Benefits of Core HARD may include the following:

KSM-66® - Reduction in cortisol levels
DIM - Regulate healthy estrogen production
L-Theanine - Increased measures of well being

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Your diet is impeccable and couldn’t be any more in check – macros, micros, you have it all down. Your workouts? Get out of here! You have slaved, grinded, and grunted your way through leg workouts so intense the gym staff cried – and those were on your worst days. And yet, something is missing.

It’s that “extra” level of shred, “that look.” You know exactly what we mean. That type of leanness and density that makes an arm look twice as big, a stomach look twice as lean, and a forearm look like a roadmap for the Italian countryside. It’s that kind of elusive hardness that’s so rare, most of us simply chalk it up to genetics, or luck, or steroids, or whatever excuse we have handy – and yet we all still want it.

The reality is that it isn’t all that unattainable. Getting “that” look, “that” hardness, is about hormonal balance, optimization and body recomposition. It’s a matter of adding in that final piece of the puzzle that makes the entire picture come out perfectly.

To be hard, you need to get HARD. It’s that simple.

Core HARD is another product in the Core Nutritionals’ lineup to follow the basic, but indispensable principles that Core Nutritionals is slowly making an industry standard: create products with effective ingredients, in effective doses, in a non-proprietary formula. This time around, we have applied those principles to the problem of softness that we all despise and have developed the most advanced ultra-hardening and recomposition agent on the market.

Taking advantage of both the old and the new, Core Nutritionals has employed both modern, cutting-edge compounds and traditional herbs to create a balanced approach to delivering hardness. Key ingredients in Core HARD affect some of the body’s critical physiological pathways, combining sexiness and science in a single, non-proprietary formula. We have included five powerful ingredients into a full month's worth of stimulant free, recomposition goodness. The result? Reduced cortisol levels, healthy estrogen and hormone regulation, weight loss and lean muscle growth, increased measures of well-being, improved athletic performance, stamina and power.

Core HARD can be used alone, or in a stack with other Core Nutritionals’ products. The BURN HARD stack (Core HARD plus Core BURN) will be the ultimate fat blasting and hardening stack. Men can try the HARD A.B.s stack (Core HARD plus Core ALPHA and Core BURN) to help create that chiseled look that all men want.

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Physiological Properties and Effects:

Phosphatidylserine (50%)

Phosphatidylserine, colloquially known as PS, is a nearly ubiquitous phospholipid found in various membranous tissues throughout the body. PS’s ubiquity coincides with its necessity for crucial physiological functions, as the phospholipid is implicated in several components of cell communication, as well as the mediation of catecholamine synthesis and transmission in the brain (along with other neuroendocrine functions). In a fitness-related context, a nascent but growing body of methodologically-sound research suggests that PS may play a role in increasing exercise capacity.

Studies administering the compound in both acute and chronic fashion suggest that PS has a measurable effect on exercise capacity. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial involving 16 trained athletes, phosphatidylserine was administered for 10 days prior to an acute exercise challenge. Exercise markers such as exercise time to exhaustion, sprint performance, and ratings of perceived exertion, were measured post-exercise. The authors found that exercise time to exhaustion was significantly altered. Related studies using similar serving sizes have found that chronic PS administration increased shot accuracy in golfers, increased exercise time to exhaustion by 28% in cyclists, and reduced subjective feelings of stress and soreness in others.

Overall, phosphatidylserine appears to play a valuable role in the increase in exercise capacity. PS may therefore play a critical role in the continued exercise success of bodybuilders in a, “cutting” or recomposition stage.

KSM-66® Full-spectrum Ashwagandha root extract (5% Withanolides)

Withania somnifera Dunal, colloquially known as Winter Cherry or Indian Ginseng, is an herb that features prominently in the traditional Indian medicinal system of Ayurveda. Known as Ashwagandha in Ayurveda, Withania somnifera is a critical ingredient in various Ayurvedic tonics and tinctures prepared as a traditional remedy for the treatment of various ailments.

