Every now and then we get our hands on supplements from outside of the US, which usually come from the likes of Australia or somewhere in Europe. Over the past few weeks we’ve actually been putting an Australian pre-workout to the test, with EHP Labs’ RP Max. While the area does have its restrictions we have seen some great pre-workouts come from there, although unfortunately RP Max is not one of them.
A little light on the label
Before we get into how the EHP pre-workout performed for us, we’re going to go over its rather interesting formula. The main reason we want to touch on this is because after looking at RP Max’s combination, we didn’t have a whole lot of confidence in the product. Making up each serving of the supplement is a 3.974g proprietary blend of beta-alanine, taurine, choline bitartrate, tyrosine, caffeine, guarana, yerba mate, Advantra Z, higenamine, and BioPerine black pepper.
The reason that 10 ingredient combination didn’t make us overly confident is because in our opinion it is quite light. The first two ingredients in the product can in fact be found in DVST8 White Cut at a combined total of 6g, which is 50% more than RP Max’s entire blend. It is also recommended that you only have a maximum of one serving, so that 3.974g is not intended to be doubled or even tripled. Despite how light it looked we did purchase the pre-workout, put our initial thoughts aside, and give it a fair go.
Good energy and a bit of a performance boost
As mentioned, EHP’s RP Max isn’t an overly effective pre-workout. Like most supplements in the highly competitive category, RP Max does have a bit of a kick to it, however after that there isn’t much more to the experience. The initial hit does elevate your energy level, about the same as most pre-workouts with around 200-300mg of caffeine. That energy will stay fairly strong for the majority of your workout, with a bit of endurance and a performance boost also noticeably in the mix. The combination of effects does help lift your game, giving you enough to pump out a good workout or at least an average one if you’tr feeling a bit tired.
It lacks in too many places
While RP Max may not actually sound too bad with a good amount of energy and an alright performance boost. Where it runs into problems is that it lacks in areas others do incredibly well. For example, we didn’t notice any kind of focus or pump enhancement, two effects that a lot of this year’s biggest pre-workouts deliver on. The aforementioned DVST8 White Cut is one, Dedicated’s Unstoppable V2 is another, and we can’t forget the unbelievable pump power of the recently released PNI Prodigy.
An argument could still be made for EHP’s RP Max, as we have come across pre-workouts that didn’t do well in focus or pump that we still greatly enjoyed. The issue there is that the areas RP Max does come through on, aren’t anywhere near the levels of others on the market that are designed more for energy and performance. Some of the products we’ve used that really destroy EHP’s effort and its two effects include Nutrabolics Supernova, Muscle Elements PreCre, and Pumped Sports’ Loaded. It also worth mentioning that most of those do also involve focus and pump.
Effective but definitely not competitive
Basically EHP’s RP Max is effective, we’re not arguing that. It has a good kick and solid amount of energy, and also helps boost your performance a bit. Unfortunately today’s pre-workout market is very competitive, and something that’s “just effective” doesn’t cut it anymore. If the supplement were average in all areas — energy, focus, pump, and performance — then it’d be a different story. That however isn’t the case, with RP Max having just mild amounts of energy and performance that combine for an experience that simply does not compete.
Just to be clear we did only use RP Max at one scoop as directed. While it does look like it could be taken to two for much better results, it’s only fair we follow the brand’s directions as we do for all products. We did push it on most occasions bumping it up to a heaping scoop, although that didn’t really change anything. Something else worth mentioning is that like all of our reviews, our RP Max opinion is based on how it compares to its competition. If you feel the product is strong, then by all means stick with it, however you might also want to try anything from our list of top 10 pre-workouts.
