About
AltRed is an “endurance and recovery” supplement. The tagline for the product is “train harder, recover faster and perform better”.
AltRed is made by Sur PhytoPerformance and is designed to prevent “exercise-induced muscle damage”, raise the user’s “lactic acid threshold” and “improve oxygen delivery”.
The product features just one active ingredient: beetroot extract (50mg), which is standardized to contain 25% betalains. This ingredient is noted for its high nitrate content and is said to help raise nitric oxide. This in turn could improve blood flow, help reduce muscle soreness and increase endurance.
Each bottle of AltRed contains 30 capsules (30 servings).
Wis3guy –
Will this cause an Altred state and therefore induce cardio insanity?
—-Quick Summary—-
Altred is a plant based supplement designed to increase performance and recovery. I have watched Beetroot extract sneak its way into supplements and figured a stand alone product would be fun to try. I am not sure how much credit to give to this product but I honestly had fun doing cardio this last month.
—-Introduction—-
46 year old trying to fight the ravages of time and still be able to intimidate any potential future boyfriends my daughter might bring home…. I work out 5 to 7 days a week. During this run I was trying to maintain my weight which I did, and possibly re-comp a little while healing from a Lower back twisting out of joint. I was also off of caffeine so I wanted to give myself as much of a boost as I could. I would like to thank the SRTrooper program because it is awesome. Also to thank SUR Phytoperformance for sending this stuff out to me.
—-Ingredient Profile—-
The one cool thing about single ingredient profiles. They are single ingredient profiles……
Beetroot Extract @ 50mg: Here is the problem. Examine.com list the effective dose at 436mg for a 150# person…… I am not 150#’s, currently sitting at 200#s. This seems to be under dosed, however maybe the have a stronger powder? Who knows? All I can do is put out some numbers and let you decide. I guess I would like some explanation of the dosage or an increase to a more appropriate dose.
https://examine.com/supplements/beet-root/
—-Taste/Mix-ability/Dosing—-
There is no taste or after effects for this single small red pill. Maybe they should make it a blue pill? Nope, I like red……
No mix-ability issues as it is a pill.
Dosing is pretty easy 1 pill each day. 2 hours before activity. They also suggest every 2 hours during activity. The only problem I could see would be people that are doing cardio first thing in the morning. I don’t know anyone who would wake up 2 hours early to take a pill, then go back to sleep in order to have it in your system.
—-Effectiveness—-
Once again I am not sure on this one. From research I did, this does not have enough stuff in it to be effective. However, I felt good working out all month and my cardio felt good. It was hitting muscle soreness more than lung capacity. I did use Cellucor NO3 Ultimate as well on some days. But I didn’t use it all days so that isn’t the only factor. This one just stumps me, possibly could be a placebo effect, who knows…….
—-Value—-
As of 5/10/2018 they have this listed for $50.00 for a months supply.
https://shop.sur.co/
This is what really makes this supplement a MEH….. For this price I can get a pre-workout that has way more stuff in it, like PeakO2 which I know works for me. I just can’t see this as a good value. Especially when you are to take it every couple of hours during an event which could really make you blow through a bottle.
—-Side Effects—-
No side effects what so ever……
—-Conclusion—-
This is an interesting product that I have to give a Meh to. I can’t really justify the price for a single ingredient. I know that I think it helped during my month run, but it didn’t help as much as other products that I have taken (PeakO2 for example). If you are a minimalist and want to check out single ingredients you could give this a try. I think your money would be better spent on a caffeine free pre-workout with more stuff in it. But hey some of you don’t understand my daily green smoothie, so to each his own. It was an interesting month trying this I just can’t give it a thumbs up at the current dosage and price.
jamesjsix –
Those looking for an endurance enhancer, i recommend a different set of magic beans
—-Quick Summary—-
I didn’t have the effects claimed from this supplement and don’t see the value in the high price.
—-Introduction—-
Greetings SR! Back again with another review and this time it’s the single ingredient AltRed brought to you by Sur PhytoPerformance. Firstly, I want to thank the SR TROOPs program or giving me the opportunity to try this product out. If you want to know of my background, you can find it in my profile here at:
https://supplementreviews.com/users/jamesjsix
—-Ingredient Profile—-
4/10
Well, this one is easy, it’s a single ingredient supplement which contains 50mg of beetroot extract standardized to 25% betalains. That’s it, there isn’t anything else active and the other ingredients are just to put it into the pill. If we are just looking at beetroot, this is way underdosed as examine says that you need almost 500 grams/150 lbs. This is refined down to Betalains however and have some studies show that this particular substance helps with cardiovascular health, though dosing and source here seem unclear. As I’m not a biologist, biochemist, or anything even close to this, I can’t say with any authority if the performance aspects from this are founded in science or not.
