Special thanks again for PharmaFreak for letting me try the RippedFreak PWO. I really enjoyed the Amino Freak powder version, so when I ran the ripped freak pwo I had some high expectations.

How i ran it: 2 scoops 20 minutes prior to workout on an empty stomach. Nothing stacked with it preworkout or intra workout (other than water).

My Routine: As many of you know my routines are based on supersets, dropsets and monstersets. Many mass to shred supersets are my niche.

Profile: This is where I get super confused. Instead of listing the ingredients of the product, they list the technical chemistry-based ingredient of each item. Maybe it sounds better when you 1,3,7-trimethyl-1h-purine-2,6-dione other than just saying Caffeine. However, if it works they can label it however they want. Additionally, the blend is only 2.5g for each scoop. Not to exceed 2 scoops. This has your standard Beta Alanine, AAKG and L-Tyrosine as well. But overall, just an real big let down from a profile perspective.

Effectiveness 4: As I stated, the profile looks on paper weak, but I have been surprised in the past with weak looking profiles and great results. This however, was not one of these situations. The effectiveness matched the profile, WEAK. I am fairly stim tolerant, but I get more from a cup of Starbucks than I do this stuff. I never have issues in the pump department, so it didn't enhance anything there. From an energy perspective, it was a hug letdown.

Taste N/A: Yes, it tastes fine. It is a pre workout, taste isn't a measurement in my mind.

Value: This is roughly $45 at local GNCs and similarly priced online. For the money, it is a complete bust. I never exceeded 2 scoops, per the recommendation as advertised. At 45 scoops, this is well over 2 dollars per serving with little effectiveness.

Conclusion: As stated, there are many better options in the pre workout family, notably Muscle Marinade, Supp-D, even Jack3d. I thought Pharmafreak had a great product here, judging by my results with Amino Freak, but they just struck out here and it does not get my seal of approval.

Well let me start by saying that I appreciated the opportunity to review this product through the expert reviewer program and thanks to Pharma Freak for sending out the products.

--Overview--

So this is a pretty standard concentrated PWO which is a category that is becoming flooded very fast in the supplement market these days. It seems as if every day there is a new one hitting the shelf and I am always excited to have a chance to try a new one out.

--Ingredient Profile 3/10--


200 Grams
Fruit Punch
Serving Size:1-2Scoops
Servings Per Container:45

Amount per 2 scoops
% Daily Value
RIPPED FREAK FORMULA
5,024mg
†
2-Amino-3-(4-Hydroxyphenyl) Propanoic Acid (TyroPure™ Instantized L-Tyrosine), 3-Aminopropanoic Acid (Pharmaceutical-Grade Beta-Alanine), 1,3,7-Trimethyl-1H-Purine-2,6(3H,7H)-Dione (USP-Grade Caffeine Anhydrous), Arginine Alpha-Ketoglutarate (AAKG) (2:1 Maximum Absorption Ratio), Oleuropein Algycone (OA) (From Olive Leaf Extract), AstraGin™ (Panax Notoginseng / Astragalus Membranaceous)

† Daily Value not established.

Other Ingredients:
Citric Acid, Beet Root Powder, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Malic Acid, Acesulfame Potassium, Sucralose.

So if you actually read that long winded completely unnecessary ingredient profile you will see that it is essentially a lot of really common components. For those of you who skipped straight down to what I have to say it contains tyrosine, beta alanine, caffeine, AAKG, olive leaf extract, and Astragin.

Right off the bat if you view this from strictly its profile it looks pretty unimpressive. At a little over 5g per scoop some of these components have to be underdosed. We don't know exactly how badly or which ones because it is hidden behind a proprietary blend. One thing I would love to see all companies do away with is that damn prop blend. A supplement will always lose marks with me for prop blends these days. So just from its' profile I'm not very impressed.

One thing I was glad to see is that they have left creatine out of the mix. I would really prefer that more PWO's start doing this because it really isn't an important ingredient for a PWO and it is always good to have go to supplements for off creatine cycles.

--Taste/Mixing 8/10--

One of the things that I did enjoy was the flavor of Ripped Freak. They sent me the Blue Raspberry flavor and it was surprisingly pleasant. Reminded me of candy. Mixing was very good as I can not think back to one instance of problems with clumping or floating particles.

--Effectiveness 4/10--

While Ripped Freak did perform better than its profile would suggest I can't really say that there was anything special about this product in this department. I have actually toned my use of PWO's way back for several reasons so a good one should really give me a kick. It really was just mostly a caffeine high for me more than anything but I will say that the energy was a bit more sustained than straight caffeine. I didn't notice any crazy pumps or endurance increase it was pretty much just an energy boost. Which leads me to believe that beta alanine is one of the most severely under dosed ingredients because any supplement with a good amount in it always gives me an endurance boost.

This product did perform better than some that I have tried in the past but I would have to say that it falls well short of being in the upper echelon of the pre workout category.

