Training Log: Entry 3761

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

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 8, Workout 3

MAIN CLUSTER

Axle bench press
4x6x251

(5) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
15x455

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

Lever belt squat
4x10x255

Dips
3x10x80
7+3x80

Axle curls
10x86
2x10x81
8+2x81

ASSISTANCE circuit

Reverse hyper
3x15x360

Hanging leg raise
3x10

Notes:

• SI joint really seems to have resolved itself, and I managed not to aggravate it during the workout, so huge wins all around. Still doing the things that keep it happy, which includes swapping the ab wheel for the hanging leg raises.

• Mat pulls weren’t as successful as last week as far as wardrobe goes: bar kept snagging on my thigh. Need to pull up the knee sleeves a little more. But that makes the 15 reps all the sweeter. Feeling very strong on these compared to last time I handled this weight, and managed 9 reps in the first breath.

• Curl weight is just too heavy. Walked it back to last week’s weight, which was appropriate. Will adjust my max.

• Weighed 82.2kg this morning: a 1.3kg drop from yesterday. Also saw some veins on my abs. This has been a pretty awesome training block as far as outcomes go.

• Tang Soo Do last night was lower activity than usual. There is a tournament this weekend that only a few students are going to, so we focused on prepping them. Got in a little weapons work. Tonight is the 90 minute class, so most likely a little more focus.

 Training Log: Entry 3760

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

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 8, Workout 2

“ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BLOAT”

18 chins

20 minute recovery row

Notes:

• Changing things up. In theory, I’m going to hit the sled/prowler on Thurs and do some stone loading on Sat, so my recovery workout slots into today instead. It seems to be a good call as well, as I’m feeling the best I’ve felt since the race. SI joint is not 100%, but it’s in a very good way, and I’m moving fairly painfree. Saw this manifested in the fact that I got over 4000m in the 20 minutes on the rower, whereas last week was slightly over 3700.

• Tang Soo Do “wildcard cardio” is the theme for this week. Should get in some decent workouts.

• Weighed 83.5kg this morning. Called it before I stepped on the scale. Getting familiar with how weights “feel” and my fluctuations.

 Training Log: Entry 3759

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, very good sleep)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 8, Workout 1

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo bar squat
4x6x360

Axle strict press from rack
3x6x168
5+1x168

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) Incline DB bench
3x10x80s
8+2x80

DB row
4x10x140

GHR
4x10x60

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit up
30

Notes:

• Had really good sleep last night, which made it harder to get up and train because I was enjoying it. I like to take the moments to celebrate this, because at the height of my illness, I was sleep avoidant, absolutely hated sleeping, and would get up to train at 0300 because I just couldn’t stand being in bed any more. Big contributor to today is that it’s become grossly humid, so I had a fan pointed directly at me all night, which the combination of cool breeze and white noise put me right out.

• I was a little naughty on the squats and caught myself putting the bar a bit low on the first set. My superpower is that, since I’ve dislocated my right shoulder 6 times, tore the labrum in it and experienced a few dozen subluxations, I can contort by upper body into bizarre positions to achieve a low bar that’s actually illegal in some federations. Cool for moving max loads, but tends to shift the emphasis away from where I need. It being grossly humid has also made it that I’m pretty excited about moving away from low bar and no longer wearing my grip shirt.

• Pressing strength was pretty solid for today. It’s been a struggle with my bodyweight not climbing up rapidly to meet demands.

• That GHR weight keeps changing not because I keep changing it, but because I keep forgetting how much is actually loaded in the vest. I confirmed that it is for real 60lbs, so we’re going with that.

• Went the full week doing 18-17-17 chins. Now it’s 18-18-17. Opened up the workout with 18. Also been including 10-15 unweighted reverse hypers with each session, to help with my SI joint.

• Weighed 83.0kg this morning. Hard to know if I’m looking at “real weight” at this point. The humidity is making me sweat more, I’m coming down from a high sodium week, and this weekend’s gastrointestinal atrocities are a contributor as well, but I had a wonderful meal last night of 6 slices of homemade sourdough pizza topped with all the pork (bacon, pancetta, and lean ham) along with olives and pineapple, and then 3 sourdough cookies and a sourdough brownie alongside some raw local honey. That meal ALSO helps motivate me to train on Mondays.

• ABF may be in a holding pattern. My kiddo is prepping for a track and field day at school, prioritizing running events and the Valkyrie has her next half marathon coming up in May (she’ll be completing 40 half marathons before turning 40 with this one: huge milestone).

 Training Log: Entry 3758

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 7, Workout 5

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x8x335

Axle strict press from rack
2x8x158
2x5x158

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

(3) DB incline bench
12,11,10,9+3x75s

DB rows
4x12x130

GHRs
4x12x60s

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit up
30

Notes:

• Motivation was low for this one, but knowing this workout punched my ticket for the weekend was enough to get me moving. I actually felt much better physically than I expected to. SI joint is ameliorating (there is your SAT word) at an appreciable rate, and including some bodyweight reverse hypers seems to be helping.

• My pressing DID improve from Monday, but it was still rough. This is the hardest day of the program in that regard, so I’m going to hold onto the max and see how next week goes. I’m not putting on bodyweight at the rate I typically do when running Grey Man (I’m usually at about 86kg after 6 weeks), so being able to hold onto that rate of progression, especially into uncharted territory of an extra cycle, is not what I’d expect. This is still experimental.

