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I’ve been asked to do a review for the retail version of Endure, a recently released product from Genetic Edge. Priced at £27.99 for a months supply the product comes in at under £1 a day and so is reasonably priced.
As the name suggests it’s a endurance product, aiming I believe to provide you with more focus on the training session, rather than giving you any real strength advantages in the gym, though with creatine as one of the ingredients in the product and a daily delivery program it should also offer addition benefits in that regard if used over a prolonged period. As the logo on the front of the box suggests though:
Energy – Endurance - Focus
it’s more aimed to give you the focus needed, rather than any AAS alternative and I have chosen to take that approach with it with my review, whilst testing it along side more convention AAS supplementation, though this certainly isn’t required.
I have been provided with a months supply complete with all the retail packaging but this is only the start of my trial so it will be my intention to update this review periodically just to provide any further developments be it good or bad, but I have used the product now for a few days and so the bulk of what matters for the review will most likely be in the following paragraphs…
With regards to the packaging, GE have it seems decided to spend a good deal of time with the design of the packaging and no doubt a fair amount of money aswell on development, and thankfully I can see this as soon as I look at the box. The box is a standard card design which will be helping keep retail costs low, but they have spent time on the colours and even on such things as lacquers to give the illusion that all may not be quite as you would expect. I am told the idea behind the box was to give a metal locker type affect with a glass window, giving the main part of the box a depth of feel about it like you are looking inside and its worked nicely. It’s a small thing in the eyes of most of us I know, but to me it made me think that they had a fair bit of pride in the product if they had gone to the point of spending that amount of time on the out packaging. Its marketing sure, but it’s a good start.
Things only get better once you get inside the box. They have kept with an idea they used for the Cycle Insurance product if ever you have seen it. Basically they have used a wonderfully strong sachet style in the box for each of the daily doses and yet the box shape has allowed the presentation within to be far superior. The much bigger tough foil sachets are neatly arranged within the box, making the whole product inside and out orderly and presentable. I’m glad they have stuck with the foil sachet idea from Cycle Insurance for this product aswell as they work so well and unlike a lot of foil style sachets you find in other retail products they are using a material which gives a far better overall finish and adds options to the user as they are strong enough to carry in your pocket individually if you want to take them to the gym or elsewhere for example.
To conclude, overall they haven’t gone nuts spending cash on the packaging of the complete kit which ofcourse if they had the costs of which only get past on to the consumer, but where a little more has needed spending they have put the money in, giving a balance overall in exactly the right places in my opinion. Ofcourse they could have used dividers for each sachet and other pointless distractions for the box and made the box plastic or even metal, but someone has to pick up the tab for all that. I would sooner they save a little on the packaging and pass that on to me rather than going all out and charging me £50 a month for the pleasure of it and it would seem they themselves would agree.
Now, let’s get down the product itself…
It’s a powder product within the sachets and for flavour in both the types of sachet they have used a lemon type additive, the flavour itself working surprisingly well. I say surprisingly because I personally tested the beta product of Endure which we were warned had no flavourings in at all and though I omitting the information at the time in my review of it out of fairness it was vile to say the least! How they have took the product I tested back then and turned it into what I have tested in each of the sachets from the retail version is totally beyond me. For flavour its now like I completely different product, but thankfully has exactly the same characteristics of the beta.
To give you an idea of what its like, if you take out the medicinal flavour you get in some of the cold remedies out there it’s the same flavour as those kind of things, like one of those soothing hot lemon drinks say, very up my street. It’s nice enough for you to knock it back in one or even sit there and sip at like I did with my sachet today. Top marks on the flavouring lads plus a few extra going off the test of the beta samples!
Now I did state ‘both types of sachet’ in that paragraph above and there’s a reason for that. What GE have done is given the user a duel product, one type for your training session (sachet A) and one type for days off (sachet B) and with good reason…
The products in the off day sachet are there to give you a daily dose and with such items as creatine in there its good to see they have as like we all know you need to take the stuff like that every day. A number of other products are in there also not just creatine, and I assume (as I am not versed on any of them to be honest) that they too need a daily intake. The off day sachet gives no boost to your head whatsoever, letting you relax and get on with life as normal, just what you want. The powder itself has that lovely lemony flavour and when mixed with water instantly disperses. This I was quite surprised about to be honest as I buy creatine myself as a separate supplement and it’s never one for properly dispersing in the liquid as it quickly falls out of it. Even creapure leaves some residue and it’s supposed to be far finer ground. Endure leaves little to none though showing GE have took time getting that right.
The only downside to the sachet is the lack of accurate information on it. Though it tells me I am getting 12010mg of the ‘Daily Endurance Matrix’, it doesn’t tell me how much exactly of each part which is a shame. It does give you details of what’s in the mix though and that’s essential information in my opinion, but I would of liked to of seen a breakdown of how much of each so I can better gauge how much creatine I am getting, or magnesium orotate, or whatever. If I then want to add a little more then I could. It’s a small point and is easy to rectify if they wish to.
