Dr. Jeykll is a pre-workout supplement marketed by ProSupps. It comes in 30 serving containers at $29.88, in a variety of flavors – from Berry Blast to Watermelon.
Claimed to promote:
- Muscle Pumps
- Energy
- Endurance
This pre-workout is a spin-off from ProSupps’ Mr. Hyde product – Dr. Jekyll is designed to be more focused on muscle pumps, with less caffeine contained.
But a product’s ingredient list determines how effective it is overall. So we’ve analyzed Dr. Jekyll to see whether it lives up to its claims.
Take a look:
About the Company
ProSupps is a supplements company that aims to “provide the highest quality product possible”.
They market a range of products, from pre-workouts to protein powders. ProSupps prides themselves on “setting a new standard of excellence”, so let’s take a look whether Dr. Jekyll lives up to this mark.
The Ingredients and How They Work
It’s great to see a pre-workout that shows you the exact doses of each individual ingredient – this allows us to analyze exactly how effect each ingredient is, to determine the overall effectiveness of the product.
See for yourself:
Beta-Alanine
ProSupps haven’t made a good start here. Although Beta-Alanine has shown to improve muscular endurance, it’s can cause paresthesia in doses over 0.8-1g.
Paresthesia is a tingling on the skin of your face, chest, hands, and extremities – it’s not life threatening, but it’s very uncomfortable and will ruin your workout.
Dr. Jekyll contains 2.5g of Beta-Alanine, meaning you’re almost certain to suffer from paresthesia. We recommend staying away from this ingredient to avoid this side effect.
L-Leucine
This is one of the three Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA), and is believed to be the most beneficial.
However, here’s where the problems start – it’s not actually necessary to supplement BCAA or any of the Branched Chain Amino Acids separately, as you can consume enough through a well-planned diet.
Also, if you were to supplement Leucine separately, you’d need to ingest 2,000mg-5,000mg (2g-5g) to experience its full benefits. Dr. Jekyll only contains 500mg, so it’s unlikely to have any effect on you.
ProSupps should’ve either raised the amount of Leucine, or replaced it with a more beneficial ingredient like Creatine Monohydrate – Creatine Monohydrate has proven to boost your strength and endurance in the gym.
We recommend looking for a product containing Creatine Monohydrate on your search for a quality pre-workout.
- Related: Pre Workout Ingredients That Work
Calcium HMB
Also known simply as HMB, it’s an active metabolite of Leucine (meaning it’s formed in Leucine). HMB’s believed to be more effective than Leucine at reducing muscle protein breakdown, but isn’t as beneficial at aiding muscle gains.
ProSupps have added HMB to Dr. Jekyll as it’s believed to improve your strength. However, there haven’t been alot of studies conducted to prove that it increases power output.
ProSupps should’ve replaced this ingredient with something more beneficial in a pre-workout, like Beetroot Extract – Beetroot Extract’s high nitrate content promotes muscle pumps while you lift weights.
Creatine Nitrate
This is simply a combination of Creatine and Nitrate. In theory, the nitrate content would boost your nitric oxide and promote muscle pumps.
However, the few studies conducted on Creatine Nitrate have found that it’s not much more beneficial than Creatine Monohydrate – apart from being more water soluble.
ProSupps should’ve added Creatine Monohydrate instead of this ingredient – Creatine Monohydrate has been supplemented since the 1990’s, and is one of the most reliable ingredients out there (it boosts strength and endurance in the gym).
Choline Bitartrate
This is a molecule that’s most commonly used for it’s ability to enhance mental function (memory, focus, reaction time). But ProSupps have added it into Dr. Jekyll as it’s believed to improve endurance and reduce fatigue.
However, Choline doesn’t deliver these benefits – studies have shown that it has no effect on anaerobic running capacity or reducing fatigue.
Ultimately, this is an ineffective product. ProSupps should’ve replaced this ingredient with something more beneficial, such as Rhodiola Rosea – Rhodiola Rosea’s proven to reduce fatigue and enhance mental function in numerous studies.
See SupplementTester’s
– Highest Rated Pre Workouts Here –
Caffeine
This is the best ingredient in Dr. Jekyll. Caffeine’s proven to boost strength, endurance and endurance, as well as mental function (memory, focus, reaction time).
It’s one of the most beneficial and safe nutrients out there, used in countless products worldwide like tea and coffee. However, there’s a potential problem with the dosing in this pre-workout.
Dr. Jekyll only contains 100mg of Caffeine, as ProSupps have tried to focus more on delivering muscle pumps. However, one of the main benefits of a pre-workout is the energy boost to help you smash your gym session.
Caffeine is the best ingredient at delivering immediate energy boosts, which is exactly what you want, but at 100mg it’s slightly under-dosed.
It would be perfect if you could safely consume a double dose of Dr. Jekyll – but ProSupps haven’t advertised or recommended that you consume a double serving of this pre-workout.
The best dose of Caffeine is 150-200mg to experience its full benefits – a product that allows you to take a double serving would be perfect, as this allows you to assess your Caffeine tolerance first.
Stay away from pre-workouts containing Caffeine doses over 300mg, as this could cause unwanted side effects like jitters and energy crashes.
GABA
This is the most powerful depressive neurotransmitter in your brain, where GABA counteracts Glutamate and balances out in your body – basically, it’s vital for relaxation.
