The new South African performance supplement is designed to help men and women train harder for longer by targeting one of performance’s biggest limiting factors: muscular fatigue.
There is a point in every hard workout when motivation is still there, but the muscles begin to give in. The burn builds, power starts to drop and that final sprint, rep or round suddenly feels considerably further away.
“That is exactly the reason why STRIKE was created,” says Toni Carroll, founder of Empyre for Men and Supplement Sommelier.
Empyre for Men has launched STRIKE, a new high-performance beta-alanine supplement powered by CarnoSyn®, the patented beta-alanine ingredient backed by extensive clinical research into muscular endurance, exercise capacity and athletic performance.
Developed for people who train hard, STRIKE works differently from a conventional pre-workout. It is not a stimulant designed to create a temporary energy rush before exercise. Instead, beta-alanine works cumulatively by helping the body increase its stores of carnosine within skeletal muscle.
During intense exercise, hydrogen ions accumulate in working muscles and contribute to a decline in muscle pH. As the environment becomes increasingly acidic, muscular contraction and performance can begin to suffer. Carnosine acts as an intracellular buffer, helping the muscle manage this rise in acidity and maintain performance for longer.
“STRIKE is designed to help you maintain performance when training gets tough. By taking it consistently and building muscle carnosine levels over time, you’re giving your muscles greater buffering support to help delay fatigue and sustain output when you need it most,” says Toni.
CarnoSyn® is one of the most extensively studied branded beta-alanine ingredients in sports nutrition, with more than 55 clinical studies examining its role across activities including sprinting, cycling, rowing, resistance training and team sports.
Research has linked beta-alanine supplementation with increased muscle carnosine, improved buffering capacity, greater muscular endurance, delayed fatigue and increased exercise capacity. One 28-day study cited in the CarnoSyn® research portfolio demonstrated a 14.5% improvement in physical working capacity, while other studies have examined benefits across high-intensity interval training, competitive sprinting, rowing and endurance sport.
This makes STRIKE particularly relevant to people whose training involves sustained or repeated bouts of high-intensity work, including weight training, Hyrox, CrossFit and functional fitness, sprinting, cycling, swimming, rowing, combat sports, rugby, football and interval training.
Despite sitting within the Empyre for Men range, STRIKE is not exclusively for men.
“Performance physiology is not a male-only conversation,” says Carroll. “Women train hard, lift weights, compete, cycle, run and push their bodies in exactly the same way. Beta-alanine research includes both male and female participants, and STRIKE can absolutely form part of a woman’s performance supplementation programme too.”
STRIKE may also appeal to gym-goers primarily focused on building muscle, although Carroll stresses that beta-alanine should not be misunderstood as a direct muscle-building supplement.
“The training builds the muscle,” she explains. “What beta-alanine can do is help support your ability to maintain output when fatigue starts setting in. If you can consistently complete more quality work, maintain your training volume and perform better across demanding sessions, that creates a stronger environment for progress over time.”
Unlike caffeine or other immediate pre-workout ingredients, beta-alanine needs to be taken consistently. Research and CarnoSyn® guidance commonly use loading periods of at least two to four weeks, with an established daily intake threshold of approximately 3.2 grams over 28 days.
This cumulative approach is central to the STRIKE philosophy: Load daily. Strike when it counts.
Some users may notice the characteristic tingling or prickling sensation associated with beta-alanine, known as paraesthesia. This is generally temporary and dose-dependent, and should not be confused with the product’s actual performance mechanism. The meaningful effect comes from increasing muscle carnosine over time, not from feeling the tingle.
For Carroll, ingredient provenance was equally important when developing the product.
“The performance supplement category is crowded with anonymous powders and enormous promises,” she says. “I wanted STRIKE to be the opposite of that. We know exactly what the ingredient is, who makes it and where the research sits behind it. If someone is going to take something every day as part of their training protocol, that level of traceability matters.”
STRIKE continues Empyre for Men’s focus on high-performance supplementation for consumers looking beyond marketing trends towards ingredients with credible research behind them.
“People are becoming far more sophisticated about supplementation,” Carroll concludes. “They want to understand what they are taking, why they are taking it and whether there is evidence behind it. STRIKE is a very simple proposition: researched beta-alanine, correct loading and a very clear target. Fatigue.”
STRIKE is suitable for both men and women who participate in high-intensity training and sport.
RSP: R900
Available from: www.empyreformen.com
For media enquiries, interviews with Toni Carroll, high-resolution imagery or product samples, please contact:
Kirsten Reynecke
PR for Empyre for Men
kirsten@kirstenhopwood.co.za
+44 (0)7401 570 304
Important information
STRIKE should be used according to the directions on the product label. This product has not been evaluated by SAHPRA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. Individual results may vary. Anyone with a medical condition, taking medication, pregnant or breastfeeding, or uncertain whether supplementation is appropriate for them should consult a doctor or suitably qualified healthcare practitioner before use.
