I was intending for this review to be based more on an anecdote rather than give a compendium of personal accounts. The reason being because based on other reviewers, I’ve heard the same story. Most importantly this is a cautionary tale about taking the full dose. In the beginning of 2024, I went on a vacation with the family to upstate New York to get away from the distractions of the city. We were in a cabin where I was focusing more on my martial arts and calisthenics as opposed to lifting weights in a gym. I brought with me a variety of samples from Ruesco, which if you purchased samples from them, you’d know that they come in small baggies with sticker labels attached. I brought with me Crack OG and Crack Reloaded among a couple of daily drivers. As I had unpacked my bags and used a couple of daily drivers to get through some of my routines, there came a day where I wanted something a bit more high stim. I decided on Crack Reloaded and determined that I would save Crack OG for when I made my way in town to try the local gym. The only problem here is that the labels fell off of both baggies. What I thought was Crack Reloaded was actually Crack OG! If you didn’t know, Reloaded is more of a heavy hitter nootropic. Crack OG is a really hardcore stim junkie preworkout with DMHA, noopept, alpha yo, and three types of caffeine. As you can tell by this foreshadowing, I accidentally picked Crack OG. It was 5am and still dark out, the family was sleeping, I made my drink and chugged it. I made it through the first portion of my training with ease utilizing a deck of cards where black was designated for squats and red was designated for pushups. Each card that you flip, you take the face value of the card and commit to the repetition of that exercise. I worked through this with ease and the buzz started setting in. I still didn’t know that it was crack OG. 20 minutes in and it was starting to build. The buzz was intense and I really was amped to push myself further than I normally go. I breezed through the deck of cards, some forms, shadow boxing and various sets of exercises utilizing my body weight but it wasn’t enough. 45-50 minutes in and the intensity was continuing to build without any ending in sight. At this point I realized my mistake. I recognized the DMHA buzz and the intensity of my workout at this point. I decided to roll with it and continue regardless thinking something stupid like “it’s just two scoops and DMHA, I can handle this!” I could not handle this. My workout ended after an hour and 15 minutes and I was still feeling it. I was flying! By now that the workout was over I was taking a break, sitting down and letting the sweat run off me. The side effects were starting to set in, anxiety had made its way in to distract me from the euphoria and I started to feel a little nauseous. After about an hour and a half I ended up dry heaving and my mood had changed. I went from “I can handle this” to “did I accidentally overdose?” I showered and tried to settle myself down. While I was now more stationary and settled from the exercise, the pre was still booming hard and kicking my ass! I was originally going to commit to four hours of work from the cabin to make up some extra time but as I logged onto my platform, I felt like I was speeding so hard that the idea of sitting still and typing on my laptop was terrifying! “Why am I so scared?” I thought to myself. I sent an email to my supervisor and claimed I would make up my schedule over the weekend. After 2.5 hours it was still going strong and I had to do something. I was experiencing full blown panic by now and thinking “how long is this supposed to last!?” I decided to walk a mile to the nearest shop and grab a couple of beers in hopes of settling myself and also to hopefully nap it out. I don’t drink so this could potentially work. Even though it was just a mile, my fitbit was showing me to hit zone minutes and my heart rate was around 120 bpm. I purchased a couple of strong beers, made it back to the cabin and drank them, praying that it would give me some type of lethargy to nap. By this point it was around 3.5 hours since taking the pre. I managed to be able to close my eyes and get a little bit of a nap but my heart rate was still spiked when I had come out of my nap. I kept thinking that day that it wouldn’t have been the same if I was in a gym and able to exhaust myself with heavy lifting. It is a good pre workout and definitely one you can use to break PRs. I ended up buying a tub for this reason despite having a nightmare experience. Since then I have never exceeded more than one scoop and I was right. It is a damned good pre workout and one you can certainly use for the motivation to break a PR. 2 scoops is just too much! The flavor of the tub I got was grape and it’s fine. I can’t even remember what variety of flavor it was of the sample that I had purchased but the grape seems less offensive in taste because I do remember that sample to be stronger in flavor than what grape tastes like. Take this as a cautionary tale, using 2 scoops may seem like a stim junkie hazing into the world of high intensity stim junkie pre workouts, but the side effects are not worth it. To this day, I cannot point out any single ingredient in particular that caused me to be such a mess. It was the full synergy of all the ingredients combined.
Meaty Morsels
Reviewing since Dec 2024
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I expected this one to be similar to the OG crack gold, and truthfully it’s similar in a lot of ways but many other aspects make this stand out on its own. This pre workout is definitely for a day off work or a day when you plan on having 2 workouts. The first time I took this I was expecting it to hit the way crack gold hits because of the label. It boasts DMHA and geranium extract (aka DMAA), at 150mg and 75mg respectively. Crack gold boasts 200mg DMHA and 100mg Geranium extract. There are some differences such as crack gold having some nootropic add ins like alpha gpc and NALT whereas Legit Pre does not.The differences on the label appear subtle, but they vastly differ from each other in a lot of ways. The biggest takeaway comparing these two pre workout juggernauts come down to the overall experience. Crack gold feels dirtier than Legit Pre for some reason. I’m not sure why this is or what is extra on the label, but this is only a deciding factor in how I want my workout to go. Legit Pre feels a bit cleaner but the focus is also more intense. With Legit Pre, I feel more in tune with the weights and with crack gold, I feel like I’m trying to destroy the weights. The biggest overall difference is the duration of these feelings with legit. Legit feels like it continues to work in the background even after your gym session is over. Crack gold feels like there’s a crash that lets me know it’s over. Legit pre doesn’t seem to have that crash. For example: the first time I took Legit Pre, I had a killer gym session, I broke some PRs, i felt the mood elevation and euphoria for some time after I was done working out. I almost forgot I had taken the Legit Pre until 5 hours after I was done exercising I drank an energy drink.i thought it was long over until the caffeine from the energy drink kicked in. I was brimming with energy so hard I just went back to the gym and had another extra 45 minutes of exercise to level off the feeling. It was a good feeling, the music was loud because the headphones were stuffed into my eardrums and I was rocking out for the rest of the 2nd workout session. Energy drinks don’t do that for me so I knew it was the legit pre. This thing hits hard and then sticks around like your wife’s boyfriend. Unlike your wife’s boyfriend it’s not an awkward and uncomfortable type of lingering, it’s more welcomed. This is where the biggest difference lies between crack gold and legit pre lie. This one can lie low and reactivate like a sleeper cell if the need arises. Another difference lies within the flavor. Crack gold is nasty with a strong aftertaste that feels like it gives you cottonmouth by taking one sip. Legit pre has an aftertaste but it’s not an aggressive cleaning agent type of taste like you would get with gold. It’s subtle and manageable that is almost as smooth as some other types of sports drinks.
