Testing MTN OPS Yeti Pre-workout

[Eagle]

Day 1/Tye Abell (Eagle)

This weekend was fairly active for me. Saturday was spent putting my new Kifaru Ultralight Duplex through it's paces on a 1:45 hike with 60lbs and about 1200' of elevation. Sunday was a 45 minute bike ride covering 16 miles and then yard work, so coming into this morning I was a little more run down than I generally would be on a Monday. I slept 6:40 last night only waking up once according to my fitbit and my resting heart rate hit 44 during the night.

I was up this morning at 4:45 and immediately mixed and drank my yeti in 8 ounces of water with no other food intake. The blue raspberry tastes fine, maybe a little too sweet for my taste, but nothing a little more water to mix it with couldn't fix. I always workout first thing in the morning and fasted, so the yeti certainly caused me to feel a little wired or jittery within about 10 minutes. I arrived at the gym and started my warm-up around 5:15 which consisted of 5 minutes of rowing covering 1300 meters on a concept 2 which is pretty normal. After that it was on to my main lift today which was deadlift, after my warm up sets I did working sets of 355x5, 335x5, and 315x5 with a set of 15 hip extensions between each deadlift set. Strength felt consistent throughout with no issues.

After that it was on to my accessory lift, which was 4 sets of 10 front squats at 155, and this is where I noticed a difference as the lifts went easier/faster than normal. In between each set of front squats was 80 Russian twists with no weight added. After the workout was a 10 minute cool down on the stationary bike keeping an average wattage of 100, which was easier to accomplish than normal as well. Heart rate averaged 82 beats/min during the workout hitting a peak of 156 during my 10 minutes on the bike post workout.

Post workout I noticed that I stayed hotter, continuing to sweat for a longer period of time than I normally do, but the jitters had left and I felt relatively normal, as I have remained to feel throughout the rest of the day so far. Food intake after the workout was my regular morning coffee a couple hours after I had finished my workout, and I just had lunch at 12:40. I rarely crash in the afternoons, so I'm not sure if I'll notice much of anything for the rest of the day, but will report on that tomorrow.

 

[Elkfitness]

I started my trial with the Yeti today. I have the strawberry banana flavor. With work, school (finishing up MBA) and 2 kids (3 and 7). I go to sleep at midnight and get up at 6am. This morning was no exception. I have a gym in my house and did a quick workout. The workout consisted of 10 minutes of elliptical work to get warmed up, then a circuit of 10 pullups, 25 pushups, 1x10 one arm standing rows on a cable machine with 70#, and 8 standing shoulder presses with 45# dumbbells. I don't rest between the movements and did 4 sets/rounds. For me this is a maintenance workout that I do routinely.

I work from home when not traveling and today was one of those days. Next order of business was getting the kids off to school. I had my run planned today for about 11, so I took the first dose of Yeti at 10:30am. I drove up to Green Mountain (great place for early season trail running on the west side of Denver). I had peanut butter banana sandwich at 9:45am so not quite an empty stomach. It has been some time since I've taking any supplements, but I was very interested to see what impact it might have. I can say, that on the drive up to Green mountain, I could tell I had taken something. I'm not sure its the caffeine or something else, but I was excited to run. I ran for 2 hours around green mountain at what I call a threshold pace and felt like I had more energy. I think the one thing that I thought was different was the energy I had on the downhills. For those in the area, I parked at the dogpark off alameda and ran clockwise. Its kind of a steady grind with one big climb. I then meander back and forth as I make my back to the car and work to get 2 hours in. The second half of the run is more downhill and it felt good. I didn't experience any stomach discomfort and the strawberry banana tastes pretty good.

The rest of the day involved working on the computer, picking up the kids, making dinner, etc. Where I usually have lull at 2pm after running, I felt energized. I actually skipped my 2pm coffee today. Even as I type this, I feel good and will be able tackle my schoolwork next. So, day one in the books, and so far so good! I didn't grab pics today, but the pics below are from my run at green mountain on Friday.

The big climb

Up top. There's a few mule deer on the far side.

 

[elkyinzer]

Day 1 (intro - no Yeti yet)/J.R. (elk_yinzer)

The Yeti hasn’t made it yet but I will start with an intro and some background about myself.

Hi guys, I’m J.R. 28 years old. 6’ tall, 195 lbs. Hunting weight 180-185. I have not taken any supplement in at least 8 years when I trained a lot in college. I generally eat ‘clean’ but not religious about it.

