Pre-Workout stuff?

So this chick gave me some of hers to try yesterday. Said it helps her out at gym.

I'm skeptical...but, tbh I've had a hard time completing my current PT designed workout...usually kind of do some one day, some the next time...cardio both.
So I figured I'd give it a shot, and see if there's any benefit to it at all.

Now, I don't know how these things normally look/taste.
This was like a chalky powder that mixed into water, made it a kind of cloudy (though clear) liquid that was ever so slightly purple in colour.
The flavour was "grape gum"...and well, it tasted exactly like that...quite sweet...though had a strong aspartame ?sp? kind of flavour so I'm assuming it was sugar free.
Can't say I really liked the flavour.

So...gym. 15 minutes after drinking my "dose" of this.
Warm up was normal, but that's never really a high intensity affair is it?

I decided to do one exercise I don't like much first.
The seated row.
I put the pin in so the weight increments were one bar higher (higher in weight, lower on the bars) than I'd normally been doing...which I think is about 5kg?
I started.
It...was easy...
I usually do 3-4 sets of 12-14 reps.
...and, well, I kind of got to 14 and there was no fatigue...so I kept going.
Now, I understand that some of this could have been placebo effect...but not this much.
I did 68 reps without stopping. On this exercise that I have trouble with.

I actually did my whole workout on top of this.
Stayed for a solid 1.5 hours.
I sweat like a motherfucker...but things were getting done.
At the end I was very fatigued, and a bit sore today, but...yeah, I think I might have to get some of this stuff.

I've read about side effects, though I didn't get the main two that can happen. Bit of gas afterwards.
SO yeah - I have to say I was pretty surprised at this stuff not only working, but working so well.
It makes shit easier, and I felt less fatigued.

So does anyone else get this stuff?
What's in it?
How does it like, work?

Any recommendations?
I suppose I should look into getting some WPI or something for after.

 

I *usually* just ate "something" maybe an hour before, and nothing at all for about an hour after. Was good in one way, but it messed up my routine, and didn't really help with recovery.

I tried Whey protein isolate just mixed with water and a little coffee post-gym, that kind of helped...I might get some of that again, but that's more on the recovery side of things.

Thing is...the reason I'm jumping on this, is because it actually seems to work to achieve something I'm trying to do. With my age (38) and my fitness level (er, strong but "just ok" with good cardio ability) and my physical condition (tanky, but chunky)...as well as the fact I like...never did sports or much physical activity before outside of my teens...I've just began to realise, I'm not very good at the endurance thing.
Why?
Never had to do it before. Never got used to it...and building it up is very slow going...I'm generally unmotivated.

When I had this stuff...it added like another 1/3 easily to the time I spent, I put the weights up a little bit and that was fine too, and I actually COMPLETED my workout for once...if I can do this 3-4 times a week, I will achieve my goals...and hopefully it will help my body simply get used to longer workouts.

Had a different one I bought today - got some shit that's meant to cut/metabolise fat as well called L-Carnitine.
I guess I might update this if I have anything more to say.