TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 4, Workout 2
“ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BLOAT”
20 chins
20 minute recovery row
Notes:
Got 4175m done, 25m more than last time, once again without a specific effort to do more in the time. General fitness is up. I’m legit watching youtube videos of the “200 best gameboy games in chronological order” to pass the time while I row, which is an excellent distractor and totally not motivating to really push the pace.
My body feels incredible. The return to low weight and high reps has been quite tonic. I’ll have to remember this in the future.
Tang Soo Do is sparring tonight. Hopeful for some good activity.
Weighed in at 84.3kg. Still quite high, but typically my Tuesday weigh in is higher than my Monday, whereas this week was a .2kg reduction. Curious to see how this unfolds.
Monday, May 18, 2026
Training Log: Entry 3787
AM WORKOUT (0359 natural wake up)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 4, Workout 1
SSB Squat 4x12x240
Lever belt squat 4x12x225
Axle strict press from rack 3x12x113 11+1x113
(3) Incline DB Bench 4x12x60s
Dips 4x12x27.5
ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT
Hanging leg raise/lateral raise 3x10/20, 15, 10x10lb
Notes:
I strategically picked Clutch’s “Book of Bad Decisions” for today’s workout, because I enjoy irony.
It’s good to get back to the light weights at the re-start of this cycle. For the most part, I’m keeping the maxes the same and just focusing on “owning the weight”, especially since I’m only going to get in 6 lifting workouts before my cruise. Still mulling around the plan for when I return, but I’m ultimately drowning in a sea of good choices, so if need be I’ll just break out the 20-sided die and be good.
My right knee is a little angry these days, which I’ve observed is a product of heavy SSB squats, and I could most likely resolve it by switching to flat soled shoes, but the light weight of this week will most likely be tonic enough. Otherwise, all other connective tissue is feeling good.
Presses were strong today. Rest times were 1 minute for all squats and the dips, then 60-90-120 for the axle and DB.
Weighed in at 84.5kg this morning. Highest of the cycle, which I’ve said 3 weeks in a row now, yet last week also had my lowest weigh in at the end of the week. Been feasting on a lot of high sodium fare, so we’ll see how much sticks, but given this is the mass protocol, some gaining SHOULD be happening.
Got through all 7 days of 3x19 chins last week. Opened up this workout with 20. I’m curious if I’ll be able to maintain this on my cruise.
100 pace distance, 4 minutes rest between rounds. Fastest was 35 seconds and slowest was 41.
Training effect is still being achieved. I am gassed and my legs are pumped at the end. After my bridgeweek, this will move toward harness pulls.
Chaos remains the plan: I’ve decided to reverse my previous decision and just run another week of Bravo. I got a handle on my schedule: I depart on Wed 27 Mar, so it seems pointless to try a whole new program for such a short duration. I’ll get in 6 more lifting workouts this way. I’m keeping most of the weights the same for this cycle and just focusing on owning it.
On the nutrition recap front, breakfast was similar to yesterday, and then did the family meal tonight with 6 slices of homemade sourdough pizza and 5 of the Valkyrie’s cookies (2 sourdough chocolate ship, 3 oatmeal butterscotch chocolate chip) with raw local honey. Also picked these up at the Asian Market.
I’ve been wanting to try anchovies for quite a while, but they’re always packed in Olive oil. This was an excellent solution. And after eating them, I don’t see what the big deal is: they taste pretty benign. Could use some salt. I can see adding these to my breakfast to get in a few more Omega 3s.
Friday, May 15, 2026
Training Log: Entry 3785
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 3, Workout 5
DB rows 4x8x180
Axle curls 3x8x103 6+2x103
GHRs 4x8x80
GHR sit ups 30
Stone of Steel load to platform 215lb stone, 4 rounds, Fail, 1, 1, Fail
Notes:
Final workout of the cycle, and it was stupidly heavy and cheaty: good way to send it out. I also want to celebrate that I look jacked in the thumbnail for the video, which is a real win.
I know those DB rows were lacking in form, but they felt awesome on my back. Fantastic stretch.
Curls were super cheaty. Good forearm pump.
I think the stone was primarily a product of fatigue. Same weight I set a deadlift PR, I’m feeling fried. On the very last rep, I felt my left lower back/hip fire of a warning shot, so I shut down the rep. Might’ve had it if I fought for it. Re-learning lessons: the deeper I lap the stone, the higher it goes.
