GreenEarth
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Hey everyone,
My name is Michael, and I'm here to run about a month-long review for Neogenix's NeuroSurge. Big shout out to all of their reps for sending me out some of this stuff to review for them. I plan to make this log as DETAILED as possible, because I owe that to the reps on this forum. So this first post will be quite long. On to the formal stuff...
I'm 6' and ~185lbs, 11%ish BF. Currently bulking. Been training steadily for a little over 4 years, although I'd say the majority of my progress has been made in the past year and a half using Doggcrapp training. I'm genetically 90% Irish (we're a handsome bunch, but muscle doesn't come easy!), and I've found with DC, which focuses on training til failure every set with very short rests in between (15 steady breaths), that intensity coupled with heavy weights and massive amounts of food is about the only thing that makes me grow (still haven't dipped my feet into the anabolic side of lifting lol, just for the record of this log).
Due to this required intensity, I need to be EXTREMELY focused on each and every rep of each and every set. That's part of the reason I think I'll be a great test subject for NeuroSurge - need those nootropics for my focus!
The basis for DC is focused on working til failure every set, taking short breaks, and then working til failure again. DC uses rest-pause (it will be abbreviated as 'RPed' on my log), with straight sets (SSed in my log) for some muscles. Personally, my muscles respond very well to a strong focus on the negative rep (5-6 seconds), coupled with an explosive positive. When you see my RPed sets, assume they follow that mold: slow negative, explosive positive.
Typically, this results in each set being about half of the reps of the previous set. IE, if I'm doing pull-ups, I'll have an explosive upwards motion and then lower myself very slowly, then repeat the process for each rep. After failing at, let's say, 12 reps, I'll drop down, take 15 steady breaths (usually a little less than a minute of rest), jump back onto the bar, do explosive positives and slow negative for 6 or 7 reps (failure once again), drop down, 15 breaths, then 3-4 reps (once again, failure). I hope that makes sense.
I also incorporate both static reps and stretches at the end of my exercises. A static rep is a rep that is performed, and then held at roughly 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through the negative for as long as possible. Feels bad, but feels so good afterwards. A stretch is performed at the end of a set as well, for certain muscle groups, wherein, using some sort of weight or machine, you take a muscle group to what would be essentially the lowest point of the negative (most extreme point of the "stretch"), and hold it there as long as possible. This is hard to describe...you can't always use weights, lest you risk injury. There are picture descriptions of stretches on intense muscle (DC's homepage) if anyone is so inclined to check lol.
There are A and B days for DC. The A day is chest, shoulders, triceps, back width and back thickness. One exercise per muscle group, to complete failure. B days are Calves, Thighs, Quads, Biceps, and Forearms. Glutes are naturally worked during this as well. My schedule goes: A1, B1, A2, B2, repeat.
One last thing to note...for about the past 2-3 years, I've had a lot of issues with the lowest disk in my spine (L6? L7? Can't quite remember). I injured it deadlifting a while ago, and further hurt it lifting kegs for my job (bartending) last summer. Still in chiropractic for it, but before anyone calls me out for not doing deads or squats, trust me, I want to do them even more than you want me to do them, but it just isn't a possibility lol.
Now since we're done with that, on to the workout!
Day 1 - Monday, 4/9/12 - A1 Day
Dosage: Took one scoop of NeuroSurge, along with 100mg of DMAA. Up until this point I've been taking 2 scoops of Scivation's Novem along with 100mg DMAA, so I was interested to see how a nootropic-based pre-WO would compare to a pre-WO based more around NO. Both of these were taken about a half hour before my workout.
Chest - Flat DB press. Warm up - 45lb DBs X 15. Rest Paused set: 95lb DBs 9, 5, 4, static rep.
This felt great. In DC, this would be refereed to as 18 reps (all sets added up) RPed. For chest, I usually like to get between 15-20, so I was right on the mark here. Bumped up to 95s from 90s last week and got the same reps, so I was certainly pleased. I was expecting something more like 8, 4, 2, static. Once again, please remember - each set is to failure, with a ~1-minute rest in between.
Shoulder - Lateral DB Raises. Warm up - 15lbs X 15. Straight-setted: 30lb DBs 12, 8, 6. Picked up 25lb DBs immediately after my last set and managed 8 reps.
Felt a great pump in my shoulders. I actually bumped up to 30s this week, and I'm not sure if I'll stick with it or not. I couldn't control is as well as 25s, and with lat raises I'd much rather have control and a very strict rep than be leaning back and using other muscles. PLEASE NOTE: SHOULDERS ARE MY BIGGEST DOWNFALL! Compared to the rest of my body, my shoulder are lagging like crazy. I've actually gone from working out 3 days a week to 4, just add a special day for my shoulders lol. They're slowly coming up - I think NeuroSurge can help the rest of the way!
Triceps - Weighted dips. BW + 60lb DB, RPed - 12, 8, 4, BW X 11.
