Today I’m writing this ANS Ritual review from the pool at my apartment building, and I must say that life is good. I took Ritual before this mornings’ workout, and for the most part I enjoyed the experience, but have sort of changed my opinion on this pre workout for a few important reasons. In this review I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about Ritual. If you are a man, than you can still benefit from this review- trust me- I know my pre workouts! And ladies as you know I will give it to you straight. Is this Ritual pre workout good for women? You’re going to find out. I’ll start at the beginning, with an overview of the flavor and taste profile. Let’s get this review started!
ANS Ritual Taste Grade: 9.0
Well. This is certainly a good start for the black-and-blue-clad pre workout from ANS Performance. I took one and a half scoops of the powder and mixed it into about 8 ounces of icy cold water. If you are looking for a really good pre workout ‘ritual’ – then here is what you need to do:
Take a glass mason jar and fill it halfway with water
Put it in the freezer about 15 minutes before you are ready to start drinking your pre workout
In 20 minutes, take your jar out of the freezer and start the process- your water will be deliciously icy
This is the protocol that I use for every pre workout that I take. it adds a really nice pageantry to the process and I really enjoy it. I tried the fruit punch flavor of Ritual and liked it almost immediately when I opened the seal on the jar.
First of all the color of the powder is beautiful. I don’t know what they put in here to give it this color- but it really is a beautiful shade of reddish/pink. It’s hard to explain, but it’s actually the prettiest colored pre workout that I’ve had.
The taste of the powder is equally as pleasing to the senses. When mixed, this pre workout drink is very aromatic and hits your nose a split second before the liquid touches your lips. OMG can you tell I’m in a poetic mood? LOL. That’s what happens when you live in beautiful California- you get inspired! Getting back to the taste of ANS Ritual: This pre workout flavor that I tried is the classic fruit punch- and classic is precisely the right word to describe it. The tastes that you get are of pineapple, cherry, and maybe some berry and orange. It’s sweet. It’s tart. And I personally think it’s delicious. As with all of my other pre workout reviews, I had all my fiitties over to help me bench-test this new pre workout. Some of the feedback was sort of mixed. Like not everyone liked it as much as I did. Some one-liners:
“It’s a little too sweet for me but it’s hella tasty anyways” -Dani
“I sort of hate how this tastes I hope it works good at least” -Negative Nancy aka Nadine
“Allie you love everything you put in your mouth (laughing all around) this stuff is horrible” -Sara
Oh geez. Welcome to my world. LOL. But don’t listen to them. Listen to me. I’m Fit Life Allie and I know best. Taste is NOT subjective. Taste is scientific and it’s black and white. There IS such things as right and wrong when it comes to taste. And Ritual is RIGHT. I’m giving it an A. How does it work though?
ANS Performance Effects and Performance Grade: 8.9
This pre workout is certainly…something. So I took it both today and the day before. The weird thing is that I struggled even more to appoint it’s performance grade today than I did yesterday. I mean. I took it yesterday and had an OK workout, but it was sort of down the middle. I felt like the beginning of the workout was totally awesome, and then the middle was sort of average. But then at the end it’s like it kicked in again and I was back to superhuman mode. So I figured I would try it again today to see if I got the same result.
But TODAY- the first of my workout was absolutely ATROCIOUS, but then the second hour of the workout was UNREAL. It was such a weird experience that I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever experienced before. Now. In a little bit we’re going to talk about the formula- and I think we’re going to uncover the reason for this inconsistent performance.
But my workout today was a high volume front squat day followed by a shoulder and abs circuit. What I did was a brief lower body warmup consisting of bodyweight squats, single-leg squats, and some walking lunges. Then I threw in a few light sets of back squats to finish waking everything up.
As I got into my working sets of squats (front squats with 145), I noticed that my energy and endurance were NOWHERE to be found. “Well you probably ate like crap all day before”, you proclaim. “Shut it”, I say. I NAILED my nutrition today.
The crumby feeling continued almost all the way until my last two sets of squats, at which time it’s like a rush of magical energy washed over me. I crushed my last two sets and then attacked the shoulder and ab circuit with fervor. I got a really nice clean pump in my shoulders and also felt phenomenal during the ab work.