• GHRs felt better than Monday, same with the sit ups, primarily as a result of the SI joint feeling better.

• Weighed in at 83.6. Heavier this week, which, again, some of it is most likely legit, but I’m also dealing with inflammation and a high sodium diet with all the ham I’ve been eating (and finished off this morning). Be curious to see how weight shakes out next week with a little “detox”

• Took the truck in for maintenance this morning. Had the opportunity to walk, but chose to sit, enjoy the free coffee and read more of “Eat like a Human” by Dr. Bill Schindler. I’ve been feeling a little sorry for myself (physically) for a bit here. I’m wanting to get things a little more “in gear” starting next week, but this was a good week to just ease into the next training cycle and recover from the previous weekend’s stupidity.

• Ideally, we’re going to get back on the ABF train tonight as family, assuming we all feel healthy.

• As much as it was a total war to get them, I am a HUGE fan of these knee sleeves from Elitefts. I genuinely did not appreciate how significant compression impacts performance until I was able to wear double ply knee sleeves through a whole training session. My knees feel like I’m 20 again, and I’m able to move squats smoothly and deeply. I’m actually holding the bar higher on my back now as a result. 

 Training Log: Entry 3757

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

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 7, Workout 4

“ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT”

20m recover row

18 chins

Notes:

• I woke up feeling better than I have over the past few days, but hips are still super stiff, and sitting on a rower for 20 minutes didn’t do much to help that. But it was good to move in general.

• Tang Soo Do last night had a LOT of breakfalls. They’ve actually been somewhat therapeutic to my SI joint: like a cheap chiropractor. We got to work with one of the senior black belts for one-steps as well, and he’s 20, so he can take the falls a lot better and allow us to ragdoll him.

• Weighed in at 83.8kg. I’m sure eating ham for all my meals yesterday was an excellent approach to sodium loading. And it’s on the menu for the next 2 days as well, because leftovers rock.

 Training Log: Entry 3756

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 7, Workout 3

Open with 18 chins

MAIN CLUSTER

Axle bench press
4x8x236

(6) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
15x455

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

Lever belt squat
4x12x240

Dips
3x12x62.5
9+3x62.5

Axle curls
2x12x81
2x8x81

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

Reverse hyper
3x15x360

Hanging leg raise
2x10

Notes:

• Didn’t struggle to wake up for this one like I have in the previous weeks.

• My new knee sleeves make it that I don’t need to wear the sweats to prevent the bar from catching on my strongman shorts, and it also means I can have knee sleeves on for the deadlift. That may prove valuable. In general, these pulls feel a million times better than they did last time I attempted this weight, point of fact being that I had to abandon that cycle last time because it eventually became too challenging. I’m in a much stronger place this time around. 15 reps wasn’t my max today, but with my hip/back (I think it’s truthfully my SI joint) being the way it is, this was the right call to shut it down when I did.

• Bench press weight is perfectly challenging. Everything else COULD have been accomplished with a little more rest, but I was rushing. With this being mass protocol, the goal of getting in a solid pump and challenging myself was accomplished.

• Tang Soo Do last night included break/roll falls, which actually helped my back a little. I wake up pretty stiff/achy, but after I move around I’m in a good way. Better than I should feel, if nothing else.

• Weighed in at 83.3. A .9kg drop from yesterday, which is exactly what happened last week. I seem to be trending up half a kilo this week in general, with this recomp/reverse diet phase very slowly trickling the weight up.

• I need to make a habit of bringing back daily reverse hypers. That’s how I resolved this issue the last time. I also intend to sleep in tomorrow as well, but next week would like to bring back sled/prowler training to get a little more athletic and prep for the tractor pull.

 Training Log: Entry 3755

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

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 7, Workout 2

“VIKING RAID”

15 minutes

• 100m row

• 150lb sandbag carry

• Add 100m to row each round

Notes:

• Opened the day with 18 chins.

• This was like “Viking raid” and more “Viking retreat”, as I was hobbling. The race re-aggravated an old injury in my right hip/lower back that I’ve been rolling out for the past few days. But Chaos is the plan, because I woke up this morning and thought to myself “no way am I picking up a sandbag”, but once I took the dog out (in the sleet, because the weather here is bonkers) and came back inside I felt “good enough”. I moved slow, but I could still feel the conditioning hit from this.

• My forearm/bicep also continues to operate at “good enough” levels, which is a boon this far into low bar squatting. The grip shirt really solved a lot of issues. And I take comfort in the fact that my right knee has completely resolved. Victories where I can.

• Weighed in at 84.2kg. Highest of the cycle so far. I’m sure there’s still a lot of inflammation at play, but I’m also probably finally fully glycogen loaded, as I’ve noticed the past 2 days how much deeper my abs have looked. Which is also the funny thing, as I looked at myself in the mirror before the weigh in and thought “this is a good level of ‘walk around leanness’.”, and then stepped on the scale and saw the highest weigh in for the cycle. A sign of how the scale really only tells a small part of the story.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s one-step week, which is typically low activity, but break falls will be interesting. Our instructor knows that we ran the race, and he’s a recent spinal-fusion recipient, so he may show us a little mercy.