Sports Leg + Lung Pre-Workout Review

Here we are back again for a quick preworkout review, Sports Leg + Lung (Tropical Orange Flavor) from Sports Endurance Inc. Just like previous reviews I’m going to give this product a breakdown to get a total look at what you get and what all the little things mean.

Cover to Cover

Sports Leg + Lung has a very simple package with a subtitle of being a “performance-amplifying workout beverage”. The bullet list: reduces fatigue, reduces leg burn, increases strength, increases energy and increases stamina. We’ll come back to these as we break the product down. I am a fan of the simplistic label.

The one thing I’m not sure of is a quite lengthy writeup on the side of the label, in short the blurb encourages you to take the product daily for best results, and reiterates that it is meant for a variety of physical activities – including lifting which is how I will be assessing it. If I hadn’t read this blurb though I’d have thought it was focused mostly at runners with the leg emphasis in the writeup, but all things considered I think the blurb is unnecessary.

Before I get into ingredients, I want to note one problem I have with the product, it’s not *really* a problem but I feel like it could be handled better. One serving of this is 2 scoops. Generally speaking I feel like a product like this should have a scoop big enough to make one serving one scoop, because I tend to forget the second scoop altogether (as most products dose the serving into a single scoop) and when I goof that up that leaves me going into a workout a little flat. Just a minor issue.

Ingredients – Flavor & Nutrition

The flavor components of this drink are natural flavor, citric acid, sucralose. Very basic. Definitely like this although again, as I’ve said time and time before, I’d appreciate more use of stevia in preworkouts like this. Definitely a thumbs up here, one smell of the interior of the container will tell you just how much the flavor relies directly on natural orange flavor.

As for the taste, and I’m really a poor person to judge any taste, it definitely tastes just like I’d think an orange drink should.

Of course silica shows here just to keep the powder dry, which it does a better job of than most of the other preworkouts I’ve looked at. It stays nice, mixable and very powdery and dry with no clumping. It’s odd, it’s almost as if there aren’t many ingredients in this to even cause it to absorb extra moisture in the first place…

Ingredients – Sports Leg and Lung Blend 5120mg (CarnoSyn Beta-Alanine, L-Taurine, Caffeine from coffee beans)

Oh. Well this will be an interesting review. In previous reviews, my gripe was too many ingredients that either have no purpose or place or just are there for marketing and show. In this circumstance, we are literally at a bare bones list of ingredients. Just three big ones and the flavoring/silica and that’s it.

Before I list in the ingredients down for a breakdown, I want to note that there is no reason to list these ingredients as a “blend” and not disclose specific amounts. I like to know roughly how much caffeine I’m intaking for instance, and frankly if these are going to be the only 3 ingredients, just tell me how much each is and leave it at that. I really respect when a product does this for me and doesn’t make me guess.

First of all we see CarnoSyn again, the extra awesome brand of Beta Alanine. I personally have no big opinion on whether CarnoSyn branded beta alanine is better or worse than the regular stuff and my opinion of it hasn’t changed greatly since my last review – I love beta alanine of any kind in any preworkout. I will note it must be a significant dose, more than what I’d normally expect (normally I’d figure it to be about 2g), if I had to guess I’d think 3g (really have to guess just because the quantities are not listed on the label).

On my first full dose of this preworkout I got paresthesia tingles (which I remind the reader is a harmless effect of beta alanine) which I haven’t had for a while. I personally prefer a beta alanine dose strong enough to cause the tingles, it really tells me the beta alanine is there, beginning to be absorbed and of high quality. Definitely a plus. This product will be a great boost your muscle carnosine and get all those great endurance and performance effects beta alanine offers. This I will note is where the product substantiates most of it’s label claims (reducing fatigue, increasing energy, strength & stamina).

L-Taurine is always a great additive to go with beta alanine since the beta alanine depletes it. However it is here for an extra reason, to help prevent buildup of lactic acids which can cause muscle aches post workouts – especially for cardio work like long runs. Runners who get leg aches from long runs will appreciate anything that will help with lactic acid buildup. I have to imagine the dose here is significant since it must be mostly the remainder of the dose – probably around 2g.

Lastly good old caffeine. Good to have it from a natural source although to me caffeine is caffeine. Again no exact information on how much is here, but I imagine is is low. Somewhere around 120-200mg is what I figure it must be. If I’m wrong please correct me. It did not strike me to be particularly high when I took it, which is fine depending on your caffeine tolerance.

Workout Results

During my workout I did not notice any particular spike in energy, the tingles let me know when it was absorbing and really from there throughout I just had a smooth, natural flow of energy. No big boost, but no dips. I felt the product definitely does bolster, and having a good strong dose of beta alanine is excellent for any workout. As a matter of fact I do believe this preworkout was what I was using when I set my most recent deadlift PR.

I do feel like this product has some missed potential. It makes a fantastic boilerplate for the start of a good preworkout – great natural flavor (sucralose supported sure but I feel it’s mostly natural), simple list of ingredients that complement each other and are in significant doses, some caffeine (likely not enough for the average preworkout enthusiast). Anyways those things are all great and fundamental to a great preworkout but… what else is there? I don’t like fluff in my preworkouts so I’m glad none is here, but I would like a few spotlight ingredients added to the list to give it a little extra oomph. Maybe a mix of exotic ingredients like plant extracts. Maybe some basic stuff like creatine or citrulline malate. How about something for mental focus like hordenine HCI or agmatine sulfate. Perhaps even something to help your mood like Phenylethylamine HCI.

If I had to choose a basis for creating a fantastic preworkout, I would definitely consider a mix like this particular product has. But on its own, this mix is just a good preworkout. I definitely will like using it. I do however feel though that it has potential it’s not living up to as it is. Good product though and will use again in the future.