Primeval Labs Intracell 7 Re-Ups Workout Performance

One of the hottest brands on the market right now, Primeval Labs, has been on a major tear. They’ve always been known for their popular intra workout / EAA supplement, EAA Max, but recently took things to a new level with a whole series of supplements in the Ape Sh*t pre-workout series.

Primeval Labs Intracell 7 is back in 2022, and the carb-loaded performance-based intra-workout supplement has a new Gummy Bear flavor with it!

But what if you need some carbs to sustain those Ape-inspired pre workouts? EAA Max is great, but it only has 2.5g carbohydrates, not nearly enough for anyone getting after it hard and trying to load up their muscles with glycogen.

The answer is that you stack in Intracell 7. This is an intra-workout supplement that’s the latest in the legendary Intracell series, bringing an added extra edge to it. This has long been an underrated supplement at PricePlow Nation, since we love jamming our carbs around workouts and using them as performance enhancers, which is exactly what this supplement was made to do.

Intracell 7: Aminos, Carbs, and Pumps

Intracell 7 Black is a carb-based EAA supplement from Primeval Labs that brings:

• Transparent amino acid dosages
• Low GI carb sources (18g carbs per two scoops)
• VasoDrive-AP for vasodilation-based pumps
• Hydration and water-driven pumps from taurine and glycerol

Before we get into this new label, be sure to sign up for PricePlow’s coupon-based deals, and don’t forget to sign up for our alerts so you don’t miss anything that Primeval is doing:

Intracell 7 Ingredients

In a single 1-scoop serving of Intracell 7 from Primeval Labs, you get the following:

• Branched-Chain Amino Acids – 2,500 mg

  When describing a branched-chain amino acid blend (aka, BCAA), the convention is to write it as a ratio of leucine:isoleucine:valine.

  In a BCAA blend, leucine is always the most abundant of the three because it’s the most anabolic and better than the other two at initiating muscle protein synthesis,^[1-3] which is the process that causes us to grow new muscle fibers in response to exercise.

  

  This here is the definition of “performance enhancement”!

  Leucine excels at triggering new muscle growth because it activates mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR),^[4-6] a metabolic “master switch” that basically turns on the anabolic response.

  So here, we have a 2:1:1 BCAA blend – pretty standard, yet still awesome because it’s what the most research (some of which is cited below) supports.

  Supplementing all three BCAAs have been shown to reduce muscle damage during exercise^[7-9] and improve physical endurance,^[10-12] allowing you to push yourself during your workouts and recover better and faster.

  As for the recommended dose of leucine and other BCAAs, requirements increase with age.^[13]

• Essential Amino Acid Blend – 410 mg

  The essential amino acids are important building blocks for more complex proteins, like the ones that make up muscle fibers. They’re called “essential” because our bodies have no ability to manufacture these aminos – they must be obtained from food or supplements.

  We want to take them all together, because each essential amino is crucial for optimal muscle synthesis.^[14]

  • L-Lysine

    

    Amongst these primary amino acids, the essential amino acids are in red. Leucine, Valine, and Isoleucine are the three Branched-Chain Amino Acids.

    Lysine is an important precursor to carnitine,^[15] a quaternary ammonium compound — a type of chemical used to kill bacteria and viruses — whose huge benefits for human health has earned it a place among PricePlow’s unheralded favorites. Animal studies have found that lysine must be present for optimal muscle synthesis and recovery.^[16,17]

    Lysine is also needed for your body to absorb calcium^[18] and produce collagen,^[19] which means that you need lysine to build the major structural supports for your body: healthy, dense bone require a lot of bioavailable calcium, and the tendons that hold your body together can’t be strong without enough collagen production. Both bones and tendons are strained by heavy lifting or intense cardio, so taking some supplemental lysine can help you avoid major injury in the long run.

    Lysine also, by aiding the absorption of calcium, directs it to the places where it should go,^[18] like your bones, and keeps it out of the places it shouldn’t – namely, your arteries, organs, and other soft tissues.

    We’ll never pass on an opportunity to geek out about carnitine, so if you’re interested in learning more about why lysine and carnitine are so important for excellent health, check out our blog post L-Carnitine is Underrated. New Meta Review Reminds Us Why.

