Ingredient glossary

Whey is the liquid fraction left over when milk is separated during cheesemaking. Isolate is that whey taken through further filtration — microfiltration or ion exchange — until most of the lactose, fat and ash are gone and what is left is roughly 90% protein by dry weight.

Form: Fine powder sold by the tub, flavored or unflavored. One protein source per scoop, with no concentrate behind it.

In 19 products:Whey IsolateWhey BlendClear ProteinBundles

The first-stage whey powder, filtered less far than isolate. It typically lands between 70% and 80% protein by dry weight, and the remainder is mostly lactose and milk fat — which is where the thicker mouthfeel and the lower cost per gram of protein both come from.

Form: Fine powder. In this catalog it is never sold on its own; it appears blended with isolate.

In 5 products:Whey Blend

The other protein fraction of milk, and about 80% of the protein in cow's milk by weight. Separated by low-temperature filtration so the casein micelle — the natural cluster the protein travels in — stays intact, rather than being converted with acid or alkali into sodium or calcium caseinate.

Form: Powder that mixes far thicker than whey. At half the usual water it sets closer to a pudding than a shake.

In 4 products:CaseinBundles

Whey broken into shorter chains by enzymes before drying — the same protein, pre-cut. The extent of the cutting is described as the degree of hydrolysis: the percentage of bonds broken. Hydrolysis is what lets a whey powder dissolve clear and thin instead of milky.

Form: Powder, flavored to drink like a juice rather than a shake, and mixed in cold water only.

In 5 products:Clear Protein

Protein extracted from yellow split peas and isolated to roughly 80% protein by dry weight. Against dairy protein it is comparatively low in methionine, which is why it is normally paired with a grain protein rather than sold alone.

Form: Powder with a heavier, earthier texture than whey. Naturally free of dairy.

In 5 products:Plant Protein

Protein extracted from whole grain brown rice, usually by using enzymes to separate the protein from the starch in the milled grain. It is comparatively low in lysine and higher in methionine — the mirror image of pea, which is why the two are blended in a fixed ratio.

Form: Powder, always blended with pea here rather than sold as a single source.

In 5 products:Plant Protein

Creatine bound to a single water molecule — about 88% creatine by weight, the rest water. It is the cheapest form per gram of creatine and the one with the longest public research record. “Micronized” is not a different molecule: it means the same powder milled to a smaller particle size so it stays suspended in water longer.

Form: Unflavored powder, flavored powder, capsules and gummies. The stated dose across the line is 5 g per serving.

In 7 products:CreatineBundles

Creatine bound to hydrochloric acid rather than to water. The resulting salt dissolves in far less water than monohydrate does, and it carries a lower percentage of creatine by weight than monohydrate because the acid portion is heavier than a water molecule.

Form: Unflavored powder, dosed in a smaller scoop than monohydrate — 2 g per serving here.

In 1 product:Creatine

A non-essential amino acid, and the only beta amino acid that occurs naturally in the body. In supplements it is a white crystalline powder. It is the ingredient behind the skin tingling — paraesthesia — that people commonly report after a full serving.

Form: Powder, almost always inside a flavored pre-workout rather than sold on its own. Stated at 3.2 g per scoop here.

In 6 products:Pre-Workout

The amino acid L-citrulline bound with malic acid, the organic acid that makes green apples sour. It is normally supplied at a 2:1 ratio — two parts citrulline to one part malate — so a 6 g serving carries roughly 4 g of citrulline. It is sharply sour on its own, which shapes the flavor built around it.

Form: Powder, in both the caffeinated and the stim-free pre-workout.

In 6 products:Pre-Workout

The amino acid glycine carrying three methyl groups. It was first isolated from sugar beet, which is where the name comes from. Supplements use betaine anhydrous — the dry, water-free form of the compound.

Form: Powder. In this catalog it appears only in the stim-free pre-workout, at 2.5 g per scoop.

In 2 products:Pre-Workout

The nine amino acids — histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine — that human metabolism cannot build from other compounds, so they have to arrive in food. “Free-form” means they are supplied already separated, rather than bound together in a protein chain the way they are in a shake.

Form: Flavored powder, dosed in single-digit grams. Most are fermented from plant sugars rather than extracted from an animal source.

In 4 products:AminosBundles

Leucine, isoleucine and valine — three of the nine essentials, named for the branched shape of their side chains. They are conventionally sold at a 2:1:1 ratio of leucine to isoleucine to valine. A BCAA product is a subset of an EAA product, not an addition to one.

Form: Flavored powder, sipped rather than mixed as a shake.

In 4 products:AminosBundles

A conditionally essential amino acid: the body builds its own, and it is the most abundant free amino acid in blood plasma. The “L-” marks the isomer found in food and in the body, as distinct from its mirror-image D- form.

Form: Unflavored single-ingredient powder that dissolves without taste, so it mixes into anything.

In 1 product:Aminos

Minerals that separate into electrically charged particles once dissolved in water. In a hydration product that means sodium (as chloride and citrate), potassium (as citrate or chloride) and magnesium (as citrate, malate or oxide). The figure on the label is the elemental mineral, not the weight of the salt it came out of — 1,000 mg of sodium is far more than 1,000 mg of salt.

Form: Single-serve stick packs sold by count rather than by weight, measured in milligrams per stick.

In 6 products:CreatineHydrationBundles