Training Log: Entry 3728

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

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 2, Workout 2

“VIKING RAID”

15 minutes

100m row
Carry 150lb sandbag
Add 100m each round

Notes:

• Slower than last week: was carrying the bag after the 600m row when time ran out. Given I’m bouncing back from the flu, I’m ok with that.

• I threw myself a little pity party this morning when I woke up, telling myself I was going to just wait until the evening to do this, then I realized I felt just fine and got to it. Yesterday was ROUGH comparatively. That night, I took a night time Mucinex and, though I slept through the night, I woke up with a bad drug hangover and spent the day feeling sleepy. Last night I went without the meds, didn’t sleep as deep, but woke up feeling restored. But it could also just be that I’m on a healing timeline.

• My back felt much better this week compared to last, most likely because I’m further away from that strongman competition.

• In general, I’m a big fan of this. I like that I’m getting in the rowing and the carrying in a single workout. I may honestly move some more gear down into the basement to add some variety. It’s just nice to include carries as a regular thing, vs something I only do for competition prep.

• Weighed 83.0kg this morning. I’m still in a weird place between illness, but I think I’ll need to start intentionally upping the food intake to match the training demands.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. We’re skipping Thursday, since we’re testing for a new belt on Saturday. We’ll see how much the family can do tonight as it is, as the Valkyrie is still in a bad way with this flu.

 Training Log: Entry 3727

AM WORKOUT (0359 natural wake up)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 2, Workout 1

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x6x342

Axle strict press from rack
3x6x166
5x6x166 (failed the 6th)

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) Incline DB bench
4x10x70s

DB row
4x10x135

GHRs
4x10x45

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit up
3x10

Notes:

• As I was doing the squats, I thought to myself “I have no right to feel this strong”. I spent the weekend healing like it was my job, FORCING myself to be inactive as much as possible despite really great weather and a strong desire to get in a walk or some manner of general exercise. It was the right call, for even though I currently sound terrible and am producing a log of phlegm, I’m feeling significantly better. I also took a night time Mucinex product that totally knocked me out, and I got up a minute before the alarm feeling quite refreshed.

• The squats felt strong, the presses didn’t feel bad, but I overextended on the 5th rep of the final set and didn’t put myself in a good position. I spent the weekend with headspins, so didn’t want to push too much harder for that final rep.

• Everything else was solid, especially given the circumstances. I tried calculating my weights for this workout yesterday, and woke up this morning discovering that they were all kinds of jacked up. Don’t mix math and over the counter flu medicine kids. Which, on that note, my guts were a little messed up this weekend for using a medicine that had sorbitol in it as an artificial sweetener, so lesson learned there.

• Weighed 83.2kg this morning, and had a wonderful family dinner last night of spaghetti, a banana bread muffing and 3 of the Valkyrie’s cookies with some raw honey. I’ve also been hammering electrolytes and hot fluids to help my recovery.

 Training Log: Entry 3726

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 1, Workout 5

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x8x322

Axle strict press from rack
2x8x156
2x5x156

(3) Incline DB bench
3x12x65s
11+1x65

DB rows
4x12x125

GHRs
4x12x35

GHR sit up
10

Notes:

• Yeah, I definitely have the flu. I was exhausted and sore coming into this (you can see how often I put my head on the bar), those presses were too damn heavy, and once I got to work I just immediately turn around and came home. My resting heart rate is also pretty jacked up. I’m going to rest like it’s my job and recover.

• I weighed in at 82.2kg and was the leanest I’ve been in months. Completely not the goal, but that’s usually what happens in the first 2 weeks of reversing course on the diet.

• Got to spar against the senior student and one of our black belts last night. Should have won the final match, but a point was missed by all 3 judges. Kicked the guy in the throat. We both acknowledged that it happened, as we stopped sparring and looked at each other waiting for the point to be called. Then we just shrugged and went back at it.

• I remember having more I wanted to log, but can’t remember what it was. Most likely a sign of fatigue.

