Product Review: Greyhound Juice embrocation
The team shipment of Greyhound Juice had just arrived so I decided to test out the ‘Super Strength’ muscle warming salve on the next day’s team group ride. The ride occurred on a typical March day in Boston with the temps starting at 38, scheduled to get up to the mid 40’s.
First, some tips for embrocation beginners, of which I am one since this was the first kind I had tried: put the embrocation on your legs only after you have put on your bibs; otherwise you risk rubbing spicy lotion into the wrong places. Also, if you will have exposed skin on the ride, put on a bit of sunscreen before applying the embro since the lotion increases the sun’s intensity on your skin. Finally, shaved legs allows for better performance of the lotion since it otherwise gets caught in the hair rather than penetrating your pores.
The first thing I noticed was that the application process was a breeze. Greyhound Juice uses deodorant stick type containers for their embrocation and their product is in solid form so there is virtually no mess to deal with and no extra rubbing-in necessary. Simply run the stick up and down your legs, arms, lower back, wherever, as if applying deodorant and your set to go.
It seemed to take a few minutes, maybe 20-30, before I started noticing the warmth set in. It was 38 when I left my place and I was wearing bibs, lycra knee warmers, thin wool socks, and I felt perfectly comfortable. When I was riding I couldn’t tell I had the ‘Super Strength’ on but when I stopped I could feel the warmth creep back in. Never too hot or irritating though. Once our group ride got up to full pace and my legs began to work hard, I still couldn’t tell it was on except for on my hamstring, probably due to the wind shield provided by my legs.
I am curious to try the ‘Super Strength’ in colder temps and with some wetness. I also want to test the effectiveness of the ‘Original Formula’ in 40 degree weather. When I returned from my ride, about 3.5 hours later, the cinnamony smell was still there and my legs were not too hot nor did they get cold towards the end of the ride. In the shower I noticed that the warm water reinvigorated the heat a bit; but again, nothing too hot or irritating. The ‘Super Strength’ came right off with my all natural, biodegradable, Dr. Bronner’s tea tree soap. Post shower I noticed a couple discrete spots that were still warm. This says to me that the Greyhound Juice Super Strength is tough enough to withstand rain but mild enough to come off with hippy soap.
Overall I felt this was a great product and I was pleased with my first embrocation experience. I will definitely be utilizing the Greyhound Juice for my race coming up this weekend.
April 8th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Up until last season, I used Greyhound Juice for 3 seasons. It will not work properly if you do not massage it in after the deodorant stick style application. If you don’t rub it in to even the layer out, there will be clumps and streaks on your skin.
Try it and get back to me.
I keep rubber gloves in my race bag for this purpose.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:08 am
RMM, This is sound advice from a seasoned Greyhound Juice user. I’m going to add the massage step to my application process and get back to you in a day or two. My hypothesis going into this experiment is that massaging in the Juice activates the warmth sooner than the 20-30 minute window I’ve been experiencing so far. But if the heat gets warmer than previously experienced then you will be 100% correct. So far clumping and streaking hasn’t been a problem for me. Stay tuned.
-BB
April 10th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
RMM: GJ application process experiment update….
Yesterday I used the Greyhound Juice Original Formula with bibs and lycra knee warmers and employed RMM’s suggestion for product application; namely massaging in the Juice after the initial deodorant stick style application. I did not have latex or rubber gloves on hand so I figured the next best thing would be a produce bag, those clear thin plastic bags you might put apples in at the grocery store, which I used as a mitten.
Conclusion: I’ll need to try this experiment again with latex or rubber gloves because the GJ seemed to stick to the plastic bag really well and in effect my massaging was just rubbing the product off my skin. So for the ensuing training ride I basically wasn’t wearing embro.
I’ll have to get back to you.
April 21st, 2009 at 1:36 pm
RMM: I tried your application process advice this weekend at Battenkill, i.e. massaging in the ‘original formula’ with a latex dish glove. The results were not noticeably better. As for clumping, I’ve found that re-running the stick over the clumped spots evens them out. I’ll have to keep alternating my application process and see if I notice a trend of better or worse performing embrocation use experiences.
-MDD
April 26th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Matt – I keep some “wet ones” wipes on hand for this purpose. You can rub in the embro with your bare mitts and then just clean up. Also good to have these in the trunk for post-race. Cory and I were able to wipe off the Bkill gravel with them.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:01 pm
I discovered your web site when I was searching for something entirely different, but this page was one of the first sites listed in Yahoo, your website must be enormously popular! Continue the awesome job!