Two workout supplements that aren’t BS
Biohacker Review of HMB vs Yohimbine HCL
For several months now I’ve been alternating two workout stimulants that I like, Yohimbine HCL® and HMB. Both enhance my workouts qualitatively and quantitatively. I’m able to move more weight for more reps on these stimulants. Subjectively the big difference between the two is that Yohimbine works by releasing adrenalin, the fight, or flight stress hormone. So it makes you feel a little more on edge and energized. I generally manage stress and anxiety well so I haven’t experienced any negatives from using Yohimbine, although I would want to be doing something visceral while on Yohimbine. I wouldn’t want to be just sitting in my home office while on Yohimbine. HMB, on the other hand, does not make me feel energized as a classic Nootropic would, but there is a clear uptick in my gym performance.
It is hard to objectively say which enhances my workouts better. I would say that they both enhance my performance by 10% — 20%. I’m perhaps limited in evaluating these because I’m not a hardcore athlete, I go to the gym several times a week for 90-minute sessions to stay fit and healthy. I’m rather conservative at the gym; making gains and putting on muscle are secondary goals for me. I’d rather have slow, consistent growth in my lifts and weight than really push myself and risk injuring myself.
I did experiment with combining the two. One Sunday afternoon I did a 90-minute workout on 1000 milligrams of HMB and 5 milligrams of Yohimbine, which was unsurprisingly very stimulating and resulted in a great workout, I made gains in my lifts and did 25 pull-ups. I usually do about 20 minutes of cardio at the gym while brain training with Dual N-Back Pro, which is usually a bit challenging because my gym often blasts awful Hip Hop music, which is, to say the least, a non-optimal audio background for brain training. My brain training scores while doing cardio are usually lower than when I do it sitting at home. I do think that Yohimbine at least is a bit of a cognitive enhancer because I had a nice uptick in my brain training scores on this stack despite the distracting music.
Cost and Dosage Comparison: fifty 5-milligram Yohimbine tabs are 12 euros ($13.48), I’ve been doing 15 milligrams per workout session which comes to 0.80 cents per workout. I found that 1000 milligrams of HMB have a similar effect, a bottle of 120 x 500 mg capsules costs $19.95, that’s just 0.33 cents per workout. Both are pretty affordable but HMB is definitely a better deal!
Once I exhaust my supply of Yohimbine I’m not sure if I’ll be reordering it, I’d rather use HMB going forward and am interested in using creatine.
Yohimbine superpowers sex and workouts with adrenaline!
Day 1
I did 5 milligrams, a low dosage, on a Sunday afternoon before a gym session with my wife. I had a good gym session but my performance was not extraordinary.
Day 2
I upped the dosage to 10 milligrams, which I did on an afternoon while I was doing some writing. I did find it stimulating but not overly so. I had a productive afternoon. I don’t think I’ll be reaching for Yohimbine to stimulate me to do my digital laboring. It doesn’t seem to enhance cognition or creativity the way that Adaptogens or the Racetams do. The adrenalin release does me make feel a bit on edge which I don’t really need.
I did several workouts on 10 milligrams, which I think enhanced my performance somewhat. I made gains of 10%-20% in the quantity or repetition of weight I moved. It’s hard to say if this is just because I’m pushing myself a bit harder or if it’s the Yohimbine. I’m not a bodybuilder and haven’t been lifting weights for years in the gym. Honestly, I have a bit of an on-again, off-again relationship with the gym so I don’t push myself really hard to break previous personal records. I go to the gym just to maintain health and fitness so I’m pretty conservative. The last thing I want is to injure myself so I’m maybe not the typical Yohimbine user. I can see how I would probably get more out of Yohimbine if I wanted to compete in one of those bodybuilding competitions where guys strut around in little speedos or if I wanted to do a triathlon.