--Value 3/10--

So once again this is a category where this product is just falling short. I searched around on the average price of this product and the best I could find was a buy one get one free for $43. Which if it was always that price it would get higher marks but that was a bb.com sale and it is not always going to be so cheap and the price point is going to be around 40 bucks a tub for 45 scoops. Keep in mind that two scoops is only a little over 5g and even at the max recommended dose of 2 scoops you are still not getting enough of most of the ingredients. So the value for me just is practically non existent with Ripped Freak.

--Final Thoughts--

As I said earlier there are tons of new pre workout supplements coming out all the time and especially the concentrated ones. I think that a supplement like this could easily get lost in the crowd. They wanted an unbiased review and this is just how I feel. I personally think that they should just scrap this formula and come up with something new.

To start this review I would like to thank Petey and the rest of the expert review team for allowing me to try this product out and rate it for the site. I would also like to thank Pharma freak for giving us at SR.com an opportunity to test their product and give an unbiased opinion.
Today’s review is on Ripped freak PWO, this is a pretty basic pre-workout formula which for me is run of the mill. You can always expect the same feeling/results while using this product. I have consumed many different brands, types, and strengths of pre-workout supplements during my years in bodybuilding and this product for me was average at best. Let’s jump into the review for this product; we will break it down as I always do into separate categories with individual scoring resulting in the overall bottom line score.

---------------TASTE 6/10-------------------

Pre-workouts are not meant to sip on so this category is more for the just starting out in bodybuilding phase. The flavor supplied to myself was blue raspberry and it smelt much better then it tasted. The taste was way too sweet for my liking and didn’t leave a medical after taste/burn which I desire while drinking my PWO. The blue raz taste was very fake and forced in my honest opinion and they should cut back on the sweetener. Even though the directions state to drink 1-2 scoops in 8-12oz of water that was just too much drink for me for this flavor.**mixing this product with 2scoops and 6oz of water is an overpowering splender splash in the mouth and gagged me to almost up chuck**

---------EFFECTIVNESS/FOCUS 4/10------------
This product failed to deliver here from day one I was expecting something better which may have been my problem. When researching this product I found rave reports of increased endurance, increased focus and energy all I got from this product was an under dosed beta-alanine and way under dosed caffeine feeling felt O.K for 10-15minutes only. Since my work out time is afternoon I could go without a pre-workout, but I love the rush and added energy and endurance to plow through my brutal routines. This product would not surface. Quarter of the way through my routine I would start to run out of steam and feel sluggish with this as a standalone PWO, thank god for some special help from mixing this product with Isatori PWR or my work out may have suffered.

Focus was a non-factor since this product lacked in it. Things that had me more focused were issues I had at home or work an aggression release was far superior to this product. The reason I gave this a 4 is because if your stimulant sensitive like some people are this product may be a god send. For people that are more stim tolerant this is a weak product that lacks in all key areas we look for in a solid PWO. Another place this PWO lacks is pump production. It says it increases pump due to its aakg property well again a promise left unfulfilled. I received my entire pump when I added D-pol to my PWO ***tail. So as for this category this is a fail for a seasoned vet in the sport and a maybe for a newcomer.

----------------CONTENT 5/10-----------------
I have no idea why Pharmafreak uses such scientific terms and formulas for the ingredient list but they do. I gave this product a 5 since it has the right culprits just very under dosed. Let’s go to chemistry class with Bill Nye the science guy as we go through the content.
Amount per 2 scoops % Daily Value
RIPPED FREAK FORMULA 5,024mg †
2-Amino-3-(4-Hydroxyphenyl) Propanoic Acid (TyroPure™ Instantized L-Tyrosine), 3-Aminopropanoic Acid (Pharmaceutical-Grade Beta-Alanine), 1,3,7-Trimethyl-1H-Purine-2,6(3H,7H)-Dione (USP-Grade Caffeine Anhydrous), Arginine Alpha-Ketoglutarate (AAKG) (2:1 Maximum Absorption Ratio), Oleuropein Algycone (OA) (From Olive Leaf Extract), AstraGin™ (Panax Notoginseng / Astragalus Membranaceous)

Basically it would be easier to say this product contains L-Tyrosine most commonly found in mood enhancers. Propanoic acid found in foods as a preservative and sometimes used as a fatty acid. Beta-Alanine, Caffeine, AAKG, again these main proven ingredients are so under dosed you barely feel them. Again another fail in this category for under dosed compounds.

-------VALUE 2/10------------------------
How can a company place a $43.00 dollar price tag on this? I guess for going through all the trouble of using scientific names in the content I will give them a 2 for research ability. All seriousness a side I would never pay over 29.99 for a PWO product ever and for how this product performed I wouldn’t pay 20.00. Pharmafreak really needs to evaluate there product here if they want it to be a high end pre-workout they need to step up and fix the ratio for proper results.

Overall I would have loved to see a better product like the ripped freak fat burner, but they failed in the Pre-workout category thus far. I can not place the hulk seal of approval on this and can not tell people to drop over 40.00 for this product.
If the price was in the low 20’s they will sell many more tubs of this and if they fix the ratio and taste it could compete with other products like k-otic, pwr, razor 8, muscle marinade and other high end pre-work outs. Till then this is a run of the mill starter PWO that is way over priced.


-k-