Competitive Edge Labs’ Super Swole describes itself as a hardcore nitric oxide (NO) enhancer so you know from the start what sort of product you’re getting… one that focuses heavily on muscle pumps, lean muscle and strength.
The benefits of the product essentially focus on this one goal. We’re going to look at what it can do for you and what to expect, as well as what we make of the formula as a whole…
Table of Contents
About Super Swole
Super Swole contains eight active ingredients, of which citrulline makes up around half of each serving.
We’re going to look at each ingredient in turn but in essence the compounds in this product all add up to pumps and cell hydration, which are important in combination for better muscle recovery and growth.
The science suggests that improved pumps mean better growth capacity and the best nutrient delivery.
The combination of citrulline with some simple secondary ingredients is what characterizes this product – and this should be clear from the ingredients…
Super Swole Supplement Facts
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Ingredients
L-Citrulline (6g)
One of the instant classics of supplement use, citrulline is a versatile and effective compound that contributes to several goals.
This is probably why it’s seen such success lately: whatever your fitness goal, you’re probably going to benefit from citrulline supplementation.
It’s probably best known for increasing serum arginine, which helps boost nitric oxide and thus can improve muscle pumps.
This is one of the reasons its popular among bodybuilders, where getting a pump is a classic part of a good workout – and may have some benefits to growth and gains.
L-Citrulline also improves the metabolism of energy in the muscles, which means better endurance – especially in middle efforts and repeated bouts.
This is also important for better performance in prolonged bouts of exercise where your muscular metabolism is the most important factor.
You can see this in all kinds of training – from marathon runners to the high-rep muscle-building exercise of physique and bodybuilding competitors.
On top of this, there are also benefits to the inter-set recovery you’ll see during weight training. This helps contribute to better strength-endurance over time and – thus – the amount of effective training volume you can sustain.
These combined benefits are why this is a popular ingredient. This is clearly the workhorse of the product and carries most of the benefits; its 6g dosage is ideal too.
Glycerol (2g)
This is a good compound for improving hydration in the cells and has modest benefits to endurance.
As mentioned above, the improvements in the muscle pump are key because of their contribution to cell volume – something glycerol does effectively.
This makes it a great synergist compound and should contribute to better pumps – as well as results.
The combination would be even better with creatine, since co-ingestion is shown to be even more effective for cell hydration.
Overall, however, this is a decent secondary compound. It offers modest benefits and supports the Citrulline we mentioned above.
Tart Cherry Extract (500mg)
This is a pretty common supplementary ingredient and it has some interesting implications. Obviously, as a form of berry extract it has a powerful antioxidant presence which we like – generally useful for health, wellbeing, and reducing the risk of DNA damage.
On top of this, it has a mild secondary contribution to the benefits of citrulline that we mentioned above.
The combination of the two is mildly synergistic, but nothing crazy like we might see with other compounds like Creatine-Glycerol.
The tart cherries offer some mild nitric oxide benefits and will thus support the pump and endurance benefits we’ve mentioned.
Super Swole does also promise improved performance too, so while tart cherry extract is vaguely useful for additional muscle pumps, we’d personally rather see the 500mg of product used towards some form of performance enhancement.
This is a good secondary compound, but it doesn’t provide many benefits above and beyond citrulline, nor does it improve performance much by itself.
Overall, you wouldn’t notice if it wasn’t there.
Green Tea Extract (300mg)
Green tea is awesome, and you should be drinking it. However, taking an extract of it with this product is a way of consuming additional EGCG and GABA.
These are the main ingredients in green tea that help your recovery and performance.
EGCG is a fat-mobilizing compound that improves catecholamine function, ensuring you burn fat when you’re in a calorie deficit. This can contribute to better muscle sparing while you lose fat, as well as keeping the metabolic pathways effective and efficient.
GABA, on the other hand, is primarily a neurological amine that is important for maintaining mood and helping you relax.
It also has benefits to hormonal health after resistance training where it can increase HGH production, a key anabolic hormone.
This is a great ingredient to include and – as with citrulline – is one of the most versatile compounds. Whatever your goals, proper EGCG/GABA intake can be a great way to keep your mood and recovery in good shape.
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Pine Bark Extract (200mg)
This is a compound that is primarily included for its antioxidant effects, especially with the concentration of around 95% in this extract.
The benefits are similar to those of blueberries, where anthocyanidins are plentiful.
The pine bark extract offers an analogue for these compounds to ensure they don’t break down in the body.
Anthocyanidins themselves are awesome for antioxidant effects, as well as helping support recovery from exercise, and generally being one of the most underrated compounds around.
All of that said, however, the inclusion in this product is a questionable one, mostly because it doesn’t affect the existing compounds like citrulline.
It feels like Competitive Edge has missed an opportunity to include some better secondary compounds in Super Swole; we’re given tart cherry and pine bark for health when what we’d really like is more performance-boosters.
S7 (100mg)
This is an herbal extract blend named for 7 ingredients that boost nitric oxide levels (green coffee bean extract; green tea extract; turmeric extract; tart cherry; blueberry; broccoli and kale).
This blend delivers the same benefits mentioned in the citrulline section: improved blood flow, nutrient delivery, and the improvement of muscular pumps.
It shows a lot of promise – a small pilot study demonstrated that S7 use boosted nitric oxide levels by 230% over baseline – but further research is warranted.
Here’s the issue: not only are some of these extracts already included elsewhere in the formula, but this product already has a ton of nitric oxide boosters.
You’re already going to get an impressive NO boost without this blend. Again, we’d like to see some performance enhancing secondary compounds in this formula. You don’t get more results by hammering away at the same thing – variety would help.