However, as your body is great at regulating GABA and Glutamate levels, oral supplementation of this ingredient doesn’t have any effect on your body.
Ultimately, GABA is ineffective when orally supplemented. ProSupps should’ve replaced this ingredient with something more beneficial – L-Theanine is an amino acid that works in synergy with caffeine, to enhance the benefits of caffeine (increased strength, endurance, mental function) without the risk of side effects.
Also, taking high doses of GABA can result in side effects like anxiety, nausea, and restlessness.
Glycerol Monostearate
Also known simply as GMS, it’s a molecule that’s used as a thickening and emulsifying agent in foods, oils, waves, and solvents.
It’s used in supplements as it’s believed to suck up water like a sponge, promoting hyper hydration – however, studies have shown that it provides no benefits.
Glycerol Monstearate is ineffective in supplements – ProSupps could’ve replaced this ingredient with something beneficial to your gym session to make Dr. Jekyll a better product.
L-Citrulline Aspartate
This is simply a mixture of L-Citrulline and Aspartic Acid – we’ll give an overview of both, to assess how effective they are combined.
L-Citrulline is a great ingredient in a pre-workout supplement, as it turns into L-Arginine in your kidneys after oral supplementatiojn. From there, your nitric oxide levels are raised causing your blood vessels to dilate (vasodilation), resulting in increased blood flow and intense muscle pumps in the gym.
Aspartic Acid is one of the best testosterone boosting ingredients out there – it aids the production of Luteinzing Hormone (LH) which is vital to the production of T and GH (growth hormone). But there’s no reason for a testosterone boosting ingredient to be in a pre-workout product when there are already top quality T-booster products on the market.
However, the optimal dose of L-Citrulline is 6,000mg-8,000mg, and the optimal dose of Aspartic Acid is 2,000-3,000mg – there is only 1,500mg of Citrulline Aspartate in Dr. Jekyll, meaning it’s almost certain to be ineffective.
We recommend that you search for a pre-workout containing 6,000mg-8,000mg of L-Citrulline or Citrulline Malate, to experience intense muscle pumps during your gym session.
- Related: Pre Workout Ingredients To Avoid
Agmatine Sulfate
Agmatine is extracted from L-Arginine and is used to reduce pain and treat depression. However, these benefits were only seen in doses of 1,300-2,670mg in studies.
Also, a reduction in pain and depression isn’t vital to your training session, so the benefits of Agmatine aren’t needed in a pre-workout.
Ultimately, Agamtine Sulfate is an ineffective ingredient in a pre-workout supplement.
L-Norvaline
L-Norvaline is an amino acid that’s similar in structure to Valine, believed to promote muscle pumps by inhibiting Arginase (what’s responsible for preventing nitric oxide production).
But it could be harmful to those with low blood pressure – Norvaline lowers your blood pressure, so those with low blood pressure may experience dangerously low levels of BP.
Another negative – no studies have proven that Norvaline actually delivers its benefit (promoting muscle pumps) – this means it could be an ineffective ingredient.
There are many ineffective ingredients in Dr. Jekyll, with some even being under-dosed. It also comes with a few side effects.
Check out which ingredients work and which don’t in our
– Pre workout ingredients guide –
Side Effects
There’s a few ingredients in Dr. Jekyll that can cause side effects, such as Beta-Alanine, which can cause paresthesia (a tingling on the skin of your face, chest, hands, and extremitites).
We’ll take you through the list of side effects here:
- Paresthesia – tingling on the skin of your face, chest, hands, and extremities (Beta-Alanine)
- Low blood pressure (L-Norvaline)
- Anxiety (GABA)
- Nausea (GABA)
- Restlessness (GABA)
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– Top 3 Pre Workout Page –
Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s
- Contains Caffeine.
Con’s
- Risk of numerous side effects.
- Most ingredients are under-dosed.
- Many ingredients are ineffective in a pre-workout.
- Overall product will be ineffective.
- Not good value for money.
Dr. Jekyll Review Conclusion
The only real positive of Dr. Jekyll is that it contains Caffeine, which is a key ingredient in a pre-workout. They’ve dosed this slightly lower than they should – Caffeine doses of 150mg-200mg will deliver its full benefits without risking side effects like jitters or energy crashes.
The rest of the ingredients are ineffective and won’t deliver any benefits to help your gym session. It’s frustrating that ProSupps have included Creatine Nitrate, which is an unproven ingredient, instead of the more common Creatine Monohydrate (which is proven to boost strength and endurance).
L-Citrulline Aspartate is another strange addition to Dr. Jekyll – There’s no need to mix L-Citrulline with a testosterone boosting ingredient in a pre-workout supplement. If ProSupps simply added L-Citrulline instead, this product would’ve been much more effective – L-Citrulline helps promote intense muscle pumps during your workout.
We recommend looking for a pre-workout that contains key ingredients, such as:
- L-Theanine – works in synergy with Caffeine to boost its benefits (improved strength, endurance, and mental function) without risking side effects like jitters and energy crashes.
- Citrulline Malate & Beetroot Extract – both promote great muscle pumps in the gym.
- Creatine Monohydrate – the most effective form of creatine that’s been used since the 1990’s, proven to boost strength and endurance.