Got in a lot of general physical activity after this. Mowed the lawn and did some fence repair.
Weighed in at 81.8kg. This is the biggest week of fluctuations I’ve experience on the program. I’m looking leaner than usual: seeing telltale veins that are usually the signs of bodyfat dropping.
Tang Soo Do had some solid physical elements to it yesterday. Decent enough workout. I’m intending to spend the rest of the day laying low, because I feel beat. The Valkyrie was noting that my body was radiating heat last night, so perhaps I’m ill, or my NEAT is just turned up.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Training Log: Entry 3784
AM WORKOUT (0500 wake up via alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 3, Workout 4
SSB Squat 4x8x325
Lever belt squat 4x8x330
Axle strict press from rack 3x8x146 5+3x146
(3) Incline DB bench 3x8x85s 6+2x85
Dip/HLR superset 17,15,13,11/3x10
Notes:
Had the day off work, so slept in. Came up with a million plans on how to skip the squats, and then just knuckled up and did them. The 3rd set went better than the first 2 and gave me hope. The faster I did the squats, the sooner the set was over, and I kept it at 1 minute rest.
Was surprisingly strong throughout. Rested 60-120-120 on the axle, then 90s on the DB. At that point, I was just thrashed and with this being the final workout of Specificity for this cycle, didn’t see a need to use weight on the dips.
Weighed 82.0kg this morning. That’s a 2.2kg drop in 2 days, and a 1.3kg drop from yesterday. Apparently I was holding a lot of fluids. Things are fitting better, but it also makes feeling stronger today even more remarkable. I also don’t hurt as much as I expected after the deadlift yesterday.
Tang Soo Do last night was a decent workout/amount of activity for the 90 minute class. At one point, we played a ring toss game, where, if you made the toss, you didn’t have to do they physical exercise on your deck of doom. I intentionally threw all my rings on the floor. I told my instructor “I’m not going to ‘win’ an opportunity to not do exercise”. They respected that.
My competition has been moved from 8 Aug to 29 Aug. Gives me an extra 3 weeks to train for it, but I also don’t know if I want to spend 12 solid weeks in competition prep mode, so we’ll see. Chaos is always the plan. They also changed the weight classes, so now there’s only 4 groups to choose from, apparently something highland games does. I may go in the heaviest group, based off deadlift weight.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Training Log: Entry 3783
AM WORKOUT (0358 natural wake up)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 3, Workout 3
Texas Deadlift Bar Deadlift 9x455 (+3 rep PR)
DB row 4x8x165
Axle curls 4x8x93
GHR 4x8x75
ASSISTANCE
GHR sit up 20, 15
Reverse hypers 3x15x270
Band pull aparts 3x25
Notes:
I genuinely have no idea where those deadlifts came from, but I’m thankful for them. Anything above 6 was a PR with this weight. I wanted 10, would be satisfied with 8, wound up at 9. Actually had some difficulty finding the floor on the set: I’d hit one side and then the other. My strap set up had some issues, so I think that was part of it. May have actually had that 10th rep if I wasn’t fighting the bar the entire time. I’m definitely shot to hell from the training and due for that bridge week coming up, but that just makes this even more awesome. And the moonwalk afterwards is always a joy. I also came VERY close to blacking out at rep 7, after managing to hold my breath for that long.
DB rows felt better than I deserved. Seem to really be responding well to the heavy weight. GHRs were awesome too.
Dropped the weight on the reverse hypers. Noticed last week that they lit my hips up, and started to wonder if they were yet another contributor to my hip pain. My back is getting enough stimulus between the SSB, deadlifts and stones: this can be more of a rehab effort.
Tang Soo Do last night was more about precision than anything else. Not too terribly active.
Weighed in at 83.3kg this morning, 3rd week in a row that I dropped .9kg on Wed. Fun to see the consistency.
I have the next 2 days off work, and my in-laws are coming into town. Schedule is going to be a little nutty, and I’m already dreading tomorrow’s squat workout, but it’s the last one of the program.
I realized that we’ve taken a monthlong hiatus from ABF due to various obligations and competitions. Valkyrie has expressed interest in starting it back up again. I’m thinking the reduced pressing volume could actually be a contributor to my axle press not progressing as rapidly as it was previously.
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
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.