—-Taste/Mixability/Dosing—-
N/A
Taste is non-existent as its a pill. It’s very easy to swallow the pills as they about the size of single ibuprofen cap. Dosing is pretty easy most of the time. The instructions are to take 1 pill 2 hours before a workout that will last between 0 and 2 hours. Take another start of the workout that lasts 2 hours and another every 2 hours later for every additional 2 hours the workout will go. So a 2 hour workout means 1 will, a 4 hour workout means 2 pills, etc On off days, just take one pill. I never ended up taking more than 1 pill a day as when i did steady state cardio, it was always under 2 hours.
—-Effectiveness—-
4.0/10
Well…does it work? Ummm…I don’t think so. I never noticed an increase in my cardio abilities in either speed or endurance when taking this product. For the days that I lifted and then closed with a tabata workout, my performance was the same. I ran at the same pace as usual, and felt like i was putting out the same effort with the same amount of fatigue. For my steady state cardio days, I also didn’t notice a change in my performance when either running or biking. I will caveat this with I am not a primarily endurance athlete as this product looks geared towards. Perhaps those that are more endurance oriented and not as focused on muscular strength would see more effects.
—-Value—-
3.7/10
The cost of this supplement is $50 for 30 pills, coming out to just about $1.67 a serving for me (if i was going to pay for it). This is a high cost that I can’t imagine myself paying. Comparatively, I put this supplement in the same vein as creatine and beta-alanine, both of which can be had for less than 20 cents a serving. This isn’t a perfect comparison but they are both set to aid in performing your workouts when taken regularly. This is significantly more expensive than either of those two and with effects I cannot verify.
—-Side Effects—-
Nope, again I didn’t notice anything from this one good or bad.
—-Conclusion—-
3.9/10
This product didn’t give me the results that I hoped for from it. I was hoping for an effect much closer to what I was getting from adding beta-alanine to my stack, a slight boost to performance/the ability to go a little harder for a little longer. Unfortunately, this didn’t give me either and the high price tag drives me away from the product. I would be interested to see the results of this product by a competitive endurance athlete however as I think if there are effects to be had, they would be realized by them.
beastwl96 –
Not sure if placebo or really works
—-Quick Summary—-
Thank you Sur Phytoperformance for giving me the opportunity to try this product that I have never really heard much about! The reason I wanted to try this is because I read that Betalains are supposed to improve endurance type workouts and help you workout at higher intensities.
—-Ingredient Profile—-
Beetroot extract (Beta Vulgaris L.)
(Standardized to contain 25% Betalains), I had read on naturalmedicinejournal.com that you need much more than this amount in order for it to really do something. Here’s the link https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/2017-08/betalain-rich-concentrate-improves-exercise-performance
—-Taste/Mixability/Dosing—-
NA for taste, super small and easy pill to take, dosing is simple, take 1 pill 2 hours before and every 2 hours after workout has started
—-Effectiveness—- 6/10
Now here I’m not sure if I really felt this product working. I had been wanting to start running to increase my endurance, as well as increase my weight lifting endurance doing higher reps. So I had started running around 3 times a week, my 1-2 mile time was terrible of course and then I decided to start taking this about 3 weeks after my first few runs. My mile times varied by a few seconds and I pretty much felt the same tiredness and exhaustion as I had since before taking this. I’m assuming I ran harder which is why my time decreased and my exhausting felt the same? Reps in weight lifting did not change at all, I continued to get tired at the same amount of reps as before. As another reviewer said, I feel like this product would be better for an endurance type athlete.
—-Value—-4/10
$50 on the altred website https://shop.sur.co pretty pricey for 30 servings, and that’s only if you take one a day. If you workout more than 2 hours, then you’re supposed to take another capsule every two hours after that, which ends up being even more expensive!
—-Side Effects—-
No side effects while on this
—-Conclusion—-
I did not really feel much of the things this product claimed which are
Improves oxygen delivery*
Mitigates lactic acid*
Reduces markers for muscle damage*
except maybe the oxygen delivery a slight bit while running, but nothing. You’re probably better off just getting some beet juice. If price doesn’t matter much, and you workout for long amounts of time, I think it’s worth a try, but if not I don’t think this is worth the price.
