Training Log: Entry 3747

AM WORKOUT (0358 natural wakeup)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 5, Workout 5

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo bar Squat
4x6x352

Axle strict press from rack
3x6x168
5+1x168

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) Incline DB bench
4x10x75s

DB row
4x10x135

GHRs
4x10x60

GHR sit ups
20
15

Notes:

• I came into this feeling absolutely destroyed. My hips are a wreck from 3 nights of sparring (more on that), but knowing it was Friday and I had breakfast waiting for me compelled me through. Surprisingly, it was the press that was the biggest X-factor, rather than the squats. I DID note that I wasn’t standing fully locked out at the top of the squats, with some forward lean to take some pressure off the hips, but the first set of press sent some electricity down my back/hip, and I lost the second rep forward and had to fight for it as a result. Had to really make a point to keep my glutes locked down. I took a full 3 minutes of rest before the final set to help out there. In general, it was a workout I was happy to come out the other side on.

• I giggled to myself while filming my GHRs realizing that my youtube channel is effectively the world’s slowest snuff film.

• I at least earned my hip pain. I was the Dojang champion last night, sparring through 1 junior student, 1 senior student, and our senior black belt that is always the biggest challenge. In the case of the latter, I threw him off my starting off in the bladed stance that they always tell us to start off in that I refuse to adopt. Much like Inigo Montoya in Princess Bride, it dawned on them that, suddenly “I am not left handed”. But after that, I couldn’t stand to fight like that, so went back to my original stance. It had the intended effect though: suddenly I was unpredictable. This also included sending a rear like side kick to his head, which, for reference, he’s 6’3-6’4 and I am 5’9. It worked because NO ONE expected me to be able to do that. And all it cost me was my hips. A real pyrhric victory: the best kind. Got to watch the Valkyrie take on the entire dojang one after the other in the redemption bracket and work her way back up to me. We had an awesome match, getting into overtime at 2-2, with her scoring a beautiful head crescent kick on me at the end. Good night for the family.

• All THIS said, each sparring week I come out of it pretty wrecked. Even though this is “no-contact” point sparring (or maybe ESPECIALLY because of that), it requires a fair degree of athleticism and agility regularly practiced, and I keep getting older while these kids keep growing more and more into their primes. Our schedules force us to go 3 nights in a row, rather than having a break in between, and by Thurs the Valkyrie and I are totaled. In light of all this, I’m considering pivoting my training and making the sparring week a week where I adopt one of the “Fighter” programs from Tactical Barbell. Basically cut the lifting from 3x week to 2x week. Simplest solution would be cut out the middle day and make it JUST the deadlift workout.

• Weighed in at 82.5kg. Weight continues to remain pretty stable.

• My coffee consumption has increased. I just plain enjoy it, and people at my work are enablers by asking if someone else will have a cup if they make another pot.

 Training Log: Entry 3746

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

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 5, Workout 4

“ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT”

20 minute recovery row

Notes:

• This was just what the doctor ordered (I suppose that would be Dr. Shawn Baker, as he’s super into rowing). I was exhausted at the end of the day yesterday and just passed out, and woke up “broken, bruised, forgotten, sore”. Immediately post row I felt worse, but after going through the rest of my morning, I feel restored and able.

• This continues to be the most “all-in” this block of Mass Protocol has been as far as priorities go. I’ve picked sleep over rucking, and have used the rower as a recovery tool, and the outcomes continues to demonstrate that this is the right call. I make peace with the reality that, when it comes time to emphasize conditioning, that’s what Operator is for.

• Weighed in at 83.2kg. Between a diet rich in salty corned beef and housing a ton of water and electrolytes before bed, that checks.

• Sparring night wasn’t quite as intense last night, but it was a full 90 minute class. We had a lot more junior students, and I was paired off with my kiddo in the first round, so I only got to spar that one round of our tournament. Post tournament we did some rounds of free sparring, and I couldn’t get any of the junior students to come play with me, so I did matches with my hands behind my back to make it a challenge.

 Training Log: Entry 3745

AM WORKOUT (0359 natural wake up)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 5, Workout 3

MAIN CLUSTER

Axle bench press
4x6x246

(2) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
14x440

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

Lever belt squat
4x10x250

Dips
3x10x75
8+2x75 (weight swung too much)

Axle curls
4x10x83

ASSISTANCE (performed in an unbroken circuit)

Reverse hyper
3x15x360

Hanging leg raise
3x10

Notes:

• Was not quite as motivated to tackle this today. Relied on the reality that I simply don’t have an option to delay this workout, since Wed is our busiest day of the week, and I had breakfast waiting for me when I was done.

