C-BUM Essential Pre-workout: Simple and effective - just the essentials

In an industry saturated with fully-loaded, premium pre-workouts, packed to the brim with every ingredient you could possibly think of, it's easy to detract from the primary goal of the supplement. Don't get me wrong, these pre-workout formulas are incredible, the abundance of ingredients often work together synergistically increasing the efficacy of the product, and can definitely boost performance in the gym, but does every lifter really need every ingredient known to man all in one pre-workout formula? Of course not! This is why Raw Nutrition and Chris Bumstead have just launched their newest pre-workout -- C-BUM Essential Pre.

C-Bum Essential Pre is a very simple, yet very effective formula for both cost and performance. Raw took only the most tried and true, time-tested, and effective ingredients that have been proven to enhance exercise performance. The main question here is, can a simple formula such as this really stand up against the colossal pre-workout formulas that are present in many of the pre-workouts and have been dominating the industry lately? The great thing here is... it doesn't have to! 

C-Bum Essentials wasn't designed to compete with the colossally packed, mountainous-dosed pre-workouts that have hit the market as of late, that's what their signature pre-workout Thavage is for. While Essentials can be a great pre-workout for all lifters, it primary focus is to boost performance while still being value-focused and cost effective. If you like to keep things simple and straight to the point.. this is the pre-workout for you.

Now, let's breakdown this economically friendly formula from start to finish so we can see how this pre-workout delivers maximum bang for your buck!

L-Citrulline - 4,000mg

Citrulline is the perfect start to this cost-friendly formula, as it packs a great N.O. (Nitric Oxide) boosting punch, which comes with a laundry list of benefits. First off, what is citrulline? It's a nonessential amino acid that serves as an endogenous precursor to arginine, thereby greatly enhancing nitric oxide synthesis through what is known as the arginine-nitric oxide pathway. Nitric oxide has various performance-boosting functions in the body including a vasodilatory effect, which will increase blood, oxygen, and nutrient delivery to working muscles. Furthermore, nitric oxide can also reduce the oxygen and energy cost of exercise allowing you to push the working muscles longer and harder.

Here are some of the main benefits of L-Citrulline:

• Boost power output by improving oxygen utilization
• Increase nutrient and oxygen delivery to muscles
• Decrease muscle soreness following intense exercise
• Inhibit protein breakdown
• Increase MPS (muscle protein synthesis)
• Reduce training fatigue

4,000mg is a powerful dose of this potent vasodilator, so you can definitely expect massive pumps, extreme muscle fullness (that blown up balloon feeling that we all love), and some crazy vascularity. Supplying the muscles with all that fresh blood, oxygen, and nutrients will also improve recovery time between exercises and between workouts, increase  strength and power that will likely also lead to an increase in muscle growth, and enhance overall training capacity so you can train longer and harder.

Beta-Alanine - 3,200mg

Beta-Alanine, or 3-aminopropionic acid is a naturally-occurring beta-amino acid and a component of the histidine dipeptides carnosine and anserine. Beta-Alanine has the distinct ability to raise muscle carnosine concentrations. In fact, beta-alanine is the limiting amino acids in carnosine synthesis, meaning that its presence in the bloodstream is directly tied to muscle carnosine levels. 

The resulting carnosine then acts as lactic acid buffer for our muscles (Lactic acid buildup is the burning sensation you feel during an exercise due to not enough oxygen available to complete the process, so a substance called lactate is made), which provides numerous benefits, including increases in work capacity, reducing muscle fatigue, increasing peak power output, and boosting overall athletic performance. These sensational benefits are the reason why Beta-Alanine is a pre-workout staple and a very well-known ingredient.

3,200mg is a clinical dose of Beta Alanine and will provide substantial benefits in increasing time to muscle exhaustion, increasing muscle endurance, delaying muscle fatigue, and buffering lactic acid so you can push your body longer and harder every workout.

Here are the main benefits of Beta-Alanine:

• Increase the buffering capacity of muscle
• Work at a higher intensity for longer durations
• Increase time to exhaustion
• Helps preserve lean muscle mass
• Enhance resistance training volume

L-Tyrosine - 2,000mg

L-Tyrosine is one of the most prominent ingredients in pre-workouts these days, and for very good reason. It plays a significant role in the production of Dopamine (our feel good hormone), Adrenaline and Noradrenaline, Epinephrine and Norepinephrine, and thyroid hormones. Supplementing L-Tyrosine replenishes these important neurotransmitters and dramatically improves mental function (focus, concentration, memory, learning).

2,00mg is a massive dosage of L-Tyrosine and will trigger several of our “feel-good” neurotransmitters, including norepinephrine and dopamine. This will greatly enhance a sense of well being, boost mood, and drastically increase mental alertness and focus. As an added bonus, it can also lower anxiety and stress so nothing will stand in your way from demolishing every session! 

Main benefits of L-Tyrosine:

• Improved brain function (focus, concentration, memory, learning, alertness)
• Increase energy and muscle endurance
• Improve cognitive flexibility the brain’s capacity to switch between thoughts and tasks with efficiency)
• Increasing thermogenesis, lipolysis, and maximizes body composition

Taurine - 1,000mg

L-Taurine is a powerful and very abundant amino acid. In fact, it is the second most abundant amino acid in the body's muscle behind glutamine. It is highly present in the brain and spinal cord, leukocytes, heart and muscle cells, the retina, and indeed almost every tissue throughout the body. L-Taurine exists in very high concentration in the brain and plays a neuromodulatory role in this area.

The body makes L-Taurine by breaking down the amino acid cysteine. It is shown to enhance muscle contraction to boost power and rid the muscle of lactic acid, improving recovery. Much like Betaine Anhydrous, it's also an osmolyte that will increase cell volumization and muscle cell uptake, and boost cellular hydration. 

