Kinobody Octane Review: More Strength, Laser Focus, Faster Recovery
I love lifting weights.
It’s been a passion of mine since I was 12, and I’ve never stopped tweaking, analyzing, and experimenting with my workouts and the results they give.
And because of this, I’ve always been interested in how supplements might be able to give me an advantage — an extra boost to really kick things up a notch.
I’ve tried many pre-workout supplements in the past like C4, NO Xplode, and others, and all of them gave me a pretty reliable uptick in energy and pump. I’m not sure if it was just from the hit of caffeine or something more (their blends are all proprietary, so it’s hard to know what you’re actually taking).
But when I saw that one of my favorite fitness blogs, Kinobody, was coming out with their own pre-workout supplement, I was extremely eager to try it.
I’ve been a fan of Kinobody for a long, long time, and Greg (the owner) has written some awesome workouts that have reaped me some incredible strength gains and saved lots of wasted effort from the old 6 day bodybuilding splits I used to do.
I’ve always loved how science-focused and results-oriented he was about his approach to getting in shape, so I was excited to learn that he was getting into the supplement world.
However, I wanted to be truly objective about these new supplements he was putting out, and see if they stood up to the same criteria that made me like his site to begin with (after all, many sites that were once good end up selling out and becoming crappy).
Since I’ve been in one of his early buyer groups, I got the chance to try out the beta version of his new pre-workout Octane, which is going to be released in a few weeks.
As such, I wanted to write a thorough review of my experience with it.
Kinobody Octane Review: Ingredients
At first glance, I was happily impressed by the fact that Kinobody didn’t go the shady route of using a proprietary blend.
In stark contrast, every single ingredient is listed with the full amounts that are in each serving.
I thought it was pretty cool how he split it up as well. There’s 3 different blends, each designed to do something different.
There’s the Metabolic Acceleration Blend is designed to help your body reduce the bad metabolic by-products from exercise that cause fatigue and slow recovery, the Neural Alignment Blend is designed to enhance your nervous system’s output to increase your strength and work capacity, and the Electrolyte Primer Blend is designed to replenish the electrolytes you lose during a workout so you can better maintain your hydration and performance.
Here’s what’s in each serving:
Metabolic Acceleration Blend:
- Thiamine — 100 mg
- L-Citrulline — 6,000 mg
- Biotin — 300 mcg
- Siberian Ginseng — 300 mg
Neural Alignment Blend:
- Caffeine — 150 mg
- L-Theanine — 100 mg
Electrolyte Primer Blend:
- Sodium — 100 mg
- Potassium — 100 mg
These are pretty unique ingredients for a pre-workout, which made me even more curious about how it would work, and even more excited to give it a try.
Kinobody Octane Review: Ordering And Delivery
The webpage for Octane was very well-made (like many of the pages on Kinobody) and I felt very secure about ordering the supplement (although I’ve purchased from Kinobody in the past as well, so I knew it was safe).
The checkout process was easy and straightforward, and there was a 60-day money-back guarantee, so I knew that in the worst case scenario, I could at least return the product to get my money back.
Honestly there isn’t much else to say about it because it was fast and smooth.
About 2 days later I got the package in the mail and was very impressed with the bottle label and the presentation of the actual supplement (not necessarily the plain mailing envelope in came in, however).
I was extremely excited to start taking it, but unfortunately had to wait till the next day, since I wasn’t working out the day the package arrived.
Kinobody Octane Review: Initial Trial
About 15 minutes before I left for the gym, I put a scoop of Kinobody Octane in my shaker bottle and mixed it with cold water.
The taste was surprisingly good for a pre-workout — it had a nice orange flavor with a sweet and salty kick to it.
As I left for the gym, I thought of how other pre-workouts have made my skin tingle and itch (something I despise), and Octane didn’t seem to do this. There’s no beta-alanine in it (the thing responsible for that feeling), so that makes sense.
When I got to the gym I did a quick warm-up and started to feel it kick in — it was like my brain got honed in on what I was about to do and I was excited and aggressive towards my upcoming sets.
I started with Bench Press and was surprised that I got a few extra reps than I was expecting. I can’t tell for sure if it was Octane that caused the strength increase, but either way it was certainly welcomed.
What’s more, I actually hit far more reps on my second and third sets. I found that my normal strength drop off seemed to be less and I was better able to hit higher reps with more weight on those later sets.
If the ingredients in the Metabolic Acceleration Blend are supposed to help clear metabolic by-products that cause fatigue, then this would make perfect sense. Less metabolic by-products = more strength on later sets.
After my 3 sets, I noticed the next benefit of Octane — my chest and arms felt really pumped up. I usually get a decent pump from weightlifting, but this was definitely more than usual — this one I definitely attribute to Octane, as it was noticeable enough that there’s no way it could’ve just been coincidence.
If I had to guess, I’d say it was the L-Citrulline in Octane, which can increase nitric oxide, the chemical messenger responsible for increasing blood flow during a workout.
The rest of my workout went really well — again I noticed that I was hitting more weight for more reps later in my workout, making me think there’s definitely something to the Metabolic Acceleration Blend in Octane.
I did realize another interesting effect by the end of the workout — I was sweating like crazy.
I’m not sure exactly what was causing this, but I was far hotter than normal throughout the entire workout, and because of this I was sweating a ton. My shirt was drenched.
I would assume this is a good thing, as I was lifting more weight and not tiring out as easily, so maybe it was just from being able to work out harder and my body burning more Calories and producing more heat (if I had to guess).
After my workout, I was definitely drained, but didn’t feel completely dead. I felt like I still had energy for the rest of my day instead of needing to just chill the rest of the night.
Kinobody Octane Review: The Long-Term Results
After that first workout, I was excited to see if Octane held up over time or if it was just a fleeting thing.
The second time I took it, I noticed pretty similar results, but the coolest part was that I was actually much stronger during that workout. I slept really well between this workout and the workout before, but I also felt like I had recovered more than I normally would have.
Again, this is a claimed benefit of the Metabolic Acceleration Blend, so maybe that was part of it. I definitely enjoyed the strength increases either way.
I continued taking Octane before workouts for the whole month, and the results seemed to hold up over time. I definitely had more strength increases that month than normal, which led to my muscles feel harder and bigger. I even got a few people asking if I was doing anything different (I’m normally the “fit guy” in the room, but people were still noticing).
Kinobody Octane Review: Side Effects
I didn’t really notice too many side effects from Octane, but there were two things to note.
First, if I worked out late, it had the potential to mess with my sleep. Octane has 150 mg of caffeine in it, so this actually makes sense.
Towards the end of my trial, I got to start using the other Kinobody supplement, called “Sleep” designed to enhance your sleep and recovery, and it has an ingredient that removes caffeine from your body. Once I started taking this, I had no trouble sleeping, even if I worked out really late (one night I didn’t get to the gym until 8 PM, and I still took Octane).
The second thing was that if I didn’t drink water during the workout, I would get a slight headache. Nothing extreme, just a little pain. I would assume this is because of the Electrolyte Primer Blend, which has sodium and potassium in it, and would therefore require a little extra hydration.
Plus, like I said, I was sweating more than normal and burning tons of Calories, so my body probably needed that extra water to stay hydrated.
Kinobody Octane Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Octane was living up to what Kinobody was claiming, and what the supporting research said about it.
I really enjoyed taking it, and it’s probably gonna remain one of my favorite pre-workouts for a long time because of its unique blends. No other pre-workout takes into account metabolic by-products, recovery after the workout, or electrolytes.
I would definitely recommend trying Kinobody Octane if you’re considering it.
