Blackfish5 Kratos Max Review

Pro’s

  • Contains key pre-workout ingredients (Beetroot, Caffeine, L-Theanine, Creatine Monohydrate, L-Citrulline & L-Carnitine)
  • ‘Smart-Caffeine’ combo (L-Theanine & Caffeine)

Con’s

  • All key pre-workout ingredients are under-dosed – they’re likely to be ineffective
  • Beta-Alanine can cause paresthesia (see side effects section for more info)
  • Contains numerous proprietary blends
  • Not good value for money at $59.99

See Your Best Options In Our
Top 3 Pre-Workouts Page


About the Product

Kratos Max is a pre-workout supplement made by Blackfish5. They seem like a relatively new company (i’m writing this in 2017), as they only have 4 products on the market – ranging from this pre-workout, to a ‘total body recovery’ supplement.

Who are BlackFish5?

But we couldn’t find much other information about them online. Their website had no ‘about us’ section to tell us anything about themselves (well, we looked for a couple of minutes – so it’s either hidden away somewhere or not there).

Let’s see if they can impress us with their ingredient profile in Kratos Max. Read on to see if this pre-workout is worth buying.


Kratos Max Ingredients Explained

It’s important to know this: the ingredients, and their dosages, determine whether a supplement will work.

It’s as simple as that. You need both of these things to be perfect, or you’re wasting your money.

This seems to be the problem with Kratos Max – it contains some of our favorite pre-workout ingredients, but they’ve all been under-dosed.

We’ll take you through the most important ingredients in this pre-workout below, so you can make your own mind up.

Here’s Everything You Need To Know:

Caffeine 

The best stimulant you can get in a pre-workout. It’s also one of the safest, when dosed correctly – we advise you to consume servings between 150mg-200mg to experience its benefits without any side effects.

As you can see from the ingredient list, Kratos Max contains 80mg – meaning it’s been under-dosed.

This is great for those very sensitive to Caffeine, but the majority won’t experience much benefit from this dosage. 150mg-200mg per serving is the sweet spot for most people.

Beetroot Extract 

This is taken directly from the root vegetable, and has shown to promote muscle pumps – due to containing a high amount of nitrates, which converts into nitric oxide.

But again, it’s been under-dosed in Kratos Max. You only need 100mg, but this only contains 50mg.

L-Theanine 

This is great when consumed with Caffeine – it forms a ‘smart-caffeine’, enhancing the benefits of Caffeine while keeping you safe from side effects.

But here’s the problem: You need a higher dose of L-Theanine than Caffeine, and L-Theanine’s been very under-dosed.

Beta-Alanine 

This has shown to improve muscular endurance, but can also cause a side effect called paresthesia. See our side effects section for mroe info.

But that’s not the only bad thing – Beta-Alanine is part of a proprietary blend, so the risk of side effects increases (you don’t know the exact dosage of this nutrient inside these blends).


Highest-Rated-Pre-Workouts-This-Year


Creatine Monohydrate 

This is our favorite form of Creatine. It’s been used since the 1990’s for one reason – it works.

What does it do? It’s proven to boost your strength and endurance in the gym; these are great benefits to improve your gym session.

But there’s not enough in Kratos Max to offer any benefits (the proprietary blend’s overall quantity is 1183mg, and you need at least 1000mg of Creatine Monohydrate).

L-Citrulline 

L-Citrulline is very effective in improving your muscle pumps in the gym, when it’s dosed correctly. But it hasn’t been dosed optimally in Kratos Max.

Basically, you need at least 3,000mg of L-Citrulline to experience its benefits – the proprietary blend’s overall quantity is 1183mg, so it’s not possible for there to be an effective dosage here.

L-Carnitine (ALCAR) 

This is a great ‘brain-booster’ that enhances your focus, and reduces fatigue and muscle damage too

However, as it’s part of a proprietary blend, no-one knows the exact dosage inside. An optimal dosage of this nutrient is 500mg, and as the proprietary blend’s overall quantity is only 635mg, it’s highly unlikely to be effective here.

L-Arginine

This is believed to improve your muscle pumps, but it’s ineffective when orally supplemented (because it has a poor absorption rate).

For this reason, L-Citrulline or Citrulline Malate are your best options to deliver this benefit.

These 2 ingredients convert into L-Arginine and have great absorption rates, meaning it’s much more effective than L-Arginine in a supplement.


See Your Best Options In Our
Top 3 Pre-Workouts Page


Side Effects 

There’s one ingredient that can cause a side effect in Kratos Max – Beta-Alanine.

This nutrient can cause paresthesia, which is a tingling on the skin of your face, chest, hands, fingertips and toes. It’s not life threatening, but it’s uncomfortable enough to ruin your workout.

  • Paresthesia – tingling on skin of your face, chest, hands, and extremities (Beta-Alanine).

But apart from that, Kratos Max should be side-effects free. The main issue is that it doesn’t seem to be beneficial.


Kratos Max Review Conclusion

Kratos Max contains some great ingredients, so BlackFish5 has clearly done some research into what makes a great product.

But all of these ingredients have been under-dosed, and they’ve added proprietary blends (probably to cut costs, as you’ll never know the exact dosages of each ingredient inside these blends).

If the key ingredients were dosed optimally, without any proprietary blends, Kratos Max would be one of the best products on the market.

Ultimately, this shows how effective getting the dosages right is.

Check Out The Best Pre-Workouts This Year!

Here’s the best natural pre-workouts on the market for:

  • Energy Boosts 
  • Enhanced Strength & Endurance 
  • Increased Focus
  • Skin-Splitting Muscle Pumps

Click Here to See the Full List!