The S7 blend does come with some of the additional micro-benefits like antioxidant action but that’s probably not the main reason you thought about buying this product.
The performance benefits are just not there outside of citrulline itself.
AstraGin (50mg)
We love AstraGin – it’s an experimental level compound (a blend of Astragalus Membranaceus extract and Panax notoginseng extract) and that is primarily used to increase the uptake of key amino acids into the body.
It improves uptake in the digestive system and thus allows you to get the most from the rest of the product.
We will love this ingredient if it turns out to have all the absorption benefits that have been stated. This is one of the best adjunct compounds for absorption and efficiency – along with Piperine – so it’s a great choice.
The ginseng side of this compound is an interesting ingredient because it contributes to anti-anxiety effects and helps improve mood.
These are significant benefits to your overall wellbeing and recovery; despite being underrated for their active relaxation properties.
Ginseng is also a great anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, contributing further to the general wellbeing effects this product offers.
Ginseng is great but it’s not a pre-workout specific compound, so the absorptive powers of this ingredient is its main power.
KannaEase (25mg)
This is a relatively unproven compound that is associated with some of the herbal benefits that we saw with ginseng.
The difference between ginseng and Kanna is that there’s not enough evidence to suggest that this one actually works.
There’s some suggestion of anxiolytic benefits in the science, but not nearly enough to recommend it for a supplement.
The dosage isn’t within any clear clinical guidelines and the overall benefits are speculative at best.
The overall result is another health and wellbeing compound – but one that doesn’t offer much in the way of either proven results or the pre-workout benefits you’d hope for from this product.
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Super Swole Formula Analysis
Super Swole concentrates on being a NO booster. And to be fair, it does that very well.
Its dosage of L-citrulline is effective and the product probably does enough to deserve the title of ‘hardcore nitric oxide enhancer’.
Here’s where we struggle with it.
You would mostly use a NO booster as part of your pre-workout routine.
And if so, you’re probably looking for something more than just a way to boost your muscle pumps.
But does Super Swole give us any beneficial performance enhancers in addition to the L-citrulline? Not really.
Instead it offers us a few anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredients that we could probably take or leave.
Overall, this product demonstrates flashes of genius but an overall lack of design coherence. We see some great moments, but the overall product doesn’t feel like it fits together – it lacks the direction and intention that we see with some of the great products on the market.
While the nitric oxide focus alone isn’t necessarily bad, the ingredient choice doesn’t produce a strong, single-intention product at all.
It’s a scattered and unclear supplement that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be or do.
Super Swole Benefits
The main benefits you’ll see from Super Swole come from the general nitric oxide improvements, as well as the secondary antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-anxiety benefits. It’s essentially a nitric oxide booster supplement with some middling health and wellness support.
If that’s all you’re looking for, great. But we wouldn’t recommend this product if you’re looking for a general-purpose pre-workout as it doesn’t contain enough performance-enhancing ingredients for general use.
The benefits are thus some endurance adjustment and pump improvement, alongside some general mood and antioxidant benefits.
Who Takes It?
Anyone looking for a great pump, with very little concern for other pre-workout benefits. This is a very one-effect product and you’re not going to see the same varied benefits you might from an economy, but general purpose, pre-workout.
For that reason, this is the product for people who want citrulline and some very small, modest adjuncts.
It does include some synergists, but these would be better replaced with other secondary ingredients – especially given how well creatine would synergize with the glycerol and citrulline.
If you’re looking for simplicity and a single benefit, this is a good product, but then you may well be able to get cheap citrulline instead and enjoy the same results.
Any Potential Side Effects of Super Swole?
There aren’t really any potential side effects to this product – the ingredients are innocuous and pretty safe.
The effects of citrulline may produce a sensation of flushing if you’re sensitive to them, though this isn’t really a risk. The increased blood flow produces this sensation and it shouldn’t be a serious concern.
If you have any existing allergic conditions or intolerances, obviously you should check the label and consult your doctor if you’re uncertain.
Super Swole Summary
Pros
- Strong clinically proven dose of l-citrulline
- Interesting wellness choices
- Cyanidin and AstraGin are cool adjuncts
- Stimulant free
Cons
- Secondary ingredients are low-potency nitric oxide boosters
- Very few compounds that actually benefit your workouts
- More of a targeted one-benefit nitric oxide booster than a dedicated pre-workout
Pricing & Where to Buy
The pricing for this product is at the upper end, with a $40-$50 price tag, which seems expensive when compared to some other products on the market – and even more so with how it compares to premium $50 products.
The serving count of 20 is also very scant, which means you’re paying more for less, which is never good.
From a value perspective it’s hard to see why you’d not just buy flavored citrulline powder, but if you’re looking for this product at the best price, it is currently sold for a discounted $39.99 direct from Competitive Edge.
Competitive Edge Super Swole Review: Final Word
This is a decent product, but it goes too narrow; the use of nitric oxide boosters on top of citrulline means that you’re getting into seriously limited benefits.
There’s not much functional difference between 4g of citrulline and 6g; 50% more content isn’t 50% more benefits.
The secondary ingredients aren’t comparable to some of the others on the market either, which is a problem at the normal price of $50 per container.
The containers themselves are only 20 servings and the price is clearly far more than the ingredients justify.
We like the purity of this product but, if you want citrulline, buy citrulline. This product has a very limited range where it’s applicable and – even if it does some things well, isn’t the best on the market.
The idea of being a “massively dosed hardcore nitric oxide” alone isn’t enough to pit this product against other premium products on the market in our opinion.
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