Recently identified as a potent adaptogenic and target for therapeutic applications, Ashwaghanda has been the subject of numerous animal, pre-clinical, and clinical trials designed to examine its potential effects as an antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anxiolytic, antibacterial, antifungal, and immonumodulating compound. Ashwaghanda’s broad therapeutic potential is hypothesized to be the result of its robust phytochemical profile, including a wide swath of alkaloids, sitoindosides, and the highly biologically active withanolide group. As the principally biologically active compounds within Ashwaghanda, withanolides such as withanone, withaferine A, withanolides A, D, and G have been identified, isolated, and extensively studied in the various applications noted above.

In recognition of the potential physiological benefits of withanolides, Core Nutritionals selected KSM-66® to include in its HARD formula. KSM-66® is a full-spectrum Ashwaghanda extract, standardized for 5% withanolides – meaning that KSM-66® not only includes the full range of biologically active compounds within Ashwaghanda, but also that it contains the highest currently available concentration of the principally active withanolides (5%).

The high concentrations of withanolides within KSM-66® has resulted in encouraging results in a number of human, clinical trials – particularly considering many of these trials were conducted using the methodological gold standard of randomization, double-blind delivery, and placebo control. Amongst the most impressive results contained in these trials:

A 27.9% reduction in serum cortisol levels, measured over 60 days in a trial featuring 64 chronically stressed adults.
Statistically significant increases to endurance and stamina, as measured by VO2 max, in a clinical trial featuring 50 healthy, exercise-trained adults.
Increased measures of well-being as reported by self-assessment scales, included in both the clinical trials mentioned above.
Statistically significant increases in serum testosterone levels in a clinical trial featuring 68 infertile men.

Though each of these results is impressive, perhaps the most significant is the 27.9% reduction in cortisol seen in the 60 day trial. As detailed above, cortisol possesses a multitude of potentially degradative physiological effects, including: inhibiting glucose uptake, causing a constriction of the vasculature (vasoconstriction), the breakdown of glycogen, and inarguably the result most would desire to avoid, proteolysis (the breakdown of muscle tissue).

To put it the simplest way possible, cortisol’s chief functions involve either turning on, or shutting off, the very things we as fitness enthusiasts want to avoid or turn on, respectively!

ForsLean® (Coleus forskohlii) (std. to 10% forskolin)

ForsLean® is a patented, clinically studied extract of Coleus forskohlii root, standardized to 10% forskolin. Its popularity withing the fitness and sports nutrition world stems from its unique ability to aid in body recomposition—specifically by helping to increase lean body mass while reducing overall fat mass.

One of the most cited studies supporting ForsLean’s® efficacy was published in Obesity Research (2005) by Godard et al. In this 12-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 30 overweight and obese men were given either 250 mg of 10% forskolin extract twice daily or a placebo. The forskolin group compared to placebo experienced:

Significantly greater reductions in body fat percentage and fat mass.
Notable increases in lean body mass
Notable increases in serum free testosterone levels.

These results suggest ForsLean® may support muscle preservation or growth while also aiding fat loss, which is an ideal outcome for anyone looking for body recomposition.

The mechanisms behind ForsLean’s® effects are believed to stem from the active compound, forskolin’s, ability to activate adenylate cyclase, which can increase cyclic AMP (cAMP) levels. Elevated cAMP stimulates hormone-sensitive lipase and other enzymes involved in fat breakdown while potentially enhancing thyroid function and testosterone production—both of which are tied to metabolism and muscle retention.

Another study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (2005) by Henderson et al. found that 250 mg of ForsLean® taken twice daily for 12 weeks in mildly overweight women resulted in a trend toward reduced weight gain and fatigue, along with preserved lean mass. Although the results were not as dramatic as in the male cohort, the study still supports ForsLean’s® use in maintaining body composition during calorie restriction or weight loss.

