Prolific by Physique Enhancing Science (PES)

Prolific is a pre-workout supplement by Physique Enhancing Science (PES), which promises an “all-around pre-workout experience.

You may remember PES’ former pre workout titled Enhanced, but that’s been gone for quite some time. Prolific is a bit different than its predecessor. Prolific is lower stim than Enhanced yet still provides great focus. Plus, it actually surpasses Enhanced as an ergogenic pre-workout.

Saying this, Prolific is not just the same old stim pre-workout – there’s a new ingredient named NeuroFactor™, which you’ll need to read about below, but first, take a moment to sign up for CSN supplement review alerts and make sure you buy only the supplements that are right for you.

Prolific pre-workout claims and benefits

PES claims that Prolific pre-workout provides:

• Dialed-In Focus
• Explosive Energy
• Ultra-Powerful Pumps
• The Ultimate Mind Muscle Connection

So Cardiff Sports Nutrition read this as Prolific is aiming to be an all-around effective pre-workout that isn’t particularly overwhelming in any one aspect but is instead well balanced. But, claims are just words, so CSN has decided to take an in-depth and evidence-based review of the ingredient profile of Prolific and decide for ourselves what it’s capable of.

(PES) Prolific pre-workout ingredients

PES Prolific packs eight different transparently-dosed ingredients that aim to deliver everything you need immediately preceding your workout. (Note: Doses listed below are shown at both 1 and 2 scoops per the product label.)

L-Citrulline (3g, 6g)

Prolific starts off strong with a decent serving of one of the most potent nitric oxide boosters around, L-Citrulline. Citrulline is an amino acid which plays two unique roles in the body that underly the performance enhancement implications. L-Citrulline promotes a very strong increase in nitric oxide (N.O.) production, considerably more than L-Arginine due to its superior bioavailability in the body. Higher nitric oxide levels mean greater vasodilation, blood flow, nutrient delivery, and pumps. Furthermore, L-Citrulline also acts as a great performance enhancing ingredient. Since it’s involved in the Krebs Cycle, L-Citrulline helps improve endurance, stamina, and ATP production, all leading to more effective workouts.

The clinical range for Citrulline is generally 6-9g in the form of Citrulline Malate. PES has opted to include 3g of L-Citrulline (free form amino acid) in each serving of Prolific. It’s tough to call that a clinical dose, however at two servings, Prolific yields a highly effective dose of Citrulline.

Betaine Anhydrous (1.25g, 2.5g)

Also featured in PES’ all day muscle-builder Ergonine, is the power and strength booster Betaine Anhydrous. Also known as trimethylglycine (TMG), Betaine is a proven muscle building compound derived from beets. Studies using this all-natural anabolic ingredient document significant increases in strength, power, and endurance, while also helping to reduce soreness. Additionally, Betaine also works with creatine, to enhance the body’s natural production of the potent ergogenic.

Prolific contains 1.25g of Betaine. However, most studies investigating the impact of Betaine of exercise performance used 2.5g daily. That puts Prolific at about half a clinical dose per serving. Like Citrulline, you’ll want to double up on this one to receive the full benefits.

Taurine

Taurine, like Betaine, is an Osmolyte so it can potentially increase cellular water absorption. That said, it has an entirely different mechanism that makes it of interest to anyone who exercises regularly. Taurine is an antioxidant and supplementation with 1-2g has been shown to prevent exercise-induced oxidative damage. It has additionally been shown to enhance performance very slightly but has also failed to do so in other studies so it can’t be considered entirely reliable in this sense.

It’s really a recovery aid and a very reliable one at that. Prolific contains 750mg of Taurine, again just shy of what can be considered a true “clinical dose”.  At two scoops (1500), however, is much more effective.

Caffeine (160mg, 320mg)

Most people don’t realise that Caffeine is usually the only psychoactive ingredient in pre-workout supplements. In the case of Prolific, there are other ingredients which may alter brain activity, so Caffeine isn’t the only psychoactive ingredient but is is absolutely the only stimulant. This makes it easy to gauge how powerful it’s going to be for the average person. Caffeine triggers the release of neurotransmitters like Noradrenaline and Dopamine which induce a state of focus and alertness.There really is no mystery to most pre-workouts. It’s just about knowing how much Caffeine you can handle at once.

Make no mistake though, Caffeine isn’t just “an upper”. The performance enhancement implications go much deeper.  If you want to make fast gains and stay lean, Caffeine is worth utilising. Prolific contains 160mg of Caffeine per serving which makes perfect sense given the way PES dosed the above ingredients. At two servings, you’re looking at a solid 320mg of Caffeine. If it takes more than that to get you going, you should probably lay off the Caffeine, but 320mg is my no means an excessive dose and is perfectly safe for most people to consume.

