Well I dropped off posting the last couple of weeks here since I was sick for one of those weeks. However, looking back I can say the Double Dose Surge Protocol was definitely a success for me.
I’ve gained between 2 and 3 lbs of weight since I started this protocol. I would say that this is definitely significant since I felt I was on the tail end of making the best gains in my life when starting this experiment. This protocol allowed me to extend and increase my gains where I felt a normal plateau occurring. My strength went up week to week and my soreness was almost non-existent.
I am definitely a big believer in busting ass in the gym as a prerequisite to eating big. I would say this also goes for Double Dosing Surge. Will I do this protocol year round? No. But I will add in Double Doses of Surge any time I really bring it to the gym for a single workout or when I have a focused multi-week effort of gains I want to make.
This is a great way to increase your calorie intake without gaining any fat since you are strategically placing the calories around your workout.
I’m definitely not a big fan of the raspberry Surge. It is too sweet for my taste but I have always loved the regular flavor Biotest puts out. Surge has always been a staple in my workout diet regimen. I will definitely be Double Dosing any time I really want to make muscle gains and have the focused effort in the gym to justify this protocol.
I also have a stash of MAG-10 in my freezer and Double Dosing Surge will be a part of my strategy moving forward when I pursue my next cycle. I thank Chris and Biotest for coming up with this project and I feel it was a successful endeavor for myself. Thank you.
[quote]Dominator wrote:
An article on this would be great, but I think that a longitudinal study would be more valid. I think something on going for more like 6 months or longer would be best.
[/quote]
LMAO. Or you could try it out for yourself. I know, I know… That would actually require you to do something and think for yourself. Bad ideas, I know.
Anyhow, all studies have their problems. It’s not hard to commission a study to to have preordained results. I personally don’t trust any supplement studies. I try stuff for myself and see if it works.
What’s it cost to try double Surge - an extra $30 a month? If that’ll make or break anyone reading this, then said person needs to quit goofing off on the Internet and put his time to better use. (If you have time to read the forums or watch television, you have no excuse for being broke.)
Surge is hitting the Spot!. I’ve tried it pre-training, during training, after training, for a snack, during a run, during sprints, during dancing. It certainly helps with the stamina and recovery aspects of training.
Its also particular useful while doing Waterbury training with twice daily sessions. It can be a real chore to get food prior to the AM session, and when out and and about, the PM sessions can get the better of you. Surge during this session really helps.
I prefer Surge to taking stims most of the time. it doesn’t have that ‘kick’ - however - it has long last energy ,the kind you need during training.
My only request is to fix the price in Australia. Its $115AUD here!
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
LMAO. Or you could try it out for yourself. I know, I know… That would actually require you to do something and think for yourself. Bad ideas, I know.
Anyhow, all studies have their problems. It’s not hard to commission a study to to have preordained results. I personally don’t trust any supplement studies. I try stuff for myself and see if it works.
What’s it cost to try double Surge - an extra $30 a month? If that’ll make or break anyone reading this, then said person needs to quit goofing off on the Internet and put his time to better use. (If you have time to read the forums or watch television, you have no excuse for being broke.)[/quote]
This is pretty much another lame post.
There’s plenty of unbiased research out there on products. Baylor University is doing plenty of this currently.
For the most part, I prefer self testing of products, however, I find nothing wrong with comparative research, especially unbiased, double-blind studies.
Your comment of price shouldn’t be a reason to not try an experiment for a prolonged period of time is weak at best and pretty elitist. There are people here with families that can’t afford the luxery of blowing $100+ a month on supplements. I know plenty of hardcore lifters that don’t have lots of cash to blow on supplements, but they’ll spend on products that will give them a good bang for their buck.
Many guys I train with will buy the big 4.5 lbs containers of Cytomax for their sports drink. It’s less in price than one container of Surge and lasts 3 times as long or longer. There’s plenty of research on Cytomax for performance, but there’s nothing more than this small little experiment on Surge as a comparison, so I think my statement is pretty valid.
