I have used Surge with myself and ALL my clients ever since it first came out. Therefore, I have used every ingestion protocol imaginable to come up with the ideal method. Here’s what I found.
First, splitting the full dose into two half doses is definitely preferable. With two doses, my evidence clearly shows a positive increase in exercise intensity maintained throughout the workout and a decrease in soreness.
Second, as Berardi stated, sipping the drink instead of ingesting it 15-20 minutes pre-workout is also preferable in order to decrease a hypoglycemic response.
So what’s the point of this post? Many commercial health clubs do not allow trainees (i.e. members) to bring in any beverages to the club, other than water. If this is the case, ingest the first half serving DIRECTLY before performing your first exercise set. I have found that the hypoglycemic response rarely occurs if the first set can be executed within 5 minutes of ingestion. Any time frame longer than 10-15 minutes can be tricky because of the often induced hypoglycemic response (obviously, something that needs to be avoided during the workout).
So for all you out there who can’t take Surge into your gym, just ingest the first half dose within 5 minutes of your first set and you will reap the benefits and offset hypoglycemia.
chad,
im not sure if you have any experience with surge while “dieting” but ill ask anyway. do you believe that the same protocol should be used while dieting to get to low bf numbers?
thanks
Good info, Chad. Thanks for the insight. I don’t have that problem with my gym, thankfully, and will give it a shot next time I get some Surge.
C-Dubya…Great stuff, man. I’ll just add to this real quickly. You should certainly be able to take a gym bag in with you and down this in the locker room 1-2 minutes prior to commencing your workout.
P-Dog…I would sugget that you should follow this half-and-half protocol whilst dieting. This is really the primetime, as both JB mentioned this week and myself and others have preached for so long. You literally have 23 other hours in the day to focus more on fat loss. Every time you step in the gym, your mindset should be on building muscle.
timbo, i agree 100%. my time spent training with weights is to build lbm and increase strength and that only.
that being said, post workout i follow up with about 20 minutes of cardio at about 60-70% hrm. im under the impression that an influx of high GI carbs prior to this cardio session would blunt lipolysis. am i correct in this thinking?
While I don’t have this problem in our gym; as a matter of fact, the floor is often littered with empty bottles of “carb up” and Gatorade bottles.
BUT, this is much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to post it. I’ll remember this when/if I’m training in a gym that does have a problem with trainees schlepping in beverages other than water.
P-Dog…I obviously was imprecise with my recommendations. You should follow your cardio with your post-training Surge. If you’re referring to the during workout carbs/protein interfering with lipolysis, I’ll offer the following.
From the get-go, the reason that I have recommended that Surge or similar liquid drinks be consumed during–as opposed to before–exercise is because of the fact that doing so will not influence lipolysis negatively. This is likely due to the fact that catecholamines are soaring and thus the suspected insulin response is negated.
In addition, finishing up the during workout drink about half-way through your workout will allow the hormonal environment to surely return to a more fasted-state and thus lipolysis be maximized in the post-training period.
timbo,
thanks for the response.
Chad, thanks for posting this. This is the type of concrete stuff that makes T-mag stand out.
I’ll add a couple of points of my own to the thread:
First, I also have noticed that the half-and-half protocol works better than the all-after or half-before/half-after methods. Sipping is King!
Second, having your Surge in this manner will not negatively affect fat loss. If you want proof, just take a look at the Hot-Rox contest threads, wherein virtually everyone used Surge all the way through and saw significant fatloss.
Third, if you happen to belong to a dick gym, try the following work-around:
Take your gym bag into the exercise area with you. Have in the bag (in addition to all your other stuff - ace bandages, straps, your towel, etc.) two opaque drink bottles. One will have Surge in it, the other water. Make sure the bottles are identical. If the staff asks you what’s in the bottle, you can tell them “water” with a clean conscience. So long as you don’t take both bottles out of the bag at the same time, they shouldn’t catch on.
I’ve ignored the no drinks in the workout area so far in every gym I’ve been in. If I paid attention to all the rules in some of these places I wouldn’t ever get around to training. Do what char says and put your drink in an opaque container, if it’s a serious concern. With Surge, some before, some during and the rest after is what I like to do, but if you’re not careful, the bonk can be pretty nasty.
BTW Patricia - those are “Ripped Force” bottles littering the floor of the Jungle Gym!!