Go BZRK: Black Magic Supply’s Dark Sided Enigma of a Pre Workout

A relatively new brand to arise on the scene, Black Magic Supply has been described as “the darker side of the Myoblox crew”. They entered the market with their hardcore pre workout supplement, BZRK, and have since expanded their line to muscle builders, an EAA product, a nootropic, and several others.

With the market saturated with pre workouts, it makes it difficult for newcomers to stand out, but Black Magic’s labeling and intense ingredient selection is definitely a start! To make their product shine, they have packed it full to the brim with a high-stim matrix to get yourself amped and dialed in for your workout.

The BZRK Pre Workout Highlights:

When the Money runs out, pick up the original BZRK!

There are 25 full servings inside — no 20/40 business here, each 21g scoop contains:

• Open formula pump, energy, and ergogenic matrix led by high-dose citrulline, GlycerPump, Betaine, and a unique form of beta alanine known as BetaO
• Proprietary stimulant blend led by tyrosine and 350mg caffeine confirmed
• Unique herbal energy from Kola Nut and Neurofactor Coffeefruit extracts
• No yohimbe, yohimbine, or alpha-yohimine

…and of course, really cool labeling, coming “From the Other Side”.

We’ve got a full ingredient breakdown for you on this wild ride of a label, but before delving into this label, check out PricePlow’s coupon-driven deals, and be sure to sign up for our Black Magic Supply news alerts since this brand seems to have some cool tricks up its sleeve:

BZRK Ingredients

While BZRK is touted as a high-stim powerhouse of a preworkout option, it is certainly no slacker when it comes to pumps and power. With over 16 grams of active ingredients overall, this product is loaded, starting with the “Supernatural Matrix” up top.

However, the stimulant portion, known as the “Possessed Matrix,” is wrapped up in a 1,675mg proprietary blend, so we can’t tell you what sort of doses you are really getting in those ingredients. While we were given the caffeine dose (350mg), the rest are unknown to us and the consumer. We make a few educated guesses that may be close to the mark, but to be clear, they’re just guesses based on general dosing guidelines and we really don’t know.

• SuperNatural Matrix

  • Citrulline Malate 2:1 – 7,000mg

    

    We love every ingredient inside, but this prop blend leaves us wondering if BZRK will be good.. or downright great!

    Entering with a pump ingredient is quite a nice dose of citrulline malate. Citrulline is basically our staple pump-enhancing ingredient that nearly everybody loves to see, especially when you end up with a dose like this. Due to the 2:1 ratio here, you’re getting a bit over 4.6g of nitric oxide boosting citrulline, which is well above the 3g ‘clinical’ dose we’ve seen provide real-deal nitric oxide benefits (which, to us, is the pump).

    Citrulline converts in the body to arginine, which is then used to boost nitric oxide levels. This then results in vasodilation, allowing for better vascularity and blood flow, which comes with several benefits. Originally, arginine was used for this purpose, but it turns out that arginine has relatively poor bioavailability, and gets broken down in the gastrointestinal tract, making it much less effective than citrulline. Instead, citrulline skips being broken down in digestion, and then increases our arginine, and thus nitric oxide levels.^[1]

    Citrulline also has some other benefits related to actual performance. It helps reduce soreness, reduces fatigue, and can even enhance overall training capacity.^[2,3] In doing so, you can have more intense workout sessions, in addition to having better recovery. All of these factors combined make citrulline a great addition, especially at this high dose seen in BZRK.

  • BetaO – 3,200mg

    Up next is a unique take on a relatively standard pre workout ingredient. This is a combination of beta alanine, a common ingredient that we see as an endurance aid, but this time it’s combined with orotic acid, an ingredient that functions nearly identical to beta alanine. The combination is thus the trademarked ingredient BetaO.

    

    Less Suck; More Skill. Black Magic Supply makes it well known at the top-right that this tub has DMHA inside!

    Beta alanine is a very well known ingredient by many preworkout users, and is the ingredient known for that itchy, tingling sensation that many love (and a few hate). Beta alanine binds to the amino acid histidine in muscle cells, which then forms carnosine.^[4] The resulting carnosine then acts as lactic acid buffer for our muscles. This has shown increases in several areas, including work capacity,^[5] reduced fatigue,^[6] peak power output,^[7] and overall athletic performance.^[8] The plethora of benefits that come with this ingredient make it one of the most common and well known.

