was pretty underwhelmed honestly. But then again, I don’t know a whole lot about some of the ingredients. I thought the Carnitine was pretty low, I thought a gram is the minimum efficacious dose. Maybe with this form, you don’t need as much. I was shocked to only see 160mg of Caffeine. Hordenine seems pretty low. I haven’t seen a great study on Raspberry Ketones. There does seem to be a good does of Green Tea and Peak ATP. The label says not to exceed 2 servings in a day. So I thought I was going to eventually need to double scoop this. But I thought I’d give this a far shot and just start out with a single scoop - I’m glad I did.
I received the Mango Margarita flavor. Per instructions, I mixed it in 10 oz water.
Upon taking my first sip, I was completely caught off guard by a strong bite to it. This was not appealing at all. Then you get the Mango flavor. And at the VERY end, you get a tad bit of the Margarita flavor. I actually forgot what flavor I received. When I first took a sip, I thought there was some coconut to it. If Margarita was not on the label, I probably wouldn’t have recognized the flavor. The flavor strength is strong at 10 oz. I wouldn’t say it is refreshing. All in all, I give it a 6/10. I almost gave it a 5, but I like fruity flavors and the Mango was good enough to make it a 6.
So I took this for a morning workout. Ingested at 6:00 am. One scoop of Nitrotech at 6:15 am to get some protein in me since I was fasted. I started feeling the effects right before I took that Nitrotech. I didn’t think it would hit me that hard but actually ended up getting a really good energy kick out of it. I have a tub of Sparta HydraShred and the Green Tea Extract on it says 50% Caffeine. So I’m guessing there is somewhere around 230 mg caffeine in PPK Shred. The caffeine coupled with the Synephrine, PEA, and Hordenine make for a decent energy cocktail. I didn’t really get a mood boost, no extra aggression, just a really good energy kick.
I am cutting so I wasn’t expecting to see much strength gains being pretty low on calories. I’m actually ahead of schedule. I’m at 185 and just want to get down to 181 before Memorial Day. Here is a pic of me in the middle of my workout this morning.
Here was my workout. I’m doing Jim Stoppani’s HIIT 100s workout.
I’m in the 4th week of it. Today was Chest/Back/Abs. I modified it some to speed it up, otherwise the workout takes forever!
10 x 10 Bench 135 lbs, 25 seconds rest, sets 4-6 SLOW tempo
3 x 2-4 Bench 245 lbs, 60 seconds rest, drop set on last set of 135 lbs for 14 reps
3 x 13-15 Incline DB Fly 40 lbs
SS 3 x 8-10 Reverse Grip Incline DB Press 50 lbs, 55 seconds rest
10 x 10 Wide Grip Chin Ups, 25-30 seconds rest, last 5 sets I needed to use rest pause
3 x 6 Weighted Wide Grip Chin Ups, 20lbs, 60 seconds rest, drop set on last set with bodyweight for 4 reps
3 x 9-11 Bent Over Rows, 85 lbs using a BB, minimal rest
3 x 12-15 Strength Band Reverse Grip Pull Downs, 50 seconds rest
10 x 10 Reverse Crunch, 15 seconds rest, sets 4-6 SLOW tempo
10 x 10 Swiss Ball Crunch
SS 10 x 10 Deadlift/Curl/Press with BB, 85 lbs, 15-20 seconds rest
The workout reaction was nothing spectacular. I’ve used some pretty well dosed PWOs so I know how I react to good ones. I actually forgot to check my watch at the end but I think it was about 70-75 minutes - killer! I did not notice any pump or endurance/recovery enhancements. I also did not notice any thermo effects which I thought I might from the Shred version, but then again there is no grains of paradise or yohimbe. 40 minutes into my workout I was doing Bent Over Rows. I did get any extra rep every set here. I’m usually pretty gassed for this exercise so it was encouraging to see that increase. I don’t really have any experience with Peak ATP nor much knowledge about it. Maybe this was helping here as it’s pretty much the only performance enhancer I don’t normally take. I normally opt for around 300 mg of caffeine PWO, but the amount of stimulation from PPK Shred was nice for this kind of workout. If I’m too stimulated, I have a hard time recovering in between sets and am running out of breathe a lot. So the lower stim is a good option for me for super intense workouts. I like to feel like a madman going into my workouts. But then I always pay for it during intense workouts. The energy from this did not last any longer than other PWOs. I did feel well stimulated for a good 4 hours. It tapered off after that. Since I only got 7 hours of sleep last night, I was needing some more caffeine by lunch.
@Adidasshorts I’m curious to know how Blue Star expects you to optimally take this. With the smaller dose of Carnitine, should this be dosed twice a day. But then it gets super expensive. For the stim effects, I know I could handle a rounded scoop all at once. Looking at the OG PPK version, I see double the dose of PEA and Hordenine. This is a little of a let down. I think this would really increase the mood lift which would help during a dieting phase.
I haven’t seen an exact price on this version. I’m estimating $35-50 a tub. With that estimate and my initial reactions, I’m going to give PPK Shred a 6.8/10. 6 is too low but just can’t give it a 7. If I see enhanced fat loss, my rating would of course go up.
I am really excited to go through this tub over the next month to see how much more shredded I can get. I’ve looked at Blue Star as a premium supplement company. Hopefully I can reap some good benefits from PPK Shred! Thanks again for this tub!
Shows in stock for me. Some items show oos but not PPK