  • L-Threonine

    A building block for serine and glycine, threonine is a non-essential amino acid with important benefits for brain health.^[20,21] Taking in adequate threonine is also important for maximizing muscle growth.^[22]

  • L-Phenylalanine

    

    Need an epic stacker? Then meet the Apex Predator Pre-Workout: Primeval Labs Ape Sh*t Alpha

    Phenylalanine helps our body build tyrosine,^[23] another PricePlow favorite on account of its ability to stimulate the production of dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine.^[24] You definitely want to increase the production of these catecholamines with an intra-workout supplement, because all three can increase focus and motivation, helping you get through your workout.

  • L-Tryptophan

    Tryptophan increases pain tolerance.^[25] It may also help you enjoy feeling the burn as you get through your challenging workouts because tryptophan (a serotonin precursor that can increase serotonin production) may help your mood.^[26] But don’t worry about it making you sleepy – that is an urban legend.

  • L-Histidine

    Histidine is a carnosine precursor, which is awesome since carnosine can increase athletic endurance, and speed recovery by buffering acids like lactic acid in muscle tissue.^[27] Histidine deficiency decreases the rate of muscle synthesis in animals, but surprisingly, high levels of it have also been shown to boost muscle synthesis above baseline.^[28] So even if you’re not at risk of histidine deficiency – which honestly is most of us – taking extra histidine will still benefit your gains.

    

    Gummy Bear is the new flavor for the Intracell series

  • L-Methionine

    Methionine is an antioxidant, which is an unusual characteristic for an amino acid. It can help protect your body from stress — like the stress of exercise.^[29] The body converts methionine into taurine and cysteine, a pair of compounds that help improve performance and speed recovery.

    Methionine is also a carnitine precursor,^[30] just like lysine. We discussed lysine a few sections above. And for a refresher on why carnitine is so awesome, check the hyperlinked blog post at the end of the lysine section. There’s a direct correlation between a person’s methionine consumption and the amount of carnitine in their blood.^[30]

• Carbohydrate blend – 10,000 mg

  Here we’ve got some starchy carbohydrates from a variety of excellent sources—all of them organic—which should be good news for anyone who’s serious about optimizing their health. We like seeing organic ingredients, especially when those ingredients are grains because the pesticides and herbicides typically applied to non-organic staple crops have endocrine-disrupting^[31] and potentially carcinogenic^[32] effects.

  

  Don’t want all the carbs? Then see Primeval Labs EAA Max, with flavors and tubs re-branded in 2021

  So why would we want carbohydrates in an intra-workout supplement? Because glycogen, our body’s stored carbohydrate source, is the main source of energy for intense exercise above 70% of a person’s VO2max.^[33]

  We can reduce the amount of glycogen we burn during exercise by lowering the intensity – but at any level of intensity, we’re burning a mixture of glycogen and fat for energy.^[34]

  The amount of glycogen in muscles during the first hour after exercise — a period commonly known as the anabolic window— is an important factor in how fast and how well we recover.^[35] And the closer you consume your carbohydrates to the end of your workout, the better you’ll absorb those carbs and use them to replenish glycogen stores.^[35]

  One strategy for keeping glycogen stores topped-off is to consume carbs during your workout, which will prevent your stores from getting as low as they would if you weren’t eating throughout your workout.

  Since an athlete’s perception of fatigue closely tracks the depletion of their glycogen stores,^[35] replenishing carbs during your workout can help you push the limits of performance and achieve your goals – especially if you’re doing any type of cardio or endurance workout.

  Exercise significantly increases the entire body’s sensitivity to insulin,^[35] so unless you’re diabetic, don’t worry about taking in carbs during your workout – your body will dispose of them and should use them properly!

• Electrolyte blend – 719 mg

  The minerals potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium are crucial electrolytes. These soft conductive elements help transmit electrical impulses throughout your muscle tissue, thus facilitating the muscle contractions that are obviously crucial for peak physical performance.

  

  Need more hydration support? Primeval Labs Electrolyte is a great tasting electrolyte matrix formula.

  Hydration ultimately comes down to the balance of water in your cells, and if your extracellular fluids are hypotonic, meaning they have a lower osmotic pressure than the fluids in your cells, water will leave your cells as it migrates to the fluid with less resistance, thus dehydrating you.

  

  Another way to hydrate: Forget the days of boring RTD flavors like grape and fruit punch – Primeval Labs really knocked the ready-to-drink pre workout flavors out with Ape Sh*t Untamed RTD!