Holy tricep stretch batman! I like to take dips very slowly and go as low as I can possibly go, and then bring them up almost all of the way to complete arm extension. I feel a lot of people cheat their way through dips too much (with quarter reps, you're only cheating yourself!), so I like to really go low. However, I don't like to hold myself at the bottom too long - after working shoulders, I feel a great degree of stretch from them at the lowest point, and injury is the last thing I want! Instead of a static or stretch, I like to take 15 breaths after my last set and then try doing as many BW dips as I got in the first set of weighted dips. As you can see, this time I missed it by one, but it absolutely killed my tris, which is exactly what I wanted. To be fair, this exercise was also bumped up from +55lbs last week.
Back Thickness - Pullups. BW RPed - 12, 7, 4, static + stretch.
Not much to say - felt great. By this time my entire body felt pumped. My focus was dead on - really helped my feel my back lifting me rather than my bis, which has always been an issue for me.
Back Width - Plate-Loaded Lat Pulldown - 3 plates + 15lbs per side (not sure how this translates to a normal lat pulldown, lol sorry). RPed - 9, 5, 4, static + stretch.
By this point my head was just so in the game. All I could think about was lifting that ****ing weight. Last week I just had 3 plates per side and got 8, 5, 3, so I added weight this week and lifted it for more reps - sounds like good progress to me!
IMPRESSION OF NEUROSURGE: Killer. With Novem, I always felt a big stimmed-out. With Neurosurge, I felt the same energy, but with an extreme amount of focus. Tuned out music, conversations, everything - today was just my workout and me. It almost felt like the weight of the top part of my head was gone - like my brain was out in the open, light and focused only on what I desired. Weird way to explain it, but there you have it lol. One or two of Neogenix's reps suggested I try this without the DMAA*, and I plan to do that next workout. To be fair, NeuroSurge is a nootropic-based pre-WO while DMAA is a stimulant, and a stimulant that has never made me feel particularly focused, so I know the addition of NS is what brought on the serious focus I felt on my workout - so far, so good! At first I was afraid I might get no effect from it and would just have to bear through some lackluster reviews, but after my first dosage, I'm pumped to see where it'll take me in the next month!
*in regards to the 100mg dosage of DMAA - I happen to be plagued by a very strong tolerance to stimulant, and anything under 100mg of this doesn't affect me. If you're tempted to imitate my pre-WO - PLEASE start with only 20-40mg of DMAA to assess tolerance!
Thanks again to Neogenix! Will update this log after my workout on Wednesday.
My name is Michael, and I'm here to run about a month-long review for Neogenix's NeuroSurge. Big shout out to all of their reps for sending me out some of this stuff to review for them. I plan to make this log as DETAILED as possible, because I owe that to the reps on this forum. So this first post will be quite long. On to the formal stuff...
I'm 6' and ~185lbs, 11%ish BF. Currently bulking. Been training steadily for a little over 4 years, although I'd say the majority of my progress has been made in the past year and a half using Doggcrapp training. I'm genetically 90% Irish (we're a handsome bunch, but muscle doesn't come easy!), and I've found with DC, which focuses on training til failure every set with very short rests in between (15 steady breaths), that intensity coupled with heavy weights and massive amounts of food is about the only thing that makes me grow (still haven't dipped my feet into the anabolic side of lifting lol, just for the record of this log).
Due to this required intensity, I need to be EXTREMELY focused on each and every rep of each and every set. That's part of the reason I think I'll be a great test subject for NeuroSurge - need those nootropics for my focus!
The basis for DC is focused on working til failure every set, taking short breaks, and then working til failure again. DC uses rest-pause (it will be abbreviated as 'RPed' on my log), with straight sets (SSed in my log) for some muscles. Personally, my muscles respond very well to a strong focus on the negative rep (5-6 seconds), coupled with an explosive positive. When you see my RPed sets, assume they follow that mold: slow negative, explosive positive.
Typically, this results in each set being about half of the reps of the previous set. IE, if I'm doing pull-ups, I'll have an explosive upwards motion and then lower myself very slowly, then repeat the process for each rep. After failing at, let's say, 12 reps, I'll drop down, take 15 steady breaths (usually a little less than a minute of rest), jump back onto the bar, do explosive positives and slow negative for 6 or 7 reps (failure once again), drop down, 15 breaths, then 3-4 reps (once again, failure). I hope that makes sense.
I also incorporate both static reps and stretches at the end of my exercises. A static rep is a rep that is performed, and then held at roughly 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through the negative for as long as possible. Feels bad, but feels so good afterwards. A stretch is performed at the end of a set as well, for certain muscle groups, wherein, using some sort of weight or machine, you take a muscle group to what would be essentially the lowest point of the negative (most extreme point of the "stretch"), and hold it there as long as possible. This is hard to describe...you can't always use weights, lest you risk injury. There are picture descriptions of stretches on intense muscle (DC's homepage) if anyone is so inclined to check lol.
