MRI Black Powder

By Anssi Manninen, MHS

Medical Research Institute (MRI), recently acquired by Natrol Corporation, was founded in 1997 by Edward Byrd (the co-founder of EAS) and supplies high-quality sports nutrition products such as CE2, NO2, Pro-NOS and Anabolic Switch. Their latest product, Black Powder, is a well-formulated preworkout supplement designed for any athletes looking to improve their performance in the gym. Let's examine some science behind its most important ingredients and see how they contribute to an overall performance-enhancing effect.

Creatine Complex with Phosphates

Black Powder provides a rapid-absorption creatine complex (ester creatine plus creatine anhydrous) with extra phosphates to feed fuel regulation. There is indeed some evidence to suggest that a combination of creatine and phosphate may provide a stronger performance-enhancing effect than creatine alone. In their book Supplements for Strength-Power Athletes, Jose Antonio and Jeffrey Stout quoted results by Wallace and colleagues published in a lesser known publication Coaching and Sports Science Journal and unpublished results by Eckerson. I wasn't able to get the Wallace paper, so I will simply repeat what Antonio and Stout wrote in their book.

Wallace and co-workers investigated the effect of supplemental creatine alone versus creatine plus phosphate on muscle power. Male and female subjects were given either five grams of creatine four times per day or five grams of creatine plus one gram of phosphate four times per day for five days. The combination of creatine plus phosphate resulted in a significantly higher muscle power output.

Eckerson and colleagues examined the effects of creatine alone versus creatine plus phosphate on anaerobic working capacity. Male subjects were randomly put into one of three treatments: placebo, five grams of creatine, or five grams of creatine plus one gram of phosphates. Each subject was asked to dissolve the supplement in 16 ounces of water and ingest it four times per day for six consecutive days. The subjects performed a cycle ergometry test to determine anaerobic working capacity. The placebo and creatine groups increased anaerobic working capacity by -3.0 percent and 16.0 percent, respectively. However, the creatine plus phosphate group reportedly increased anaerobic working capacity by a whopping 49 percent.

Arginine Blend

Black Powder contains a quick-release arginine blend for nitric oxide (NO) surge. NO acts as a signaling molecule to facilitate the dilation of blood vessels; its main effect on muscle metabolism is to increase the delivery and uptake of nutrients via its vasodilating effects. It's been suggested that these products enhance blood flow to muscle, leading to greater gains in muscle mass and strength during training.

Bicarbonates and Beta-Alanine

Black Powder also provides bicarbonate and beta-alanine for prolonged muscular endurance. It's now well-established that both of these compounds can improve exercise performance by delaying exercise-induced acidosis (i.e., the accumulation of acid in the blood and body tissues, decreasing the pH). However, they work through different mechanisms. Bicarbonate itself is a buffer, while beta-alanine increases the concentration of carnosine in muscle cells; carnosine is a very important intracellular buffer.

Intensity-Focus Complex

This complex provides caffeine, betaine anhydrous and green tea. Caffeine is the most popular performance-enhancing substance known to mankind. This can partly be attributed to its safety, wide availability and low price. A study by Doherty and Smith at the University of Luton in the United Kingdom used the meta-analytic approach (the process of synthesizing research results by using various statistical methods to retrieve, select and combine results from previous separate, but related, studies) to examine the effects of caffeine on athletic performance. The results clearly indicate that caffeine improves endurance performance and to a lesser extent, high-intensity exercise.

More recently, the same investigators used the meta-analysis approach to examine the effects of caffeine ingestion on ratings of perceived exertion. In comparison to fake supplementation (placebo), caffeine reduced ratings of perceived exertion during exercise by 5.6 percent. As caffeine is a mild diuretic, some have speculated that it may have adverse effects on an athlete's fluid balance. However, a comprehensive literature review, published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, concluded, "Athletes and recreational enthusiasts will not incur detrimental fluid-electrolyte imbalances if they consume [caffeine] in moderation."

Quality of the MRI Supplements

How about the quality of the MRI supplements? Well, the parent company of MRI have earned an "A" rating from the Natural Products Association's Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Certification Program, so I'm sure the MRI products meet label claims and are free of impurities.

The author of this article has no financial relationship with MRI.

References:

Antonio J, Stout JR. Phosphates and creatine. In: Supplements for Strength-Power Athletes. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2002, pp. 115-118.

McConell GK et al. Effects of L-arginine supplementation on exercise metabolism. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care, 2007 Jan;10(1):46-51.

Requena B et al. Sodium bicarbonate and sodium citrate: ergogenic aids? J Strength Cond Res, 2005 Feb;19(1):213-24.

Hill CA et al. Influence of beta-alanine supplementation on skeletal muscle carnosine concentrations and high intensity cycling capacity. Amino Acids, 2007 Feb;32(2):225-33. Zoeller RF et al. Effects of 28 days of beta-alanine and creatine monohydrate supplementation on aerobic power, ventilatory and lactate thresholds, and time to exhaustion. Amino Acids, 2006 Sep 5; [Epub ahead of print].

Stout JR et al. Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on the onset of neuromuscular fatigue and ventilatory threshold in women. Amino Acids, 2007 Apr;32(3):381-6.

Hoffman J et al. Effect of creatine and beta-alanine supplementation on performance and endocrine responses in strength/power athletes. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 2006 Aug;16(4):430-46.

Stout JR, Cramer JT, Mielke M et al. Effects of twenty-eight days of beta-alanine and creatine monohydrate supplementation on the physical working capacity at neuromuscular fatigue threshold. J Strength Cond Res, 2006 Nov;20(4):928-31.

Doherty M, Smith PM. Effects of caffeine ingestion on exercise testing: a meta-analysis. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 2004 Dec;14(6):626-46.

Doherty M, Smith PM. Effects of caffeine ingestion on rating of perceived exertion during and after exercise: a meta-analysis. Scand J Med Sci Sports, 2005 Apr;15(2):69-78.