Testing MTN OPS Enduro Pre-Workout

[mtnrunner260]

Day 2 Mtnrunner260

Day 2 found me working for the tree company all day. hard to believe since we got snow today but it was hot. Drank a serving of Enduro at 7:20. I dumped it in the bottle, shook, let it sit a couple minutes and shook again. No grit this time.

I worked 11 hours with just about all of it being active. Boss and I did a job while the other finished the first job. It was 3 pine trees and we had to haul all the branches out of the back yard ourselves. Now I remember why he hires young kids for that. It was a good workout but I was able to just keep going. With it being so hot I think Enduro might be better than Yeti for me. (I don't do well in heat)

I stopped at the store to get a couple things for dinner on the way home and cook, feed the kids and cleaned. Stayed up until 10 and felt not tired the whole time. In the past a day like this would just wipe me out. I can't imagine taking the Yeti later in the day with all that caffeine but will hopefully have a situation where I can try it with Enduro.

 

[robby denning]

Day 2, Robby

Ended the day yesterday with no feeling of taking anything and slept fine.

Because of the carb-load on the day before I started, I only took in 23% of my calories yesterday from carbs and limited my calories to 1980 so with the 1,000+ calorie workout, I'm back to normal and probably even below on glycogen stores. This would usually mean a butt-dragging workout if I didn't eat right before training.

Today was planned for a lighter cardio at 65%, stretch (neck's been bothering me) and some small muscle work like rotators and ankles, finishing up with core.

I ate breakfast at 9 and started my workout at 1:00, feeling fine.

Took the Enduro 15 minutes prior and in a shaker cup, shook the tar out of it. Much better, less gritty.

You feel it kick in, but not like the Yeti, but to tell you the truth, I don't mind starting at a lower "push" with the Enduro

Trained for 1 hour with good energy. Here is yesterday's report from MyFitnessPal showing carbs, protein, fat intake. Protein and fat seem high but it's because carbs were low

Did 25 minutes on the Incline treadmill between 2.9-3.1 mph and 14%-20% grade

Here is my final MYZONE report

Because I was so low on carbs, I was very very hungry by end of workout. I know I was running on Enduro as it was a pretty good workout, (made goal) and didn't hit a wall.

That was almost 4 hours ago and I feel smooth right now, like I haven't taken anything. Like Yeti, no crash. Staying hydrated from the lessons I learned with the Yeti.

FYI, I checked with Casey at MTN OPS and Enduro has no stimulants or sugar, FYI.

 

[Pig_Pen]

Day two, Pig_Pen

I had a scheduled day off from work with the intentions of finally getting some work done on my Jeep. I knocked it out faster than expected so I decided to take a pre-lunch run with no time schedule.

I have never been a fan of running but I have accepted it as a necessary evil to help fight off my family history of heart conditions and I just grind out what I can when the opportunity arrives. I have a good sized lake less than a mile from the house so the plan was take the Jeep for a test drive and lay some Nike rubber down lakeside.

I mixed up some of the Enduro with 10oz of water and drank it down 20-25 minutes before Starting.

I popped in the ear buds and went like Forest Gump. A long run for me is typically 3 to 3.5 miles. I knocked out 5.1 today and I felt fantastic afterwards. I was able to keep a steady pace and I never got that feeling of "oh your gonna be sore tomorrow" from my legs. I was sweating like it was July in Vietnam but I caught my breathe and was relaxed quicker than normal. I am not sure if the Enduro has anything to do with being able to catch my breathe and relax faster but it is something that really stands out since starting this deal.

I don't typically track calories but my diet is pretty simple and easy to manage. I rarely go out to eat and I am not a beer drinker. Boring I know, but my family history scares the crap out of me enough to stay away from most of it. I hunt white tails here in IL and MO so my freezer is usually stocked with venison year round and that gets mixed with veggies and such as much as possible. My thoughts on food is try to keep it to a single fresh ingredient or a mix of single fresh ingredients.

 

[COlineman78]

Day 2, COlineman78

Today I woke up at 9 again and took a serving on my way to work. Again I skipped my normal energy drink and felt my energy waning a little in the afternoon. I checked my Facebook when I woke up and found a post from Aron about cardio at Red Rocks, so I decided I was up for some punishment and that I'd join. I took another serving of Enduro on my way there at about 6:15. For those who don't know, Red Rocks amphitheater has a very long staircase that you can climb from the parking lot all the way to the top concessions with a total of about 400-500 stairs per lap. I forgot to start my heart rate monitor, so I missed the first lap on record. I took the slow and steady approach and just tried not to take a break. My muscles were getting sore towards the top with every lap, but I certainly felt the fast recovery as by the time I hit the bottom on the downhill I felt plenty refreshed to give it another shot. I ended up quite a bit behind the pack, but hope with time and training that it won't be long before I can keep up.

