Review Summary

It was difficult for us to write a fair review of Legion Ascend. On the one hand, it is an incredibly powerful short-term, temporary focus booster. It will rapidly improve attention, information processing, and mental clarity. It will help you stay focused on the task at hand in a real, meaningful way, unlike caffeine and other stimulants.

On the other hand, it probably isn’t suitable for repeated, long-term use. The heavy cholinergic dose is liable to cause side effects. On top of that, there’s not much int he way of long-term brain health support. There’s no potent antioxidants, no phosphatidylserine, no Lion’s Mane Mushroom, and no Ginkgo biloba. The absence of more long-term oriented ingredients, and the sheer power of the stack, means that if you want a daily, comprehensive nootropic, you may want to look elsewhere.

Where To Buy Ascend

Legion Ascend can be bought directly from Legion Athletics. They have a huge independent online store.

Full Legion ASCEND Review

Legion Athletics are one of the most prolific supplement manufacturers in the business. They began as a generic bodybuilding supplement maker. Over time, however, they expanded their range. They now offer everything from pre-workout powders to sleep aids. Their products seem to be very popular, and they clearly intend to keep expanding their range in the future.

So what is Ascend supposed to do exactly?

Who is it designed for?

As you can see from the bottle, this stack is designed to deliver a range of benefits that can be expressed as three basic promises: “Think faster, Focus deeper, Fee better.”

If we look at the Legion Athletics website, we see that Ascend is designed to deliver the following cognitive enhancements:

• Enhances focus
• Improve memory function
• Increase “mental speed”
• Improve mood
• Promote creativity
• Support good overall brain health

That is about as comprehensive nootropic as you can get!

As we explained in this article, it isn’t actually possible to promote creativity through supplementation (we aren’t going to get into whether alcohol, marijuana or psychedelics can be considered “creativity promoting supplements” – we don’t think they can be said to be supplements).

You can promote and enhance your creative impulses through various practices, and enhancing your mental clarity will aid the creative process, but you can’t take a pill and find yourself a more creative person.

Overall though, this looks like a really promising brain supplement.

It promises to do just about everything we could hope to achieve through targeted supplementation.

The question we now need to answer is, how much of this is true and how much is just marketing?

Does Legion Ascend really work?

Is it safe? What kind of side effects can users expect?

Is there a better option out there for anyone looking to achieve the things promised by Legion Athletics?

Find out by reading our full Legion Ascend review below. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section at the end. Do you have a supplement that you’d like us to review? Have an idea for an article? Let us know in the comments! Our readers make this site what it is, so we’re always happy to hear suggestions.

Legion Ascend Formula

Let’s take a closer look at the Ascend ingredients list:

That is one powerful formula!

There’s no fillers here.

No dud, over-hyped ingredients.

No synthetic brain drugs or dangerous stimulants.

All we see here are a number of extremely potent focus enhancers, an incredibly effective memory booster, and a fascinating substance that may have numerous nootropic properties. 

This is certainly a unique formula; we’ve never seen a stack with a similar formula before. 

It is missing many of the ingredients that we associate with long-term nootropics.

There’s nothing to promote neurotrophic factors like BDNF or NGF. 

There’s nothing to promote cerebral circulation.

There’s no phosphatidylserine or DHA, which are vital for healthy brain cell maintenance and growth.

Overall though, this is a very impressive supplement capable of delivering many of the benefits claimed by the manufacturer. 

What We Like

• Massive cholinergic component
• Uses the two best choline sources
• Utilizes uridine

There’s a lot that we like about Legion Ascend.

Obviously the thing that jumps right out at us is the great doses of both CDP-Choline and Alpha-GPC.

These are the two best cholinergics on the market.

Both of them rapidly increase choline availability in the brain, which in turn dramatically increases acetylcholine availability.

This directly leads to more raw brain power, which means more efficient information processing, faster learning capacity, better working memory function, and a greater ability to stay focused.

This isn’t just a theoretical link. Many studies have found that both of these substances can improve attention to detail, concentration span, and working memory.

The doses used here are perfectly in line with the doses used in the most promising scientific studies. We get far more Citicoline from Legion Ascend than comparable products, and far more Alpha-GPC than stacks heavily dependent on the stuff. 

These substances both have secondary, peripheral effects too. You can learn about the full breadth of benefits to be had from Alpha-GPC or CDP-Choline supplementation from this article.

What We Don’t Like

• Cholinergic dose too large
• Missing many key long-term nootropics
• Agmatine needs more studies
• Bacopa monnieri needs to be used long-term

Despite its potency, we wouldn’t use this stack ourselves.

