Black Magic BZRK VOODOO: Limited Edition Goes Beyond BZRK

We warned you that Black Magic Supply was hitting it hard in 2022… and now, here’s our proof: a Limited Edition BZRK VOODOO Pre-Workout!

Beyond BZRK: Limited Black Magic VOODOO Edition – 2022’s Mad Melons

The rumors are true – Black Magic Supply has released the 2022 amplified version of their hit BZRK pre workout — a repeat limited-edition product called BZRK Voodoo! This year’s flavor is Mad Melons, and the formula is wild.

Are you ready to go beyond BZRK? The 2022 version is lit

This one packs more energy and more citrulline, and does it in a fresh and unique way. Get ready, because a single scoop is strong:

• 400 milligrams of total caffeine
• Quadruple choline upregulation stack
• enXtra caffeine synergy support
• NeuroFactor, tyrosine, and added PEA for brain booming focus
• Added pumps with NitroRocket

And some of our readers may be excited about what’s not in here:

• No beta alanine
• No alpha yohimbine

That means no tingles and no cold sweats — but tons of energy still packed inside.

This is a unique one, and a great way to try enXtra with a heavy hit of caffeine to see if the synergy studies are as good as they say.

It’s all covered below, but get in on it soon because Black Magic Supply has a limited edition supply:

BZRK VOODOO Ingredients

In a single one-scoop serving of Voodoo from BZRK, you get the following:

• Citrulline Malate – 10,000 mg

  

  Get ready for a wild ride… new users definitely will wish to start at half of a scoop!

  The non-essential amino acid citrulline is one of the best nitric oxide boosters known to supplement science,^[1] and has replaced arginine in recent years owing to its superior bioavailability.^[2] Unlike arginine, citrulline does not excessively break down before it’s absorbed into the intestinal wall^[3] (something known as the “first pass effect”).

  Research studies on citrulline have shown that it has the following effects on human physiology:

  • Better uptake of oxygen and greater top-end athletic power^[4]
  • Longer time to exhaustion (better endurance) – a 2010 study found that high-dose citrulline (like what we have here) increased the max number of bench press reps by a whopping 53%^[5]
  • Up to 40% less muscle soreness after exercise^[5]

  These effects are mediated by nitric oxide’s ability to cause vasodilation, which refers to the expansion of blood vessels. It ultimately means a higher volume of blood flow and more blood is delivered to the smaller peripheral blood vessels. As a result, oxygen and nutrients are delivered to muscle cells more efficiently, and lactic acid is removed more efficiently as well, both during and after exercise. Since lactic acid is one of the primary causes of muscle soreness and fatigue, it’s not surprising that citrulline supplementation can speed recovery.

  With citrulline malate being ~56% citrulline,^[6] we can guess we’re getting roughly 5.5 grams of citrulline inside here – nearly double the clinically-validated dose!

  Meanwhile, the malate portion (coming from malic acid) has some independent benefits of its own. It plays a central role in the Krebs cycle, the main source of energy for cells.^[7] And some studies have shown that citrulline malate actually facilitates aerobic respiration, which makes more energy available to the body during intense exercise.^[8] Theoretically, this is part of the reason why citrulline malate helps improve exercise performance.

  We see citrulline malate most commonly dosed between 6 and 8 grams. Not the case with Voodoo — this is going to be a powerful pump.

• Choline Bitartrate – 1,000 mg

  Choline bitartrate is a form of choline that increases our levels of both choline and acetylcholine. Choline is an essential nutrient, meaning that the human body can’t synthesize choline endogenously. We must obtain choline from food or supplements.

  

  The roles of choline in the body are many, but arguably, what’s most important is that it helps maintain the structure of cellular membranes throughout the entire body.^[9]

  For most pre-workouts, though, we use the ingredient for focus. This is because choline is a precursor to acetylcholine,^[10] which we often refer to as the “learning neurotransmitter” because it’s so crucial for memory consolidation, the process of encoding short-term memories into long-term memories. Acetylcholine promotes signal transmission between neurons, so having more acetylcholine generally gives better cognition and heightened mental energy.

  Choline is also required for optimal fat metabolism^[11-14] and increases the body’s retention of carnitine,^[15-17] another important nutrient.

  Choline deficiency is really bad – so given that acetylcholine supports cognition, you probably won’t be shocked to hear that being deficient in acetylcholine can cause serious cognitive problems.

  But a choline deficiency can also precipitate muscle catabolism and even organ damage – including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is associated with the metabolic syndrome that’s observed in advanced type 2 diabetes cases.^[18]

  There’s definitely less concern for a deficiency with this bitartrate dose (double the usual 500 milligrams we see), and we have another ingredient in DMAE that will synergize with it as well!

