Dynamo Pre-Workout Review From Protein Dynamix

Review: Protein Dynamix Dynamo Pre-Workout


Reviewed by:
Rating:
3
On 2016-11-02
Last modified:2019-10-23

Summary:

While I have reservations about some of its ingredients, I found Dynamo to be a highly effective (albeit horrible-tasting) pre-workout supplement which provides exceptional value for money.

“When I was in the National Service, every morning would start at 5am when a bucket of cold water was thrown over your bed and a drill instructor spat in your face and called you a c**t.”

This was the anecdote my dad would recount to me when I was nine years old and didn’t want to get up to go swimming before school.

Suffice to say, in the old days, getting your arse in gear for a workout chiefly involved the “short sharp shock” school of thought: a cold shower, a few home truths, maybe a cup of coffee, but most of all, a healthy dose of pulling yourself the fuck together.

These days, however, workout motivation, just like everything else in the fitness industry, has become a commodity.

It is packaged and sold, whether in the form of ‘epic motivation’ YouTube videos or as one of the latest ‘must-have’ trends in supplement industry: pre-workout formulas.

In the past, like Greg, I’ve been rather scornful of the pre-workout crowd.

It’s not so much the products themselves, more their hammy marketing and typical clientele.

Most pre-workout aficionados, at least in my gym, would slot right into the I-want-to-plant-a-flying-elbow-right-in-your-face category.

Clad in back-to-front baseball caps and shit tattoos, they’ll perform endless hammer curls, guzzle down this neon liquid, and exclaim what a ‘sick pump’ they’re getting.

But, in the spirit of broadening horizons, and as I do write for a bodybuilding blog, I decided it was time to try one of these supplements out.

After all, anything that can help elevate the intensity of your workout can only be a good thing, right?

Product overview

Protein Dynamix Dynamo Pre-Workout

Dynamo is an “extreme pre-workout formula” from UK supplement company Protein Dynamix, which is designed to help boost energy and focus during your workout.

A 240g tub will give you 30 servings and set you back around £17.

Like most of the Protein Dynamix range, Dynamo is a kind of no-frills supplement, forgoing fancy ingredients and relying on the basics.

It is currently available in two flavours, “Raspberry Blitz” and “Blueberry Fuse”, of which I tried the latter.

Protein Dynamix Dynamo Pre-Workout

Ingredients

Importantly, Dynamo is completely transparent with its ingredients.

Many other pre-workout formulas consist of proprietary blends which will hide the exact dosages, often in an attempt to cut costs.

If a product does this, treat it with the same caution you would a skinhead giving you unsolicited advice at a fruit machine.

Per 16g serving of Dynamo (three scoops), the exact ingredients are as follows:

Beta-alanine 3000mg
Niacin 35g
L-Ornithine 2000mg
L-Norvaline 230mg
Creatine Nitrate 2000mg
Glycerol Monostearate 700mg
Betaine Anhydrous 1000mg
Caffeine 275mg
Arginine Alpha-Ketogluterate 2000mg
L-Citrulline 2500mg

The good

Caffeine is one of the few (legal) ingredients out there which is a proven ergogenic aid (enhancing both endurance and physical strength), and boasting a substantial 275mg per serving (about the same as 2-3 cups of coffee), Dynamo certainly packs a punch in this regard.

Further boosting the stimulating effects of Dynamo is beta-alanine, another proven endurance-boosting ingredient, with literature showing that it can allow people to perform a few extra repetitions in the 8-15 range.

3g is a perfectly adequate dosage but may leave you with a harmless tingling feeling (paresthesia).

Betaine (trimethylglycine or TMG) is a nice addition, with recent studies showing it to be another ergogenic aid similar to creatine.

And, on that note, good old tried-and-tested creatine is also in the mix here, in the form of creatine nitrate, which although has generated a lot of hype recently, is yet to have its supposed benefits versus other creatine forms officially verified.

The not-so-good

Niacin is a b-vitamin (B3), not really sure what it’s doing in the mix, it’s not going to affect the intensity of your workout in any way, other than maybe causing a flushing feeling (mimicking the effects of beta-alanine), perhaps to try and make the user feel that magic is afoot.

Amino acids citrulline and arginine are often used together in pre-workouts to provide performance boosting properties, however research favours a higher dosage of citrulline rather than a combination of the two.

As such, I would have liked to have seen a higher dosage of citrulline (5g plus), but presumably that would increase Dynamo’s price tag.