OK FINAL REPORT time—(although I still have plenty of Surge left, from doing the “girly” dose)
Since partaking in the double dose experiment, I have been able to perform much more intense workouts. My recovery is phenomenal and can hit it(the weights) hard multiple times per week. I am a big advocate of listening to my body and my body has given me green lights the whole time i’ve been double dosing.
THis past week I’ve even talked a bodybuilder (who just got 6 out of 16 in his class at the arnold amateur) to train with me. We hit one workout, his way and one, my style. Guess who wasn’t sore?? me. Guess who was bouncing around like a crazy women when they were done with legs (cuz they had soo much energy), me!
Guess whose legs were shaking and could barely walk…him! (I love it when I can kick a big guys ass. ) HIGH energy, superb recovery, and progressively getting leaner …what more could you ask for?? I love it and will continue with it into the future.
My capability to lift heavy has not lagged (as it has a tendency to do when dieting,)My energy has not dropped (as it typically does wehn dieting and working out soo much,) My workouts have been more intense then ever (usually when dieting I’d have plenty of good days but also my fair share of bad ones… none of those so far.)
All in all, I’d have to say Biotest supplements are pretty damn amazing. I’m a big backer and believer. Thanks again for the opportunity to “represent.”
Now that my own double-dose Surge experiment is over, here are some of my thoughts.
These past few weeks have been awesome. I have been really really happy with the results of this experiment. Of course, I’m sure Chris Shugart knew we’d be happy, otherwise he may not have so boldly given away so much Surge in fear of our bad reviews. All in all, everything about double-dose Surge was perfect for me.
The taste began to grow on me. I’ve always liked the original flavor, but when I first tried the wild raspberry, I almost couldn’t down it since it is so sweet. After a few more servings, it became tolerable, and now its great!
I’ve gained around four pounds since I began, my body fat level has remained the same at 11%.
My strength increases have been consistently growing over the past month, and at a faster rate than usual. No doubt this is due to the much faster recovery rate. Almost every session set a new PR in at least one of my main lifts.
My soreness was not as bad as it usually is. I only had DOMS after two deadlift sessions (one of which my non-Surge PWO nutrition was very poor). This definitely had a huge impact on my training since I was fresher and had much more energy due to faster recovery.
All in all, I’m very happy with my results. I probably won’t use double dose Surge year round, but it does have its place for intense sessions or cycles. The only reservation that I may have is in prescribing it for fat loss periods. More specifically, people whom have a very low carbohydrate ‘tolerance’ whom are working towards fat loss. I’d have to collect more evidence before I gave my “ok” for that.
Thank you T-Nation for allowing me to be a part of this! And thank you Biotest for your commitment in providing us with the best products available!
Overall, my results far exceeded any expectations I had for this experiment. I was very impressed with the fact that I gained 7 lbs. in such a short amount of time, with only a slight increase in bodyfat (mostly due to caloric surplus in overall intake IMHO).
What I was particularly impressed with was the faster recovery time. Despite the fact that I was doing anywhere from 3-4 intense weight training sessions a week combined with 2-3 days of sprints/soccer, I had no recovery issues whatsoever.
Some highlights regarding my lift increases:
Squat increase-245x10x3 up to 265x10x3
Bench increase-175x10x3 up to 190x10x3
DL increase-205x10x3 up to 240x10x3
On-field performance for soccer has been improved as well. Despite being twice the age of the kids I coach (I coach varsity and JV HS soccer), I went from finishing middle of the pack in 100 m. sprints to leading. Not bad for an ol’ geezer!
I had virtually no muscle soreness throughout with the notable exception of the first week of practice. What I did have went away generally within a day or so.
Forgot one very important thing: A big THANK YOU to Biotest for allowing me the privilege of being part of this experiment. I hope you are as pleased with the results as I am.
Well, life got in the way of me making my final additions to this thread.
My last ME day was disappointing from a number standpoint. I didn’t break my PRs that I felt sure that I would crush. Dunno what happened. The rest of the session turned into a pissed off torture session, nothing planned.