Half way point:

 

[mtnrunner260]

Day 3 Mtnrunner260

Man I may have to get some kind of fitness / heart rate monitor. It looks like you guys are getting some good data.

Today I was doing a HIIT workout at home. This is usually pretty hard for me, also fairly new in my regime as I've been more of a lift and hike guy. Took the Enduro at 5:45 and started the meat of the workout at 6am. Did lots of body weight stuff, walkouts, bear crawls, jumping jacks, burpees, squats, lunges, planks and some medicine ball stuff.

I was completely done at the end. Where you lay on the floor and breath like a winded Rhino for a couple minutes. I was concerned or at least curious how the Enduro would work compared to the Yeti. Without the pump of the Yeti to get me going that early in the morning would I be up enough to really get after the workout? Well I felt I was and again I was able to do more with taking the Enduro than without. (I have since done the workout again with Yeti and improved on all my "scores" a bit but is that a difference between Yeti and Enduro or just a better day, slightly higher fitness level? I can't really provide that answer.)

Did notice a quicker recovery time after the workout though and was able to go through the rest of the day with good energy until about 7:30-8pm. Was ready to go to bed at that point and hit the sack at 9.

 

[Pig_Pen]

Day 3 Pig_Pen

Wednesday's have become my favorite day of the week. Tuesday evenings the kids work on their self defense (Krav Maga techniques) and BJJ. These classes are foundation techniques they will learn when they hit the ten/adult classes at 13. The classes give me and my wife a bit relief in knowing that the kids will be able to recognize a bad situation and how to avoid becoming a victim. So Wednesday evenings have become "let's practice everything we learned on daddy night". A well fitted cup is mandatory!

I usually spend 30-45 minutes going through all of their Krav techniques and rolling around with them while they work on their choke holds and arm locks. Tonight I mixed up 10oz of the berry and drank it all 20 minutes before starting. This was the first time I got the "gritty" swig but a quick re-shake and it was good to go.

I had about thirty minutes left before I had to put the munchkins to bed so I went old school for a quick burner.
40 push ups
40 sit ups
30 p/u
30 s/u
20 p/u
20 s/u
10 p/u
10 p/u
100 burpees
I try to take a short break between each set, up to a minute or so. I didn't need anywhere near that amount of time tonight between sets and I pushed through fairly quick, until burpeeville. I started hating the burpee idea about halfway through, by 80 I hated everything, 90 I thought I heard the floor say "just lay down and no one will ever know", 100 I felt like I should be on the cover of next "300" movie poster. I was able to keep pushing through, although slower in the end, I completed them all straight with only a few short "come on you got this" breaks.

I had a feeling that after my day two run I was going to wake up a bit sore/stiff. I have woke up both mornings feeling great with no real noticeable fatigue hang over.

For the Gritty Bowmen listeners, it's time for some mint chocolate chip ice cream!

 

[robby denning]

Day 3, Robby

Love the Red Rock photos Colineman,

"A well fitted cup is mandatory" bwwwwwwwwwAAAAAAAAAAA

Trained after lunch today so I had two meals in me. Took the Enduro in 8 oz water. I don't like the taste (raspberry) as much as the Yeti strawberry/banana, but it's ok.

It was supposed to just be total-body resistance day but my neck and shoulder are bugging me (old old injury from high school wrestling) so I decided to lay off upper body today and do cardio/lower.

Like yesterday, 65% cardio then went into the weight room. Various hipsled, squats, good-mornings, and calves. With cardio, it was a 75-minute workout. With 60-90 second rest periods between sets, it ends up being a low-intensity workout compared the earlier workouts this week, but the Enduro kept me fresh to the end.

The gaps in the workout are because our internet isn't working in one of the MYZONE receivers in the weight room.

Still hit 644 calories and with good energy remaining.

You know what I noticed between the Yeti and the Enduro? Yeti seems to reduce my appetite a bit, not like a suppressant but noticeable. Enduro not so much.

 

[COlineman78]

Day 3, COlineman78

Today I had my usual schedule of drinking a serving on the way to work and once again attempting to forgo my energy drink. Well about 2 o'clock I was really dragging and I can say that after 3 days that Enduro performs poorly as a stimulant, so I have finally given up on testing this aspect and it's back to my daily Monster. That being said, I look forward to trying some other MtnOps products to see if I can replace them with something batter (maybe Yeti).

