Training Log: Entry 3782

AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 3, Workout 2

“ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BLOAT”

19 chins

20 minute recovery row

Notes:

• Woke up feeling a million years old and couldn’t be more excited for a recovery row. Told myself distance didn’t matter: we were just there to feel good. Despite that, still got 4150 in the 20 minutes, matching last week. General fitness seems to be trending upward.

• “Row your bloat” true to form, because I weighed in at 84.2kg this morning: heaviest I’ve been in the entire 12 week Mass Protocol block. Specificity is absolutely wrecking me, in a way that I HOPE is hormetic. It’s definitely a “body by Nietzsche” thing. That said, I did feel much better after getting that row in.

• The daily chins are actually more a struggle than usual, which most likely the small amounts of weight gain are at play there.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. This week is Wildcard/Cardio, so we’ll see what kind of workout we get.

Training Log: Entry 3781

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, rough night of sleep)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 3, Workout 1

SSB Squats
4x8x315

Lever belt squats
4x8x305

Axle strict press from rack
2x8x148
5x148
6+3x148

(3) DB incline bench
4x8x80s

Dips
7x105
2x4x105
15xBW

ASSISTANCE

Hanging leg raise
3x10

Notes:

• My training motivation is in a weird place, as yesterday afternoon I was thinking about this training day and feeling quite excited to get it done, but once it came time to actually pay my dues I had zero desire to do it. But part of that could be the puppy joining us in the middle of the night and then hacking in my face at 0200, waking me out of a sound sleep. But also, I am absolutely fried from this training. Steely eye observers will note I repeated the weight from last workout, which was sets of 10, and used it for sets of 8. I gave 335 and honest attempt and managed 2 reps with it, and knew that, yes, I COULD grind out a set of 8 with it, and quite possibly even 4 sets of 8, but in doing so I’d leave so much of my soul in the garage that I’d have nothing left to train on. Instead, I achieved a victory by keeping the rest times strictly at 1 minute, whereas last week I couldn’t get through that. I also kept the press weight at last weeks, so I’m operating off split percentages for the final week of Specificity.

• This tends to happen in the final weeks of the program, and one of the contributors is I don’t use a different TM between my buffalo bar squat and my SSB squat. I can get away with that in the first 2 weeks, but I always end up having to pay the piper in the final week. I’m also learning that 9 weeks is probably my cut off before I need to take a bridge week. I’ve been playing on borrowed time. But also, while I’m talking about how I could have done this better, I’m thinking the recomp strategy was the right call for Grey Man, and once I entered the realm of Specificity I needed to stop eating like a prom queen and just open up the floodgates. But honestly, it’s pretty cool I’m still learning lessons at 40 after 26 years of lifting. It’d be boring if I already knew everything.

• Too little too late, but these next few weeks are gonna be some great feasting weeks, which I suppose will give me a little caloric runway leading up to my comp in Aug…which I’m hoping is still on, because as it stands I’m still literally the only competitor signed up.

• Weighed in at 83.8kg this morning. Yesterday was a wonderful classic family meal of spaghetti with 93% lean ground beef, some homemade sourdough rolls with grassfed butter and 3 peanut butter, reece’s pieces butterscotch cookies and a homemade sourdough banana muffin with raw local honey. We also went out to eat at the Valkyrie’s favorite Hawaiian BBQ place for mother’s day, so my sodium is in a good place.

• Just a little bit of reflection: gaining programs and endurance events always make me wonder how life would have gone if I never cared about certain health markers or having to maintain a certain bodyweight. I am so talented at eating large quantities and enduring significant sustained periods of misery. Somewhere out there, on an alternate timeline, I am a 308lb powerlifter, and on another one a 150lb ultramarathoner…and on another one, a youtube competitive eater.

 Training Log: Entry 3780

AM WORKOUT (0900)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 2, Workout 6

Prowler Sprints

4 sprints, high handle prowler, 90lbs loaded

Notes:

• 100 paces for the distance, sprints ranged from 37-41 seconds, and then rested 4 minutes. This is still just the perfect prescription for now. Once I get back from the cruise, I’ll ramp this up a little. Got this done on Sunday rather than Saturday, but given the nature of the prowler I don’t think it will impact my recovery that much.

• Got the full 19-19-18 on chins this week.  

 Training Log: Entry 3779

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm: rough night of sleep)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 2, Workout 5

DB row
4x10x155

Axle curls
4x10x91

GHR
4x10x70

GHR sit up
20, 15

Stone of Steel to platform
4 1 minute rounds w/205lb stone
-Triples for rounds 1, 2 and 4, a single and missed double on round 3.

Notes:

• I love that this workout is on Friday, because I actually appreciate this one. It’s so much easier psychologically, and my reward at the end is I get to play with an event. I put the final touches on the platform and now it’s solid: I’m using bands/band pegs to keep the swiss bar in place, which locks the whole thing down. Zero sliding, and, in turn, I got some crazy loads on it. It’s a little louder, being a little heavier, but the workout still times to when the Valkyrie wakes up, so this is continuing to prove sustainable.

• What ISN’T sustainable is getting woken up at 0200 to the news that the dog pooped on the carpet. Got back to sleep around 0300. It’s been a hectic week, and the whole family is due for a relaxing evening.

• DB rows continue to feel awesome when placed first in the workout. I genuinely hate how DB rows are my most effective row, as they’re unilateral and take twice as long as a bilateral row, but it just always works. I might actually need to buy some more 10lb plates soon, since I’m exhausting my supply.