These days I’m no gym warrior, just a decently active/athletic guy trying to do just enough to stay in elk shape and be all around fairly healthy while balancing all the other life stuff. I work out 3-7 days/week depending on time of year. Currently I am transitioning out of about three months of mostly lifting with a strength/bulk focus and maintenance cardio mixed in. I largely rely on just doing active stuff outside to keep me in shape. The next few months I will be getting outside more, primarily building endurance for the mountains and gradually cutting 10-15 lbs. Pack training, hiking, kayaking and mountain biking are my mainstays.

These next couple weeks being prime shed hunting season and my favorite time to scout new areas in the mountains of PA where I whitetail hunt, I’ll be testing the mountain legs on Yeti. I wanted to try some really long hikes and possibly an overnight, having done that two weekends in the past month without Yeti, but it doesn’t look like that aligns with my weekend plans the next two weeks. I can come back and update the testing in that respect when I can get out again.

There are also a few quick quantitative assessments I am going to do to see what this stuff does from a measureable perspective. I’ve done some control testing of 3 minute max pushups and pullups, and 300 yard shuttle runs and will be comparing to results with Yeti.

Thanks and hope you enjoy the ride (and that the Yeti makes it in the mail today).

 

[Jacob_Outdoors]

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[Eagle]

Day 2/Tye Abell (Eagle)

Woke up at 4:45 again after 7:20 of sleep according to the fitbit. Resting heart rate reached 40 during the night. Mixed my yeti with 10 oz of water this morning first thing after waking up again and plan to go to 12 oz for tomorrow to see if that helps with the sweetness. So far, zero stomach issues while consuming it on an empty stomach. Yesterday afternoon after my report was a normal evening for me, getting a little tired around 7pm before putting my daughter down at 8 and then being asleep a little after nine. That's fairly routine for me, and the yeti didn't seem to have any effect.

Arrived at the gym and started my warm-up, same as yesterday on the C2 rower. I didn't experience the same jittery feeling this morning as I did yesterday immediately after drinking the yeti, just felt normal. After my warm-up, I moved onto my main lift, shoulder press, and had working sets of 135x5, 125x5x2 with 15 strict pullups after each set of shoulder press, strength was normal. Then onto my accessory lift for the day, bench press with 4 sets of 10 at 145 with 10 reps per arm of bent over rows with a 70lb dumbbell in between the bench sets. The added umph I experienced yesterday with my front squats wasn't there today, and overall I felt completely normal while working out. Cooled down the same as yesterday with 10 minutes on the stationary bike. Overall, heart rate average today was 92 bpm with a peak of 164 while on the bike.

Same as yesterday, I continued to stay warm and sweat longer than normal, but aside from that, I've felt as though I took nothing today. Tomorrow will either be HIIT or turkey hunting in the mountains.

 

[jrnorton4]

Day One Yeti
Woke up, drank the Strawberry Banana Yeti in 8 oz of water, proceeded to get ready for the gym. I like the taste of it, but I like sweet stuff anyway. Either way, I had no problems with it as far as taste or drinking it on an empty stomach, which is a rarity for me.
When I got to the gym, I did 3.5 miles on the elliptical on Mountain trek in 30 minutes, and noticed I was faster through the whole workout. I was breathing hard, but not fatigued at all like I usually am.
After my workout, I dressed in camo in the parking lot and headed turkey hunting. I walked another mile or so hunting, killed a bird opening day, and then came to work. Usually, I am dragging by this time of day, but I feel great right now. I can tell that I have taken something even now; not a skin crawling feeling, just more energetic.
I haven't noticed anything but good effects so far, and I really hope it continues.

 

[robby denning]

This is awesome guys, love the photos and a dead turkey to boot!!!!

 

[jwatts]

Day One Yeti
Woke up, drank the Strawberry Banana Yeti in 8 oz of water, proceeded to get ready for the gym. I like the taste of it, but I like sweet stuff anyway. Either way, I had no problems with it as far as taste or drinking it on an empty stomach, which is a rarity for me.
When I got to the gym, I did 3.5 miles on the elliptical on Mountain trek in 30 minutes, and noticed I was faster through the whole workout. I was breathing hard, but not fatigued at all like I usually am.
After my workout, I dressed in camo in the parking lot and headed turkey hunting. I walked another mile or so hunting, killed a bird opening day, and then came to work. Usually, I am dragging by this time of day, but I feel great right now. I can tell that I have taken something even now; not a skin crawling feeling, just more energetic.
I haven't noticed anything but good effects so far, and I really hope it continues.