I had a flag football (full contact) game late (at 9:15PM) so I will be going straight from work drinking another serving on the way. Something that I haven't mentioned is that I hate to work out after eating even though I tend to work out later at night. I usually eat a bigger lunch and follow up with a small dinner after working out. We only had 10 people for our game (8v8), so I ended up playing both ways almost the entire game. I play both offensive and defensive line. I felt much more explosive on the defensive line than I have in the past couple weeks and had a strong rush. For anyone that has never played d-line it is the most exhausting positions on the field because you are on a full on sprint every play. Normally you get a bit of a break on offensive line, but we were playing a team with a speed rush off the edge and we run a hurry up no-huddle offense, so it was a pretty taxing hour and a good test for Enduro.

 

[robby denning]

Robby, Day 4

Today is my mile run. If you were to meet me, I'm short and stocky, opposite of a runner but I've found that running is my best workout for pushing my anaerobic threshold so short intense runs are how I do it.

On the Yeti test a few weeks ago, I did the same test as I'm going to do today plus I have a "control" workout from Feb 12 where I did the same run without any MTN OPS. So if you're into the nitty-gritty data, see post #58 for more info but I'll try and pull some of it onto this post

http://www.rokslide.com/forums/showthread.php?40738-Testing-MTN-OPS-Yeti-Pre-workout/page3

Today, between breakfast and lunch, I took my Enduro then put MYZONE on to go train but then got interrupted for 30 minutes.

Finally, I did about a 6 minute warmup then reset the treadmill to zero out all data. I then took it straight to 7.5 mph (same as the Yeti workout).

I started counting my mile at 0.05 miles because there is a lag in the treadmill to get up to speed.

I kept the 7.5 mph to the end, clocking just over an 8 min-mile.

The difference was I hit 91% of max effort for this run vs the run with the Yeti where I only hit 88%. Both screen shots were taken right when I hit a mile

Here is today's max intensity with Enduro

Here is same exact run with Yeti

For the "Control" workout from February 12th, I did not take a screen shot as I wasn't testing anything, so I only have MYZONE report to go off and the fact that I was tracking my min/mile pace even before all this started

From my report, you can see I hit just under 90% at last yellow bar (hard to be exact) BUT my pace was only 6.7 mph and 9 minute per mile compared to my 7.5mph and 8 min/mile for the Enduro and Yeti workouts.

What's all this mean?

With Yeti, I can run a pace equal to the Enduro at 3% less effort. Is that significant? I think so. I think today's run was harder than the run on Feb 23rd with the Yeti, and MYZONE agrees. I realize this is a very small sample size to compare.

Both Enduro and Yeti workouts beat the control workout. Am I in better shape than February 12th? Hard to say but I don't think so but is why I said in the beginning that this is not a scientific test as some of this is very subjective

However, in my mind both the products work, especially for high-intensity workouts but Yeti might have an edge. However, I like that when I'm done with an Enduro workout, very soon I can't tell that I've taken anything. With the Yeti, I feel it long after the workout.

I'll still do my two additional test days but I doubt I'll find out more than what I already have.

 

[Pig_Pen]

Day 4 Pig_Pen

Day four was a busy, long day before I had any time to squeeze a bit of me time in. Work had its claws in me for close to ten hours, followed by my daughters gymnastic class and sneaking in a Grocery trip.
I put the enduro down about 10 minutes before I started a 5 minute warm up on the elliptical. My goal was to get a good 20 minutes in but after a few issues with the power cord to the screen I ended up with closer to 30.

I think Mtn Ops may have the golden ticket to anger management with this enduro. We just bought this thing and have had nothing but issues with it. Normally it would have ended up on the curb or the lake behind my house, but I just worked out my frustration through a good sweat.

Day 5 will bring a shed hunt planned for the morning that I will be tracking.

 

[mtnrunner260]

Day 4 mtnrunner260

Took the enduro at 5:45 and went to the gym. Was going to try and take it easy due to a long day of tree work on the docket. But after taking it and warming up I just felt good so got after it. Squats, deadlift, arms and back.
Was worried about being tired for tree work but snow slowed us down a bit and I spent a couple hours in the skid steer so that's never taxing. Though I was a little upset a new guy took the door off with the bucket. I think I got wetter in that than being outside.
I agree with Robby that Yeti gets you up more but enduro doesn't last with you for so long. I feel a scoop of yeti in the morning and another scoop of enduro in the early afternoon would keep a guy going through most anything.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

This is a much cooler practical application test than simply listening to the manufacturer tell you it works. Good for mountain ops and you guys for doing this. I've been following here and there and am pretty interested in the conclusions.