Taste and texture

No point beating around the bush: taste is not a strong point of Dynamo.

“Blueberry Blitz” doesn’t really taste of blueberries, more a kind of bitter bubblegum (not as marketable, clearly), which doesn’t go very far in masking the chemical-like taste of some of the ingredients.

Pretty rancid, to be honest.

Protein Dynamix Dynamo Pre-Workout

Texture-wise, the powder dissolves reasonably well on shaking, but there was quite a lot of froth and a few salt-like crystallised bits which were left as a residue.

To be honest, none of this bothered me, and it shouldn’t you, as, like a 4am kebab, a pre-workout is something designed to be banged back rather than savoured.

Effectiveness

My current workout programme is based on the Steve Reeves Classic Physique Routine.

Being a high-volume full-body workout, which typically clocks in at around the two hour mark, this seemed the perfect testing ground for a pre-workout supplement, as the routine itself is bloody hard work, demanding a fair amount of mental stamina in addition to some pretty intense physical exertion.

I took the recommended three scoops before my workout and began to feel its effect within 15 minutes.

BOOM!

nuclear atom bomb explosion animated gif

Standing outside the gym at 8am on a Saturday morning in the freezing cold, I usually feel myself gripped by an existential malaise while wishing a horrible death on the bodycombat ladies who insist on discussing their marital affairs at an ungodly volume.

On this occasion, however, with Dynamo grabbing me by the balls, I was ready to do some damage in the weightroom, and Debbie’s anecdote about her infant son was not making me want to commit a hate crime like usual.

This energy level continued as I got into the gym, and I certainly felt the effects of Dynamo’s stimulants throughout the duration of the workout.

Noticeably, I seemed to require less rest between sets (often taking one minute rather than my usual two), and once I finished the routine (which I completed much quicker than usual), I spent another 20 minutes smashing through some high-volume finishers.

During these finishers, where I was performing up to 20 reps per exercise, I also felt a pretty incredible pump, like my muscles were being inflated, which took me somewhat by surprise, but in a good way!

Post-workout, I experienced no crash whatsoever, an after-effect which seems to plague other stimulant-heavy pre-workouts.

Conscious of dulling the effects of Dynamo’s stimulants through habitual use, I have decided to use the product sparingly, usually taking it once a week when I feel the need for a pick-me-up.

After six weeks of taking Dynamo in this manner, I continue to feel its effects, although it must be said that no other session has come close to matching the intensity of that first workout.

Value for money

At £17 for 30 servings, Dynamo provides exceptional value for money as far as pre-workouts go, retailing at a fraction of the price of some of its competitors.

Plus, most of the time it seems to be on offer on the Protein Dynamix site, which, at little more than a tenner, makes it ridiculously cheap.

Summary

The reason you take a pre-workout is to boost performance, and in this department alone, at least for me, Dynamo certainly delivers.

As a pre-workout virgin with a fairly low caffeine tolerance, perhaps I felt the effects more than other stimulant veterans, but I can say with complete conviction that this product helped up the intensity of my workouts.

Even if you’re a pre-workout skeptic or have had a bad experience in the past, at such a low price point Dynamo is definitely worth a punt to see if it works for you.

Buy Dynamo Pre-Workout

You can purchase Dynamo by shopping here at the Protein Dynamix website.

Don’t forget to use a Protein Dynamix discount code when checking out to save yourself a bit of extra cash.

Over to you

Have you taken Dynamo pre-workout or are thinking of giving it a try?

Used any other decent pre-workout formulas recently?

Any comments or questions?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!

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  1. I have never tried a pre workout supplement, the only thing I use is whey protein.

    However, the other day when my order of whey arrived, there was 4 sample packs of pre workout in with it.

    I am excited to try them out and see how they work.

    What would you recommend as the best you have tried?

    Thanks

    1. I’ve only ever tried this – so can’t really recommend any others to be honest.

      Some of our writers have tried a few and there’s some reviews here on the blog (some good some bad):

      http://www.gym-talk.com/supplement-reviews/

  2. Hi, I’m new to all this, so I have no idea what to look for when it comes to choosing a good pre-workout supplement.

    Can anyone enlighten me?

    Thanks 🙂

  3. This is great pre workout supp, I regularly using it.

  4. I took the Dynamo pre-workout and ten minutes later I started getting itches and I’m still feeling the itches what can I do or what did I do wrong?