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Lionheart The Performance Athlete's Pre-Workout

by Joe Volgey on Feb 18, 2022

Apollon Nutrition has asserted itself as the leader in premium hardcore pre-workout supplements, showcased by standout offerings including Black Tulip, Assassin, and our flagship pre workout powerhouse -- HOOLIGAN.

We even pioneered the development of the first true pre workout for combat athletes with Kumite. And, while Kumite was a fantastic initial offering, we knew that we could do better. This led to the creation of LIONHEART.

But, LIONHEART is not just another pre-workout supplement -- it is the pre-workout supplement for tactical athletes, weekend warriors, CrossFitters, and any other athlete looking to heighten focus, boost endurance, increase stamina, and deliver the energy needed to outlast the competition whether that’s in the cage, on the obstacle course, or on the field.

What’s in Lionheart?

Beta-Alanine

There isn’t a single ingredient better known for boosting endurance or stamina than beta alanine. It’s been studied in athletes of all kinds and has consistently been found to be effective.

Beta-alanine enhances stamina and delays the onset of fatigue by improving the muscle’s ability to buffer acidic (H+) ions. This helps prevent the pH in muscle cells from dropping too low, thereby allowing you to train longer, run farther, and sustain a higher level of performance.

Taurine

Taurine is a conditionally essential amino acid found in the brain, heart, and skeletal muscles that performs a number of important roles in the body. First and foremost, taurine enhances cellular hydration by encouraging muscle cells to absorb more water. Greater hydration supports greater endurance and stamina, maintains stable core temperature, and aids focus.

Taurine also acts as an antioxidant. Intense, prolonged exercise can generate considerable amounts of oxidative stress. In fact, a recent review published by the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition noted that taurine supplementation reduced lactate, creatine kinase, phosphorus, and inflammatory markers.

Additionally, it was found to improve [1]:

VO2 Max
Time to exhaustion
Anaerobic performance
Peak power
Recovery

Tyrosine

Tyrosine is an amino acid the body uses as a building block for dopamine -- a neurotransmitter that affects mood, motivation, focus, decision-making, and motor control.

Prolonged, intense physical activity can deplete dopamine, leading to increased central fatigue and reductions in performance.

Supplementing with tyrosine can help stave off this decline by providing more “raw materials” for the synthesis of dopamine. In fact, supplementing with 2g of tyrosine (the same dose included in LIONHEART) has been found to confer anti-stress benefits and enhance cognitive function[2], which can offer substantial benefit to individuals engaged in extreme training and competition.

PeakO2®

PeakO2 is an organic-certified combination of six Ayurvedic mushrooms grown and harvested in the United States. This patented blend of mushrooms serves as powerful adaptogens, enabling athletes to “adapt” to and overcome both physical and mental stress.

Human studies using PeakO2 have noted it may enhance oxygen efficiency and improve VO2 Max.Supplementation with PeakO2 has also been shown to boost peak power and time to exhaustion.[3,4]

Many times there’s a debate as to whether beta alanine or PeakO2 is “better” for endurance. Since they work via different mechanisms in the body, we figured “why not include both” to offer that much greater benefit to hard-training athletes.

Betaine Nitrate (as NO3-T®)

Nitrates are one of the best supplements to boost nitric oxide, enhance blood flow, and support increased exercise performance.

Specifically, nitrate supplementation may reduce the oxygen cost of exercise and improve tolerance to exercise, meaning your muscles can perform the same amount of work while consuming less fuel (i.e. greater efficiency).

Recently published systematic reviews and meta-analyses also concluded that nitrate supplementation is beneficial for endurance exercise performance as well as maximal muscle power, which can benefit multiple types of athletes.[6,7]

Betaine Anhydrous

Betaine is an osmolyte that can be found in a variety of foods, including beets, that encourages muscle cells to absorb and retain water. Supplementation with betaine has been noted to improve body composition, arm size, and exercise performance, in both men and women.[8,9]

Betaine works in combination with Taurine and next ingredient to support hydration and increase cell volumization and muscle fullness.