I really enjoy using Zeus, I just feel like it’s an inconsistent hitter. There have been days where I’ve taken this with mediocre effects at play. At it’s full effect, it is fantastic! I save this for days to use after a stim break when my tolerance has reset a little and I can enjoy the full effects of this. The star of the show here is mood elevation, which is great when it happens. I feel like I always compare this to Flame V3 which is a solid hitter, I think most people do. I get consistent results with flame each time I use it. I feel like the perfect use of this is during an early morning exercise after about a week of using only daily drivers or after a stim break. I do bounce back and forth between this and flame v3 but flame wins every time. The energy is great, heart rate is boosted, I build up a sweat and I motivate to complete my workouts. There’s times where I’ve taken this and I wanna stay in the gym lifting even when the workout is over. It’s a very positive experience every time, I just don’t feel like it hits hard every time. It’s the delicate balance… I would never take this and expect great results if I took something like crack Primal 3-4 days ago. The flavor is strawberry lemonade which is not a favorite of mine. You can tell it’s a bit bitter. I find the flavor to be on point with maniaco pump strawberry lemonade. Both of these stacked together makes a lot of sense and actually has a good taste to it.
One of my all time favorites that I use in sparse rotation (every other week or so). The energy is there and you feel it but it doesn’t present like other pre workouts. It’s like the title says, “Like working out in outer space”. I feel like I’m floating around the gym, weights seem lighter with zero gravity and you’re in this bubble completing movements. The prim ingredient on this one is DMBA but I feel like dose of DMAE is in the background and really ties everything together for focus and working memory. I almost feel giddy when I use this, not quite “euphoric” but definitely some mood elevation, some slight euphoria maybe. I do tend to be a little bit more jovial and talkative on this one. The pumps are there with a dose of glycerol and the energy is driven by DMBA with a decent 2mg of alpha yo. WEIGH YOUR SCOOP!! The dose is 12.7g. The scoop weighs out to be around 18g for my tub. I’m not sure if this is consistent for everyone. The flavor is “dreamland” (which is appropriate because it feels like you’re lifting weights in your dream) which is a take on Tiger’s blood. Very nice flavor the coconut water ingredient really stands out on this flavor, it tastes like a tropical cocktail. No bitterness, actually very nice to drink. You could prank someone at a party and mix their pina colada with this stuff, watch them end up taking their bicycle apart in the living room an hour later. Don’t do that though, but it would be funny. I absolutely recommend this one, it’s one of my favorites. Very clean and positive experience consistent every time
Lot 0041124 exp 11/26 I added this info first because the consensus has been that it’s probably batch dependent but I think reviews vary based on individual. This is one of those that may just not hit you or be what you’re looking for, or it may smack you with a driving force to crush goals in the gym! For me, it hits! First time I took it, I was expecting an excelsior like experience where it builds up so i took it about 30 minutes before hitting the gym but I felt the effects onset by 15. One thing that stood out was the clear sinuses as I had been fighting off a sinus infection, my sinuses were clear. This was just a bonus for me. Everything that came after was entirely performance based. I made it through my workout with my workout partner who also took the pre with me to see results. He surmised that the secret ingredient within this was like an albuterol/clenbuterol type performance enhancement. My experience with that is nonexistent so I assume this to be accurate based on his experience. We worked out and barely said a word to each other, it was just down to business like we were on the clock putting in work to feed our families. Good stuff, very potent, clean energy, and definitely can be used on a day when I am planning two workouts. All you need is a caffeinated beverage to refresh your experience and it’s back to being game on. What it’s missing? I didn’t get much of a euphoria feeling that I’ve seen other reviewers talking about, it was certainly no nonsense, but I didn’t get a headbuzz like I would off DMHA… which i was hoping for something in that regard. What’s practical in this sense is the versatility. I doubt there’s any real DMAA in this product like the label claims. My experience with DMAA is absolutely not like this! So I wanted to put a little more depth to this particular review because of all the controversy. For me it hits, it has great laser focus with clean energy making you feel like a primed machine ready for labor. For me it was missing the euphoria that I’m accustomed to by other varying high stim pre workouts. This one also lasts all day for me which I was eluding to earlier by saying you could plan two workouts in a day off one early morning scoop. This is also where it gets tricky because my workout partner said his effects were gone by two hours after working out, whereas I felt mine last until 6pm (I dosed at 4:30 am). The scoop size weighed out to be like 7.5g to 8g but I rounded it out to 8.0g to be safe that we were both getting the same size scoop. Two people, same product, different results. This is why I think it’s depending on the person as opposed to the batch. Not that it matters but I got watermelon flavor and it was really good with no bitter aftertaste