Xcmiler –
AltRed is a Great Endurance and Stamina Booster for LISS and HIIT Cardio
—-Introduction—-
I had never heard of Sur or AltRed before they came to the site. After looking into the company it appears that they are owned by the same people behind many trademarked ingredients you see in products. Such as Vitacherry, EleveATP, Spectra and quite a few others. In addition, since I do a lot of cardio work this product appealed to me. Here is the review.
—-Ingredient Profile—-
AltRed comes in a small 30 serving bottle. Each serving is one pill and they contain 50 mg of beetroot extract that is standardized to contain 25% betalains. Betalains are said to have high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capabilities. At first glance the 50 mg might not seem like a lot since a lot of beetroot products will have 500 mg or more. However, those products do not list the standardization and I doubt they are as high as 25%. Based on taking other beetroot products in the past, I could definitely tell a positive difference when using AltRed. So, I believe that the standardization here goes a long way.
In terms of other ingredients, you have organic rice fiber I presume is the filler. Carmine for the color of the pill as they are tiny red pills. Lastly, you have a gelatin capsule. I will be honest I am surprised they went with a gelatin capsule. If this was a vegetarian/vegan type capsule I feel like they could have had broader appeal. To me personally, it does not make a difference.
—-Taste/Mixability/Dosing—-
Taste and Mixability do not apply here but I will say the pills are very small. So, this could be beneficial for people who have issues taking pills. As far as dosing goes, they say to take one pill each day even on off days. In addition, you can increase the dose depending on the duration of the activity you are doing. Their dosing is as follows: 0-2 hours 1 pill two hours before activity, 2-4 hours 2 pills with one 2 hours before and the other at the start, and 4+ hours 1 two hours before, one at the start, and other two hours into the activity. In essence, you can dose the pills every two hours starting two hours before the activity and throughout the activity. I will include the dosing chart in the event my explanation was confusing. I personally only ever took one pill a day and on running/workout days I would dose it about two hours before.
—-Effectiveness—-
The main benefit of AltRed is improved endurance and recovery. If you go to the website a lot of the testimonials are from competitive runners, ironman participants, and bike riders. Luckily, when I began reviewing this product I had increased my running so I was able to test the improved endurance and recovery.
As I have mentioned in a lot of my reviews, I run anywhere from 4-6 days per week. I mix it up with LISS (low intensity steady state cardio), HIIT (high intensity interval training), and hillwork type runs. Once I started taking this I did not notice much for the first week. In the second week, I began to notice a slight increase in my stamina. This was noticeable as I have a running partner. I always had the better endurance out of the two of us as my partner is a novice runner whose main issue is pacing. Therefore, when they lead we will at times be going too fast for the distance of the run. What I noticed was over the course of the bottle my endurance and stamina were improving faster than my partner. In years past, they would usually catch up to where I was at by this time in the Summer. However, they did not in this case. I attribute it to the AltRed as I felt a lot better when I would run.
As far as recovery, there was a slight recovery boost as I was running longer and slightly faster. With this increase in speed and length I was not as sore as I would have thought I would be. So, in regards to recovery I do think it helped slightly.
—-Value—-
Each 30 serving bottle is priced at $50 per bottle. So, you are looking at about $1.66 per serving. Now, I have seen this on sale for $10 off so that would be $1.33 per serving. I looked for other similar products but to be honest I could not find one with a standardization even close to 25%. If you are in the market for a beet root product I would give this a try and compare it to other ones. I definitely noticed a large difference with this over a generic 500mg beet root pills with no standardization listed off Amazon. I will also note that AltRed is an Ironman U.S. Series Partner and it is listed on the official ironman website. In addition, the product is informed choice and NSF verified. They also have a 30 day money back guarantee where you can take this for a month and if you did not see results they can refund the purchase.
My personal value of these is I could see myself getting these depending on where I was at supplement wise. Every once in a awhile I go off most supplements such as a pre workout, BCAA, creatine etc. During those times I usually just use coffee, multi, protein and fish oil. I think next time I do that I will pick this up and run it again.
—-Side Effects—-
I had no side effects while taking this product.
—-Conclusion—-
Overall, AltRed was a unique product that I felt was effective for HIIT and LISS cardio. I definitely noticed improvements in stamina and endurance. I also noticed a slight increase in recovery but it was not as large are the stamina and endurance increases. I feel like if you are in the market for a beet root product or do a lot of cardio this is definitely worth a try. Thank you to Sur for sending the product out and I apologize that the review took awhile to get done.
-Xcmiler