MyoBlox Skywalk: The HIGH-Caffeine Nootropic Returns!

It’s been far too long since we’ve covered MyoBlox, the retail-savvy lifestyle & performance brand from the Bay Area that stormed the supplement industry in 2017 and 2018. They’ve reloaded some formulas, and there’s no better way to kick it off with Skywalk, their laser focus nootropic formula.

Tired of low-stim nootropic drinks? The new Myoblox Skywalk launched in early 2022 puts in plenty of caffeine, but keeps it smooth with a synergistic blend

MyoBlox Skywalk Meets 2022: A High-Energy Nootropic

If you’re looking for a nootropic supplement that doesn’t go easy on the caffeine, then you’ve come to the right place. Two scoops of Skywalk Laser Focus provides 400 milligrams of caffeine alongside a clinical dose of Nutrition21’s nooLVL gaming supplement ingredient. It’s paired with plenty of choline from Alpha-GPC, so you can stick somewhere between one and two scoops, wherever caffeine is appropriate.

We consider Skywalk to be the anti-gaming-supplement in ways – many of the other products with nooLVL are lower in caffeine. Skywalk brings laser focus in a high caffeine form factor, but has some helpers from mucuna pruriens and L-theanine to keep it smooth.

Below, we dig into Skywalk’s new panel, and will have our video below as well. Just note that there are multiple formulas out there, so check with retailers to make sure you get the one you want:

Skywalk Ingredients (2022 Version)

In a single one-scoop serving of Skywalk Laser Focus from MyoBlox, you get the following doses… with this one, you’re going to see us somewhere between one and two scoops for high-energy:

• L-Tyrosine – 1500 mg

  

  The MyoBlox Skywalk Ingredients are broken down into one and two scoop servings, because some of us love that caffeine!

  Tyrosine has many different metabolic roles, but when it comes to nootropics, we should emphasize tyrosine’s ability to increase focus and energy. You see, tyrosine is the precursor for a lot of neurotransmitters, including noradrenaline and dopamine. So, supplementing with tyrosine should upregulate those neurotransmitters, thus causing notable improvement in your level of alertness.^[1]

  One of the most common causes of cognitive dysfunction is acute sleep deprivation – so if you’re taking Skywalk Laser Focus to get through all-nighters, then you should know that tyrosine has been shown to specifically benefit sleep-deprived people.^[2,3]

• NooLVL – 800 mg

  Regular readers of our blog know by now that we’re huge fans of Nitrosigine, a form of arginine that’s stabilized with inositol and silica. By boosting nitric oxide (NO) production, Nitrosigine has a significantly beneficial effect on both physical and mental functioning.

  You can read more about Nitrosigine and nitric oxide in our long-form article titled Nitrosigine: The Nitric Oxide Booster That Enhances Brain Function. Long story short, improved blood flow to the brain increases the efficiency of oxygen and nutrient delivery to neurons, thus improving cognitive function.

  

  Learn more in our NooLVL explainer

  After the pretty wild industry success of Nitrosigine, Nutrition21 decided to take it to the next level by creating NooLVL. It’s an inositol-stabilized arginine silicate compound, just like Nitrosigine, but with even more inositol.^[4]

  That matters because inositol, a naturally-occurring sugar that’s found in high concentrations in brain tissue, plays a critical role in intercellular signaling via neurotransmitters. It also maintains the structural integrity of cells.^[5,6] In a nutshell, inositol supports the function of messenger systems that relay signals between neurons.^[6]

  Nutrition21 put NooLVL to the test in 2019. The company recruited 60 physically healthy male and female gamers and measured the subjects’ accuracy, decision-making, and reaction time while playing their favorite games. One group was given a placebo control, whereas the other—the NooLVL group—was given 1500 milligrams of inositol-stabilized arginine silicate, along with an extra 100 milligrams of inositol (nooLVL – two scoops worth of Skywalk).^[7] The experiment was blinded, meaning that not even the researchers knew which participant received the placebo or NooLVL.

  After a week of supplementation, the NooLVL group had significantly better cognitive flexibility and faster processing speed compared to the placebo group.^[7]

  

  A new study is here from Texas A&M where nooLVL was shown to improve Short Term Memory and Reaction Time!^[8,9]

  This result is striking because the study was designed using modern games, such as Call of Duty and Fortnite, which are cognitively intense and demand high levels of coordination and fast reaction times in competitive play modes. Theoretically, performance gains observed while playing these games should transfer to other activities as well.

  To add icing to the cake, newer research published in 2021 also showed improvements to short-term reaction time and memory,^[8,9] and another study published in late 2021 found that inositol-stabilized arginine silicate improved working memory in healthy young adults!^[10]

  While Skywalk isn’t branded as a gaming supplement, we love the increased blood flow for anything you might be doing. And if you are gaming, realize that this one uses a lot more caffeine at the two-scoop dose where nooLVL is clinically-studied!

• Alpha GPC – 400 mg

  

  Laser Focus

  Alpha GPC is a special form of choline, an essential nutrient that’s required for the body to maintain the structure of its cells.^[11] It’s also a precursor acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that we at PricePlow often call the “learning neurotransmitter” owing to its importance in cell-to-cell communication and long-term potentiation,^[12] the process by which short-term memories are consolidated into long-term ones.