  The osmotic pressure of a fluid is determined by how much material is dissolved in it, which is the main reason why electrolytes are so unbelievably important for athletes. You must replenish electrolytes in order to keep water inside your cells where it can protect them from heat shock and prevent muscles from cramping.^[36]

  Phosphorus is not a metal, but is still considered an electrolyte.^[37]

  The reason we see electrolytes included in this intra-workout supplement is that you lose electrolytes through sweat – so the harder you’re working, the more electrolytes you need to take in to replace what’s been lost.

  Hydrating on purified water without dissolved electrolytes can be dangerous during exercise, because pure (distilled) water has a low osmotic pressure – so we definitely like to see some electrolyte-support included in formulas like Intracell 7.

  Coconut water is used as the basis for this electrolyte blend because it naturally contains high concentrations of electrolytes.^[38]

• Performance Blend – 1,627 mg

  These three ingredients are focused on improving performance by optimizing your body’s fluid dynamics: either improving cellular hydration or optimizing blood flow.

  • L-Taurine – 1,000 mg

    Taurine is an osmolyte, meaning it regulates the concentration of water in your cells.^[39] So, taurine will help you stay hydrated at the cellular level, just like the electrolyte blend.

    

    Taurine’s effect on endurance, with success in doses anywhere from 1 gram to 6 grams.^[40]

    Partly because of its osmolytic effects, taurine can increase athletic endurance, and it can do so after just a single dose.^[40] According to the latest studies, the minimum effective dose for this use is 1 gram, so we’re glad to see that amount in Intracell 7’s formula.

    Taurine also has some antioxidant effects and helps protect your cells against damage caused by free radicals, which can definitely be a concern for some as intense exercise does acutely increase oxidative stress.^[41] Supplementation with taurine can also improve calcium signaling in muscle cells and cognition, among other things.^[39,40,42]

    Another interesting effect of taurine is to improve focus by upregulating GABA receptors in the brain while also reducing neural inflammation.^[42]

    But the big benefit of taurine supplementation for athletes is its impact on mitochondrial health.^[42,43] Improved mitochondrial health (through regular taurine supplementation, improved diet, better sleep, etc) can improve cellular energy and respiration and can give your cells more energy for workouts.

  • Glycerol powder – 500 mg

    

    Athletes using glycerol not only urinate less, but they are able to tolerate exercise in heat better!^[44] Note that this study used far higher doses of glycerol, however.

    Glycerol is a sugar-alcohol compound that’s produced by fat and glucose oxidation in the body.^[45,46] It plays an important role in hepatic gluconeogenesis,^[47] the production of glucose from non-sugar substances (protein, for the most part) by the liver.

    When taken, glycerol is distributed to all tissues, except the brain and eyes,^[48] and helps increase your extracellular osmotic pressure as well as the total amount of water in your body.^[48]

    This naturally causes water to move into your cells,^[49] where it can be used to enhance performance and recovery.

    Glycerol works best when combined with lots of water^[44,50]— so drink up.

  • VasoDrive-AP – 127 mg

    VasoDrive-AP is a duo of tripeptides extracted from casein, a family of phosphoproteins that naturally occurs in mammals’ milk.

    These tripeptides, isoleucyl-prolyl-proline (IPP) and valyl-prolyl-proline (VPP), help improve circulation and, hence, performance and recovery. By downregulating the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE),^[51] they inhibit the degradation of nitric oxide, the molecule responsible for vasodilation, a physiological process where your blood vessels relax and expand.

    In other words, VasoDrive prevents vasoconstriction – the opposite of vasodilation.

    In fact, the constituents of VasoDrive can inhibit ACE so effectively in many people that it can significantly reduce blood pressure,^[51] so keep that in mind and speak to your doctor if you’re on blood pressure medication.

Flavors Available

The May 2022 relaunch of Intracell 7 brought us Cherry Lemonade and Gummy Bear, but here’s an up-to-date list of flavors through the PricePlow system:

It’s great to have Intracell 7 Back!

The original Intracell 7 was a revolutionary product in its time, but then Primeval went ahead and improved that for the new addition, bringing pump ingredients, carbs, and EAAs. They went and did it again, upgrading their formula for the latest iteration – no longer in the “Black series”, but now in the new 2020s branding from Primeval that’s been extremely popular. Primeval has been consistently putting out solid products, making them one of our favorite companies out there.

Given that this has carbohydrates, and Primeval has some of the best flavors ever, we’re expecting these flavors to be top-notch as well. But that comes secondary to the performance you should get from the carbs, aminos, hydration, and pump agents inside!

So after you’ve had your Ape Sh*t, this is how you sustain the ape.