• L-Tyrosine – 1,000 mg

  L-Tyrosine helps support thyroid function^[19,20] by increasing the production of the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4).^[20] A good tyrosine supplement will help prevent the slowed thyroid function that’s typically observed during periods of intense physical stress, like while completing a demanding training program or cutting calories to lose weight.^[21,22]

  However, as with choline, it’s not in BZRK Voodoo for its diet applications – it’s here for focus. That’s because tyrosine is also a precursor for dopamine,^[23] as well as epinephrine and norepinephrine.^[24,25] All three of these neurotransmitters will increase your mental and physical energy when upregulated.

  

  It’s easy to see why we like tyrosine so much – its derivatives bring the intensity and focus! Image courtesy Wikimedia

  Epinephrine and norepinephrine also help with appetite suppression and fat burning,^[26] which can support training when on a cut (diet).

  As shown in some studies on the US Military, tyrosine supplementation has been shown to particularly benefit people who are acutely sleep deprived, especially when compared with caffeine.^[27,28] Those looking for some Voodoo may have this issue, although we’ll always emphasize proper sleep habits whenever possible.

• Dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE bitartrate) – 750 mg

  

  The side says it all here!

  Dimethylaminoethanol, also known as DMAE, is a close cousin of choline. Although it doesn’t raise acetylcholine levels directly, some evidence suggests that DMAE may raise free choline levels – thus making it more available for the production of acetylcholine – and stimulate cholinergic receptors.^[29]

  This is a higher-than-usual dose (as with many of the other ingredients in BZRK Voodoo), and should synergize very well with the choline bitartrate also in the formula. DMAE “spares” choline by preventing it from being metabolized in peripheral tissues, meaning that more of your total choline supply is circulated to the central nervous system.^[30]

  In at least one human study, DMAE has been shown to stabilize mood in people with borderline emotional disorders.^[31] In this study, researchers measured the electrical activity in subjects’ brains by way of an EEG machine and observed that subjects who took DMAE had more optimal brain wave patterns after ingestion.^[31]

  For a company like Black Magic Supply that talks about Brain Waves, this ingredient — especially at this dose — is a near perfect fit.

• NitroRocket (arugula extract) – 500 mg

  NitroRocket is a patented arugula extract with an estimated 10% nitrate content by weight, which is a much higher concentration than what you’d find in whole beets, celery, and spinach. Although it might not sound impressive on the face of it, 10% nitrates is actually a very impressive standardization, since whole arugula only has about 0.43% nitrate by weight.^[32] So obviously, if you’re only after the nitrates in these foods in a pre-workout setting, this extract is a much better bet than eating the source foods to get that nitrate pump.

  

  Need more pumps? Black Magic Supply Ecto Plasm brings em big and Purple Rain is an exquisite flavor!

  Nitrates are great to take as a pre-workout because of their ability to increase nitric oxide,^[33-35] much like citrulline above and with all the same benefits.

  Just to recap, some of the benefits of differing forms of nitrates — in varying doses (admittedly often higher than what we’ll get here from NitroRocket) — are:

  • Improved circulation^[36]
  • Greater aerobic efficiency^[36-39]
  • Increased strength^[34,40]
  • Increased physical endurance^[38,39]
  • Faster recovery
  • Higher cellular energy levels^[35,40,41]

  NitroRocket may not have any clinical data behind it, but we can lean towards some of the above effects and expect to get pushed in the right direction, although we can’t make specific claims on this ingredient until more research is out.

  Overall, this is an impressive naturally-sourced ingredient that the original BZRK doesn’t have, and we’ll take it any day of the week.

• enXtra (Alpinia galanga extract) – 150 mg

  The Alpinia galanga plant is a member of the Zingiberaceae group, a family that also contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory heavy-hitters, ginger and turmeric. Much like its famous cousins, Alpinia galanga has the same antioxidant and even neuroprotective properties.^[42,43]

  However, there is more to the story: enXtra also has some psychostimulant effects.

  

  “Join the other side and become part of the Black Magic Supply Athlete Program today”

  In a 2017 study published by the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, researchers did a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial with human subjects. The volunteers were broken into four groups: one took placebo, the second took enXtra, the third received caffeine anhydrous, and the fourth got both enXtra and caffeine.

  The researchers administered several measures of cognitive function and alertness to the participants at one hour, three hours, and five hours after treatment.