• Felt very strong on the bench. As I was doing it, thought to myself “I feel like a 300lb bencher again”. It’s been an interesting journey trying to come back to where I was with a healthier approach. For you turbo nerds, this is like Final Fantasy IV, where you start out with Cecil as a dark knight, and he’s powerful, but his attacks take away from his hit points and are ultimately self-destructive, and then you start over as a level 1 paladin, you’re weaker, but you now can heal, and you can eventually grow to surpass your previous self.

• Holy f*ck at those mat pulls. If you’re observant, I missed the grab for the power rack and ended up just falling to the reverse hyper to rest. Definitely blew out some blood vessels, but feeling stronger than I expected. MUCH better than where I was last training cycle at this weight.

• Lever belt squats are really feeling good on the legs. Knee is healthy enough that I can focus on that. Dips were good: final set the weight just got a little too wild on me. Curls are feeling good. I’ve actually noticed my arms have grown, specifically because I normally roll up my sleeves at work, and I noticed I can’t drink my coffee anymore when I do that, because the sleeves compress my arms too much to comfortably raise the mug to my mouth. That’s a real “non-scale victory”

• Which, speaking of the scale, I weighed in at 81.9kg this morning. Part of that was sweating a bunch at Tang Soo Do (more on that in a minute), but I still afforded myself to throw an extra slice of corned beef on my plate as a result. I’m leaning into this recomp/reverse diet phase, since it seems to be working, but, in turn, I’m going to course correct when I see things going a little off kilter. With me eating only 1 meal yesterday, I recognize it was a little on the small side.

• Tang Soo Do sparring night went really well. We had 14 students in attendance, so it was a large bracket. I sparred 3 black belts, with a match with the Valkyrie in between the first and the second one. By all accounts, I won every match, but the final match against our senior black belt went into overtime and I scored a beautiful jump roundhouse to his ribcage…and the judges ruled that he scored a bodypunch on me. We both stared at each other in disbelief, and the black belt even pointed at me and went “Uh, no, he got the point”, but it’s baseball rules. I took satisfaction in us both recognizing it. Our dojang also implemented double elimination that night, so after that was done, I got to spar 3 more matches (2 against senior students, 1 against the Valkyrie), wherein I won the first two and lost a hardfought match the the Valkyrie at the end. It was an excellent test of endurance and I had to stay light on my feet. My matches against the black belts required me to come up with some individual strategies to address their unique tendencies (kinda like playing “Punch Out” back in the day) while I’m still trying to wreck everyone’s game by sparring Tang Soo Do using Bas Rutten’s fighting stance. Knees and hips have been happy enough to be able to pull that off, but we’ll see how tonight goes with 90 minutes of sparring.

 Training Log: Entry 3744

AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm, very good night of sleep)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 5, Workout 2

“Viking Raid”

15 minutes

• 100m row

• 150lb sandbag carry

• Add 100m each round

Notes:

• Was in the middle of the carry on the 6th round when the timer went off. Still can’t beat week 1’s performance, which speaks to the impact of systemic fatigue. But I was definitely putting in effort and feeling the conditioning effect here.

• Body felt better than last week. Elbows and hips played nicer, but part of that was I was a bit less ballistic in the pick up to be a little more gentle on the connective tissues. Once again: it feels good to feel good.

• We did 22 rounds of ABCs last night as part of ABF, and it’s still functioning as an awesome tonic workout for me. However, I’ve noticed that my physique seems to have turned a corner and has returned to being a bit more shapely/bulbous, and it dawned on me that I AM doing a supplemental “bodybuliding” program with my family outside of my own training alongside my (now) 50 chins a day. I’m thinking the little bit of additional submaximal work is paying off.

• Woke up at 83.1kg this morning, which seems to be where I waver. Scale keeps weighing me 6kg less on the first attempt, which means it’s time for new batteries, but is a great “oh sh*t” sorta moment.

• When I have a little more bandwidth, I’m going to try to spitball some ideas for training leading up to the next competition. It’s a ways off, but I’m excited about it, and I’m excited that I’m excited about it. I already ordered my kilt yesterday.

With a name like that, I couldn’t pass it up.

