I’ve got to tell you something. And I’m going to be honest with you here when I say that I’m just a regular guy. Sure, I train Jiu-Jitsu, but really, I haven’t ever gotten into the whole “health” thing when it comes to physical fitness in between BJJ classes. I don’t work out, I have never touched a kettlebell and I certainly don’t know what the Paleo Diet is. Or any diet for that matter. The most I’ve done to step up my game was to buy some protein shake to assist with my energy level before jitsu classes. A long way back, I was having issues with my face turning purple half way through sparring matches and not being able to catch my breath for the rest of the night. Beware – those were the old days. Don’t think I just let you behind the curtain of one of my weaknesses.
All right, I may have just lied. About six months ago, I purchased one of those canisters of Gatorade mix to make my own drinks to bring to class. I figured that Gatorade had sugar in it and perhaps that would give me the extra boost I needed to compete with the beasts down in St. Augustine at Fighting Chance. I was but a mere pale Northerner who happened to pass through Florida for a few months and who was seriously not ready for the amount of sweat I would leave there. It only took a few classes for me to realize I needed something more than straight-up water.
Now that I have that out of the way, I want to let you know that a guy named Colin emailed me a while back and asked if I’d be interested in trying out some of his Q5 sports supplements. He wanted to know if I’d give a review on my site (this one). At first, I was a bit hesitant because I’m not good at lying and Colin seemed like a nice guy. What if I didn’t go for his product? Would I just not write a review or would I write one and tell the truth? Whatever. I probably over thought the whole thing because before I knew it, I was holding five mini canisters of a variety of what Q5 has to offer. And since I received the supplements on Friday and Friday is the day Maine’s premier BJJ school, the Foundry, holds open mat, I figured I’d give the contents of one of the canisters, Launch Fuel, a once over. I had already eaten my, before class, bowl of pasta and was ready to try out a glass of Launch Fuel.
Honestly, there are only a few things I care about when it comes to sports supplements, and as I mentioned above, I really don’t have a lot of experience with them, so some of what I look at are merely speculative. But I think if I were one of those supplement junkies, I would certainly look at price, taste, mixture and performance. I know ingredients are in there somewhere, but the Google search I made for “Launch Fuel Reviews” right before starting this post provided me with quite enough articles where this stuff’s ingredients were covered ad nauseum. I’ll simply link to those reviews at the end of this post. As for what I’d like to do – I’d like to give you the simple man’s review of one particular supplement. And I want to give it to you from a guy who works on the computer, who mows the lawn, who splits wood and who likes to roll with the best of them. But I want you to remember, I’m 40 years old and I don’t compete. I wear no-name rash guards and my next gi will be the cheapest one I can find. I am in no way flashy, so don’t expect to find any review on this blog cover the ins and outs of what things are made of and why I should care. Remember, cost and performance come in first with me.
Price
As of this writing, 30 servings of Launch Fuel cost $58.50. You be the judge of whether or not it’s worth it to spend $1.95 on a drink before and during class or a competition. It’s probably the same cost as a regular sports drink, so I’m sure you’re not spending any more than you normally would. You’d have to try this product a few times to see if it worked well enough to justify what you’d spend on it.
Taste
This is where I have experience, as I’m sure you do as well. If something doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t matter how good it is at helping you out – there’s no way it will last. Some how, some way, it will languish in the market and better tasting products will take its place on store shelves. Luckily, I can tell you that Q5 Launch Fuel tastes really good. And I was surprised at that because I’ve never had faith in the supplement segment of the sports arena. Launch Fuel tastes just like those little tarts you can wear around your neck. You know, kind of like pez candy. And now that I think back, I recall that it tastes really good. I actually finished drinking it and wanted more.
Mixture
There really is nothing worse than pouring some powder into a glass of milk or water and having it float on top of the liquid, only to stay there for an infinite length of time. No matter how much you mix it, all you get are clumps of nastiness. I know they’ve come a long way with having supplements mix easily into what you’re mixing them into, but they still have a long way to go. As far as Launch Fuel, I’d say that the powder mixes fairly easily. It took about a minute to completely dissolve into very cold Maine water. And I even have pictures to prove it. The only thing you’ll have to take my word on is the timing.
I promise you, it mixed easily. All I did was fill the glass with water, kind of stir it with a knife and there you go. Ready to drink.
Performance
This is where things get tricky. I can either say, “Yeah man, this is the best stuff I ever tried,” or “I didn’t feel a thing.” I guess the truth and some background on what exactly happened would be more appropriate.
I’m not sure if I mentioned this already (it’s been a long post), but when I tried Launch Fuel out, I was heading to open mat. Usually, open mat lasts for a few hours and while there, I get to roll with a wide variety of guys and gals. Some are heavier than me and some are lighter. I generally last for about six or seven – six minute rounds. That’s right around the time I see people start to sit against the wall and talk. Which is fine because that’s around the time I’m exhausted.
On the day at hand, we had a full house. A full house means there were about twelve people on the mats, which is good for me because I like a variety of bodies to slap my triangle on. Seriously, I need to switch gears to a more varied plethora of submissions, but I’ll talk about that later. Anyway, it was the perfect day to try out Launch Fuel.
My report is this: at the end of eight – six minute rounds last Friday, I sat there wanting more. I can’t tell you why that was. I’d be lying if I said it was because I tried a spectacular new sports supplement called Q5 Launch Fuel, but I will tell you that I drank it before class and after class I was still interested in kicking someone’s ass. You be the judge as to why that was. I just lay out the facts. I still had energy, I still had stamina and I was interested in rolling a few more rounds. Simply put, I wasn’t tired.
There. That was my review. If you though that was fun, just wait for me to cover what’s in the next four little canisters Colin sent over. We’ll see how those affect my fighting ability and whether or not they aided in my surviving open mat down at the Foundry.
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