Sachet A also suffers this lack of a breakdown, telling me it has 12000mg of Endurance Matrix and 560mg of the ‘Energy & Focus Blend’, but not of how much of each of the individual ingredients. There is an obvious potential reason for this ofcourse, that being that they wish to guard their secrets and so not telling you exactly what’s what it the only way, though I assume they could guard that in other ways if they wished with patents etc, all be it for a price. I don’t know how that may of may not work though so I will leave that there for now. Perhaps a little info could help though, say the creatine doses? A small setback.
Sachet A is really the magic in the box though and is by far the most interesting of the two sachets. Its got the same quality flavour about it, a lovely clean tasting lemony feel even though there are many extra goodies in there. Yet as you can imagine its added ingredients over sachet B give you the extra focus and drive in the gym, both for the completion of the session and for the extra rep each set and with this Endure excels. The beta test was a delight in itself and the retail product has delivered in much the same way.
To explain this with an example that others might relate to I will tell you how I have used the Endure product on myself so far. One of the problems I have in the gym with my current and previous supplement use is finding the balance of extra pump and aggression in the gym whilst keeping the side effects of certain items I use under control. Such tricks like ECA stacking (or more EC for me as I don’t use the A) and then when on cycle adding extras like oral AAS or prohormones prove very effective but come at a cost for me, with problems like crazy high BP readings and then other annoyances like nausea and appetite issues, all effecting the total input I can give the training each week. In short they can be a real problem but I occasionally choose such tricks regardless. For others that prefer to avoid such drugs these additions aren’t even an option ofcourse.
To really push the boat out I’m running conventional AAS injectables at the moment (and was for 6 weeks prior to Endure) and the above tricks on training days, but I have chosen to ask a lot of Endure by dropping out the ECA and/or other AAS orals and just rely on the Endure sachet boost for focus. Don’t get me wrong here, it isn’t going to compete with the oral AAS muscle pump I get when running them one hour before gym time on gym days only, but I’m not expecting that nor asking it, I just want the focus and for now the pump off the injectables is more than enough. Like I say, the side effects from the ECA tricks and oral AAS can be a real headache for me so it would be good to see what Endure can do on the focus front, rather than expecting it to deliver things it isn’t designed to do. ECA and oral AAS do deliver focus, but at a price.
As expected Endure delivers the desired focus. Its not giving the pump that dbol or pherplex might but what I have lost there I have gained with focus in the gym and the removal of nasty sides that have seen me leave the gym floor a few times in the past before now from ECA and the likes. What Endure seems able to deliver is something that suits my style of training perfectly - absolute concentration on every part of every rep. its something that I personally rate over the usual crew that will bang on as much weight as possible and say screw the form or worse don’t even think of it, and Endure maximises my own ability to deliver that kind of approach. Comparing it on a like for like basis for that part of the reasoning behind me using extra orals on gym days it is fairing impressively.
Comparing it directly with ECA which is an easier comparison to grasp, Endure gives a similar response but without the sides. It doesn’t have the overwhelming power of ECA which I personally don’t like, but what it lacks there it makes up for in spades with the natural clean feeling it gives. That cleanness makes it a far more enjoyable product to ECA or even ephedrine alone and scores top marks for it.
Overall then, so far Endure is showing itself to be quite a useful product indeed. Priced at under a £1 a day it’s well priced and with the split mix of off & on training day sachets its shows itself to be a well thought out product. In addition to that, so far at least it shows no sign of any side affects - a good thing to see from something that offers so much on the gym floor. Certainly my initial introduction to this product in the beta testing lived up to all it could have been and where as there may be little personal issues I have with the information provided on the product, the product itself is definitely first class.
Certainly Endure is something worth looking at if drive in the gym is what you require.
I will update this review in due course as I near the end of the use of Endure just to say for sure if there are any issues with the product I have found but so far 5 days in I am seeing that as unlikely and so look forward to confirming it as so.
EDIT:
after a wise fella pointed out it might be worth giving more detail on the ingredients in each sachet, i thought i would ammend the review to include the ingredients for each one.
there are 2 types of sachets as i have stated...
Sachet A - training days. (12,560mg)
16 servings come in the box of sachet A containing the following:
Endurance Matrix - 12000mg
Beta Alanine
Creatine Monohydrate
Citrulline Malate
Magnesium Orotate
Energy & Focus Blend - 560mg
Glucuronolactone
1,3-Dimethylamylamine
Vinpocetine
other ingredients - flavourings, Malic Acid and sweetener (sucralose)
Sachet B - non-training days. (12,010mg)
14 servings come in the box of sachet B, containing the following:
Daily Endurance Matrix - 12010mg
Beta Alanine
Creatine Monohydrate
Citrulline Malate
Magnesium Orotate
Vinpocetine
other ingredients - flavourings, Malic Acid and sweetener (sucralose)
thats written pretty much exactly as it says on the box and i should of included it in the review form the start really, a silly mistake so ammended accordingly.
This post has been edited by tigernut: 04 March 2009 - 09:03 PM
