AstroFlav PFP: Pump Focus Performance Stim-Free Pre-Workout

L-Citrulline – 6,000 mg

The amino acid citrulline is a precursor to nitric oxide,^[1] a gaseous molecule whose presence in the blood triggers vasodilation, a mechanism that increases arterial diameter. However, citrulline isn’t the most direct precursor to NO – that would be another amino acid called arginine. Citrulline is an arginine precursor, so the full conversion pathway is as follows:

Citrulline → Arginine → NO

The reason we take citrulline instead of arginine is that even though arginine is the more direct precursor, citrulline’s bioavailability is so much higher that it ends up boosting NO more effectively.^[2,3]

Because of vasodilation, NO upregulation can help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently, pumping the same volume of blood at a lower blood pressure and heart rate.^[4-6] For a lot of people, a drop in blood pressure can be a boon for health, but more generally, vasodilation can be an important aid in athletic performance and recovery – by improving circulation, vasodilation also improves cellular nutrient delivery and waste removal, making cellular function more efficient as well.

Studies on citrulline consistently demonstrate that it can increase:

• Power^[7]
• Endurance^[8]
• Muscle soreness^[8]
• Growth hormone (GH) response to workouts^[9]
• Protein sparing^[10]
• Anabolic response to workouts^[11,12]

Citrulline supplementation also increases the body’s production of an amino acid called ornithine, which is involved in ammonia detoxification.^[13,14] Since ammonia buildup can cause mental and physical fatigue, getting rid of it faster can delay the onset of fatigue, effectively boosting endurance.

Interestingly, citrulline supplementation can also increase the body’s DHEA-to-cortisol ratio,^[14] which is an important marker of your body’s resilience to stress.

GlycerSize (Glycerol powder 65%) – 3,000 mg

Glycerol, also known as glycerin,^[15] is an osmolyte. This means that it affects the osmotic pressure around your body’s cells, which, in glycerol’s case, moves extra water into those cells.^[16] The net effect of taking glycerol is a boost to the total amount of water in your body. In other words, an improvement in whole-body hydration at the cellular level.

Most glycerol studies emphasize its ability to increase athletic endurance, as demonstrated in one study that found cyclists’ exercise time to exhaustion was substantially lengthened by glycerol ingestion.^[17] Now, glycerol does contain a very small number of calories, but it’s too small of a factor to matter. The same study found that a glycerol+carb combination did better than glycerol and water.^[17]

Another study found that three weeks of glycerol supplementation can increase anaerobic power,^[18] so this ingredient is definitely not only for endurance athletes.

Glycerol works best when you drink it with plenty of water – if you’re worried about needing to use the bathroom too much, don’t be. Glycerol actually decreases urination frequency by improving water retention in the body.^[19,20]

While not an NO-boosting ingredient, glycerol does improve the body’s thermoregulation, decreasing cardiovascular strain during heat exposure.^[21] Its ability to protect cells from heat shock makes it a great ingredient to take during outdoor summer workouts.^[19,21]

Oligonol proprietary blend (Low-molecular-weight polyphenol from lychee fruit extract and green tea leaf extract) – 150 mg

Oligonol is a patented mixture of high-polyphenol extracts from lychee fruit and green tea.

High polyphenol intake is known to improve cardiovascular health by increasing NO bioavailability and inhibiting platelet aggregation.^[22] Polyphenols in general inhibit a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa, which is a fibrinogen activator.^[23] In other words, polyphenols have a fibrinolytic effect.^[23]

But what we’re really interested in here is Oligonol’s ability to increase vasodilation.

Preliminary studies looking at Oligonol’s ability to do this have yielded promising results. For example, a Japanese study on middle-aged men and women (average age of 48) suffering from cold extremities – a sign of impaired peripheral artery function – found that Oligonol supplementation significantly increased surface skin temperature, which indicates an improvement in circulation.^[24]

Compared to a placebo, groups that took Oligonol saw significantly greater improvements in both peripheral blood flow and surface skin temperature, which were directly measured in the study. These two charts indicate subjects’ response to cold water exposure – post5 means 5 minutes after exposure, etc. Gray lines represent data collected on day 1 of the study period, while black lines are data from day 14. The Oligonol-only group is represented by circles, Oligonol+plant extracts by triangles, and placebo by squares.^[24]

As the study authors point out, previous research has indicated that oligomerized polyphenol extracts from lychee fruit can upregulate endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), the enzyme responsible for NO production^[25] – a mechanism that was undoubtedly at play in Oligonol’s improvement of peripheral blood flow and surface skin temperature.