 Training Log: Entry 3725

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

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 1, Workout 4

“ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT”

15 minute recovery row

Notes:

• I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Perhaps it’s the jumping back into mass protocol immediately following a strongman competition while also engaging in sparring week, to include yesterday’s 90 minute class, but the Valkyrie has also been dealing with the flu, which the kiddo brought home, so maybe I have a touch of that as well. In either case, this was exactly what I needed: more sleep and a VERY easy workout to just get the blood flowing. I considered the option of NO workout, but figured it would actually be good to get some movement in this morning. And I still have one more night of sparring tonight.

• Yesterday’s class is worth discussing, because I’m going to count it toward conditioning. We did our physical testing requirements after our warm ups, which at my rank is 45 push ups (elbows tucked), 45 sit ups and 45 jumping jacks. I endeavor to actually do them with quality, rather than blitz through them. Prior to that, we did 30 reps of those via 2 sets of 15. At the end of class, we did another 30 reps, to make up for reps missed in the previous week. We also ran 5 laps around the Dojang, and then did sparring drills, sparring rounds, and rounds on the Wavemasters for the duration of the 90 minutes. As for sparring itself, I went up against the kiddo again, so not much opportunity for reps, but it gave them an opportunity to get to the finals again and square off against our senior black belt.

• Weighed 82.5kg this morning. I need to start mentally shifting gears to eat to grow, but it’s a balancing act to keep from jumping into the deep end. No shortage of awesome food though.

• I don’t want to necessarily bring back daily work, but I’m endeavoring to get in 2 sets of 15 chins daily, and have so far succeeded in that.

 Training Log: Entry 3724

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 1, Workout 3

MAIN CLUSTER

Axle bench press
3x8x226
7+1x226 (hit the j-hooks)

(6) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
15x440

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

Lever belt squat
12x180 (misload)
3x12x205

Dips
3x12x55
10+2x55

Axle curls
4x12x71

ASSISTANCE

Reverse hyper/ab wheel superset
2x15x360/2x10

Notes:

• I am wonderfully fantastically sore. This happens every first week of Grey Man, and I still just can’t fully anticipate it. It also makes me thankful I don’t have to squat on this day.

• 2 minutes rest on the main cluster, 1 minute rest for the supplemental, none on the assistance.

• First time benching since I injured my pec several months back, and it seems to be holding strong, but I did my best to “bodybuilder” the movement and really FEEL the muscle contract vs just move the bar through space.

• Wore my flat shoes on the belt squats, but realized that I wore my weightlifters yesterday for the squats without any issues. Seems my knee has really come a long way. Trick is to not get lazy about that and keep an eye on it.

• In that regard, the deadlifts felt SO much better at this weight than before. I remember how every single workout with 440 felt like some sort of strength miracle, SOMEHOW managing to get the weight off the mats and then crank out the reps. Today, I got that much better “squeeze off the mats” feeling vs “yank off the mats”, and it moved really smooth. That said, my right hip offered up a playful little warning shot at rep 15, so I shut it down there. I know I could have fought for at least a 16th and, quite possibly, more, but I also know I don’t need to push my limits every time to grow.

• I had to get to work a little early today, so I cut the assistance short.

• Weighed 83.2kg this morning.

• Sparring last night was a decent workout. We did a lot of practice rounds before the tournament, and I felt like I was moving well and scoring some good shots. I made it to the second round, where I squared off against the kiddo. I showed them to stop circling in one direction by leading them right into a roundhouse to the skull, and left a few openings for them to capitalize on and advance to the final round. Prior to that, they earned their spot by taking on one of our problem students who decides to sling leather in a “no-contact sparring” sport. My kid respected the rules enough, but eventually gave the dude back as good as they were getting…and he did NOT care for that. Instructor pulled them aside and talked about control, my kid was very respectful and receptive to the information, but as soon as we got to the truck I told them I was proud of them for standing up for themselves and not letting someone bully them. My kid was great: “My one goal tonight was to beat that guy: I’m so glad I did!”

 Training Log: Entry 3723

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

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 1, Workout 2

“VIKING RAID”

• Row 100m

• Carry 150lb sandbag

• Add 100m to the row each round

• 15 minute time cap

Notes:

• I was about 3/4 done with the 700m row when the timer ran out.