Citicoline (Cognizin) (125mg, 250mg)

Citicoline is a unique source of Choline which serves as a precursor to Acetylcholine.  It’s one of the few Choline sources that is bioavailable enough to actually cross the blood brain barrier and increase Acetylcholine levels. (Acetylcholine, if you didn’t know, is the neurotransmitter in your brain which is heavily involved with things like learning and memory as well as muscle contraction)

Choline supplements are a premier choice when wanting to increase focus during exercise, studying, or anything else. Most pre workouts opt for the bitartrate variation which is cheaper and less bioavailable (meaning you need more to get the equivalent effect). PES includes the more expensive and bioavailable Cognizin® Citicoline. This form of choline is absorbed by the body much better. This is the ingredient PES is referring to when they claim you’ll experience “The Ultimate Mind Muscle Connection"

L-Theanine (100mg, 200mg)

Theanine is a non-dietary amino acid which is not a stimulant but has been shown to improve various aspects of cognitive function, induce relaxation, and synergistically enhance the effects of Caffeine. It’s one of the few substances that can relax you without making you drowsy. Its unique interaction with Caffeine only makes it more worth incorporating in any pre-workout supplement, so we’re happy to see PES include it. Given the massive amount of evidence supporting the use of Caffeine and Theanine in a synergistic manner, any great pre-workout supplement which contains Caffeine should definitely contain Theanine.

Prolific contains 100mg per serving, well within the clinical range.

Rhodiola Rosea (50mg, 100mg)

Rhodiola Rosea is a rarely encountered herb in pre workouts. However, it is one of the most thoroughly researched herbal supplements and offers a seemingly unlimited range of benefits, ranging from stress relief to performance enhancement.

Rhodiola is an adaptogen that helps the body deal with assorted emotional, psychological, and physical stressors. Herbs like Rhodiola also prove beneficial in improving endurance and alertness while reducing mental fatigue from stressful situations.
Additional research also points out that Rhodiola can enhance cognitive function and memory due to its actions on the neurotransmitter systems for dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and acetylcholine production.

Prolific contains 50mg of Rhodiola Rosea standardised for 5% Rosavins and 2% Salidroside (the active components). Studies into these compounds document increased athletic performance and enhance glucose uptake by skeletal muscle. So we get increased performance and alertness.Studies have used varying doses but ideally, you’ll want at least 100mg Rhodiola (the amount of two servings of Prolific).

Coffee Fruit Extract NeuroFactor™ (50mg, 100mg)

NeuroFactor™ is an all-natural, patented extract from Futureceuticals made using the whole fruit (including the bean) of the coffee plant, Coffea Arabica. NeuroFactor™ has real human research showing it significantly increases Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). The function of BDNF is essential to keep existing neurones healthy and promote the growth and/or differentiation of new ones. By increasing BCNF, Coffee Fruit Extract (NeuroFactor) may very well promote better brain health, but studies are pretty limited for now.

The pilot study conducted on NeuroFactor compared it to Green Coffee Bean extract, Natural Coffee Caffeine, and Grapeseed Extract for its effects on BDNF levels in the brain. Researchers documented that NeuroFactor was the only compound to show a “statistically significant ability to increase BDNF in humans. Specifically, blood levels of BDNF were elevated during the first 60 minutes following consumption with a dose of 100mg, the exact same dose in 2 scoops of Prolific.

CSN's recommended dosage 

PES is probably trying to make Prolific as appealing to as many people as possible, so the stim-sensitive people can take one scoop and the stim-heads can take two scoops but CSN recommends two scoops if you want effective doses of all the main ingredients.In other words, if you want the performance enhancement, faster recovery, awesome pumps, you need two scoops of Prolific. At one scoop, CSN can imagine a lot of people being disappointed, but at two scoops Prolific is one of the most well-rounded pre-workouts we’ve seen in quite a while.

If you’re double-dosing every time, one tub of Prolific will yield 20 servings. As prolific is reasonably priced, this could very well be worth it so don’t get discouraged by the fact that it’s not “clinically dosed” on a per serving basis. Double-dosing is feasible with Prolific.

Can it be stacked with any other PES products?

Prolific and Ergonine

If you stack with Ergonine you are already getting Betaine and added Synerglut, LCLT, HICA, and Creatine In a full dose. So if you did not take a full two scoops of Prolific you could do Ergonine and Prolific to easily get plenty of Betaine, and cover all your other bases for performance, endurance, and recovery.

For those stacking High Volume and Prolific

High Volume has 4g of Citrulline per two scoops, so even at one scoop of Prolific for a stim you are surpassing a dose of 6-8g of Citiulline which is a studied dose.There is also a dose of Taurine in High Volume (undisclosed due to blend).

Most people will dose the High Volume and Prolific combo, where they would have a very high amount of Citrulline (up to 10g if you do two scoops of each), but for most if you are not a heavy stim user you could do two scoops HV and one Prolific to still get an adequate amount of citrulline but Betaine.

Overall PES made this a flexible pre-workout, and it does stack very well with the line, you just have to make sure you know what you need to get correct doses and adjust the scoops of each PES product accordingly.

Quick summary of Prolific pre-workout

Cardiff Sports Nutrition believe Prolific to be as well-balanced as it gets. These days, CSN see pre-workouts either go toward the “high-stim” side or the “better performance” side. Very rarely does a pre-workout that combines clinical doses of highly effective performance enhancing ingredients with energy/focus/cognitive enhancement ingredients in such a harmonious manner. Assuming you’re taking two scoops, Prolific is definitely worth making your new pre-workout.

If you like the sound of Prolific pre-workout get it here today.

Still not sure which pre-workout is right for you? As always Team CSN are here to help, call or email us today and we can give you professional, unbiased advice.