30 days of Oligonol supplementation at 200 mg/day significantly improved running time to exhaustion in healthy young men. While groups taking vitamins C+E and a placebo also saw gains, the improvement experienced by the Oligonol group was much bigger.^[26]

A randomized controlled trial in healthy young men also found that Oligonol can significantly improve aerobic endurance as measured by time to exhaustion during a running test.^[26] While the mechanism of action here isn’t certain, it seems obvious that NO-mediated vasodilation must be at play – vitamins C and E, both powerful antioxidants, didn’t cause nearly as much of an improvement in the same study, meaning it’s unlikely that the antioxidant effects of Oligonol were responsible for the endurance boost.

Overall a very cool ingredient. It’s not at all surprising that it works to improve circulation, since, as we’ve discussed many times on The PricePlow blog (just search our archive), green tea extract, one half of the Oligonol formula, is known beyond any shadow of a doubt to increase NO activity.

Phyto-C (acerola juice concentrate, Strawberry, Green Coffee Bean Extract, Green Tea Extract, Maqui, Acai, Turmeric Extract, Kale, Tart Cherry, Broccoli, Blueberry) – 150 mg

Phyto-C is a botanical extract blend that’s designed to provide natural vitamin C and 15% polyphenols by weight.

As we just discussed in the previous section, polyphenol antioxidants, in general, are fantastic nitric oxide boosters, and vitamin C has also been shown to increase NO bioavailability,^[27] so Phyto-C is the perfect ingredient to include in this pump-focused formula.

The vitamin C RDA is 90 milligrams, and a 150-milligram dose of Phyto-C delivers 20% of that,^[28] so here we’re getting about 18 milligrams of vitamin C – not a huge amount, but definitely significant.

PurpleForce Purple Tea Extract (Camellia Sinensis) (Leaf) Standardized to 3% GHG) – 100 mg

PurpleForce is a tea extract, but it’s not derived from the usual green tea or black tea – it comes from purple tea, a cross-bred variant of the Camellia sinensis (true tea) plant. Purple tea was bred to contain lots of anthocyanins, a group of red and blue polyphenol pigments that give famous superfoods like pomegranates, beets, and blueberries their signature colors.

Purple Tea’s cardiovascular benefits

Ordinary tea has been shown to increase NO activity by stabilizing the NO molecule within endothelial tissue.^[29] Since NO upregulation is, again, linked to better athletic performance,^[30] we would expect to see the same result from purple tea consumption. After all, purple tea is tea plus anthocyanins, right? So if anything, it should be better.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study from 2020 bears this notion out, finding that subjects who supplemented with PurpleForce completed significantly more leg extension reps than a placebo group.^[31] They also had lower lactate dehydrogenase levels, which is significant because the body produces lactate dehydrogenase in reaction to increasing lactic acid levels. Thus, reduced levels of lactate dehydrogenase suggest a lesser accumulation of lactic acid in muscle tissue.

Subjects who supplemented with PurpleForce (PT) had significantly higher blood nitrate levels than the placebo group (PLA), indicating a rise in NO production.^[31]

But the really interesting thing, from a pump formula perspective, is that the PurpleTea group had higher serum nitrate levels, which indicates an increase in NO production.^[31]

Participants also reported more motivation to exercise,^[31] which we think is something most readers will love to hear.

PurpleForce and GHG – effect on body composition

While not strictly relevant to a pump formula, it’s worth mentioning that PurpleForce is standardized for a bioactive constituent called 1,2-di-Galloyl-4,6-Hexahydroxydiphenoyl–D-Glucose (GHG), which has powerful anti-obesity and anti-aging effects.^[32]

One study found that 100 milligrams of purple tea extract per day, taken for 30 days, significantly decreased subjects’ subcutaneous fat levels and increased lean body mass.^[33]

Other research has found that drinking purple tea every day is associated with lower BMI, body fat percentage and waist to hip ratio.^[34,35]

This is probably because purple tea can upregulate AMPK,^[35,36] a mechanism that also has relevance to exercise performance.

AstraGin [Panax notoginseng Extract (root) & Astragalus membranaceus Extract (root)] – 50 mg

AstraGin, a patented ingredient from NuLiv Science, is designed to increase the bioavailability of whatever else you take it with. In other words, AstraGin makes every other ingredient in this product more effective! The mechanism of action is adenosine triphosphate (ATP) upregulation, which enables your intestinal cells to do more work absorbing ingested nutrients.^[37-41]

Because of its positive effect on intestinal function, taking AstraGin long-term can even improve digestive health.^[42]