• This is outside the TB framework, and just a refinement of a workout I came up with a few years ago, but it’s very similar to Fobbit intervals. It’s distance based, rather than time, and the row distance increases, rather than being at a fixed interval.

• This had a wonderful training effect. I was certainly getting a conditioning impact from it.

• I was struggling with the bag carry, which I imagine is partly recovering from the competition and the training from yesterday.

• In that regard, I woke up wonderfully sore, which is what always happens the first week of Grey Man, but this was actually quite tonic in that regard. Hit pretty much all the achy muscles and gave them a chance to get in some bloodflow. In general: this is a keeper.

• Weighed in at 83.2kg. Scale FIRST said 82.3, so it’s got dyslexia. Probably need to replace the batteries.

• Tang Soo Do sparring tonight. My favorite week.

• Meant to log this yesterday, but I was in such a deep state of ketosis that the ammonia on my breath was actually giving me a smelling salt reaction during my DB rows. I’ve never noticed it being so strong before.

 Training Log: Entry 3722

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 1, Workout 1

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo bar squat
4x8x322

ALTERNATE w/

Axle Strict Press
3x8x156
7+1x156

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) DB incline bench
12x70s
2x9x70
8+3x70

DB row
4x12x125

GHRs
4x12x35

Notes:

• 

• That’s exactly how I felt getting under the squat this morning. I started Tactical Barbell in Sep of 2024, and on the very first squat workout I was in so much pain that I thought I was going to have to quit the program after day 1, I immediately lowered my training max by 10lbs, and one of my co-workers who say me walking that day asked if I had herniated a disk. That was using 285lbs. This is 40lbs heavier, and I felt incredibly strong and stable under the load, my knee gave me no issues, hips are good, and the weight moved clean. And this is without having done a back squat in 7-8 weeks. The system really works: Operator into Mass into Specificity.

• The other variable at play, which I’m kicking myself for taking so long to figure out, is wearing my grip shirt so that the bar doesn’t move on the squat. Now, I COULD also just use a bar with decent knurling on it, but this is a far more comprehensive approach, because my entire BACK grabs the bar now, vs just a small portion with the knurling. This means my elbows don’t take on the load, and makes this whole process far more sustainable. Also means I can focus more on the squat itself.

• All that said, still an adaptation period coming into these higher reps, and they absolutely sucked. But that’s the point: change things up and get uncomfortable.

• I most likely could have gotten all the press reps with adequate rest/not unloading plates, but I was in a bit of a time crunch. On that note, rested 2 minutes on the main cluster, 1 minute on the DB rows, 60 sec or less on the GHRs, and 1-2-2 minute on the DB incline.

• Need to re-adjust DB incline maxes. It makes sense. I haven’t done any sort of horizontal pressing in a LONG time. My right pec was still being a little weird during the frame pulls in my competition, but I think it’s going to be alright.

• Which, oh yeah, I guess I DID do a strongman competition on Saturday, so coming into hard training on Monday will probably make things a little dicey too.

• Yeeted the ab work due to time. I can get more done later. Same with chins. I’m thinking about bringing back daily chins to get in volume. Now that I’m using the grip shirt, my elbows should be able to handle that. Also, “yeet” is apparently actually a word based on autocorrect.

• Weighed in at 76.6kg…so I said “that can’t be right”, stepped back on the scale and got 82.9 a few times in a row. That’s pretty nuts for a post carb up weigh in after a comp. Which, on that note, yesterday’s family meal was the most delicious tuna casserole I’ve ever had, because along with all the other quality ingredients we topped it with some raw grassfed cheddar I found. That and 4 of the Valkyrie’s cookies with some raw honey. I’m clearly ready to grow again, but I’m going to ensure I don’t eat like an a-hole to get there. I’m enjoying all these frequent trips into Mass Protocol for opportunities to refine the approach.

• Family made it through ABCs yesterday, and I joined them for a tonic workout, but I think we’re going to raincheck tonight’s training. Valkyrie and kiddo are both not feeling awesome.