Some like the trailers more than the movie itself and we can’t blame them.
The trailers show the good parts and leave the mundane/boring ones out of the way so they can get the audience to buy tickets.
Sometimes these trailers accurately portray how good a movie is but there are times the movie becomes a huge disappointment movie goers felt like they got robbed.
That’s the same thing with supplements. Awesome ads, commercials, and really convincing fitness models can really influence what supplement to buy and more often than not, it’s the flashy ones that suck especially if users don’t read labels.
SHOCK THERAPY reminds us of those flashy supplements that rely on big names and quantity of ingredients to get sales. Is SHOCK THERAPY out to shock your system into lifting mode or is the only thing shocking about it is its long list of ingredients?
Let’s find out…
Table of Contents
About SHOCK THERAPY
SHOCK THERAPY is made by our friends at UNIVERSAL, the same company behind the ANIMAL line of supplements such as Animal Cuts and Animal Rage XL. Upon knowing that, seeing SHOCK THERAPY have a long list of ingredients no longer surprised us. In fact, we expect a lot from it now as those two other supplements impressed us in our reviews. Formula notes:
- Lots of ingredients. Like seriously, look at how long that list is!
- One serving: 1 scoop is roughly 20g. Will it be enough to maximize all those ingredients?
- Caffeine: Universal claims each scoop to be the equivalent of two “strong cups of coffee.” The USDA says 1 cup of coffee is around 95 mg so we’re looking at a minimum of 190 mg of caffeine here and that’s a lot.
SHOCK THERAPY Supplement Facts |
|
Serving Size: 1 Scoop (20 g) Servings Per Container: 10 |
|
Ingredients | Amount Per Serving |
Niacin | 10mg |
Vitamin B6 (As Pyridoxine HCL) | 10mg |
Vitamin B12 (As Cyanocobalamin, Methylcobalamin) | 10mcg |
Calcium (As Carbonate) | 25mg |
Magnesium (As Magnesium Oxide) | 25mg |
Sodium (As Sodium Bicarbonate, Trisodium Phosphate) | 120mg |
Potassium (As Potassium Phosphate) | 60mg |
Shock Therapy® Proprietary Formula | |
NO Super Pump Volumizing Complex | 5000mg |
Creatine Complex | |
(Creatine Monohydrate, Creatine MagnaPower®) | |
Arginine Matrix (Arginine HCL, Arginine AKG, ArginoCarn® [Acetyl-L-Carnitine Arginate Dichloride) | |
Citrulline Malate | |
GlycoCarn® (Glycine Propionyl L-Carnitine HCL) | |
Pine Bark Extract (Pycogenol) | |
Glucuronolactone | |
Muscle Strength Blend | 5500mg |
BCAA Complex (L-Leucine, L-Valine, L-Isoleucine | |
L-Taurine | |
CarnoSyn® Beta-Alanine | |
Sustamine (L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine) | |
Acetyl L-Carnitine | |
Enertropic & Antioxidant Complex | 1200mg |
L-Tyrosine | |
Choline Bitartrate | |
Caffeine Anhydrous | |
Guarana Seed | |
Yerba Mate (Leaf) | |
Kola Nut Powder (Seed) | |
Green Tea Extract (Polyphenols, EGCG) | |
Grapeseed Extract (OPC) | |
L-Cysteine HCL | |
Na-R-Alpha Lipoic Acid (Na-R-ALA) | |
NAD (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide) | |
Electrolyte & Delivery Complex | 5265mg |
Shock Therapy® Carb Blend | |
(Glucose Polymers, D-Glucose, Trehalose) | |
Sodium Bicarbonate | |
Potassium Phosphate | |
Trisodium Phosphate | |
Calcium Carbonate | |
Other Ingredients: Natural And Artificial Flavors, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Sucralose, Acesulfame Potassium, Red #40 Lake. |
|
Directions for use: For performance enhancement use 30 minutes preworkout. Depending on factors such as bodyweight, experience and stimulant tolerance, use 1-2 scoops per training session. Athletes weighing more than 200 lbs may require 1.5 to 2 total scoops. Always start with a single scoop (or less) serving in order to assess individual tolerance. Do not exceed 2 scoops in a single 24–hour period. Do not take within 6-8 hours of bedtime. |
Shockingly good for energy, but just OK for pumps.
SHOCK THERAPY prides itself as a “Pump & Energy Supplement” but while we can’t argue with energy (it has lots of it), we’ll definitely call it out on its lack of pump. Let’s break down the ingredients in this formula:
NO Super Pump Volumizing Complex, 5000 mg
This blend contains Creatine monohydrate and Creatine MagnaPower for increased muscle performance. For pumps, it has a premium brand called GlycoCarn, Citrulline Malate and three types of Arginine including a premium brand called ArginoCarn. Pycnogenol is often used in T-boosters for erectile dysfunction due to NO-boosting and blood flow-improving properties. Glucuronolactone works in synergy with caffeine and taurine for both mental and physical stimulation.
Muscle Strength Blend, 5500 mg
BCAAs are excellent ingredients for muscle growth so having it at the helm of this blend is definitely a smart approach. Taurine draws water into the muscles which boosts muscle hydration, performance, recovery, and more pumps!
Beta-Alanine comes in a premium brand we all know as CarnoSyn, Sustamine is a patented form of Alanylglutamine which supposedly allows more glutamine, an amino acid that promotes muscle growth, to reach the muscles instead of being absorbed by the intestines.