    BetaO Bringing the Orotic Acid

    Interestingly enough, Black Magic Supply has decided to pair their beta alanine with orotic acid in BZRK. While some users love the tingling sensation, many others do not, especially at higher doses. 3.2g of straight beta alanine (the daily clinical dose) can sometimes scare users away who don’t want to feel like ants are crawling all over their body. To keep the beta alanine dose lower, while still giving users the performance enhancing benefits, they chose to add orotic acid, which has very similar effects, but without the tingles.

    It does this by two main pathways. First, it drastically increases the body’s ability to regenerate ATP during exercise, boosting ATP levels by as much as 121% in muscle tissue.^[9,10] The second pathway is the same as beta alanine, in that it increases intramuscular carnosine levels.^[10] Due to this, orotic acid comes with all the benefits we just discussed with beta alanine, minus the tingles.

  • Glycerpump – 2,500mg

    

    GlycerPump is a new, stable from of 65% glycerol powder made by Pinnacle Ingredients.

    Glycerol has been around in this industry for many years, but has been plagued with two main problems: clumping, and low dose yields. However, with the introduction of Glycerpump by Pinnacle Ingredients into the market, things have changed for the better. This new form has been spray dried which nearly eliminates the horrendous clumping problems we saw in products that tried using higher doses of glycerol. This also allows a much higher yield of product, 65% of the mass being active glycerol.

    As they say, hydration is key, and this is especially true when using glycerol products. The glycerol acts as a sort of sponge, drawing water into your muscles, allowing for a “hyperhydrated” state.^[11] This gives us what we call a “water pump” that makes our muscles larger and more full than usual.

    The only caveat is that you must be consuming lots of water to be able to see effects from this. But, if you are, the difference will certainly be noticeable, especially with such a respectable dose put in here.

  • Betaine Anhydrous – 2,500mg

    Betaine, aka trimethylglycine, is another ergogenic aid that has gained some serious popularity in recent years. It has been shown to increase lean muscle mass, strength, power, and endurance.^[12-14] Overall, it seems to be a potent aid when it comes to natural muscle building, but also comes with another benefit.

    The betaine pumps

    

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    Betaine is also an osmolyte, meaning it helps facilitate the movement of water between cells, allowing it to get where it needs to go. This may further aid in our pumps, and since it is also being dosed with glycerol, you really need to make sure your hydration is on point and you should feel incredible.

    The betaine gains

    Even better, betaine also has been shown to increase muscle protein synthesis^[15] similarly to creatine. Plus, the osmotic action gives endurance and power benefits as well.^[16] This is a very strong ingredient that we are glad to see gain traction in the industry due to its well rounded benefits. Here in BZRK, you’re getting the clinical dose of 2.5g to help out with making new gains.

  That marks the end of the transparent portion of the ingredient list.

  Next up we have a proprietary blend of eight ingredients in a 1,675mg blend. As many know, we prefer non-proprietary formulas for a variety of reasons such as safety, efficacy, and consistency.

• Possessed Matrix – 1,675mg

  We can make some guesses as to what’s in here, thanks to knowing the 350mg caffeine dose, and things look to be in line with a very strong formula, depending on the stim dose! The sky’s the limit here, and we’re just not sure after running the possibilities.

  • L-Tyrosine

    First up in the blend, we’ve got L-Tyrosine, a powerful ingredient for both euphoria and focus. This amino acid is a precursor to the body’s catecholamines, such as norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine.^[17] Interestingly enough, Tyrosine also seems to alleviate stress and anxiety symptoms as well.^[18,19]

    

    Long story short from our analysis — For the best effects from tyrosine, choose the regular L-Tyrosine version!

    The Tyrosine Caffeine Synergy

    Tyrosine is great by itself, but it especially shines when paired with caffeine. Taking caffeine causes your body to release many of the same molecules that tyrosine is helping to produce.^[20] And, since you have supplemented with tyrosine, you have a large supply of those same molecules ready to be released. Think of tyrosine as filling the water (catecholamines) behind the dam, and caffeine being the one to break the dam, allowing them to rush into your bloodstream. This causes a great feeling of euphoria that users love.

    Since this is in a proprietary blend, we cannot definitively give an exact dose, but given that it is the first ingredient in the list, meaning it has the highest mass, and given the regular dosing we see, it’s pretty safe to estimate this dose being somewhere between the 750mg to 1g mark, which would be a very solid addition. What’s funny is that if it’s on the low end, such as 750mg or even less, that means this supplement is going to be very strong. And if it’s on the high end, then that means the other stimulants will be lower-dosed, which would be less strong. Only one way to find out…

  • Caffeine Anhydrous – 350mg

    The most common stimulant seen in preworkout supplements, it has been a staple of the community for years, and used for energy long before anyone put it into a tub and sold it. This is good old fashioned caffeine. This ingredient doesn’t need much explanation, as most people are already aware of the effects, and it has become nearly synonymous with pre workout.

