I've had this discussion before with your favorite former poster *wink wink* whose point you actually agree with here (can you believe it?) lol. There is ONE thing though that seperates MRI's NO2 from everything else, and that's their delivery system. Here's the scoop on that:
Ed Byrd holds that patent, and is notorious in the Industry for being willing to go to war over the integrity of his shit (hence EAS being so big when he was a co-owner and now it's gone to absolute bunk), thus, all of these other manufacturers at-best can only slightly replicate the delivery system in the NO2. Which means they can come close, but not duplicate it nearly exactly, he WILL sue the pants off of them. That delivery system is well-known, and I've had in the couple of years I've been working for GNC, customers try different products. Some of my long-term customers are more than willing to guinea pig, it's kind of frightening. No-Explode, Muscle Nitrous (VPX), Nitrix, Anavol, Pump-Tech, every NO booster has been tried and tested, and NO2 is still the one of choice. Yeah it's expensive as balls, but keep in mind, most guys get it during the Gold Card week along with everything else in their regimen at my store, so they walk in expecting to spend about $200-$250, and it's no big deal at this point. They have already effectively budgeted it into their routines and don't even think twice about it at this point.
Now that's not to say there aren't alternatives. One of my managers is studying to become a Pharmacologist and I actually had the pleasure of listening to him talk with a pharmacist and the dude speaks the lingo as well as I speak psycho-babble. He was telling me that a lot of these guys COULD get the same effect as Nitrous boosters using the simple combination of Arginine/Ornithine taken in higher doses, along with something else (I forget), it won't be the same, but it will be cheaper. I'm going to go this route myself just to test it out. However, the NO2 has stories tied to it in my experience like this:
One of my long-term clients is a registered Nurse and has been for I don't know, nearly 20 years. He works for a Hospital, couple of years ago he was moving one of the big hospital beds and heard a snap, then couldn't move, couldn't take his hands off the posts of the bed, without excrutiating pain. Come to find out he ruptured (as in they exploded) two discs in his back. They wanted to give him Spinal Fusion surgery, so he says to the Doctor "look, nevermind that shit. I know that surgery and I will have limited movement and be under some kind of pain management medication for the rest of my life. If this was YOUR back, what would you do?" The Doctor tells him he can do a weight-training program and idealistically, if he can strengthen his back enough to hold what's left of his spine in-place, then he won't have to do the surgery. So he decided to give that route a go. So basically, this dude has to work out or he cannot move. Now he's like in his late 40's and looks great, can move, and he says without the NO2, he wouldn't have been able to do it. He buys about 3 bottles at a time every couple of months. I've told him about the comparison products, he told me no fucking way. lol EVERY time he's in the store if I'm telling another dude about it, or another guy asks about it because he sees him buying 3 bottles of something that costs $80, he tells them that story and there's another buy for NO2.
wamrage - As I said, the Esterfied creatine was created to bypass the liver and prevent too much water bloating. It's in the process of everyone who questions supplement companies trying to discredit it, but the guys who have tried it like it enough, though monohydrate still has just as many faithful buyers as ever. I think CV2 probably has AKG creatine, which is like the in-between of monohydrate and Ester, more potent than monohydrate, not as "advanced" as Esterfied.
And dude, you don't have to get fat to bulk. There are ways to do it and stay lean, but it just takes a bit more time and effort.