ALCAR is oddly placed since it’s more of a nootropic than anything else. If you want it as a performance enhancer, you’ll need at least 1 g of it and we doubt it has even 500 mg here.
Enertropic & Antioxidant Complex, 1200 mg
This blend starts with inefficient forms of Tyrosine and Choline. For example, Tyrosine is a freakin’ awesome brain-chemical booster, but the N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine form (NALT) is much more potent. Same with Choline: Great for brain energy. But Citicoline is the good shit. (Our #1-ranked nootropic stack supplement goes with the NALT and Citicoline forms.)
Caffeine, Guarana, Yerba Mate, and Kola are for sources of energy. Caffeine could do the trick but the other herbs are more of a “slow and gentle” release reducing the usual side effects.
Green Tea and Grapeseed extract are usually top-notch fat burners but here they’re utilized as antioxidants. They also look standardized based on the way it was written in the label but it’s not certain.
Cysteine boosts protein-building and muscle-protecting pathways which improves performance but you need a lot of it to work and it looks underdosed here. ALA is a good choice as always but again, looks underdosed. NAD is what happens to Vitamin B3 (Niacin) when it’s metabolized by the body and it has a lot of health benefits but requires mega doses of at least 1 g to work.
Electrolyte & Delivery Complex, 5265 mg
It has carbs composed of three types of glucose under a blend called Shock Therapy Carb Blend. It then finishes with electrolytes Sodium, Potassium, Trisodium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, and Magnesium Oxide for muscle hydration.
Formula Analysis
With that many ingredients, it’s more than obvious it will have plenty of derpy doses in each blend. Just look at them.
NO Super Pump Volumizing Complex
This is their vanguard blend but they made a mistake of cramming dosage-hungry ingredients in one small mix. Creatine alone requires 2-3 grams, what more the Arginine Complex and its other pump ingredients? Even if for synergy, there’s nothing to synergize when your NO blend isn’t producing enough NO in the first place. Serious dosage fail.
Muscle Strength Blend
This blend is pretty decent as far as ingredients are concerned. Again, we only question the efficacy of each dose as ALCAR being at the bottom tells us it got less than its fair share of the weight. This makes ALCAR ineffective and most likely a waste of space. We’re not even sure why Taurine is above Beta-Alanine when research about its benefits on muscle damage and recovery is not as significant in comparison.
Enertropic & Antioxidant Complex
We appreciate SHOCK THERAPY for adding Tyrosine and Choline despite being in their weakest and cheapest forms since it looks like they got the right dosage for them at the very least. Caffeine is caffeine so the use of multiple sources to make it “mild” is poorly done especially when you can just add something like Theanine to balance the side effects.
Green Tea and Grapeseed looks okay but are they standardized? It matters because generic ingredients won’t work in low doses like SHOCK THERAPY did here. As for Cysteine, ALA, and NAD, they could’ve been awesome additions but these three require upwards of a whole gram to work.
Electrolyte & Delivery Complex
This blend is all about replenishment and it seems to be in good doses too. Ironically, it’s the accessory blend that gets points for proper dosage.
What do we make of SHOCK THERAPY then? It seems to be effective for energy, recovery, and maybe a bit of muscle growth and performance. What it’s NOT effective for is at giving pumps and that’s a costly mistake especially when you insist your product is a pump pre-workout.
SHOCK THERAPY Benefits
You’ll definitely have lots of energy and have enhanced physical performance at the gym. You’ll also get a good post-workout recovery out of this supplement. There might be a slight pump but then again it might be a placebo effect due to the enhanced lifts and energy you’ll get.
Who Takes It?
They say it’s for “general lifters and bodybuilders who value the pump and maximizing muscle and shape.” Yes, for general lifters and maybe a bit for bodybuilders but not for pump value. Sorry, SHOCK THERAPY, there just isn’t enough for a good pump here.
Any Side Effects?
There are side effects associated with stimulants so that’s a given but if their herbs indicate anything it’s that this shouldn’t be an issue. Unless your body’s not good with caffeine, you should be fine.
SHOCK THERAPY Summary
Pros
- One scoop serving. Simple instructions are the best.
- Good additions. Plenty of high quality and researched ingredients here.
- Enough energy. Two strong cups of coffee are good enough for most lifters.
- Better lifts. You should get more reps out of this one.
- Cheap. You can try the 10 servings bottle for just $16.00!
Cons
- Prop blend. We can’t see how good or bad their doses are.
- Likely underdosed. Lots of ingredients + small serving = bad idea, bro.
- Ineffective dosages. Premium ingredients don’t matter if you just sprinkled them in.
- What pump? Seriously, what pump?
- Bad taste. Many users speak against its flavors.
Pricing & Buying Info
- 1 bottle (10 servings): $15.95
- 1 bottle (42 servings): $52.95
- Available online and in retail stores
Final Word on SHOCK THERAPY
SHOCK THERAPY is a little disappointing when compared to the ANIMAL line of supplements. Sure, ANIMAL supplements have plenty of ingredients (a lot more, actually) but they also balanced it out with decent dosages, something SHOCK THERAPY forgot to do. It would’ve been a good product if they added more space or removed some of the fairy dust. If you’re looking for a cheap thrill, then your best bet is the 10-servings bottle.
[yasr_overall_rating]
Leave a Reply