  Acetylcholine doesn’t just improve learning, it also improves coordination, balance, and alertness—helping to establish a positive “mind-muscle connection” during exercise.^[13,14]

  Unfortunately, Americans are increasingly deficient in choline, and this brings health issues such as fatty liver disease and brain fog in its wake.^[15]

  Alpha-GPC Crosses the Blood-Brain Barrier

  Scientifically known as alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine, Alpha-GPC is highly bioavailable and can cross the blood-brain barrier, which ultimately means that more of it gets converted to phosphorylcholine and, ultimately, acetylcholine.^[16] Recent research has shown that Alpha-GPC improves not just cognition, but also physical performance.^[17-20]

• RealCaf (caffeine derived from green tea) – 200 mg

  Probably no supplement has been studied more or is understood better by nutritional scientists than caffeine, a methylxanthine that’s famous for its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and block adenosine and phosphodiesterase receptors in the brain.^[21] By this mechanism, caffeine alleviates feelings of fatigue while increasing neuron activity.^[21]

  

  A growing body of research suggests that caffeine is neuroprotective and helps prevent dopaminergic brain diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. So it’s not too surprising that caffeine has been shown to benefit cognitive function in healthy people, too.^[22]

  In healthy subjects, caffeine has pretty unequivocally nootropic effects. People who take caffeine have faster reaction times^[23] and higher levels of attention^[23,24] and alertness.^[24] According McLellan et al. (2016), caffeine is “an effective strategy to maintain physical and cognitive capabilities” while under intense stress.^[24] Caffeine also has positive effects on working memory,^[25] the primary determinant of the “fluid” intelligence that declines with age.

  Note the high dosing and paring with other ingredients

  The big story here is the dose. In one scoop, we already get more caffeine than most gaming supplements and a lot of other nootropics. But to get the clinically-studied amount of nooLVL (1600 milligrams), you’re going to need two scoops of Skywalk… which brings you to 400 milligrams of caffeine!

  Long story short? To get the most out of Skywalk, we’re in the high-stim neighborhood! But we’ve got a couple of ingredients to keep it calm:

• Mucuna Pruriens – 150 mg

  

  Mucuna Pruriens is popular for its dopamine and growth hormone boosting properties. Courtesy Wikimedia

  Also known as velvet bean, mucuna pruriens is a plant belonging to the Fabaceae family, which contains nearly 150 different species of legume.^[26] Mucuna pruriens has historically been used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat a wide range of medical conditions.^[26] Extracts of Mucuna are usually standardized for L-dopa, the amino acid that is widely believed to be responsible for the brain-boosting effects of Mucuna.^[26]

  L-dopa works its magic by serving as a precursor to dopamine, the neurotransmitter that’s centrally implicated in motivation, reward, motor control, and executive function. Tyrosine, another amino that most readers are probably familiar with, is actually the precursor to L-dopa,^[26] which is ultimately responsible for most of tyrosine’s cognitive effects.

  Taking L-dopa directly, instead of tyrosine, gives the body a more direct path to upregulating dopamine. L-dopa can easily cross the blood brain barrier and restore dopamine levels, if for some reason the conversion of tyrosine to dopamine has been impaired.^[26]

  Much like caffeine, Mucuna has been found by some researchers to have dopaminergic neuroprotective properties, and has been proposed as a treatment or prophylactic for Parkinson’s disease.^[26]

  Paired with L-theanine below, we’ve got a nice one-two punch to keep that caffeine calm.

• Theanine – 115 mg

  

  L-Theanine increases attention and reduces reaction time — especially in stressed individuals!^[27]

  L-theanine is an amino acid that naturally occurs in tea leaves. Theanine itself actually functions as a neurotransmitter in the brain,^[28] where it produces feelings of relaxation without sedating the user.^[29]

  Theanine also synergizes with caffeine,^[30] another ingredient in this formula. At least two studies have shown that supplementing with both caffeine and theanine produces larger improvements in key dimensions of cognitive function, like alertness and processing speed, than what can be got by either compound on its own.^[31,32]

  The caffeine + theanine combination is a great one, the question is what ratios to keep it at. We’re happy with this dose – we generally like theanine to be less than caffeine, otherwise it calms things down too much!

• Huperzine A – 150 mcg

  

  The side label

  Botanical extracts of the plant Huperzia serrata, commonly known as toothed clubmoss, have a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine.^[33] In the modern era, Huperzine A, the bioactive constituent of these extracts, is a popular ingredient in nootropic and pre-workout supplements. Research has shown that Huperzine A is capable of inhibiting an enzyme, acetylcholinesterase, that breaks down acetylcholine,^[33] thus inhibiting the cognitive functions that acetylcholine is involved in, such as learning and memory.

  The effect of this is basically the same as increasing acetylcholine production – by extending the action of acetylcholine in the brain, you are increasing its overall activity.

  The journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience published a study in 2014 showing that Huperzine A prevents the accumulation of iron in the brain, and thus exerts powerful neuroprotective effects that may help prevent certain medical conditions, like Alzheimer’s disease.^[33]

  In general, huperzine A here is providing defensive support for alpha-GPC’s choline-boosting efforts.

Flavors available

As for us, we’ll take Peach Rings!

Below are the Skywalk flavors available, but make sure you check the label to get the new version, if that’s what you’re looking for. Previous versions of Skywalk may still be out there (and if you loved them, then stock up while you can!)

Conclusion: High-Caffeine Focus

Skywalk Laser Focus from MyoBlox is a smart little nootropic formula. NooLVL is really the centerpiece of this supplement and is doing most of the heavy lifting, but the other ingredients are all well-researched and have a distinguished history of use in modern nootropic supplements.

One interesting thing to think about with respect to NooLVL is how it might synergize with and enhance the delivery of other ingredients. Better brain flow should, theoretically, potentiate the cognitive effects of anything else in your supplement stack.

It bears mentioning one last time that if you want a clinical dose of nooLVL, you’re going to need to two-scoop it — putting you at 400 milligrams of caffeine. It is called Skywalk, after all!