In summary, ForsLean® stands out among natural ingredients for body recomposition due to its ability to simultaneously promote fat loss and preserve or enhance muscle mass—especially when paired with resistance training and proper nutrition.

3,3'-Diindolylmethane (DIM)

What we typically refer to as “Estrogen,” is in fact a group of three biologically distinct hormones – estradiol (E2), estrone (E1), and estriol (E3), each possessing different activities in different cell, tissue, and receptor types. When experts refer to either the benefits or downfalls of “estrogen," they really mean to (but probably cannot) identify a specific estrogen.

These specific estrogens, in turn, metabolize into even more specific estrogen sub-compounds, such as the 2-hydroxyestrogens (2-OHE’s), 2-methoxyestrogens, 16a-hydroxyestrone (16-OHE1), and 4-hydroxyestrogens (4-OHE’s). As their parent estrogens, these estrogen metabolites exert different effects depending upon the tissue and cell one is examining. In fact, two estrogen metabolites in particular, 16-OHE1 and 2-OHE, have such contrasting cellular activities that 2-OHE is an estrogen antagonist. Yes, that is correct: there is an anti-estrogen, estrogen.

In recent years, so-called “phytonutrients” have become the focus of clinical research, as these natural compounds have shown the ability to increase the ratio of good, estrogen decreasing estrogens (such as 2-OHE), to bad, estrogen increasing estrogens (such as 16-OHE1). One of these phytonutrients, a dietary indole known as indole-3-carbinol (I3C), is the bioactive phytochemical and a presumed modulator of reduced cancer risk in areas with high cruciferous vegetable consumption. Unfortunately, despite its potent antiestrogenic activity, I3C is highly molecularly unstable, and therefore unsuitable for use as a therapeutic agent or dietary supplement.

Luckily, however, I3C readily metabolizes into the secondary indole 3,3’ diindolylmethane, or DIM for short. When used in a supplemental fashion in clinical trials, DIM appears to possess all the positive effects of its parent compound with respect to antiestrogenic action – promoting the metabolism of beneficial estrogens that themselves reduce estrogenic activity.

Aside from its healthy-estrogen promoting abilities, DIM also exerts its own direct physiological effects, including:

Promoting pathways of internal estrogen metabolism that favour the production of anti-estrogen estrogens.
Adjusting the activity of certain cytochrome enzymes, reducing the activity at the estrogen receptor site.
Limit the cell division and growth of certain estrogens.

Despite the bodybuilding community’s single-minded crusade to eliminate estrogen wherever it lie in wait, compounds such as DIM show us that estrogen is a very diverse set of compounds – and that we should actively pursue increasing certain estrogens that have beneficial, and ironically, anti-estrogenic effects

L-Theanine

Though the literature surrounding L-theanine is still emerging, the amino acid is slowly building a reputation as one of the most interesting and exciting compounds being targeted for therapeutic use. L-theanine is an amino acid found almost exclusively in tea, constituting approximately 1-2% of the dry weight of tea – resulting in a 25–60 mg theanine load per 200 ml serving of liquid tea.

First identified in green tea and in the mushroom Xerocomus badius, L-theanine readily crosses the blood-brain barrier in a dose-dependent manner, and it is thought to inﬂuence the central nervous system (CNS) through a variety of mechanisms, including:

Increasing the release and concentration of dopamine.
Inhibiting glutamate reuptake and blockade of glutamate receptors in the hippocampus.
Increasing gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA – a neurotransmitter associated with the regulation of responses) concentrations.
Increasing levels of serotonin.

In addition to these more well-demonstrated effects, emerging electroencephalography trials on theanine suggest that the amino acid may exert a positive effect on alpha waves – a type of brain wave implicated in restful relaxation. Alpha activity has also been associated with increased creativity, increased performance under stress, and improved learning and concentration, as well as decreased anxiety.

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Core HARD Label

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