I am definitely drinking some Yeti before I meet you at the gym tomorrow. A 5x5 workout and a bird on the ground would be a nice start to the day.

 

[Elkfitness]

Elkfitness / Mike K. Day 2 Yeti trial

I was up a 5am this morning, and on a flight to Arizona for work at 8am. I took the Yeti in replacement of my morning coffee on my way to the airport. I wasn't going to be able to workout until late in the day, but wanted the caffeine effects to wear off. With the yeti on board, I only had OJ on the plane and did not need any caffeine at lunch or in the afternoon. In addition, I felt my appetite was muted, with no energy loss. That was interesting, and good. I could see myself dropping coffee and just using Yeti each morning. I had a day of business reviews so did not workout till 7pm. I went for a 45min walk and then did a circuit in the hotel gym consisting of lunges/shoulder presses/pull ups. A lighter workout total load wise, more for just moving around. I then did some core work before heading up to do some work. Today I was really impressed with the morning/daytime energy from Yeti as a replacement for coffee.

 

[robby denning]

Elkfitness, that is what I found too. You almost don't need coffee when taking Yeti. Of course I'm an addict so I didn't drop the coffee but I thought about it for a minute.

 

[jwatts]

Elkfitness, that is what I found too. You almost don't need coffee when taking Yeti. Of course I'm an addict so I didn't drop the coffee but I thought about it for a minute.

I hit the gym with jrnorton4 this morning. My 6 year old wanted to turkey hunt this morning, so I left the gym after our 5x5 so I could get to the woods before daylight. I went from the gym, grabbed my son, then hit the woods without coffee. I noticed I really didn't need the coffee either. I did drink a cup after the hunt, more out of habit than anything else.

 

[jrnorton4]

Yeti Day Two
I woke up, drank the potion I mixed up last night, and headed to the gym. I stayed at the gym after jwatts left. We did the 5x5 Stronglifts together, then I ran 6.5 miles on Mountain Trek on the elliptical in an hour. I know that's not much of a workout for alot of people, but its a gold star for me. I was ok during the run, and held my speed all the way through to the end, but when it was over, I felt like I hit a wall. I was sore and tired, and slowly went home and got ready for work.
Since this morning, I have noticed that I recovered well. I am not tired this afternoon, even though that was a constant factor before the Yeti. I have not substituted it for coffee, but I don't feel like I need the coffee to get going in the morning. Again, I drank it on an empty stomach, and didn't experience any ill effects, which is unusual for me. Still pleased so far, ready for tomorrow.

 

[Eagle]

Yeti Day 3/Tye Abell (Eagle)

Same as the two previous days. I woke up at 4:45, got 7 hours of sleep last night. Resting heart rate hit 44 and had no issues falling or staying asleep. Similar to night one, I was pretty beat by 7pm last night as is generally the case for me again. I mixed my yeti with 12 oz of water and it was still cloyingly sweet, but at this point, I'd guess that's just the way the blue raspberry is designed to taste.

I had originally planned to go turkey hunting this morning, but with the reports I was getting from other hunters in my area (very little gobbling on the limb and then nothing after fly down on the public land I can hunt) I decided to go ahead and hit the gym for an interval workout. I did 30 minutes on the bike, 5 minute warm-up followed by twenty intervals of 30s sprints and then 30s recovery, followed by a 5 minute cool down. Heart rate hit 167 and averaged 130 for the workout. Energy was pretty normal, similar to yesterday, I didn't feel much of anything in regards to extra energy, focus, or jitters. I also didn't have the excessive sweating after my shower and cool down issue today that I had the first two mornings and the rest of the day has remained normal for me.

As to the lack of a need for coffee, I haven't really noticed anything. I generally drink coffee each morning and have continued to do so. I've also never had a reaction to coffee (always been able to drink it and immediately fall asleep) and don't need it to stay awake or get me going in the morning, I just like the smell and taste of it.