 

[robby denning]

glad you're following live2hunt

mtnrunner260, you said what I've been thinking. A guy might want both Yeti and Enduro depending on the day and time of day you're working out. With your physical job, I think your testing is probably more applicable to the guys wondering about taking Enduro (or Yeti) in the field. Even my biggest workout this week was less than two hours so keep that in mind everyone.

Today, I had about 20 ounces of coffee between 8:00 AM and 11:00 which is more and drank later into morning than usual.

Took the Enduro about 11:30 but got interrupted so I never got to the Cybex Arc Trainer for cardio until 12:15. Almost felt like I'd taken Yeti. I was READY to train.

Did Cardio for 20 minutes, then circuit weight training. My shoulder and neck have calmed down but I still took it easy on the the 6 upper body machines in the rotation so intensity was a little lower than it should have been.

Great workout. It was two hours ago and I still feel the effects of combining the caffeine and the Enduro.

Today is my last in-gym workout of this test. Tomorrow, taking the wife/kids for a hike so I'll report my last workout tomorrow night when I get back or Sunday with final thoughts.

 

[COlineman78]

Day 4/5 COlineman78

Due to some snow and my schedule days 4 and 5 ended up being the exact same workout and therefore I chose to combine them into a single post for simplification and comparison day to day. Both days started with a morning serving of Enduro and a Monster at about 2pm. Another serving of Enduro on the way to the gym at around 9PM.

After my earlier results of a lower heart rate with Enduro I decided to keep my treadmill the same speed (3.5mph) but bump it up to 11 degree incline (increase of 1 degree) for 30min. I've also started leaving the monitor recording for a couple minutes after to see how fast my recovery is.

Day 4 Treadmill:

Day 5 Treadmill:

After the treadmill I go straight into 20 minutes on the stationary bike at intervals between 8 and 12 resistance trying to maintain a speed around 90 RPM.

Day 4 Stationary:

Day 5 Stationary:

In both cases my heart rate improved by about 2bpm, which isn't significant but it does show progress. You can also see a faster recovery day to day as well.

 

[mtnrunner260]

Day 5 Mtnrunner260

Stayed up way to late last night so had a hard time getting up in time to go to the gym but managed to get there drinking a serving of enduro on the way. I was tempted to take the yeti instead but stuck with the enduro.

Spent an hour working out starting with the treadmill just to warm/wake up. Then lifted, weighted step ups, farmers carry, squat and arms. I actually felt really good and I know the enduro helped with that.

Around 3 in the afternoon I was wanting to take a nap so I figured I'd try another shot of enduro to see if it helped. The best way I can explain it is it worked in a sneaky way. I was still tired for 10 minutes or so and then it was just as if I forgot to be tired. I was still thinking about taking the nap and then I just got up and started being productive. I'm sure if I would have had a boost of caffeine it would have had a more pronounced affect but it still seemed the enduro helped. After the kids went to bed I did some stretching and foam roller just because I know I should and still had the feeling of I should be doing something.

Robby I can tell you that unless I grow a third arm by September I will be taking both yeti and enduro in my pack this year.

 

[Pig_Pen]

Day 5 Pig_Pen

Today was the test day I have been waiting for all week. A hunting buddy and I had a day planned of shed hunting my favorite patch of public land and taking stands down on his lease. I drank the Enduro 10 minutes before he got there and we b/s'd over a cup of coffee before heading in. The terrain is nothing like you gents have out west but for here In the land of corn, our hollers and Mississippi River bluffs are about as rugged as it gets out here.
We hit 3.4 miles, zig zagging the hills and covering the open fields, before we stopped for a lunch break. I was still feeling great and ready for more but my buddy was burnt out and ready for a nap.

I spent the next hour and a half covering the top of a "Midwest drainage" while he slept if off. The grand total for today was just short of 7 miles at 6.8 with a 10 pound day pack. The coffee/enduro cocktail may have skewed this a bit, but I covered a lot of ground for this property and I felt great throughout all of it. I went on a handful of squirrel chasing tangents when I came across some good sign and didn't catch my self trying to take a short cut and missing an area I wanted to get into.

For comparasion notes, today was my third trip to this property this year and I covered more ground than just two weeks ago when the sheds were really fresh. We never got to his lease so that is on the books for next weekend. Great day to be in the oaks and corn fields. I will get a few pics from the trip, day 6 and final thoughts up on Sunday morning.

 

[robby denning]

Robby I can tell you that unless I grow a third arm by September I will be taking both yeti and enduro in my pack this year.

