Raven78’s SURGE REVIEW
HABITS
- Calories – aimed slightly higher than maintenance. I averaged around 10-15% above maintenance.
- Hydration was a no brainer, and I was already well hydrated prior to Surge, so kept that up along with the dosing rate on rest days
- Sleep 9hrs recommended. Between work and family and general life stresses, I only sleep 6.5-7hrs max a night at best (During covid that ramped up to 9-10hrs).
GENERAL NOTES
-No IBS or any other negative effects from Surge.
-I did notice on occasion I’d have an earlier bowel movement, but nothing untoward there. Could have also been a result from more food intake! More in, more out!
-Flavour wise – Lemon was my preferred by a way. I certainly got used to the Wild Berry flavour, but Lemon was my preference.
-I tend to train early before the family are up. So have trained fasted for years. Could never stomach a shake or solid food right before a training session. I found it simple enough to down the Surge early before heading to the gym, with no ill affects.
-Being located in Australia, the shipping cost to purchase Surge makes it unfeasible for me, but did order some (and a T-Nation t-shirt) as was keen to support the product.
-The recommendation as part of the training program was to minimize other movement, alas I was not keen to become sedentary and stack on the pounds in the wrong places. I was averaging 9000 ish steps a day over the past year, and that didn’t change much either way during Surge. Some sessions I’d include some steady state cardio or 12second burst emom work over 15-20mins on the Dreadmill or Elliptical. Other days just did the prescribed workout then into the daily routine. Post leg/calve training the SSC got dropped.
-On off days I’d either rest and just ensure some walking, or I’d hit a low impact bodyweight circuit early at the gym, as per my log above. I tend to average 6 sessions a week at the gym. That didn’t change much at all during Surge.
RONA
I managed to avoid the Spicy Cough for 18months, but it caught me mid way through (after session 12 of 24). So in Australia, it’s isolate for 7 days. As such I parked any training sessions, enjoyed longer sleep
Kept hydrated, rested (work didn’t slow down or stop though!), and Body Weight remained constant at 70-71kg throughout. No long term fatigue noticeable, but certainly took my time ramping back up the SSC and Conditioning sessions.
FOOD
-Surge protocol nailed to a tee. 1 Scoop on off days, 3 Scoops on training days (1 pre, 1 during and 1 in evening).
-Breakfast over the whole programme was the same as previous months: Greek Yoghurt or High Protein Yoghurt with nuts/seeds/goji berries.
-Lunch varied from left over protein and salad/veg to just tin of tuna and salad/veg.
-Dinner is the family meal, protein, pasta or mashed/baked potatoes and veg. A few takeout meals sprinkled in there for good measure. We average 1x takeout dinner a week (schnitzel, chips and veg usually from our local pub) or pizza on occasion. Saturday night was Japanese.
-Snacks – sometimes yes, sometimes no. Quality varied but servings weren’t huge.
-Alcohol – some red wine and maybe a beer on occasion (it’s cold, winter, wood fire and relaxo time with wife and child). Maybe averaging 1-2 drinks on a weekend. Dry otherwise. Rarely have a drink during the week.
TRAINING
- Strength focus with maintaining body size would be my current goal, and looking to trim some fat as always… as such have been focused on building OHP and Squat, with Hex DL and Bench thrown in for balance. Can confidently say I was at my strongest going into this, after hitting PR’s on all main lifts in recent weeks at the age of 43/44.
- Before commencing the Surge training protocol, I hit another KB Swing session (as I was 7 sessions into Dan John’s 10K Swing Challenge). The grip fatigue improvement was noticeable – getting more reps before grip dropped off. Thus I took a few minutes off my best 500 KB swing time to date. Grip strength lasted longer before giving out. Reduction in muscle fatigue definitely noticeable from Surge. And it was noticeable over each set of 100 as I was able to get more reps at the start of each 100 portion.
- Post Surge, session 8 36.24 for 500 KB Swings (Previous PR, session 4 (No Surge) 37.01min, session 7 (with Surge) 34.15.
- Otherwise using Surge, I didn’t really feel any different.
- Surge Training Protocol. Muscle pump wise – the training layout definitely makes the most of getting a muscle pump. I struggled to get lats to engage generally. Ironically a fairly well developed area for me compared to other body parts.
- Lasting pump post session – somewhat yes for me. But by breakfast time was back to normal.
- Strength increase? I was able to increase weights generally across the board. Given I have not trained calves, forearms, etc in isolation for many years, and I rarely touch the leg press, it was nice to see improvement on these.
- Can definitely see me using a lot of the training body parts as supplementary work when needed. Learned plenty about time under tension etc, and making light weights hard work.
PHYSICAL
-Body weight increased from 70 to 72. That matches my highest BW ever.
-Belly increase, but so did a number of other measurements. Calves slight decrease, Thighs UP, Chest UP, forearms same – weird, felt these might have grown a bit.
-Work pants tighter, more thighs. And more belly. The latter will come down during next cut. Same belt hole on work pants but a bit tighter for sure.
–>For grins… double Surge dosage in the morning of trainings – plan a pee break before getting on the bus to work… I’ve had some of the longest bladder painful bus rides this last month when I failed to plan such things. So much liquid! Haha.
Was a fun and challenging program. The humbling experience of barely being able to lift light weights for some of the training blocks was a great learning point for me.
Next up: Finish DJ’s 10K Swing challenge, then back to some barbell goodness, as I’ve missed it!
That’s all I can think of for now. Will add other notes if they come to mind.
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@FlatsFarmer in some respects… yes, in others… “I look exactly the same, you moron ! Nonsense, Krusty . You look at least ten years younger, plus, I did your breasts.”
Haha, appreciate the comments!
@Tim_Patterson @Ellington_Darden - really appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this training protocol! Thankyou.