FINAL ANALYSIS–
I’ll be using double Surge as much as I can afford on my supp. budget. It is by far the best addition I’ve made to my supplements since…the last time I took Biotest and T-Nation’s advice.
Seriously, this is an amazing recovery tool. I am very in touch with exactly how I regulate my preworkout routine, supplement timing, eating, etc. I am also very in touch with exactly how much physical impairment I am likely to endure as a result of my training sessions. I can say with 100% certainty that this completely changed my recovery capacity. I felt ZERO soreness after jacking my volume through the roof (relatively speaking of course). I had more energy during workouts, and I had some very intense pumps where I would typically experience none at all. I am confident this is not a placebo effect based for the following reasons:
My familiarity with recovery capability before undergoing this trial
My general skepticism regarding supplement claims (which Biotest has no doubt taken every joy in destroying)
The % volume increase. In some cases I approached near 2.5x the volume I normally do on upper body days, simply because I didn’t feel exhausted or tired. Like the energizer bunny I just kept going, and going, and going…and had no serious soreness in any part of my upper body. Volume is normally not very well tolerated by me in terms of reps per set. That’s just not something you can amp yourself to get from a placebo.
Those are the major reasons. I’m totally sold (as with most Biotest products). One thing I would really like to try is to combine Beta7 with this double Surge thing, because when I started taking Beta7 I noticed the ability to pump out 1-2 more reps with a 3-5RM, and that’s just cool. However, I still “felt” fatigued as I normally do.
Well, after six weeks of following this protocol I must say I have seen some very positive results. I consumed a half serving immediately before and during workouts followed by a full serving immediately after lifting four times per week (upper/lower split) and took a single serving post-workout after my GPP/ab/HIIT sessions twice per week.
Alternating between double dosing and single dosing (depending on the workload) I definitely noticed a difference in energy levels both during and after workouts. I had a couple of days over spring break where I got to lift in Florida, but I think I have become so accustomed to the constant flow of Surge through me while working out that I felt really sluggish without it and it resulted in some below par workouts.
On the performance note, all of my core lifts during this program went up at least 20 lbs for reps. That alone is awesome to me. I also managed to set a PR when I deadlifted 408 lbs (Olympic plates) for a single after 6 sets of squats and 5 sets of deads. It felt good and now I can concentrate on some bigger numbers. So good news in the strength department.
Body comp wise I saw some pretty impressive results (at least for me anyways). I went from 178 at 7.45& bodyfat to 185 at 5.25% bodyfat, while keeping the same waist measurements, maybe even a little less. All other areas grew.
I will definitely keep with this protocol as it had yielded some impressive results for me. And yes, the raspberry flavor is really sweet and the original tastes like cake batter, but sometimes you just need to suck it up and do what you’ve gotta do for the sake of rapid improvement. I love this stuff, thanks for allowing me to be a part of this experiment.
First, I should note that I will definitely continue the double-dose protocol. I did a lot of high-volume bench pressing over the course of the experiment and my recovery definitely got a boost. As far as changes in body composition, I think that would be very noticeable on a fat-loss plan. I suspect extra Surge would help a lot w/ muscle retention.
As for me, my weight stayed about the same throughout the experiment (225-230…this was intentional), and there wasn’t a ton of shift in body comp. But you wouldn’t expect to see a ton of muscle gain over such a short period of time, and I wasn’t trying to drop bodyfat.
Keep in mind also that I had been training hard going into the experiment, and carry over 200 lbs. LBM naturally at about 5’10. Muscle gains come fairly slowly.
But if you think you can benefit from training hard more frequently, definitely give this a go. I was able to fit four to five tough sessions a week in, and this is as a law student short on sleep and not eating optimally healthy food.
Another thing to note, I often come down w/ a cold when training volume gets too high, but I’m pretty sure the Surge militated against that.
So in sum, the idea of more peri-workout nutrition is good, and I think this is a good approach. I will definitely stay with it.
) HIGH energy, superb recovery, and progressively getting leaner …what more could you ask for?? I love it and will continue with it into the future.