That’s because it is completely unsuitable for regular, daily use. The enormous amount of choline-conferring substances in this stack – 850mg in total – means that side effects are likely if it is used on a regular basis (more on this in the next section).

We think a long-term, consistent approach to cognitive enhancement will always bring you better results than taking an “as and when needed” approach.

The deepest, most meaningful enhancements in cognition can only come from patient, consistent supplementation, a disciplined diet, and exercise.

You simply can’t make a massive difference to your mental performance overnight. You can ramp up focus for a few hours, sure. But the lasting changes that can be brought about with other stacks can’t be replicated in the space of a day, a week, even a month. 

The make-up of the Ascend formula isn’t optimized for daily, consistent supplementation, even if we ignore the excessive cholinergic use.

It doesn’t contain any of the ingredients that we see in the best, most comprehensive, forward-looking nootropic supplements today.

It also relies heavily on ingredients that MUST be taken on a daily basis to be effective – yet it isn’t suitable for regular use!

For instance, Legion Athletics included Bacopa monnieri in the formula.

They have used a superb extract: 50% bacosides – much stronger than 90% of nootropics out there.

This herb is a reliable and effective memory enhancer. it has been shown in numerous clincial trials to improve memory function in both older people with mild cognitive impairment, and young, otherwise perfectly healthy volunteers.

But Bacopa monnieri needs to be used consistently, on a daily basis, for many weeks and months before it really comes into its own.

In our experience, you need to be using Bacopa for a good 3-4 weeks before you notice even a slight difference in memory function.

It isn’t until 8-12 weeks have passed that you really start to feel the full benefits of Bacopa monnieri supplementation: faster recall speeds, better information retention, and so on. 

But in our opinion, you can’t really use Legion Ascend every day for weeks and months on end. 

It is, then, completely wasted here!

This is a real shame for such a potentially powerful memory enhancer.

-Learn More About Bacopa Monnieri-

Legion Ascend Side Effects – Is It Safe?

In our opinion, a lot of people will experience some mild yet certainly unpleasant side effects if they use this stack on a regular basis.

Normally we criticize brain supplements for not providing enough cholinergic: they seem to always dose things like CDP-Choline too low, or they skimp on Choline bitartrate.

Well, Legion Ascend has the opposite problem: it contains far too much choline!

Specifically, it contains 300mg of Citicoline, 300mg of Alpha-GPC, and 250mg of Uridine, which also has an effect on acetylcholine synthesis.

That’s 850mg of ingredients which raise acetylcholine levels. 

Raising your acetylcholine levels is a good thing if you want to enhance your cognitive capacity. But we can raise them too high.

Excessive acetylcholine levels in the brain typically causes side effects, including but not limited to:

• Headaches
• Muscle cramps
• Confusion
• Loss of motivation
• Low mood
• Shallow affect
• Hyperactivity
• Irritability

We know that 300mg of Citicoline is sufficient to bring about a significant increase in focus, short-term memory function, recall speed, reaction times, and learning speed.

We know that 300mg of Alpha-GPC will have the same effect.

We do not need both!

Adding in Uridine makes side effects likelier still, although it has a different mechanism of action and can safely be stacked with either CDP-Choline or Alpha-GPC.

If you’re going to use Legion Ascend on an infrequent basis – maybe once in a while before the gym, or to help you get through an all-nighter once a semester – then this probably isn’t going to be a big issue.

But as acetylcholine levels take some time to build up and then to be broken down again, regular use is probably unwise in our opinion. 

If you experience any side effects while using Legion Athletics Ascend, stop using it immediately and seek medical attention.

Legion Ascend Review Conclusion – Should You Use It?

This is an incredibly powerful focus, concentration, and clarity enhancing supplement.

It will make a tangible, real difference to your cognitive function.

You will find that your ability to concentrate, to absorb information, and to recall things quickly will all improve for several hours after using Legion Ascend.

However, it is unsuitable for regular, daily use.

This means that the Bacopa monnieri will have very limited effects; to really get the most out of Bacopa, you need to use it for 6-12 weeks. Few people will notice any benefits from Bacopa monnieri if they just use it once in a while.

It is lacking any other long-term cognitive enhancers. There’s no Lion’s Mane Mushroom, no phosphatidylserine, no DHA; nothing.

This is definitely a stack designed for a specific use.

We think the best way to approach cognitive enhancement is to take a consistent, holistic approach.

Daily supplementation over the long-term will always yield better results than taking one-off brain pills. As such, we aren’t going to recommend it to anyone looking for real, deep, meaningful cognitive enhancement. 

But if you need a quick and powerful ramping up of concentration, mental clarity and learning capacity, Legion Ascend will probably work very well for you.

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