Cellucor C4 Side-Effects

I’ve been on the Cellucor C4 Pre-Workout since my first post about it back in November. By no means have I been taking it 5 times a week since November, but I have been fairly steady with it. I am up to 2 and 3/4 scoops and would like to share some of the Pro’s as well as the side effects of Cellucor C4 for those that are wanting to learn more about it.

Recent Side-Effects

The first few times I took Cellucor C4, I experienced moderate itching on my face and some jitters. I started out with 2 scoops so I expected to feel something; in fact, if I didn’t have jitters or a bit of an itchy face, I would have been a bit disappointed.

But this morning, it was out of control. My face, legs, neck, and back were all itching and tingling like crazy before and while I was at the gym. I wasn’t super jittery while I was at the gym, but when I got home I could not keep my hands and arms still. I remember 1.M.R making my forehead itch, but never anything like what I experienced this morning. I have an early morning Math Class and I could barely take notes because my hands were shaking so much. It was pretty frustrating and very abnormal.

Possible Reasons for these Side-Effects

This is not my first time experiencing a great deal of shaking, tingling, and itching as a result of Pre-Workout. It’s happened frequent enough that I think I have a pretty good idea of why it happens when it does.

Jitters

I get the jitters when:

• I take more than the recommended serving
• I don’t workout hard/long enough – running for long periods of time reduce the severity or overall chance of me getting the jitters
• I do a lot of low-weight, high-rep training
• Jitters are almost always felt post-workout; rarely before or during.

Itchy Face, Forehead, Neck, and Back

This is one of the most common pre-workout side-effects [for me, anyway]. I experience itchy face when:

• I take more than the recommended serving
• I take Pre Workout early in the morning or late at night
• I don’t drink a lot of water

This morning, I took more than the recommended serving, took it early in the morning, and didn’t drink a lot of water during my workout. However, I ran for quite a while and did high-weight, low-rep training. So I would think those would balance it all out a little bit. But would that make sense? I honestly don’t know.

Cellucor C4 Ingredients

Maybe pulling this pre workout apart a little bit will give us a better understanding as to why our bodies react the way they do when we take it. I’m not a genius on this sort of thing, but there’s nothing Wikipedia can’t handle.

You can see what Cellucor says about the ingredients of C4 on their C4 Extreme – Technical Data page. They have a cute little description of each ingredient which is [always] biased. So, I did a little digging around of my own and found Synephrine HCI to be the possible culprit for both the itching and the shaking.

Cellucor says:

“Synephrine is a potent adrenergic stimulator that augments energy levels and ATP synthesis. Synephrine, although milder, is structurally similar to Ephedra. The compound enhances adrenaline stimulation and promotes weight loss by amplifying fat burning, metabolism, and thermogenesis.”

Structurally similar to Ephedra, huh? What is Ephedra??

Wikipedia says:

“Ephedra has also been used for weight loss, sometimes in combination with aspirin and caffeine [Exactly like Cellucor and other Pre-Workouts]. Some studies have shown that ephedra, when taken in a regulated and supervised environment, is effective for marginal short-term weight loss (0.9kg/month more than the placebo), although it is unclear whether such weight loss is maintained.

However, several reports have documented the large number of adverse events attributable to unregulated ephedra supplements.
Side effects of ephedra may include severe skin reactions, irritability, nervousness, dizziness, trembling, headache, insomnia, profuse perspiration, dehydration, itchy scalp and skin, vomiting, hyperthermia, irregular heartbeat, seizures, heart attack, stroke, or death.”

Obviously [or, I hope], Synephrine HCI is not nearly as dangerous as Ephedra, but it sure would explain why Cellucor C4 makes me itch and that’s good enough for me.

Still Considering Cellucor C4?

Don’t get me wrong, Cellucor C4 is the best thing since Jack3d. I love that it doesn’t make me crash and the pumps really are terrific. There are Cellucor C4 Extreme reviews all over place, including this video that I found to be very helpful. Enjoy!