Furry Murry

No, not the movie, although Jason Statham and his British, gritty, popcorn action flicks are fantastic. I’m talking about Crank Forearm Fuel, the stuff pedaled by Redpoint Nutrition which they guarantee will make you “Climb harder and longer.” After I made fun of Crank a few months ago on this very blog, they offered to send me a month’s supply in exchange for my opinion after using it. So here goes…

I’m very wary of supplements, the only non-food items I ingest in my diet are fish oil, glucosamine-chondroitin, and the occasional whey protein. Other than that I think the vast majority of things you pick up at your local GNC are a waste of money and a poor alternative to a real, natural food source. Feel good about your 36 vitamin and mineral daily supplement? Then you might find it sobering to learn that a single apple contains innumerable vitamins and minerals, the vast number of which the supplement industry has yet to identify and isolate.

My first order of business was to make sure the little bucket of powder wouldn’t give me kidney stones or make me vomit up blood. I shot off a few emails to Rob Wolf and Mark Sisson, two fellas who are very well versed on the truths of nutrition (no coincidence that they support a paleo diet) and exercise. Here is Mark’s take:

Looks decent. I’m never a fan of “performance blend” or “proprietary blend” on an ingredients label. Typically it means tons of filler with only trace amounts of the good stuff. But you can’t go wrong with the B’s, the L-Carnitine, the Choline, so at least you know it’s not a total rip-off. Give it a go, but don’t expect a forearm miracle.

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Generic chemistry graphic that gives me scientific gravitas.

Armed with the knowledge that I wasn’t going to start bleeding out my eyes, I started using Crank as prescribed: a serving or two before workouts. I took it before both climbing and Crossfit/CrossfitEndurance workouts, since the muscular demands are similar and any benefit should be just as palpable in all muscle groups, not just the forearms. My month-long time frame for using Crank was essentially the end of August through  September. This represented an intense training cycle (which you can view here) as I was busting out tw0-a-days to prepare for the Nation’s Triathlon, and I also used Crank during the 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell climbing competition.

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So did I experience a muscular endurance miracle? Tough to say. I know I know, that’s the biggest cop-out answer possible. Stop the riding the fence and choose a position (I’ve heard that plenty of times in law school). Two things make a single user trial difficult in my case: 1) The nature of my training (CF/CFE) ensures that workouts are always varied and thus tough to compare; and 2) I’ve yet to experience a plateau in my training, I feel like I’m still making gains all the time, so whether Crank contributed to that or not is anyone’s guess.

Cramp free, and showing some leg, midway through Horseshoe Hell.

That being said, I have been climbing for a LONG time, and stuck in the solid 5.12 range for a while. I’ll have little peaks and valleys, but I’ve never broken through to climbing solid 5.13. Although Crank might not make me climb harder, it should allow me to climb longer, right? Unfortunately, since this training cycle was so intense, that bled over into and tainted my climbing workouts. I usually arrived at the climbing gym having already completed a Crossfit or Crossfit Endurance WOD earlier that day, and my climbing suffered as a result. Did Crank help me get a little extra juice? Again, no way to be conclusive one way or another. I CAN say, however, that while I was tired and often didn’t climb particularly well, at no point in any of my training (climbing or otherwise) did I have problems with cramping. Which brings me to my final, most dispositive point…

I didn’t cramp up at all during the 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell. Every time I have done a long, hard day of climbing – be it leading every pitch of Polar Circus, playing Clear Creek Golf, or competing in 24HHH last year – my arms have without fail at some point begun to cramp. For me the cramping typically occurs in my biceps; when I bend my elbows the bicep tightens and is painful until I open up my elbows and extend my arms all the way. I sipped on Crank consistently throughout the comp, as did my partner. Admittedly, I went over their recommended maximum daily dosage, but I figured for an event like this it was okay as long as it wasn’t a day to day habit. Of course I was also religious about eating and drinking adequately, but that was nothing new. The only other explanation is that I perhaps paid more attention to getting plenty of salts, and that is definitely directly related to cramping.

The Bottom Line

The jury is still out for me as to whether Crank has much effect in the short term or even long term as far as muscular power endurance is concerned. For example, I didn’t experience any effects with it that would lead me to surmise it would be helpful to a boulderer or single pitch sport/trad climber looking to maximize their short term power production. Not that I would expect anything different. Nothing – short of perhaps a shot of epinephrine – is going to give you something that wasn’t there in the first place. But, where I think there may be some value is in preserving muscular integrity over long term efforts, i.e. preventing the onset of cramping. I’m sure someone more knowledgeable than myself about human physiology could explain how the various ingredients in Crank might help augment and preserve the metabolic cycle and prevent the accumulation of lactic acid. Since I barely know what I’m talking about as it is, and my experience is anecdotal at best, I’ll leave that to others.

Is Crank worth the $39.95 per month to use every day/workout? I don’t think so, at least for someone who trains like myself with methodologies like Crossfit. The metabolic demands during a Crossfit WOD are largely glycotic and so short lived that I doubt Crank has a chance to be helpful. What about climbing workouts? Perhaps, particularly if you’re pushing the intensity past the point of just climbing a route, resting to recovery, and climbing again. Higher demand, longer term workouts might benefit from a little dose of the magic powder. Where I DO see the most likely benefit is long term endurance efforts, where Crank might help stay the onset of a all those myriad problems that can set in when your muscles have been taxed for hours on end.

Anyone else played around with this stuff? Let me know your experience!

Back to crankin!