Posted on 26 Jul 2016
7 min read
We often review individual supplements or a series of similar supplements at Gymtalk, so I thought we’d try something different and review some supplement ‘stacks’, starting with the ‘Rippedcore’ series by popular UK brand Sci-MX.
For the newbs out there, a supplement stack is a series of products designed specifically to help you achieve a certain goal.
Much like a ‘stack’ of Jägerbombs and donner kebabs on a Friday night might have the goal of getting you absolutely fat and twatted, supplement stacks usually revolve around more healthy goals like losing fat or gaining mass, in a more efficient way.
These stacks might be made up of many products or just a few, and in the case of the Rippedcore series we’re trying three: a fat burner, an intra-workout and a post-workout protein blend.
Sci-MX have produced three key products in their Rippedcore series:
To buy the lot from Sci-MX is going to set you back around £75–80, but you can obviously grab stuff separately if you’d prefer.
One of the good things about choosing a stack is that you can simplify your supplement intake based around a certain goal by only buying the one brand, which is great for making sure you’re not taking a bunch of ingredients in unnecessary doses across a few brands.
So let’s check out the products…
I’ve got mixed opinions on what Sci-MX chose to include as ingredients for these three products, which comes down to something I see so often in supplements – inefficient dosing.
Don’t get me wrong, for the most part the supplements are actually excellent in what they choose to include.
But there are a few additions which seem sort of pointless.
For example, the intra has (per serving) 255mg D-aspartic acid and 42mg of dextrose monohydrate – both in basically far too small doses to have any effect.
I’m not bashing Sci-MX only as loads of brands are guilty of this, I just can’t help but think companies do this to make it look like their supplements are full of a long list of magical ingredients our tiny meathead brains can’t understand.
Then again the intra also has a perfect dose of amino acids including glycine and taurine and a bunch of EAAs, so it’s also clear that much of it is research backed to improve athletic performance during strenuous training.
Or in layman’s terms – it gives you a big ol’ pump!
Although Shred-X uses pretty standard ingredients, I found it to be a really ‘clean’ high and I’ve never crashed from it.
As you’ll see from the timings below, I took it pre-workout, but also found it to be great for times when I needed a boost like before a boring meeting, making it the ideal companion for your bag on a daily basis.
Just don’t let anyone see you dropping pills before the business quarterly!
The whey protein is a solid blend with the addition of CLA and green tea as metabolism boosting ingredients.
If you’re already excited thinking you can take these products and sit on your arse all day whilst losing fat, then you’ll probably need to pay close attention to the timings here.
I used this stack on workout days for five weeks – and workout days only – which was four to five days per week.
It’s a good idea with stimulant products to take them five days on, two days off to give yourself a rest.
This meant that on the off days I was using a different whey protein isolate and cutting back on the caffeine from the Rippedcore pills, and obviously not taking an intra-workout.
I train early mornings around 7am, so generally I would:
This is the best way I’d found to take the products for overall energy and recovery.
The fat burner does recommend that you take it on an empty stomach so at first I was taking it in the morning, but had horrendous indigestion from doing that so I switched to before my workout.
It’s also worth noting that these products aren’t some kind of miracle get-me-hench shortcut; you still have to train fucking hard towards your goal, they will just help along the way.
For reference I was also eating clean on all the training days (something I find extremely difficult because I love doughnuts and crisps) and I’d also added in 15–30 minutes of 75% HRM cardio training right after each weight session.
Yeah, you heard me: cardio.
I also cut down massively on the amount of beer I was drinking, only having the occasional one and not being drunk during the entire period.
Taste doesn’t really apply to the Shred-X pills, but when it comes to the Amino Intra and Whey Plus they are both pretty awesome tasting, especially the Intra.
The intra is actually quite a big two scoop serving, so even when mixing it into a litre of water it still tastes good and not too diluted.
Mixability for both products is also great, although the whey protein is a little thicker than I’d like, even with 450ml of water per serving.
I could bang on about how good I look or show you before and after progress pics with epic downlighting and 150 Instagram filters, but this is Gymtalk and we like to avoid the bullshit as much as possible.
So for this review I’ve used a body composition device called Skulpt (a review of which is coming soon) to show individual muscle groups and the progress I made during four weeks of Rippedcore products.
The Skulpt is a device that basically allows you to measure your body fat based on each muscle group, by literally placing it on each muscle group.
Below is an example before-and-after reading to show how I did.
These are based on readings from the end of May (30th) to the first week of July (5th), taken in the morning the day after training.
As you can blatantly see, I dropped body fat in all areas:
NB: Upper back and glutes aren’t shown on the diagram above.
Not only that, but I noticed that I was looking much leaner in general and I’m now 2kg lighter than I was before without losing strength on compound lifts.
So, does the Rippedcore stack ‘work’?
Well, yes it does.
But don’t forget that the supplements alone weren’t the sole reason for me dropping plenty of bodyfat during the five week period.
It was also due to much more clean eating than I usually do as well as massively cutting down on things I have a weakness to like delicious real ales.
For general performance, I think the Amino Intra stands out by far.
The pumps I got when on this product were fucking mental, and I felt like I could train for hours.
If you were only going to buy one of these products I’d suggest going for the intra.
If you’re a newcomer to training (i.e. you’ve been training for less than two years) this product stack isn’t for you.
You don’t need to lose fat yet – get strong as fuck first then start losing some fat later.
It’s also going to cost you quite a bit when you could be spending that money on more food whilst gaining.
If you’ve been training for a while though and are in a shape you’re happy with, the Rippedcore series can be a great little push towards losing that extra fat to help you lean out.
And at around £75 for the lot, it’s pretty good value for money.
The Rippedcore series is a great stack to give you the extra push in lowering your bodyfat – but like all fat burning products it’s certainly not a miracle solution.
You can get the best price on all of these products by shopping here at Amazon.
Have you tried any of these Sci-MX supplements?
Thinking of giving them a go?
Any questions about this review?
I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!
Will lives in London and is a Digital Marketing Executive by day. He first started going to the gym because being weedy and ginger doesn't really get the girls. Now he is muscly and ginger he still doesn't get the girls, but at least he can bench more than their boyfriends. You can find him blogging over at willkennard.com.
