Muscletech's Anator P70 claims to be "the world's most powerful DNA-activating muscle building product ever developed", and helps you to maximize your genetic muscle building potential. That sounds strangely familiar to Pinnacle's Juiced Protein, which is now discontinued. Makes you raise an eyebrow doesn't it? Juiced protein, which claimed to neutralize myostatin (a negative regulator of muscle growth), and unleash your muscle growth potential. We all know how that turned out - it didn't. Which is why I bring it up here since both are marketed with similar claims, where Anator P70 claims to contain "powerful anabolic doses of gene-activating compounds that triggers a cascade of events that strengthens the signals inside your muscle fibers to rapidly accelerate muscle growth". Is it for real?
I don't believe so.
Muscletech promotes Anator P70 to activate specific genetic regulators that increase the production of actin and myosin which make up the size and strength of muscle fibers. Do you really believe that you can "catapult your genetic potential into another realm where increases in muscle size become virtually limitless"? It's amazing what a huge marketing budget can accomplish compounded with eager consumers with limited information and knowledge!
Anator P70 - What is it?
Granted, I did buy Anator P70, but not because I bought into the marketing hype of Muscletech - you know, those 4 page "ad reports" you see in magazines? I didn't buy it with the expectation that it would catapult my gains into another world, nor did I buy it expecting unbelievable muscle and strength gains. And you can be sure that the bodybuilders on the promo ads did NOT get to there level of development using Anator P70.
So how does is it claim to work? According to Muscletech, Anator P70 stimulates an enzyme called phophoinositide-3-kinases (PI-3K), and Protein Kinase B (PKB) to activate mTOR, a so called "master switch" for growth. The stimulation of PKB acts on Forkhead box-containing protein O-subfamily (FOXO) and is blocked from entering the nucleus. When this happens it hinders the activity of MAFbx, a gene that causes muscle breakdown, and the ribosomal protein p70s6k is phosphorylated by mTOR activation, which leads muscle growth resulting from protein synthesis.
Did that make any sense at all?
Well if it didn't, don't worry. The jest of it is that Anator P70 is supposed to help increase muscle and strength gains. There are numerous studies done on the phosphorylation of p70s6k where "phosphorylation is involved in the signaling events leading to an increase in protein accretion in human skeletal muscle following resistance training" 1. Other studies have also found that "BCAA ingestion further enhanced p70(S6k) phosphorylation 3.5-fold during recovery.2 So whatever technical information Muscletech was feeding you, it's really nothing new.
I was unable to find any of the so called "5 years of research". They do mention a professor Paul Greenhaff from the University of Nottingham who has been collaborating on the research. He's a staff member at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Nottingham Medical School. But as far as concrete research on Anator P70, I couldn't find any.
As you can see, Anator P70 is really nothing special. It's basically a combination of protein, carbs, some extra amounts of 2 amino acids (Leucine and Phenylalanine), and minor amounts of creatine. Speaking of the 7.20g of Leucine per serving, does the product Leukic ring a bell? That's right, 7.2g of leukic per serving of 6 pills. Read our review of Leukic here. So really, a less flattering way to look at Anator P70 is that it's basically a combination of a "weight gainer" plus Leukic, with a little creatine added, and then repackaged, hugely hyped, and sold at an over inflated price! However you look at it, it's just shrewd marketing.
Anator P70 Side Effects and Taste
As far as I know, there should be no side effects taking Anator P70. The one side effect of Anator P70 cited by some users is the "empty wallet syndrome". =)
If you're interested in Anator P70 feedback from other users, read user reviews here. It's a mixed bag of reviews, and from what I see, it seems like some of the reviewers raving about Anator P70 are young individuals who probably just started lifting. At the same time, there others who provide some good insight in to their gains with Anator P70, and there are also users who made no gains using it.
What's my verdict?
If you're on a tight budget, I would probably not go out and buy a tub of Anator P70, but if you have money to spend, then it's really a non-issue whether to purchase it or not. But then, do you really want to buy into all the marketing hype and pay for a ridiculously overpriced protein supplement?
Taste-wise, it's not very pleasant, and I think most other users will agree with me. Anator P70 comes in 2 flavors: berry blast and orange cooler. I had the berry blast, which is not good by any standards. It wasn't terrible, but it just didn't taste very good. I haven't tried the orange flavor, and probably never will, but from what I've read, it's about as bad tasting as berry blast. There's also quite a bit of settling - so if you tend to take your time drinking your shakes, you'll need to give it a swirl every once awhile to pick up all the settled powder at the bottom, which doesn't dissolve in liquid.
1. Resistance exercise-induced increase in muscle mass correlates with p70S6 kinase phosphorylation in human subjects.
Terzis G, Georgiadis G, Stratakos G, Vogiatzis I, Kavouras S, Manta P, Mascher H, Blomstrand
Track and Field Division, Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Athens, Ethnikis Antistassis 41, 172 37, Daphne, Athens, Greece, gterzis@phed.uoa.gr.
2. Branched-chain amino acids increase p70S6k phosphorylation in human skeletal muscle after resistance exercise.
Karlsson HK, Nilsson PA, Nilsson J, Chibalin AV, Zierath JR, Blomstrand E.
Univ. College of Physical Education and Sports, Box 5626, S-114 86 Stockholm, Sweden.
