Jack3d

I go to Hamptons Gym Corp. in Southampton right by the Hampton Jitney headquarters pretty much every day to workout in an endless effort to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger—wait, strike that, I can’t put him up on that pedestal anymore.

Anyway, in my effort to look like He-Man, I go to the gym and do weight training. I have a group of friends there who all end up at the gym around the same time that I do, and we like to talk a little bit about different ideas on how to get bigger.

Of course, steroids are off the table, but other than that, just about every supplement known to man is discussed among this group. One guy recommends using Iso-pure protein while anther recommends Muscle Milk. The debate goes on, and it gets pretty scientific as we all try to outsmart one another with what works and what doesn’t. Of course, the biggest guy in the room will never fully reveal what he does to get big and cut—I just can’t give away all my secrets. [expand]

Okay, in all seriousness, one of the subjects that came up was a relatively new group of supplements, or at least new to me, which are called pre-workout supplements. These are designed to be taken right before you workout, and the makers claim they will give you energy and focus during your workouts. Terms like “focus,” “intensity,”  “pump” and “charged” are all thrown around on the labels of such products.

One of the guys at the gym highly recommended a product called Jack3d (yes, it is spelled like that) and I thought I’d give it a try. “What’s in it?” I asked my gym buddy.

“It’s got a bunch of stuff that really helps you focus,” he said.

That’s a bit of a vague answer, I thought. But I gave it a shot. After all, it’s perfectly legal stuff and is sold by the caseloads out of GNCs across the country. It’s probably no different than taking a vitamin. More psychological than anything else.

I was wrong.

I’m not kidding, I took this stuff and have never experienced a bigger energy rush in my life, and I’m a pretty serious coffee drinker. I worked out for two straight hours, weight lifting, jumping rope, hitting the punching bag, and the entire time I felt incredibly good and incredibly energized. I didn’t feel sore, I felt great. I felt like I wanted to stay at the gym even longer, even after I was finished with a routine. If I stopped hitting the bag, I started doing curls, when I stopped that I moved on to something else. It was crazy. I genuinely could not believe how well this product worked, and I was kind of concerned about my actual health after drinking it.

When I got home, I was still wired and figured I’d start reading a book to try and relax. I couldn’t sleep most of the night and it was obvious to me at that point that I had taken too much of this supplement. I went on the Internet and looked up the side effects of Jack3d, and then learned that this stuff can tend to keep you up due to the caffeine content in it as well as other stimulants. The ingredient list includes (Arginine Alpha-Ketoglutarate, Creatine Monohydrate, Beta Alanine, Caffeine, 1,3-Dimethylamylamine (Geranium [Stem]), Schizandrol A).

I didn’t recognize any of these ingredients except caffeine.

I’ll be fine, I thought.

Well, about 150 pages of the book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo later, I was still up and still feeling like I couldn’t get to sleep.

Work the next day was not pleasant. But I will say, I got one hell of a workout. [/expand]