Ever since Sparta Nutrition revealed the full formula behind its pre-workout Kraken, we’ve been wanting to give it a go. While you can’t always judge a supplement by its label, it can certainly give you an idea on roughly how well something will perform. Kraken’s label more than suggested it’d be a major competitor, and now after running it for a few weeks we have the final verdict with our Sparta Kraken review.
Slow to start
Like all good pre-workouts, the Kraken experience kicks off with a slow increase in energy and focus. Seeing as the product does only pack 200mg of caffeine, it’s no real surprise that it doesn’t have any kind of kick or sudden boost in energy. Despite how gradual it comes on, it will ensure you have a relatively intense level of energy by the time you walk into the gym.
Once you start your workout that’s when you’ll notice the boost in energy the most, as your muscles will have no problem knocking out any warm-up reps and sets. As you move into more complex and intense exercises the supplement’s energy will keep you fueled, and have you confidently hitting every set at full power.
Enhanced mental drive
The other effect that comes on with Sparta Kraken’s gradual energy is its focus, which really compliments the energy. After about the first 10 minutes or so of your workout the focus starts to come on fairly strong, combining with the energy to create an enhanced sense of drive and desire to just go balls to the wall. The intensity of the focus actually eventually takes over the energy, as you move into the back half of your workout you’ll find it is the enhanced mental drive that forces you to do an extra exercise, add another set, or knock out a few more reps.
Dense and intense pump
As good as Sparta Kraken may already sound, there is a bit more to it as the product is quite the all-around pre-workout experience. On top of its solid energy and focus, it also packs a rather good amount of pump. Fairly early on in your workout, around the time the focus starts becoming noticeable, you’ll find it much easier to pump up whatever muscles you’re working.
The effect isn’t the blow-up muscle pump kind, more of a hard, dense, vascular one. Much like the focus and energy, Kraken’s pump definitely compliments the other effects, working in with the overall experience and not just feeling like some kind of add-on. The dense pump does in fact mix very well with the focus, creating a very strong mind to muscle connection where you’re able to feel your muscles more intensely and work them that little bit harder.
Not overly strong performance
The one last area we have to touch on for Sparta Kraken is the performance and endurance side, which isn’t something we see done too well, that often. Kraken isn’t really an exception to that, as if you like pushing your workouts to the limit and get close to or go beyond exhaustion, it’s not going to help push you along the way. The supplement does have a bit of performance and endurance to it but not in the amount you’ll find in the likes of DVST8 White Cut and PreCre, which powerfully speed up the time required to refuel between sets even when pushed to the bare minimum.
Preferred serving size
Seeing as Kraken is a single scoop pre-workout, we figured we’d include something about the serving size we found best for our Sparta Kraken review. The entire experience mentioned above is based on a heaping scoop of the product, which from our scales bumps everything up by 25% pushing the caffeine to 250mg. We did have a few people prefer a regular serving or even add in an extra 100 to 200mg of caffeine, although the overall opinion was still the same. The extra caffeine only seemed to boost that initial kick, with the focus and pump not getting better or worse.
Solid all-around experience
Sparta Kraken basically came through with the all-around pre-workout experience we hoped it would. Its balance of effects is certainly interesting and slightly different from some of the other top rated supplements out there, making it even more memorable. The focus or mental drive is the real highlight of Kraken, with its intense mind to muscle pump being almost as impressive. The energy is of course there as well, with just enough to back up the enhanced focus and fuel its painfully enjoyable pump.
If you’re a fairly experienced pre-workout user, there are a few products out there that we’d say are somewhat similar and if you’re a fan of you’ll likely enjoy Kraken. The pre-workout is sort of like a stronger version of Kodiak Attack, or a slightly less energized version of PNI Prodigy. As mentioned it is very focus driven with smooth gradual energy, so if you prefer a less stimulated, but still intense workout, Kraken is well worth a sample.