I upped the dosage to 15 milligrams for my Sunday workout, there was a noticeable uptick in my power output; my rep count increased from 6 to 10 squats and I made some gains in quantity of reps across the board. I had taken about a week break from going to the gym and expected that my capacity to move metal would have decreased a little. Thankfully, its effect does not persist all day, after the workout I didn’t feel fired up by Yohimbine’s adrenaline release I was relaxed and enjoyed the rest of my Sunday. I was quite sore and very thankful for my wife’s loving massage before bed. Before working out I had to do a little shopping at the mall and I was mindful of my mood and state of mind. I wasn’t particularly irate or anxious, I felt energetic and happy although I wouldn’t want to be cooped up in my home office on this dosage.
One Sunday I did 10 milligrams before a double workout, I did some weight lifting at the gym and then I joined my wife for a yoga class, I thought the yoga on Yohimbine might be interesting. The issue was that the yoga class turned out to be very long, nearly 3 hours, I thought it was supposed to be less than an hour! Around 2 hours into the yoga class I started getting quite irate that the class was taking so long. Eventually, I stood up and announced the class that I had other things to do and left early. I’m not sure if the Yohimbine made me irate or if it’s just that the yoga class ran so long but I don’t think I’ll be doing Yohimbine and yoga again.
I think 10 milligrams is the dosage sweet spot for me, in the future when I want to take the intensity to the next level I may do 15 milligrams again.
Sex Hack
Sex on Yohimbine is intense! I did 15 milligrams one afternoon. After about 20 minutes I could feel the adrenalin kick in which is a pleasant sensation. My wife wanted to make love so she made me some Horny Goat Weed tea and put on a sexy outfit to arouse me. The sex was vigorous and intense. The herbs made me a bit more horny and energized and my erection was rock solid! Our afternoon lovemaking climaxed in one of the more intense orgasms that I can remember having. In my future adventures in sex hacking, I look forward to combining Yohimbine and Horny Goat Weed.
I used a lower dosage of 5 milligrams before sex in combination with Horny Goat Weed, the sex was not quite as intense but I think it had an effect. I did the 5 milligrams around 10 PM and managed to fall asleep fine but I wouldn’t do it later in the evening than that.
Typically I take it in the afternoon or early evening before going to the gym. It doesn’t seem to have a deleterious effect on sleep. It seems to have a relatively short half-life of several hours. In fact, I’ve had some amazing sleep after a Yohimbine-powered workout!
HMB delivers a notable uptick in gym performance
I’ve taken 1000 milligrams (two capsules) of HMB before workouts and I believe there is a notable uptick in my gym performance. I’m able to lift more, do more pullups and pushups. I’ve been getting acquainted with some pre-workout supplements in the last few weeks. I’ve also tried Mildronate before workouts. It’s hard for me to compare and contrast the two from my subjective experience because I’ll admit that when it comes to my gym performance it’s hard to tell the difference between pharmacologically enabled gains and me just being more aggressive or the placebo effect. There’s not much subjective experience with HMB as there is with many Nootropics.
What is the science saying about HMB
There are over 200 papers mentioning HMB, notably a 2019 Polish Meta-Analysis describes the scope of clinical trials it’s undergone.
HMB supplementation has been carried out with various groups of athletes. In endurance and martial arts athletes, HMB supplementation revealed positive effects on specific aerobic capacity variables. Positive results were also disclosed in resistance trained athletes, where changes in strength, body fat and muscle mass as well as anaerobic performance and power output were observed.
A paper by the Sports Science Sports Medicine Centre at the Australian Institute of Sport synopsizes it’s mechanism and benefits to athletes:
[HMB] a metabolite of the essential amino acid leucine, is one of the latest dietary supplements promoted to enhance gains in strength and lean body mass associated with resistance training. Unlike anabolic hormones that induce muscle hypertrophy by increasing muscle protein synthesis, HMB is claimed to influence strength and lean body mass by acting as an anticatabolic agent, minimising protein breakdown and damage to cells that may occur with intense exercise.