  All three treatment groups were significantly more alert after one hour. This is unsurprising. However, the caffeine-only group was actually less alert than baseline at the three-hour mark,^[44] while the group that received both caffeine and enXtra only showed a very slight drop in alertness after three hours.^[44]

  The group that received only enXtra saw a sustained increase in alertness across the whole study period,^[44] suggesting that enXtra is capable of both independently raising alertness and working synergistically with caffeine to blunt the “crash” that typically follows caffeine use.^[44,45]

  So, considering that we have a whopping 400 milligrams of caffeine per serving of VOODOO, it makes total sense to see enXtra included in this stack. Its presence here means that stimming up for a monster workout isn’t going to ruin your whole day once the caffeine metabolizes.

• Possessed Matrix – 1,360 mg

  This is a nice and powerful little blend that’s formulated to provide some supplementary stimulation to the main stimulants in this pre-workout stack. Briefly:

  • Catuaba bark: a potent inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase,^[46] the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine. This will extend the action of acetylcholine, helping focus alongside choline. It also has documented anti-fatigue effects.^[46]
  • 

    PEA stimulates a strong, but brief release of catecholamines, that will vastly boost your mood and may help lipolysis.

    Beta phenylethylamine (PEA): widely recognized as one of the greatest workout stimulants ever. Taking PEA will flood your brain with catecholamines, such as dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline,thus making you feel energized and motivated — even euphoric.^[47]

  • Caffeine anhydrous and dicaffeine malate: caffeine really needs no introduction. By blocking the brain’s receptors for adenosine and phosphodiesterase, caffeine increases neural activity and decreases feelings of fatigue.^[48] Caffeine also increases your body’s rate of fat burning, making more energy available for a workout.^[49-51]

    Note that we have 400 milligrams of total caffeine per serving. It’s quite a large amount, so use with caution and start with half a scoop to assess the overall stimulant load in BZRK Voodoo!

  • NeuroFactor: a trademarked extract of coffee fruit, NeuroFactor has been shown to increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF),^[52] a protein that facilitates the growth of new neurons as well as the dendritic connection between neurons.^[53] Put simply, BDNF protects your brain from stress and improves cognition.
  • Huperzine A: another acetylcholinesterase inhibitor,^[54] huperzine A independently improves memory and cognition,^[55] so if you’re stacking it with a bunch of stuff that increases acetylcholine production and function, as we are here, you can expect an even bigger effect than usual from huperzine. Huperzine A also protects the mitochondria in your neurons from oxidative stress.^[56]
    

    Acetylcholinesterase breaks down our acetylcholine. Huperzine A helps slow this process down.

    This will further help in synergy with the choline bitartrate, adding to the cholinergenic experience alongside DMAE.

• B Vitamins (B1, B2, B6) – megadoses

  Most readers are probably already aware that the B vitamins are crucial for optimal glucose metabolism and cognitive function, giving B vitamin megadoses an energizing effect. It’s no surprise, then, to see them in this pre-workout formula, especially since VOODOO contains a large dose of caffeine. And some studies have found that caffeine intake is inversely correlated with blood levels of B vitamins.^[57]

  

  Any given B vitamin does a ton of stuff in the human body, but here’s a brief run-down on the roles most relevant to a pre-workout:

  • Thiamine (vitamin B1) is an important cofactor for various enzymatic processes that are involved in cellular energy production.^[58]
  • Riboflavin (vitamin B2) is a precursor to a number of proteins involved in several important metabolic processes, including electron transport and the metabolism of lipids.^[59] Riboflavin’s key role in the electron transport chain, which is responsible for producing ATP,^[59] the basic unit of cellular energy, is probably why it’s included here.
  • Vitamin B6 helps to regulate homocysteine levels in the blood.^[60] Since caffeine intake can raise homocysteine levels,^[61] it’s definitely a good idea to take some extra vitamin B6 if you’re consuming large doses of caffeine.

Flavors available

For this 2022 release of BZRK Voodoo, it’s all about Mad Melons! But just in case something else comes out, we’ll have a full list below:

And don’t forget to stack it with the new Candy Bliss flavor of Keyz intra workout aminos, which we also recently covered.

Conclusion: BZRK Joins the Voodoo Realm

The March 2022 Black Magic Stack

As Black Magic Supply definitely planned, VOODOO from BZRK is no joke. Packed with highly efficacious ingredients in truly monstrous doses, there is absolutely no way that the consumer won’t feel big effects from taking this supplement.

It’s easy to overlook, though, since caffeine is included in a blend on the ingredients label, but the dose is specified on the product label, and at 400 milligrams of caffeine per dose, you’ll want to be careful when scooping this one. If you don’t know your caffeine tolerance, start with half —or even a quarter— of the suggested amount and work your way up to a full dose.

Remember, there are added ingredients like enXtra to synergize with the stims, and the quadruple choline enhancement stack next to tyrosine and PEA should add to that pop… and then some.

So are you ready to generate some VOODOO?