 Training Log: Entry 3743

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 5, Workout 1

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo bar Squats
4x6x352

Axle strict press from rack
3x6x168
5+1x168

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) DB incline bench
4x10x75s

DB row
4x10x135

GHRs
4x10x60

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit up
15, 10

Notes:

• All the pain issues I was dealing with this weekend resolved in time for this workout. I do believe a part of that is having a set rhythm that my body is used to. It knows that, come Monday morning, it’s time to perform. I, once again, felt much stronger than I had any right to this morning, which is a pleasant change from the last cycle, where every workout felt like a miracle.

• I recognized today that all the work I’ve put into making low bar squats viable have paid off, but they are still not enough to make low bar a forever movement. I can still trigger that pain in my forearm just from getting into position: irrespective of if the barbell slips down my back. Ultimately this is a positive thing: I’ve come up with an approach to make this training phase even more viable, but it also means that it’s just that: a training phase. Bar/movement rotation will continue indefinitely.

• Very pleased with pressing performance. The middle week is the most satisfying. Rested 2 minutes for all but the final set of axle: went 2:30. Went 90-90-120 on the incline.

• Got through all 7 days of 16-16-17 chins last week, and opened up with 17 this morning, planning on doing 17-16-17. Kinda Doug Hepburn-esque.

• Weighed in at 82.9kg, and that’s post carb up. We did another sourdough pizza last night. I had 5 slices: 3 from the sheet pan pizza, 2 from the traditional pie pan, alongside 5 sourdough cookies (new recipe) with some raw local honey. The Valkyrie is really getting into the homemade sourdough and I’m absolutely loving it. Being able to fuel up with the cleanest carbs made from home is absolutely incredible, and the results are showing that my body is responding well to it. This has become less a gaining phase and more a reverse diet phase, as I’ve been slowing upping the food and seeing the scale stay the same. As long as the weights in the gym keep going up, I’m good with that.

• Rather than 10 minute walks post meal, yesterday I adopted the strategy of 10 minute hyung/martial arts open hand forms. It was honestly pretty enjoyable. Less anti-social than sulking off for a solo walk or time on the rower, getting to improve my martial arts and work on that hip pain I was dealing with. I may make this a “thing”. I truthfully miss being “all-in” with martial arts.

• Got a big ABC workout tonight with the family for ABF. Also an experiment with beef shanks in the sous vide. We have leftover pizza on standby if it’s a disaster.

 Training Log: Entry 3742

AM WORKOUT (1115)

Tang Soo Do class

Notes:

• This was a semi-decent workout. We did open hand forms/hyungs the whole time, which gave me a moment to have a revelation. I’ve been complaining about my hips hurting all week, and thought I had jacked it up in training somehow. But I realize that this is the new form that we’re learning

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• Look, specifically, at his feet. They’re supposed to always be pointing forward, and all movement is done via the hips. When you factor in that we spent 90 minutes of Wednesday just drilling this form, and that we’ve used every spare minute we have training this form so we can memorize it, it makes sense that my hips are a little achy. I’m hoping there will be an adaptation phase, and maybe it will even develop some stronger hips.

• Otherwise, just an active day. Lotta running around and getting stuff done. Because my hips have been so achy, I’ve held off on adding in more intense training. With it being Mass Protocol, this works out well.

 Training Log: Entry 3741

AM WORKOUT (0630 natural wake up, snooze until 0700)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 4, Workout …5

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x8x330

Axle strict press from rack
8x158
2x5x158
6x158

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) DB incline bench
4x12x70s

DB row
4x12x125

PM WORKOUT (1500)

GHRs
4x12x55

GHR sit ups
1x25

Notes:

• Day off work, so slept in and got the majority of the workout knocked out while the rest of the family was waking up. Cut out the “out of garage” part for later.

• Felt like the gravity was turned up today. Was just getting beat to hell by the training. Didn’t push the axle too hard, but got a PR on the DB press as a result, so I’ll take it.

• While doing my knee rehab stretches, I felt a small pop in my hamstring. Immediately stopped the stretch, and just feel a little tightness in the hamstring, but otherwise nothing too worrisome. I’ll see how it feels tomorrow.

• Been very active with family in town. Easy way to get in steps. Eating a little more as well, which is good for a gaining phase.\

• Valkyrie and kiddo still chugging away on the ABF, and I’ve been joining them at their weights as well, making it a tonic/recovery workout for myself. I feel like all the time pressing with lighter weights has been great for grooving my technique.