I’m giving the performance a very solid ‘B+’ because when you are ‘ON’ with this product- it’s a feeling that simply can’t be beaten. And that’s coming from someone who has reviewed over 50 different pre workouts. So what could the reason for this seeming ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ effect be? One word- Craze.
Ritual Ingredients and Formula Grade: 6.5
‘Craze?’, you ask. Yes. Craze. Can anyone guess where I’m going with this? No? Yes? A few of you, right?
Craze is the name of a pre workout made by a company called Driven Sports. Now. I don’t want to get into a pissing-on segment about what I think of Driven Sports- but let’s just say I’ve read some really un-favorable things about the company.
Anyways. This company’s most popular product is a pre workout energy supplement called ‘Craze’. Craze has since been overhauled in terms of formula a handful of times- but the original version contained dendrobium- which quickly became known as the ‘new DMAA’. DMAA being the stuff in Jack3d- the notorious pre workout that was tragically linked to deaths of some US Marines.
Why do I bring this up? Because dendrobium is in Ritual. I’ve read that dendrobium is similar in chemical structure to the dangerous DMAA (in original Jack3d).
And THAT is surely why I experienced such patchy performance from Ritual. It’s like when I was up I was UP, and when I was done, I was really not feelin’ it all. I don’t think I would recommend consistently taking this pre workout for this exact reason that I don’t really trust this ingredient. If you are more of an adventurous individual who is not really phased by putting an amphetamine-like compound in your body, than this one might be for you. But it is certainly not for me for this reason. That’s the main thing I wanted to cover in the formula section- and that’s what brought the formula grade WAYY down for me. Other than the dendrobium, this formula contains a pretty well-designed ingredient deck, consisting of:
- beta alanine
- caffeine
- citrulline
- agmatine
- styphnolobium japonicum
- creatine
- betaine
- higenamine
- tyrosine
The other thing that sort of jumps out at me about this ingredient list is the higenamine. Higename is on my ‘questionable’ list, alongside the dendrobium (although not as far up as the dendrobium). There are some sources that say this ingredient has an impact on trachea and heart muscles. Err. Heart muscles? Leave those alone! LOL. That’s a nervous laugh. Actually not thrilled that I took this stuff twice now…Ugh. Alright let’s talk packaging.
ANS Ritual Packaging Review Grade: 8.3
It’s sort of hard for me to disconnect how I feel about the ingredients in this pre workout and how I feel about the packaging. But I’ll try. First off let’s start by saying that nothing holds a candle to Protein World’s Slender Blend Capsule packaging. From a design point of view this pre workout is not horrible. It does use shrink sleeve packaging which I’ve never really been that fond of, since the entire top part of the design gets totally taken off and thrown away when you open the tub. The only thing that I do like about this design is the big, bold, stylized ‘Ritual’ product title. It does give the impression of a big, dramatic, powerful product- which it undeniably is. Whether or not I’m a fan of all the ‘edgy’ ingredients in it is irrelevant to this point that if nothing else it is a powerful and bold product. The other thing that works for this product is the color scheme. The black and blue echo the strength element of this pre workout, while the white stands in nice contrast without compromising the seriousness of the color palette. If I had suggestions for improving the design, I would probably recommend spicing it up somehow maybe with some more creative materials or finishes. But that’s just me. Ok. Let’s wrap this review up and get out of here.
ANS Ritual Reviews Summary:
- ANS Ritual Taste Grade: 9.0
- ANS Performance Effects and Performance Grade: 8.9
- Ritual Ingredients and Formula Grade: 6.5
- Ritual Packaging Review Grade: 8.3
- Ritual Value Grade: 8.0
Call me old school- but when I take a step back and take everything into account with this pre workout, I don’t really like what I see. Do you feel absolutely GREAT when Ritual really kicks? Sure. And it’s a really special feeling in the gym. And at way less than a dollar per serving, it’s a huge value. BUT. I’m just not willing to risk ANY health side effects for the sake of reaching that sort of ‘goddess-mode’ in the gym. But if you are- then I think you really have to give it a try. Best of luck ;)*
ANS Ritual Review Final Score: 7.0
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