{"id":733,"date":"2009-08-13T19:04:54","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T19:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bodybuilding.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=733"},"modified":"2015-02-16T13:36:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T18:36:32","slug":"tetra_pump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/tetra_pump.html","title":{"rendered":"Review: Protein Factory Tetra Pump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: Tetra Pump has been discontinued.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Tetra Pump is the first product of its kind to contain 4 ingredients working synergistically to increase vasodilation and nitrate levels in the blood. By using Tetra-Pump Pre-workout you will experience an increased “pump”, much greater than other so-called nitric oxide products that contain various forms of worthless arginine, like AKG and amphetamines, like caffeine. Tetra-Pump is research proven to increase vasodilation and nitrate levels thereby increasing your pump when you work out<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Tetra Pump is one of the pre-made formulas from ProteinFactory.com, a well-known “protein customizer”. It’s designed to produce a “pump” effect similar to nitric oxide (NO) supplements, but without the “worthless” arginine, caffeine (which, for the record, is NOT an “amphetamine”) or nootropics.<\/p>\n

What does Tetra Pump have to offer that other NO supps don’t? As always, the label holds the answer.<\/p>\n

Calories 220
\nCalories From Fat 0
\nTotal Fat 0g
\nCholesterol 0mg
\nSodium 180mg
\nTotal Carbohydrate 33g
\nDietary Fiber 0g
\nSugars 32g
\nProtein 22g<\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong> Dextrose, PeptoPro, Flux Powder (date powder), Creapure Creatine Monohydrate, GPLC (Glycine Propionyl-L-Carnitine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As you can see, Tetra Pump is a “back to basics” sort of supp. It’s also quite simple: it consists of two sources of sugar, peptides, creatine + one relatively new ingredient, glycine propionyl-l-carnitine. Here’s how each one looks, close up.<\/p>\n

Dextrose\/Flux (Date) Powder:<\/strong> Dextrose is, of course, d-glucose\u2014the standard high-glycemic index (GI) monosaccharide that the GI scale is based on. Bodybuilders have been using dextrose as a workout carb source for years: it’s inexpensive, readily available and a quickly absorbed source of fuel for high-intensity work.<\/p>\n

Dates contain a mixture of sugars: glucose, sucrose and fructose. Since dates are over 70% sugar (dry weight)<\/a>, “date powder” can be thought of as simply another (albeit less refined) source of simple sugars.<\/p>\n

Simple sugars have also been shown to enhance creatine uptake in several studies.<\/p>\n

For example, one early study found a 60% increase in muscle creatine<\/a> when it was taken with glucose.<\/p>\n

PeptoPro\u00ae<\/sup>:<\/strong> This is the creation of DSM Food Specialties. PeptoPro<\/a> is a “debittered” casein protein<\/a> supplement that’s been enzymatically hydrolyzed to 70%\u201380% di- and tri-peptides. Since this parallels what happens during digestion, PeptoPro is effectively “pre-digested.” According to in-house studies by DSM, it can reduce post-exercise muscle damage, as well as enhance performance, endurance and recovery.<\/p>\n

Creapure Creatine Monohydrate:<\/strong> Creatine monohydrate<\/a> is\u2014simply put\u2014the most popular and effective non-hormonal bodybuilding supplement\/ingredient on the market. There are a large number of studies validating its effectiveness for gaining lean mass and strength. Creapure is a brand of creatine monohydrate made by AlzChem AG<\/a>, that’s famous for its high quality and purity.<\/p>\n

GPLC (Glycine Propionyl-L-Carnitine): <\/strong>Propionyl-L-Carnitine (PLC) is a naturally-occuring ester of l-carnitine that may have therapeutic applications for peripheral artery disease<\/a> and erectile dysfunction<\/a>. PLC infusion is known to improve vasodilation and production of NO<\/a>. Glycine may as well<\/a>… so the two have been put together in a proprietary supplement ingredient, GPLC, which is sold commercially as GlycoCarn\u2122<\/a>. Two research studies have shown that ingestion of 4.5g of GlycoCarn a) increased plasma nitrate\/nitrite<\/a> (a measure of NO production) in resistance-trained men as well as b) enhanced peak power production<\/a> during a cycling (Wingate) test. 4+ grams appears to be a minimum dose: a third study using lower doses (1g and 3g) failed to demonstrate any performance-enhancing effects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And there we have it…<\/p>\n

On the face of it, Tetra Pump looks like it could be fairly effective: sugars, casein and creatine are battle-tested stalwarts, while the GPLC looks promising. Nonetheless, I hesitated a bit before placing my order: at $46.74 for 15 servings, it’s on the pricey side\u2014especially for something that’s ~50% (cheap) sugar.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, though, each serving contains solid doses of two relatively expensive ingredients\u2014GPLC (4g) and PeptoPro (22g)\u2014so I decided to go for it after all, and bought a package of the “Tropical Orange” flavor.<\/p>\n

Maybe I should have hesitated a bit longer… as it turned out, Tetra Pump was a bit of a flop. On the plus side, it behaved pretty much the way I’d expect a pre-workout blend of carbs and protein to behave…It tasted ok (not great, but ok) and provided a good dose of fuel to push through my workout. The promised pump, however, wasn’t anything spectacular\u2014in fact, it was mild, at best.<\/p>\n

Needless to state, this was a little disappointing. I might have seen it coming, however: individual subject data from the first study demonstrates there were non-responders (as well as marginal responders) to GPLC<\/a>. Evidently I’m one of ’em: I gave Tetra Pump several tries, but got the same (non-)response each time.<\/p>\n

Pity…<\/p>\n

Under the circumstances, I doubt I’ll be buying Tetra Pump again. While I like most of the ingredients, the GPLC doesn’t appear to work for me and\u2014if desired\u2014I can obtain the others individually…as well as more economically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: Tetra Pump has been discontinued. “Tetra Pump is the first product of its kind to contain 4 ingredients working synergistically to increase vasodilation and nitrate levels in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,14],"tags":[152],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2556,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions\/2556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/bodybuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}