Surge Questions

I’ve been using Surge religiously since it was released. I love it. I take about a half dose while working out and when I’m done. I compete in Highland games competitions and I usually just drink diluted Gatorade and water during the competition, but I’m considering using Surge in the place of the Gatorade. On average I drink about four liters of water and three liters of Gatorade during a 7-8 hour competition. I was going to split two doses of Surge up into the three liters, so it would be fairly dilute. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

I don’t see the benefit of Surge for hydration purposes.

taking in some whey hydrosylate and BCAAs along with some sugers, i.e. SURGE would be a great idea while you are competitng. I don’t know what kind of energy expenditure there is but i’m sure muscle activity is involved and surge is an anabolic/anti-catabolic drink. Plus if you are diluting it that much i would not fear a crazy insulin spike. Think about it you are drinking GATorade which has carbs but no protein or BCAAs. laters pk

I think it would be more economical to just eat some whole food and drink water.

Can yo describe what a typical day looks like? How many events, rest periods, attempts per event and any other details. Knowing those details will allow us to give you a better idea of how to eat during competition.

Dont know what Highland games are… But i found a nice sports drink for competition to be 1 serving of PowerDrive with some glutamine. Just make sure u mix it with alot of water. PowerDrive has a strong taste and will give u a puke feeling if its not diluted, and u are doing active or intense things.

A typical competition consists of six or seven throwing events plus caber turning (throwing a telephone pole). The weights used are quite heavy; two events use a 56 lb. weight which is thrown with one hand for distance and height. In the distance events you get three attempts with about 2-5 minutes rest. In the height events (there is another were you throw a 16 or 20 lb burlap bag stuffed with rope for height using a pitch fork to flick the bag into the air) you get three attempts at each height. So you could win with 3 or 4 throws or it could be 12 or 15, if you keep making the height with your last attempt. There is a stone put event similar to shot put, but using a 16-28 lb stone. The other big event is the caber which to most people looks like a telephone pole. In this event you have to pick the caber up and hold it in your interlocked hands with it resting on your shoulder. A typical caber is 17-20 ft long and weighs 70-120 lb. Once you have the caber balanced you jog with it for as long as you feel you need to then you stop and do what could only be described as a clean type of a movement in an attempt to turn the caber. There are usually three cabers (increasing in weight and length) and you usually take three attempts at turning each caber.

More often than not once one event is over we move right on to the next, with only a few minutes to practice the new event. Most competitions start at 9:00am and are over between 4 and 5:00pm. So as you can see these competitions are like very long weight workouts, with the throwers giving everything they have on each throw. This is why I thought taking Surge during the events like I do when I workout would be helpful. And sorry I just said Highland Games like everyone and their brother knows what they are. If any of you want to check them out and you have ESPN2, they are showing one on May 11th.

Harley - I see you problem, but I don’t have time to really answer you question well. I’ll post later tonight after work. Any more details you could add might help me, although I don’t know what you could really add.

It is a hard call to make if Surge would be of significant benefit. Do you get a chance to eat any whole food meals? Lots of gatorade and water is a good idea, but you obviously need protein also. I see two options.

1) Stick with gatorade and water and drink down about 20g of mixed proteins between events.

2) Go with diluted Surge.

I think either would be ok, but I would suggest that you try things out before a competition. As best as you can, I would try to simulate the conditions of a competition and try both methods out. Good luck! Let me know if I can help you out any further.

i would definitely take some powerdrive to help with muscle recruitment. Sincve the event is so long but not too concentrated i would go with a big protein shake of whey protein isolate with honey. You can sip this throughout the whole day while not having to worry too much about having a full stomach or not having enough protein or carbs. you can drink gatorade to replace electrolytes if you will be sweating a lot thoughout the day. laters pk

Jason and pk,

Thanks for the input. My competition day usually starts at 6:00 am, when I get up and have breakfast (protein shake and some carb source). Then when I get to the competition ~8:00 I’ll usually have my first serving of Powerdrive followed an hour or two later with a protein shake. Then around noon we break for lunch usually a sandwich and some fruit (provided by the athletic director). However, if I eat whole food, I’ve found that I start to get tired and can’t seem to get warmed up as well for the last few events. That is another reason I was thinking about using Surge, to be able to have some protein and carbs in my system the whole time and not have this crash after lunch.

Harley, in light of your last comments regarding your post lunch crash after eating meal sized solid food, your idea of mixing surge very dilute in your gatorade and slowly sipping it throughout the day sounds like it would be your best option. If relying on surge and gatorade as only source of calories, you might want to add 1 serving of surge to each of 3 liters of gatorade and drink very slowly throughout the day. Or pkradgreek’s idea of whey isolate and honey mixed very dilute in the gatorade in place of surge. By keeping the surge or whey/honey very dilute and sipping very slowly over several hours, you will avoid the big insulin spike and cooresponding crash from the lunch meal. The key is slow intake over time. Whole food meals, in addition to causing insulin spike and cooresponding crash, also pull blood away from muscles and into the digestive system and this blood diversion can also lead to a feeling of lethargy and the easily digested liquid meals sipped slowly will prevent this. Good luck.

also you will not be able to fulfill your daily protein needs for the day with surge. If the competition was short and furious for 2 hours, then i would say go with the surge. other wise go with the whey isolate and honey. You could either make it concentrated and drink a lot of water on the side or just make the whole mixture diluted. I find that i get too thirsty sometimes and i drink my protein shake too fast. That’s why i make it concentrated and drink more water on the side. laters pk