Thats funny stuff

 

[robby denning]

Pig_Pen

loved the post

 

[robby denning]

My last testing day was Saturday, so two days ago. Not a lot to report. Took the family hiking in the desert. It was 33 degrees with 20 mile/hour winds, so the crew only made it two miles. Hardly a need for Enduro, but I took it anyway before the hike. As always, you feel it kick in at about 15 minutes and the boost lasts several hours typically

My final thoughts are this:

Enduro: It works. It's a better choice than Yeti for those who are sensitive to stimulants or if you're forced to work out in late afternoon/evening when getting to sleep might be hard if you took Yeti. If you take it in the morning, you'll feel an energy boost for at least half the day. It's a "smoother" boost than the Yeti as some of the testers have pointed out. It'll help you workouts but you won't feel like a tweeker . You don't seem to dehydrate so easily with Enduro but don't let that fool you into not drinking enough water.

Yeti: The biggest boost of the two for sure. If you take it in the morning, you'll feel the boost for most of the day. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who's sensitive to a stimulant (has 200 mg caffeine, so like two cups of coffee in a few swallows). I also wouldn't take it any closer than about 8 hours to bedtime and certainly not with other boosts like coffee or other energy drinks. It will boost your workouts, likely taking you to new intensity heights, so make sure you're pacing yourself properly. Push yourself in small increments over maybe a week to be safe. You have to be well hydrated when you take it and stay hydrated. I'm not that sensitive but still ended cutting my Yeti dose back about 1/3.

While I never trained for longer than two hours with either Yeti or Enduro, I'm sure either will be good for mountain hunting but I'm betting they will increase your H20 needs, especially the Yeti, so keep that in mind. Mtnrunner260 and Pig_Pen had some long days on both products and can confirm their boosts throughout the day

If I had to choose either, I'd probably go for the Enduro as the boost was plenty and it didn't matter if I took it later in the day. It's just a smoother boost and I liked that, but I think a guy can make a case for using both depending on time of day, and expected effort duration, and how tired you might be before training. This brings up the final point:

If you lose several workouts a week due to draggin'-butt, too tired (like if you are forced to workout in the afternoon) either product will get you past that feeling and at month's end, you'll probably net 4-8 more workouts that might have not happened. Once you take it, especially the Yeti, you will want to workout.

Thanks everyone- you really did a good job and I know first-hand what a PIA it can be to HAVE TO post every day, and thanks MTN OPS.

dmjojump was one of our original testers but never received his Enduro (remember, all these were ordered in a barrage of emails to MTN OPS) so his test is still to come. Just watch this thread to use "Thread Tools" at top to subscribe.

 

[Pig_Pen]

Day 6 - Final thoughts - Pig_Pen

Day 6 ended up being a more of an active day as opposed to a “workout” day. I knew it was going to be a busy day so I drank the Enduru early in the morning before things got started. I spent a few evenings during the test week getting my new to me bow set up. I spent Saturday morning testing, tweaking and sighting in the new setup. I spent nearly three hours at the range getting things dialed in to 60 yards.
The rest of the afternoon was spent earning brownie points with the golf course behind my house. I have been trying for 7 years to get permission to hunt the course once golf season comes to a close. This place is surrounded by corn/bean fields with large strips of oaks spread throughout, great whitetail landscape. I was finally offered a deal to get permission this year. I spent the majority of the day helping to clear some of the downed trees and limbs around the course and just some general manual labor around the place.

Final Notes: The Enduru worked great for my situation as I tend to work out in the evenings due to an early work schedule and busy after school schedule with the kids. I never experienced any issues with getting to sleep and actually felt like I slept better after a good day. I am a light sleeper by nature and that didn’t change but I woke up most mornings feeling great and I was quick to rise each day.
I never got a rush or instant charge after taking the Enduru, it was more like a gradual feeling of energy increase that I noticed about 20-30 minutes later. On the opposite end I did not feel a sudden collapse or drop in drive, again just a gradual and very insignificant slow down. One scoop prior to working out seemed to work great for a single event type of day. I have also had a day after this testing period where I had a scoop before work and then another before a last minute shed hunt after work. I didn’t feel any difference after taking the second serving but I kept a great pace and covered a ton of ground after a long day of staring at monitors. I will be placing an order for more Enduro here in the next week or so and after the reading the Yeti test I will be adding that to my weekend adventures.

I would like to say thanks to Robby and MTN OPS for the opportunity and these tests have been great reading. I am definitely in research mode now for a good tracking and monitoring tool/App. I am looking forward to the new MTN OPS test that are about to start.