    

    It tastes as good as it looks!

    In a workout setting, caffeine has been clinically shown to produce strength gains at around the 5-6mg of caffeine per kilogram of bodyweight dose.^[21,22] For a 70kg (154lbs) person, that is 350-420mg dose of caffeine, but individuals that size are probably not going to want to do a full scoop of BZRK due to everything else inside! Either way, we do expect some ergogenic benefits from caffeine alone, let alone the other great power-boosting ingredients like citrulline and betaine, both of which are clinically dosed.

    In addition, lipolytic effects can also be observed when using caffeine, meaning it helps burn and oxidize fatty acids.^[23-25]

    A note on dosage and cycling

    Caffeine is a stimulant your body builds a tolerance to, so to keep the effects the most potent as possible, it is generally recommended that users cycle their caffeine use and occasionally find alternatives. Otherwise, you may start needed much more caffeine than your body should really be taking in.

    As for dosage, Black Magic Supply has in fact told us we are at the 350mg mark for caffeine, making this towards the higher end of caffeine dosages.

  • Isopropylnorsynephrine

    If you’re familiar with the original verison of BZRK, then you already know that this ingredient is the newest addition!

    

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    Not too long ago, Black Magic decided to tweak the formula of BZRK slightly and one of the biggest changes they made was adding isopropylnorsynephrine to the POSSESSED MATRIX. BZRK is already a high stim pre workout, but this cranks things up an extra notch and it one of the many things that differentiates BZRK from other pre workouts on the market.

    Although we don’t know the exact dose since this is a proprietary blend, we do know that isopropylnorsynephrine is only found in advanced pre workout formulas! Isopropylnorsynephrine is actually a isopropyl verison of synephrine, which is a compound derived from bitter orange extract and is most commonly included in thermogenics and fat burners.

    It turns out that isopropylnorsynephrine is much stronger than it’s synephrine cousin at inducing lipolysis — the breakdown of stored triglycerides into free fatty acids and glycerol.^[26] This allows the body to use fatty acids for fuel, thus sparing carbohydrates. In addition, isopropylnorsynephrine likely works in a similar fashion as synephrine to create a stimulatory effect — by activating beta receptors and inhibiting alpha-adrenergic receptors.^[26]

  • Kola Nut Extract 4:1

    Originally used in West African countries, Kola Nut was originally used as part of medicine and cultural rituals, but has now made its way into the supplement world. Technically a fruit, kola nuts contain caffeine and theobromine, but also has some fat loss properties. Kola nut has been shown to stimulate the fore-brain, resulting in suppressed hunger, increased focus, and even has function as a diuretic.^[27]

    

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    This is in a 4:1 extract for the compounds that Black Magic Supply are going for, meaning that even a smaller dose will have more benefits than the raw version of this ingredient.

    The estimated guess for this ingredient is somewhere around 100mg? No clue on this one, but many single-ingredient, full-spectrum supplements have 550mg of the ingredient in a capsule, so if we have a 4:1 extract, we can expect something in the 75-125mg range for similar feels.

  • N-Methyl Tyramine

    Yet another stimulant in this potent pre workout is a familiar, but not overly-used one. N-methyl tyramine (NMT) is a beta-2 agonist that helps activate the “flight or fight” response in us. This leads to an increase in motivation, energy, focus, and helps free up fatty acids for use by the body. NMT will boost cAMP levels, which then increases epinephrine and glucagon secretion, boosting mood and energy.^[28]

    This is an ingredient we don’t see very often, so it makes a nice addition to such a hardcore stimulant profile. Given other supplements, the dose is probably at or near the 50mg mark.

  • Higenamine HCl

    Higenamine is a beta-2 adrenergic agonist, like a lighter form of ephedrine or synephrine. It has a variety of effects that help improve athletic performance. Notably, it stimulates bronchial dilation, allowing the bronchi to widen, easing breathing and helping to increase oxygen saturation.^[29] It can also act as a stimulant by triggering cardiac adrenoreceptor, leading to an increase in heart rate.^[30]

    

    Recharge with Black Magic Protein Blend!