• Got a great pump on those GHRs. Cheated quite a bit on the curls.

• Weighed in at 83.0kg this morning. .4 kilo drop from yesterday. Decided to have breakfast this morning, because I wanted it, which seemed like a good sign. Body has re-stabilized from the insanity I threw at it on Wednesday. It’s a good time to be gaining.

• The first week of Specificity, I remark how great my body feels with the light weight and the high reps. Then reality hits like a truck on the final 2 weeks. My body is demolished. I’m approaching 12 weeks of training to gain without a break, and it shows. This system works so well: I transition to Operator from here and suddenly the volume drops and I get a chance to recover.

 Training Log: Entry 3778

AM WORKOUT (0350 wake up via dog, snoozed until 0400)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 2, Workout 4

SSB Squat
2x10x315
8x315
9+3x315

Lever belt squat
4x10x285

Axle strict press from rack
5, 10, 6 x146
6+3x146

(3) DB incline bench
2x10x75s
9x75
10+1x75

Dip/hanging leg raise circuit
15/10, 10/8, 5/6

Notes:

• Predictably, this was a rough workout, and my primary goal was to not vomit (success). There’s a point where we adequately fuel for training and there’s a point where we cross a threshold of “energy toxicity” and I was definitely operating in the latter after last night’s nutritional debauchery (of which my only regret was turning over my red card right before another round of picanha came out). Honestly, what held me up the most was how short I was keeping my rest times, which was primarily a result of being behind the 8-ball schedulewise, due to a little extra time dedicated to gastric emptying prior to training as a result of attempting to test my gallbladder’s max capacity.

• On that note, I kept the rest times to 1 minute on the first 3 sets of squats. Part of that was to be consistent with the previous workout, but the primary driver was just wanting to be DONE with squats as soon as possible. If I had allowed myself 2 minutes, I have no doubt I would have succeeded.

• The axle strict press caught me quite off guard with how awful it felt, with proof of concept being that I got 10 reps on that second set: doubling what I did on the first set. I’m going to stick with this weight for next week’s sets of 8 and see where that takes me. The incline went well, so the press strength was there, but I just seemed to be exhausted.

• It was very easy to decide to fast through breakfast today: still feeling satiated. Didn’t even want coffee either: just LOTS of water. I’m sure all the protein running through my system is needing it.

• Surprisingly, only up half a kilo, weighing in at 83.4 this morning. I thought for sure I’d be at 84+.

• Today’s workout gave me some food for thought about progressing after Specificity. I may come BACK to this workout/week and re-conquer it. This is definitely the hardest week of the program: the reps are high while the weights are heavy. My hips don’t care for the SSB squat as well, but my elbows like it, so it’s a mixed bag.

• Also, last night’s adventure was a classic “missing the point”, as I listened to Lyle McDonald discuss his “Rapid Fat Loss” diet on a podcast for 2 hours while I was walking after having consumed about 300g of protein and fat in a single sitting. That said, the parallels between it and my own nutritional approach gave me a lot to steal.

 Training Log: Entry 3777

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 2, Workout 3

(2) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
10x455

DB rows
4x10x145

Axle curls
4x10x83

GHRs
4x10x65

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit up
20, 11

Reverse hyper
3x15x270

Band pull apart
3x25

Notes:

• Felt good coming into this. No body aches of note. Wasn’t very strong in the warm-ups though. Think those SSB squats takes quite abit away from me. The set of 10 for the pulls was well fought, and I could have gotten an 11th with a gun to my head, but since next week is the pull from the floor, no real point in blowing myself out here and now. My SI joint continues to feel better each week, and stringing together good decisions helps there. And, funny enough, this resulted in a set of 10, which coincided with what I was supposed to do for the day.

• DB rows felt better than I expected. Back was really well connected. GHRs got a good pump too

• Ran into a weird issue on the sit ups where my ankles were burning on the second set from suspending myself in the GHR. Shut it down early, because it was a weird pain to deal with.

• Tang Soo Do last night was pretty low energy. But managed over 10k steps yesterday.

• Weighed 82.8kg this morning. My weight is following last week almost exactly. .9kg drop from yesterday. That said, I’m going to throw a wrench into that. My kid had a 3 hour rehearsal tonight that starts really early, and there is a Texas de Brazil (Brazilian steakhouse) a mile away, so I’m going to walk there for my dinner and then spend the rest of the evening walking some of that off. I’m going to enjoy myself, rather than gorge, but depending on how much I take in, I may introduce an additional coffee fast tomorrow. As always: Chaos is the plan.

 Training Log: Entry 3776

AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s Alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 2, Workout 2

“ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BLOAT”

19 chins

20 minute recovery row

Notes:

• 4150m done: 50 meters improved from last time. I am stupidly trying to match/set PRs on a recovery workout, but I’m still meeting the objective, because my body is feeling really awesome right now. One of those rare “painfree days”. Having 2 nights off Tang Soo Do this week should help quite a bit there.

• This is honestly one of my favorite days of the training plan now, which is such a reversal of my previous self. Enjoy being able to sleep in, get up when my wife does, and get my body loose, along with a simple morning of just coffee for breakfast.

• Last night, got in about 2 miles of walking in the evening. Walked to a Mexican supermercado and picked up an avocado and cotija cheese to make our Cinco de Mayo a little more authentic tonight.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. One step defense: tends to be lighter activity.

• Weighed in at 83.7kg. I called 83.9: so close. Body awareness is solid, and leanness is really coming out, despite the bodyweight creeping up. I think that means I’m winning this whole “recomp” thing.