Known by the full name Cellucor 4, it is a pre-workout energy drink that contains a combination of ingredients that helps you in your workout routine while helping with building muscle strength and size at the same time.
To truly assess how effective C4 is as an energy drink, let’s break down the main ingredients so you can scrutinize the product much deeper.
C4 Energy Drink Ingredients
C4 contains beta-alanine, creatine nitrate, arginine, alpha-ketoglutarate, and an energy complex containing caffeine and theacrine. When the Cellucor company formulated this product, they mixed together a combination of ingredients to truly help workout aficionados in the gym.
Beta-Alanine
Beta-alanine is an amino acid that is often mixed with histidine to create peptide carnosine. During exercise, carnosine acts as a hydrogen ion buffering agent. Since hydrogen ions are released during workouts, a high concentration of carnosine is able to counteract the acid buildup, which results in a higher performance rate.
A lot of studies have shown that workouts that last between 60 to 240 seconds will get the most advantage out of carnosine. When lifting weights, helps in making a few more reps in your sets, which naturally results in higher gains. As carnosine works with beta-alanine, nutrient absorption to the muscle fibers happens much faster.
Creatine Nitrate
Currently tested by professionals for its effectiveness as a nutritional supplement, Creatine nitrate is a form of creatine where the molecules that comprise it belong to a nitrate group. Nitrates are known for lowering oxygen depletion which is the main reason why we experience fatigue.
With creatine nitrate, a much more stable supply of oxygen runs through every muscle fiber used in your workouts.
Quick Fact: Technically, Creatine nitrate not only boosts strength and lifting power but also increases your Nitric oxide levels, which increases blood flow to your muscles.
In addition, it also enhances your overall performance, endurance, and the speed of your recovery. Rest and relaxation are a vital part of every exercise regimen and Creatine nitrate helps your body replenish itself during those moments when you’re doing nothing.
Arginine
Also, an amino acid, arginine as a supplement has gained popularity among collegiate athletes. It’s mainly used for increasing nitric oxide production which signals the heart about the appropriate moments to relax the heart muscles, resulting in a lesser likelihood of high blood pressure.
Other benefits that arginine gives include helping type 2 diabetics in performing high levels of activities due to the enzyme arginase it contains.
Alpha-Ketoglutarate
Recent studies show that alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG) is a natural chemical in the body used by cells during growth and recovery. Its functions basically revolve around healing injuries and inducing protein synthesis.
The presence of AKG in the body helps in effectively metabolizing food and nutrients so they can be digested properly, thus aiding in faster healing and recovery.
When taken in doses of 1 to 15 grams a day, 30 minutes before the workout, it is known to help the body generate vitamin B6 which is a natural supplement for strength and endurance.
Theacrine
As a purine alkaloid, it is can serve as an anti-inflammatory substance that can prevent muscle soreness during intense physical activities. Lately, many workout enthusiasts find theacrine to be a very good substitute for coffee.
Theacrine works very similar to coffee as it stimulates the central nervous system through, unlike coffee, it shows very little effect on blood pressure. Theacrine also promotes enhanced pentobarbital-induced sleep which means it can result in quality sleep time.
Unlike caffeine which only creates short energy bursts, Theacrine effects could last up to 20 hours which makes it a very ideal substance to consume whether you’re working out or doing anything else.
How C4 utilizes those ingredients
“The fact that C4 contains the smallest amount of caffeine compared to its competitors should be a solid-enough proof already that it’s a good workout companion.”
Sipping the beta-alanine in it helps in delaying fatigue. It’s great for interval training, as well as high-intensity resistance training.
Quick Fact: Creatine nitrate also greatly helps because creatine as we know aids a lot in increasing muscle strength and size, but the addition of the nitrate group on the creatine molecule helps in making the drink more water-soluble.
This means that drinking it won’t give you that “sandy feel” or that unwanted gritty taste. The nitrate group also works really well with arginine alpha-ketoglutarate. A mixture of these can help in increasing blood flow through the muscles which will give you the necessary pump during your workouts.
This energy blend is excellent for its kind because it contains 150 mg of caffeine per serving but also has theacrine, a stimulant very similar to caffeine with much lesser tolerance issues. This means that it gives you a great level of energy in the gym but is very unlikely to become habit-forming and won’t cause any sleeping problems at all.
C4 Price and Flavors
C4 costs around 1 dollar per serving. It comes in a unique set of flavors the most popular of which are pink lemonade, strawberry margarita, and orange dreamsicle.
Additionally, C4 also comes in these other flavors:
- Frozen Bombsicle
- Strawberry Watermelon Ice
- Tropical Blast
- Twisted Limeade
- Arctic Snow Cone
- Cherry Limeade
- Cotton Candy
- Midnight Cherry
Recommended mode of consumption
How often should we drink C4? This is a vital question that could truly make or break the reasons why we choose to work out in the first place. This question needs to be addressed properly.
Whether it’s because you want some energy boost to your intense workout sessions or if you just want to fuel up your late-night homework sessions, energy drinks are truly popular among young adults and athletes with around 75% of them consuming them.
But what happens if you drink too much of C4 or those other energy drinks?
In one sip, the energy burst can already be noticed immediately. Right at the moment when your taste buds detect those sugary molecules, the brain is signaled already to release dopamine, the hormone that causes us to feel pleasure and all sorts of “feel-good” emotions.
This is due to the fact that a typical energy drink bottle has 2 to 14 teaspoons of sugar. In roughly 10 minutes, you can already feel an increase in your heart rate and blood pressure which is a natural response to your body’s adrenaline, mainly caused by the caffeine that most energy drinks contain.
Typically, a bottle of energy drink could have as high as 240 mg. In comparison to a cup of brewed coffee, you would only get around 95 to 165 mg of caffeine. When consumed sparingly throughout the day, 400 mg of caffeine appears to be around the safety margin.
This means that drinking more than 2 servings of any energy drink you may think of is considered to be extreme. Some studies also show that drinking more than 200 mg of caffeine in just one sitting isn’t healthy at all, which means your typical energy drink is not to be considered to be healthy at all.
Thankfully though, C4 contains no sugar and has only 150 mg of caffeine, significantly lower than any other energy drink in the market these days. So to answer the question of how much C4 can you drink per day, you could consume up to no more than 2 servings a day and you are still on the safety margin of caffeine consumption.
Quick Fact: If you are highly athletic or if you are one of those who perform very intense activities for your daily job, you could drink up to 3 servings though experts suggest that getting the right nutrients from the food you eat should be the primary objective.
Energy drinks, including C4, are just supplements for our activities and they should only be treated as such. They must never be substitutes for the meals we eat on a daily basis.
Is C4 worth it?
Considering that it is by far, among the healthiest energy drinks in existence, it is safe to say that C4 is really worth it. The fact that it contains the smallest amount of caffeine compared to its competitors should be solid-enough proof already that it’s a good workout companion.
The only negative notion about C4 is that it contains Synephrine HCL, a potent adrenergic stimulator, which is a substance banned by the military when used by civilians due to its alleged possible use by terrorists to hurt ordinary citizens.
But the latest releases of C4 products do not contain Synephrine anymore which makes it a truly trustworthy energy drink.
Conclusion
C4 isn’t just a typical energy drink, it’s a performance energy drink. With the ingredients mentioned above packaged into this amazing product, it contains no sugar, zero calories, and no artificial coloring at all.
All of the elements added into the mixture upon its manufacturing are clinically tested to be non-destructive since they are mixed exactly as they should be, only to give you the boost you need in your workout sessions.
If you have more questions about C4, leave them in the comment section below and we will surely check them out.
