Axis Lab’s 2013 rebranding was first previewed a few months ago with the unveiling of their pre-workout supplement Sma5h. After it’s first sneak peek, the brand continued to drop teasers and images of the product, building a fair amount of hype and interest. When we first saw the pre-workout’s ingredients, it wasn’t anything overly exciting, but definitely enough to capture our attention. So three weeks ago when we were at the Olympia Expo we stopped by the Axis booth to grab a sample of the supplement. In which we were fortunate enough to be handed a full size bottle of product. Giving us plenty of servings to bring you what we have for you today, a full experience review of Axis Lab’s Sma5h.
When you look at Sma5h as a pre-workout supplement, in particular it’s contents. You will find it difficult to pick a highlight or exciting feature. It packs your usual CarnoSyn beta-alanine, creatine HCL, caffeine, tyrosine, carnitine, and so on. But on top of all that, as well as the other common inclusions, the product does contain a proprietary blend most would consider unique, with the joint support complex of glucosamine and chondroitin. For a vitamin or dedicated joint formula, yes those two features would be normal, although in a pre-workout it’s a little bit unusual. That being said, in our experience with the supplement we didn’t notice any significant change in joint performance or health anyway. Which may have been due to the fact that we only used it two or three times a week. Purely because we were only interested in it’s workout results, not so much the joint support effectiveness.
While the elbows, shoulders, and knees didn’t receive any attention from the Axis pre-workout. That is the one and only low point of the product. As for the rest of Sma5h, it performs a lot better than we had initially expected. Like mentioned above, the contents of the supplement aren’t anything exciting. But once you’ve actually taken the product, you will be quite surprised at just how truly exciting the supplement really is.
After throwing back Axis Lab’s energizer you will find the pre-workout slowly creep up on you. It’s not like any of those uncomfortable formulas that see you needing to knock out every area in the gym, it’s a gentle build up. You will notice the power of Sma5h start to form when heavy weights don’t tire you out so much. You begin to set your dumbbells down, and almost immediately feel the need to do more reps at a heavier weight. This kind of intensity effect isn’t something we haven’t seen before, however it is a power not forced on by increased energy or drive like we usually see. The experience is more like a mental trip with an imaginary voice kindly forcing you and telling you what to do, and when there’s something you can’t do, to do it anyway. The formula tends to ride off of a feel good emotion and slightly energy increased intensity. Rather than hit your body and rely solely on muscle stimulation. To top it off the focus enhancement is an extremely sustained one. You won’t find yourself dropping off or getting weaker as you hit that 45 minute mark. With Axis Sma5h seeing you through the full length of your workout, with the longest one we got done being about 90 minutes.
If we had to rate the supplement’s performance compared to the claims Axis Labs put on their bottle. Sma5h more than delivers on a level right up their with the best in strength, endurance, and mental focus. As for the other highlights on the product’s label, the energy, hyper vasodilation, and joint support, didn’t really come through for us. Whether they were drowned out by the standout features, or maybe we didn’t take Sma5h long enough. Either way it was pretty clear to us what the pros and cons were on our regular two to three uses per week.
All in all the supplement is a solid experience. It may not compare to any of today’s all round pre-workout successes, however we get the feeling that wasn’t Axis’s intention anyway. If their goal was to put together something different, something you could choose to take more than three times a week. Something that won’t leave you shaky or jittery. Something that will actually help you perform better without feeling like your pre-workout is doing all the work. Then Sma5h is worth a try. The product’s combination of effects driven by the strong mental stimulation, and backing doses of intensity, energy, and the rarely seen endurance. Makes Axis Labs Sma5h a truly unique formula, even more so in a category where so many companies lack innovation.