Coconut Water Powder

Coconut water is naturally rich in sodium and potassium as well as calcium and magnesium -- making it a natural electrolyte powerhouse! Coconut water helps replenish depleted electrolyte stores, in the process maintaining proper fluid balance, preventing dehydration, and supporting endurance, stamina, and performance.

Alpha GPC

Being able to focus and concentrate on the task at hand is paramount to success in the gym, on the field, and in the boardroom. Acetylcholine (“the learning neurotransmitter”) plays an essential role in your ability to achieve and maintain focus. Furthermore, acetylcholine also serves a vital role in muscle contractions.

As was the case with dopamine, prolonged intense physical activity can deplete acetylcholine concentrations, leading to accelerated fatigue onset and performance dropoff.

To combat this decline, LIONHEART includes 600mg of Alpha GPC 50%.

Alpha GPC provides a highly bioavailable source of choline -- a necessary building block for acetylcholine. It readily crosses the blood-brain barrier and has been shown to not only enhance acetylcholine levels but also increase dopamine levels.[10]

Caffeine

Quite simply, everything's better with caffeine. There’s a reason it’s included in virtually every pre workout on the market…and for good reason. Caffeine works.

It increases alertness, mental energy, focus, motivation, No pre workout is complete without a solid dose of caffeine, and LIONHEART is no exception.

We’ve included TWO forms of caffeine (anhydrous and di-caffeine malate), yielding 275mg of immediate, long-lasting caffeine per full serving. While this might seem like a departure from our more highly caffeinated offerings, this is an ideal amount of energy for individuals engaged in combat sports, CrossFit, group fitness classes and other field sports where cardiac output is already high due to the nature of the activity.

Theobromine

A chemical “cousin” of caffeine, theobromine is found in a number of foods, dark chocolate in particular. It imparts energy that is slower onset, smoother, and longer lasting than caffeine, but provides a great complement to intense immediate energy and focus surge of caffeine anhydrous.

Theobromine also enhances mood and supports increased blood flow due to vasodilatory benefits.

elevATP®

ATP is the “cellular currency” of energy production, and the ability to rapidly regenerate ATP is crucial to maintaining a high level of power, strength, and performance output. Unfortunately, the body’s supply of ATP is rather limited, and when ATP stores become depleted, an athlete’s ability to sustain a high level of performance is severely compromised.

elevATP is a premium blend of ancient peat and apple extracts that has been shown to directly boost blood levels of ATP.[11,12] Supplementation with elevATP has also been found to result in significant gains in strength, power, and performance in resistance-trained men. Trained subjects increased their 1-rep maximum squat and deadlift scores as well as vertical jump peak velocity and vertical jump peak power.[13,14] What’s really noteworthy is that these effects were observed after a single dose.[16]

CoffeeBerry®

Also known as NeuroFactor, CoffeeBerry contains a unique blend of polyphenols that have been shown in humans to stimulate the production of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). BDNF is an essential neuroprotein that supports the growth, development, and maintenance of neurons.

CoffeeBerry, anecdotally, provides a strong boost in mental energy, supporting greater focus, concentration, and productivity. Combined with Tyrosine and Alpha GPC, LIONHEART provides everything needed for optimal focus and mental drive during extreme training.

Senactiv®

Senactiv® is a blend of Panax notoginseng and Rosa roxburghii, developed by NuLiv Science, that increases the production of citrate synthase (up to 47%!).[16] Citrate synthase is an important enzyme in the ATP production process.

Research also indicates that Senactiv may help remove old unfit cells and replenish with new healthy muscle cells.

Senactiv may also promote greater recovery as some research indicates accelerated glycogen recovery rate of exercised muscle tissues as well as reduced levels of IL-6, an inflammation biomarker.[16,17]