1,000mg of L-Taurine is a clinical dose that will provide some monstrous benefits such as increased power/force output, enhanced muscle contractions, improvements in stamina and endurance, increased cellular hydration, accelerated recovery, increased cognitive function (focus, concentration, memory, learning), and supports central nervous system function.

Benefits of L-Taurine:

• Increases brain performance, mental focus, and time on tasks
• Increase strength and muscle force production
• Decrease fatigue and increase muscle function in recovery
• Optimizes cellular hydration and maximizes muscle function
• Reduces muscle breakdown by decreasing catabolic 3-methylhistidine
• Increase muscle endurance and time to exhaustion

Natural Caffeine (as Green Coffee Bean Extract) - 200mg

Caffeine is undeniably the most known and utilized stimulant in the world. Caffeine occurs naturally in plants such as coffee beans, tea, and cacao, which is the source of cocoa for chocolate. It's a CNS (Central Nervous System) stimulant that has been shown to reduce feelings of fatigue, increase energy levels, heighten mental alertness, lower perceived exertion, and even lower levels of perceived pain.

Caffeine also improves mental acuity and sharpness, helps maintain laser-like focus, and even improves some technical skills both during and after strenuous activity. And, if that isn't enough, it's also believed to enhance the body's ability to use its own fat as fuel, which can effectively increase the time to exhaustion in endurance events. 

200mg is a moderate dose of caffeine, making it perfect for those who may get anxious from too many stimulants, are sensitive to stimulants in general, gym-goers who work out late in the evening or at night and don't want to be kept awake from high levels of stimulants, or anyone who wants a performance boost in the gym without overdoing it on stimulants.

The benefits of caffeine include:

- Increased mental alertness and energy levels 

Caffeine works in the brain as a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant, so when I say energy, I mean alertness. Caffeine blocks certain receptors in the brain that increase levels of epinephrine, adrenaline, and dopamine. Blocking these receptors in the brain gives you that drive you feel—and a bit of euphoria—when you consume caffeine before a workout

- Increased Strength and Power

The nerves that activate muscle fibers, once stimulated by caffeine, activate those muscle fibers with greater force. More force equals more strength, which is why caffeine can increase your strength during a workout.

- Enhanced Muscular Endurance

Caffeine increases endurance in several ways. The first is by increasing fat burning during workouts. When you train with caffeine, you burn more fat. This spares muscle glycogen, which means you have more energy later in the workout, when you need it most. Another way caffeine can improve endurance is by boosting nitric oxide levels. That's right, research shows that caffeine can enhance vasodilation, the term for the widening of blood vessels. This allows more blood to flow to the muscles, which in turn delivers more oxygen and more nutrients, resulting in greater overall endurance.

- Reduced Muscle Soreness

Believe it or not, research shows that caffeine works incredibly well for helping ease muscle soreness by altering your perceived exertion during your workouts. With less muscle soreness, you can go harder, perhaps banging out a few extra reps you probably wouldn't have gotten if that muscle soreness was too much. More reps equals more work done by your muscles, and that equals better results.

Himalayan Pink Salt - 200mg

Sodium is an essential mineral that plays a vital role in maintaining blood volume and blood pressure as well as nerve impulse transmission and muscle contraction. Pink Himalayan salt is a pink-colored salt harvested from the Punjab region of Pakistan, near the Himalayas. Pink Himalayan salt is similar to table salt in that it contains 98% sodium chloride, but it also contains other important trace minerals, including calcium, potassium, and magnesium -- which table salt does not.

One of the roles of sodium (and other electrolytes) in the body is to maintain fluid balance and help activate the muscle tissue and neurons through electrical charges, which is essential for athletes. Though, there appears to be more benefits to sodium for athletes than just this alone. When we become dehydrated, our blood thickens, which means it carries less oxygen and has a knock-on effect on our kidney’s filtering system. This can cause issues for anyone, but particularly athletes.

So, an athlete increasing their salt intake around a workout or training session may experience improvements in cardiovascular fitness, stamina, endurance, and better recovery mostly as a result of increase blood volume. Not only does sodium help to improve hydration and prevent dehydration, but it also plays a role in optimizing the effects of creatine. Salt is thought to improve the rate of creatine uptake in your muscles. This happens due to creatine utilizing the energy of sodium wanting to enter the muscle cells, thus helping transport creatine inward. This allows your body to better absorb and transport creatine throughout your blood system.

Benefits of Pink Himalayan Salt:

• Contains 84 different minerals and trace elements essential to the human body
• Aids in hydration and electrolyte balance for better performance
• Helps optimize muscle contractions
• Helps improve strength by increasing intracellular water retention
• Helps provide better muscle pumps by flooding the muscles with more water

CONCLUSION

Moderate, sustaining energy with no jitters, anxiousness, but still delivers a great boost in performance and mental alertness... great mental focus and concentration... enhance muscle pumps and peak muscle contractions... boost muscular endurance and time to exhaustion... delay muscle fatigue and enhance resistance training volume.

C-Bum Essentials simple, yet still very effective and straight-to-the-point formula offers an alternative to the fully-loaded, more advanced C-Bum Thavage Pre-workout. While this pre-workout is designed to aid lifters/gym-goers of all levels, it's an excellent option for those are looking for a cost-effective pre-workout that will still provide a great in boost performance. This one can also be very versatile. Need just a small boost to get you going... a half scoop still provides 100mg of caffeine and will still boost performance, muscle pumps, focus, and hydration while providing numerous servings. Need a little bit more to get you going for this one session... 1 1/2 or 2 scoops of this formula will hit like a wrecking ball, greatly boosting energy and focus, muscle pumps, and muscle contractions!