Formula Advice Please

platypus · 29 Mar 2007 at 10:05

A friend at work swears by Maximuscle's Promax formula: http://www.maximuscle.com/promaxextreme for his weight-lifting. Now I've read a fair bit in here and I'd say there is roughly a 50/50 for the pre-made formulas, and against.

How do people rate Maximuscle's stuff? Bearing in mind I'm not a lifter, nor a body-builder, I am looking at enhancing my existing muscle with lean muscle - not huge amounts of bulk. The main reason is I'm seriously into running at the moment, and as running is great for weight loss, bulking up would be seriously difficult, but also not what I really want.

I was looking at http://www.maximuscle.com/creatamaxextreme and http://www.maximuscle.com/cyclone for the muscle recovery, and lean muscle that Creatine helps build. I do have a small weights routine, but obviously most of my work is cardio-vascular.

TIA

alexakasloth · 29 Mar 2007 at 10:42

Unless your lifting weights then I wouldn't have thought this kinda stuff would be of any use to you :confused:

platypus · 29 Mar 2007 at 12:09

Well I do lift weights once a week but its more for strength then bulk. Im more interested in the lean muscle creatine produces, and muscle endurance, stamina etc.

MTA99 · 29 Mar 2007 at 12:13

The main "beef" people have with maximuscle (and other supplement companies) is the outlandish marketing claims and the overpriced products. Notice that I've not said maximuscle (or and other supplement companies) products don't work, I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who find it works great (your buddy included), its just price/lb lean muscle is shocking.

Could you (or your buddy) get the same increase in lean muscle by just taking whey and creatine? IMHO most people would! For the elite few who are at the top of their game added ingredients like "Fenugreek extract" or "Patent pending Glutamine & Creatine absorption system" (whatever that is?!) will give them that final few percent to reach a goal.

When looking at any of these supps first thing you must always do, skip past all the guff at the top of the page and look at the ingredients - this is actually what you're gonna be pouring down your neck! Once you've worked out what's in there read the claims and see if it tallies with what you know about the basic ingredients.

Having said all that here's my opinions on the products you're looking at

Creatamax Extreme: Its creatine and glutamine with a simple carb *and* non simple carb based uptake mix. My suggestion, try creatine mono with a simple carb or if low carb is important try CEE. Interesting that they give this advice "Marathon runners, cyclists or anyone wanting endurance and not bulk, should take just 1 scoop daily, with no loading dose." Creatine is most effective at providing energy for short, intense bursts of activity (like football, rugby, lifting) so its only benefit to endurance athletes is decreased muscle soreness. They know this but still sell you the stuff.

Cyclone: Its whey, sugar, creatine, a selection of aminos and good fats. Seems a nice mix (altho I'd like to see fewer simple carbs and more complex) but is this the way to supplement? Everything in one hit? For me, its not.

I know there's a massive amount of MP pimping round here and other supplement companies just get beat down but lets look at the numbers and you should see why.

Creatamax Extreme from a well known online supplement store sells this for £40.49 for 1103gms or ~17 servings (1103g/2x33g). If you wanted the same ready made formula from MP you could get almost 10kgs of Creatine Plus Formula® (200 servings) or if you go down the CEE route ~2kgs which is enough for 1000 servings!!

Cyclone is £35.99 for 1.2kgs or 6 servings (1200g/3x60g) :eek:

"You should be training with weights 3-4 times a week when using Cyclone, which should be taken every day." so theres not even a week supply in a tub! For the same money MP will sell you 4kgs of Hurricane XS Formula® giving 57 servings (4000g/1x70g), buy 7 servings get 50 free!!

Compare that to the £30 a month I spend on whey, bedtime formula and bits a pieces like CEE, taurine, green tea etc that last months!

As I said at the beginning, no one is really knocking maximuscle for not working as such, its just there are much better ways to spend your money! Most the experienced guys on here (me included) have thrown money at these supps only to realise later that its a waste of cash.