    Interestingly enough, higenamine also increases the release of acetylcholine release, by activation of the beta(2)-adrenergic receptor.^[31] Acetylcholine is our “learning neurotransmitter”, and helps with focus and mind-muscle connection when we’re working out.

    Anecdotally, it is supported that higenamine helps to suppress appetite, but as of now, we have no direct scientific proof to conclude this. The most effective way this is shown is generally when paired with caffeine during a fast, but clinical studies will need to be done to make a real decision here.

    A better synephrine?

    As for safety, higenamine is less potent than synephrine milligram for milligram, but has substantially less side effects. As such, it has “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) status by the FDA.

    As you can see, higenamine has a lot of positive benefits, making it a highly versatile ingredient, and a great addition for BZRK. We think we have a respectable dose of around 50mg in this formula.

  • NeuroFactor

    A product produced by the respectable company FutureCeuticals, NeuroFactor is a trademarked form of coffee bean extract that has some interesting cognitive effects.

    

    NeuroFactor is one of the newest brain-boosting nootropics on the market with some pretty intriguing research behind it.

    The studies show a lot of promise for this ingredient, and the research has shown acute effects such as an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) by 144%.^[32,33] BDNF is an important part of both neurogenesis and neuronal repair. Furthermore, it may help slow neuronal decay, making it a preventative measure as well.^[34]

    All of these effects combine to help in mood, learning, memory, alertness, and even metabolism.

    Here’s where the dosing gets interesting. Every single supplement we’ve used has this dosed at 100mg. If it’s that high, then everything above it is going to be that high (or greater), which means this could be a far more potent supplement than we’re leading on. We don’t foresee 100mg doses of both NMT and Higenamine, though, so we’re thinking this is probably 50mg. At this point, we’re just not sure. Long story short, it’s time to review it.

  • Huperzine A (1%)

    A great nootropic compound, Huperzine A, sometimes seen as “toothed clubmoss extract” is an indirect way to boost acetylcholine levels in the brain. It does this by preventing the enzyme acetylcholinesterase from breaking down our acetylcholine.^[35]

    

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    We view this compound as the “defensive” side of the choline nootropic battle. Even better, it has neuroprotective benefits as well against glutamate,^[36] which is essentially the neuron death molecule. By blocking glutamate, Huperzine A prevents the degradation of your neurons.

    Even better, it can help regenerate brain cells via neurogeneration!^[37] This is one of our favorite nootropic picks for both its focus-enhancing capabilities, as well as its exciting benefits in protecting the brain. The standard dose is anywhere from 50mcg-200mcg, and we once again can’t be sure how much is in here.

Flavors available

Black Magic Supply is known for creating flavors that are as unique as their graphics and formulas. For example, BZRK comes in Crystal Blue, Peach Rings, Mango Sunrise, Haterade, Lemon Razz Icy, and Cosmic Burst! Since BZRK is their flagship product, Black Magic Supply enjoys running limited edition flavors so be on the lookout for more coming in the near future!

Cosmic Burst will shock your taste buds!

Here’s an updated list of all available variations:

Looking For Pre Workout Unlike Any Other, Try Out BZRK!

BZRK is certainly a high stimulant choice for those looking for a real pick me up when it comes to energy, focus, and euphoria. We always look for something different, and Kola Nut and NeuroFactor were good natural additions to many of the typical players.

Yet the proprietary blend is what it is – a massive question mark. This product can be good, or it can be great. We literally cannot know without reviewing, and that review (shown above in this post) went crazy well. It’s an enjoyable-as-hell product!!

Take your training to the next level with Black Magic BZRK!

It still can be quite strong for many, even if you come in knowing the 350mg caffeine dosage. With such an intense profile, you will definitely want to use less than a scoop to start, and then assess how it feels. We find around ¾ of a scoop is certainly a more tolerable experience, while still delivering crazy energy.

Not just a stim bomb!

What’s cool is that with the citrulline, Glycerpump, and the added ergogenics, this is not just a straight stim bomb, as you can definitely expect nasty pumps, endurance, and strength increases if using it on the daily. All you need to add is creatine and your creatine/betaine combo is done.

As the first product Black Magic Supply put out, it’s definitely a good sign of things to come, but this prop blend did kick our asses in terms of guessing. Many times we can give a good guess as to what’s inside, but with this one there’s just so many possibilities, and that blend will really dictate the strength.

Only one way to find out, and that was by reviewing it, which went fantastically. We look forward to seeing the rest of the products that Black Magic Supply has out right now, as well as the new things to come.