 

[Jacob_Outdoors]

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[Elkfitness]

Elkfitness / Mike K. Day 3 Yeti trial

Day 3 for me was another day in Arizona. I was up at 6am, took my yeti and headed to the hotel gym. Whenever I drop down in elevation for work, I take advantage of the elevation drop. For some background, if you live at elevation, you can't work at the same absolute intensity as you would at lower elevations. So, I do "speedwork" when I travel. Today it was 15 min of running and then 30 sec of running on the treadmill at 5:45 mile pace and then 90 sec of running at 8min mile pace. I repeated that 10 times and then cooled down for about 10min. This is not a killer workout for me and is mostly threshold pace. I would have lengthened my run on both sides of the intervals but had meetings to get to. I do most of my other running on trails so this helps with controlled interval work. With the yeti, I did not sense any lagging recovery on the rest intervals, and I felt good on intervals 8, 9, and 10. After this run, I did some light IT band stretching, and some core work. I was in meetings the rest of the day, but felt good energy. I skipped the diet coke at lunch and did not feel any lag with sleepiness in the afternoon ( I still had some mid-morning coffee). My flight didn't land back in Denver until 11pm, and I still felt good energy. I think the thing I like about the yeti so far is the non-jittery energy. I am interested how the creatine will affect me after I've been on yeti for a few a while and have some reserves built up. I'm expecting to continue see better strength in the last sets of a workout and also in the latter parts of hilly runs and hikes.

 

[Eagle]

Yeti Day 4/Tye Abell (Eagle)

Same as every other day this week, up at 4:45, 7:20 of sleep during the night and resting heart rate hit 44. Drank my yeti when I woke up and headed off to the gym. Same warmup as Monday and Tuesday before my main lift which was bench at 225 for 3 sets of 5 with 15 chinups after each set. Strength was normal. Accessory lift was shoulder press at 100 for 5 sets of 10 with dumbbell curls in between each set, and again, strength was normal. Cool down was the same as Monday and Tuesday. Heart rate averaged 89 for the workout with a peak of 160 during the bike.

Today, for the first time this week I haven't felt drained by 7-8pm and feel like I could stay up to watch UK's tournament game, though I won't because I've got another 4:45 wake up in the morning. Energy and focus have remained strong throughout the day.

 

[jrnorton4]

Day Three Yeti
Woke up at 4:45, on about 5 hours (my average as of late) sleep, and was really tired this morning. I drank the Yeti mix on the bedside table, and got ready for the gym. I ran 3.31 miles on the elliptical, and didn't really have the surge of energy I have had the last 2 days. I changed in the parking lot, and headed turkey hunting again.
We walked another mile or so while hunting, and got on a good gobbling bird. We got busted by a hen, or he would have gotten to ride home.
I didn't have my first cup of coffee til after 10 a.m., and really hadn't missed it. I yawned once at about 3:30 p.m., but wasn't really tired.
I have to say, the lasting energy in the afternoon is what has impressed me most. Until drinking the Yeti, for the last few weeks, I had been exhausted in the afternoon. I'm not blowing up during workouts with great feats of strength or speed, but I have seen a drastic difference in being less tired through the day. I figure this would translate well into a hunting situation.

 

[Jacob_Outdoors]

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[Jacob_Outdoors]

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[Elkfitness]

Day 4 of the yeti trial was a good day. Always feels good to be back home! After dropping the kids off at school at 8:30am, I came home and took the yeti at 9am. I did a little bit of work and then hit my gym for a workout at about 9:15. I hit the elliptical for 20 min and then started a weight circuit. First movement was squats on our functional trainer, 25 reps at 300#. Due to mechanical advantage, I would put the actual weight at 185#. After those I went into the pullups with a parallel grip and did 20 of those. Next up was lunges with 50# dumbbells, 12 reps each leg. I then do 20 push ups and then do semi incline bench with 50# dumbbells. 50# is my max weight I have so I pre fatigue with the push ups. Then I went back to the functional trainer and do a standing 1 arm row with 80# for 12 reps. I do this to simulate pulling the bow back. I then cycled back through the circuit 4 more times. I try to work opposing muscle groups as I move through the cycle and my only rest is moving between the movements. Today I felt better during the last cycle and I think that is due to the yeti. I finished up by doing some body weight squats on the bosu ball (flip it over and stand on the base). I do 50 reps. I like to think this helps with the ankles and auxiliary muscles. I think ended with some core work (crunches, plank work, superman extensions, etc...) and then 15 min on the elliptical. I felt great energy during the workout.

During the rest of the day I continued to have great energy, I did have a cup of coffee about 2pm, but that was more out of habit. Like others mentioned I do see my hydrations needs increased a bit.

Overall a great day. Here are a few pics of my gym setup.

Bike,functional trainer, Dumbbells, bosu ball.

The good old elliptical!

My motivation. Kids toys and antlers on the wall!