There are A and B days for DC. The A day is chest, shoulders, triceps, back width and back thickness. One exercise per muscle group, to complete failure. B days are Calves, Thighs, Quads, Biceps, and Forearms. Glutes are naturally worked during this as well. My schedule goes: A1, B1, A2, B2, repeat.
One last thing to note...for about the past 2-3 years, I've had a lot of issues with the lowest disk in my spine (L6? L7? Can't quite remember). I injured it deadlifting a while ago, and further hurt it lifting kegs for my job (bartending) last summer. Still in chiropractic for it, but before anyone calls me out for not doing deads or squats, trust me, I want to do them even more than you want me to do them, but it just isn't a possibility lol.
Now since we're done with that, on to the workout!
Day 1 - Monday, 4/9/12 - A1 Day
Dosage: Took one scoop of NeuroSurge, along with 100mg of DMAA. Up until this point I've been taking 2 scoops of Scivation's Novem along with 100mg DMAA, so I was interested to see how a nootropic-based pre-WO would compare to a pre-WO based more around NO. Both of these were taken about a half hour before my workout.
Chest - Flat DB press. Warm up - 45lb DBs X 15. Rest Paused set: 95lb DBs 9, 5, 4, static rep.
This felt great. In DC, this would be refereed to as 18 reps (all sets added up) RPed. For chest, I usually like to get between 15-20, so I was right on the mark here. Bumped up to 95s from 90s last week and got the same reps, so I was certainly pleased. I was expecting something more like 8, 4, 2, static. Once again, please remember - each set is to failure, with a ~1-minute rest in between.
Shoulder - Lateral DB Raises. Warm up - 15lbs X 15. Straight-setted: 30lb DBs 12, 8, 6. Picked up 25lb DBs immediately after my last set and managed 8 reps.
Felt a great pump in my shoulders. I actually bumped up to 30s this week, and I'm not sure if I'll stick with it or not. I couldn't control is as well as 25s, and with lat raises I'd much rather have control and a very strict rep than be leaning back and using other muscles. PLEASE NOTE: SHOULDERS ARE MY BIGGEST DOWNFALL! Compared to the rest of my body, my shoulder are lagging like crazy. I've actually gone from working out 3 days a week to 4, just add a special day for my shoulders lol. They're slowly coming up - I think NeuroSurge can help the rest of the way!
Triceps - Weighted dips. BW + 60lb DB, RPed - 12, 8, 4, BW X 11.
Holy tricep stretch batman! I like to take dips very slowly and go as low as I can possibly go, and then bring them up almost all of the way to complete arm extension. I feel a lot of people cheat their way through dips too much (with quarter reps, you're only cheating yourself!), so I like to really go low. However, I don't like to hold myself at the bottom too long - after working shoulders, I feel a great degree of stretch from them at the lowest point, and injury is the last thing I want! Instead of a static or stretch, I like to take 15 breaths after my last set and then try doing as many BW dips as I got in the first set of weighted dips. As you can see, this time I missed it by one, but it absolutely killed my tris, which is exactly what I wanted. To be fair, this exercise was also bumped up from +55lbs last week.
Back Thickness - Pullups. BW RPed - 12, 7, 4, static + stretch.
Not much to say - felt great. By this time my entire body felt pumped. My focus was dead on - really helped my feel my back lifting me rather than my bis, which has always been an issue for me.
Back Width - Plate-Loaded Lat Pulldown - 3 plates + 15lbs per side (not sure how this translates to a normal lat pulldown, lol sorry). RPed - 9, 5, 4, static + stretch.
By this point my head was just so in the game. All I could think about was lifting that ****ing weight. Last week I just had 3 plates per side and got 8, 5, 3, so I added weight this week and lifted it for more reps - sounds like good progress to me!
IMPRESSION OF NEUROSURGE: Killer. With Novem, I always felt a big stimmed-out. With Neurosurge, I felt the same energy, but with an extreme amount of focus. Tuned out music, conversations, everything - today was just my workout and me. It almost felt like the weight of the top part of my head was gone - like my brain was out in the open, light and focused only on what I desired. Weird way to explain it, but there you have it lol. One or two of Neogenix's reps suggested I try this without the DMAA*, and I plan to do that next workout. To be fair, NeuroSurge is a nootropic-based pre-WO while DMAA is a stimulant, and a stimulant that has never made me feel particularly focused, so I know the addition of NS is what brought on the serious focus I felt on my workout - so far, so good! At first I was afraid I might get no effect from it and would just have to bear through some lackluster reviews, but after my first dosage, I'm pumped to see where it'll take me in the next month!
*in regards to the 100mg dosage of DMAA - I happen to be plagued by a very strong tolerance to stimulant, and anything under 100mg of this doesn't affect me. If you're tempted to imitate my pre-WO - PLEASE start with only 20-40mg of DMAA to assess tolerance!
Thanks again to Neogenix! Will update this log after my workout on Wednesday.