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.

Training Log: Entry 3775

AM WORKOUT (0358 natural wake up)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 2, Workout 1

SSB Squat

4x10x290

Consider praying to Crom, then realize he won’t listen anyway

Lever belt squat

4x10x270

Axle strict press from rack

2x10x136

7x136

8+4+2x136

(3) DB incline bench

4x10x70s

Dips

10,8,6x67.5

15xBW

ASSISTANCE

Hanging leg raise/band pull apart circuit

3x10/25

Notes:

I came into this feeling better than I thought I would. I was wiped out yesterday from all the activity, and though I wasn’t super excited at the prospect of sets of 10 with 1 min rest on squats, I was ready, willing and able.

Which yes: 1 minute rests for all squats, and it still absolutely sucks and I have no idea how I’ll somehow manage to do it again with even heavier weights next time, but we find a way. I went 60-90-120 for the axle press, 60-60-90 for incline bench, and 60s on dips. Really didn’t care about the dips by the time I got there.

Though the press sets fell off at the end, the first set, in particular, felt stupidly light, and it was awesome to toss around 135 like an empty bar again. I’m rebuilding to where I used to be.

Got all 7 days with 19-18-18 chins. This week starts 19-19-18.

Weighed 83.6kg this morning. Not at all surprised at that number: we ate out a lot and I took in TON of sodium. The sodium isn’t going to change: doing kalua pork tonight. But I’m also going to not eat like a prom queen as specificity finishes up, because it’s such a nut kick.

Only 1 Tang Soo Do class this week: tomorrow. This week’s schedule is pretty nuts. In turn, I may get in a walk tonight while my kid is rehearsing at a function.

 Training Log: Entry 3774

AM WORKOUT (0359 natural wake up)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 5

DB rows
4x12x130

Axle curls
4x12x76

GHRs
4x12x60

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit ups
20,15

EVENTS

Stone of Steel to platform

• 5 rounds of 1 min on, 2 min off

• 185lb stone

• Triples for all rounds except 4: got 4 there

Notes:

• I am so proud of myself for figuring out this day. It is so much more valuable than my previous rounds of Bravo, where I swapped in chins in place of deads (which, on that note, still opened up with 19 chins) and it takes around the same amount of time. I could actually squeeze in a little bit more assistance work, especially if I did some pull aparts during the 2 minutes rest on the stone.

• Pretty much got that platform figured out. I know what the final step will be to get it to really rock and roll.

• My hamstrings and glutes were magnificently sore from the previous workout of GHRs. It’s so fascinating how the smallest change in stimulus can achieve that novel training effect still. It’s what I dig about the rotation of OMS.

• Also appreciate how this workout functions where I up the weights from the previous Bravo workout but accomplish them in a less fatigued state compared to post deadlift, so they move easier.

• That platform feels pretty high to load on and I’m happy with my ability to get the stone there. On the 4th round I tapped into my inner Conan and just sent it, whereas I was exercising caution in the previous rounds. Still building up my skillset again, but I’m upping the weight as I go and feeling comfortable with it.

• This opens up an opportunity to do some prowler sprints this weekend. I’m really liking how this protocol is shaking out, even if I’m building the airplane as I fly it.

• Weighed 82.7kg. I’ve been eating big these past 2 days. Today is a coffee fast day leading into the weekend.

 Training Log: Entry 3773

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 4

SSB Squat
4x12x265

Look for lungs on the floor. 404 Error: Lungs not found.

Lever belt squat
12x200 (misload, called it a warm up)
4x12x245

Axle strict press from rack
2x12x123
10x123
8+4+2x123

(3) DB Incline Bench
3x12x65s
10+2x65

Dips
12,11,10x45
9+4+2x45

ASSISTANCE

Hanging leg raise
2x10

Notes:

• I dig that “superhero” pose that the thumbnail caught.

• This is EXACTLY why I only ever run Specificity for 3 weeks: it is absolutely brutal. Elements of Deep Water/Building the Monolith, wherein you complete the first workout of the week and think “How the f–k am I going to get the NEXT workout done?”, and then somehow you do it.

• It was fitting that “Terrible Lie” was playing during the SSB squat, because I kept lying to myself saying I was going to rest longer than a minute between sets. It was the lie that allowed me to get the set done, and then 45 seconds would roll around (I rest that long to allow me 15 seconds to get up and unrack to make it a full 1 minute of rest) and I’d get back under the bar again, telling myself “you knew this was the only way this was ever going to go”. And each set I kept falling for it.

• Kept 1 minute rest on the lever belt, then went 75-90-120 seconds on the axle, 60-90-90 on the incline, and 1 minute on the dips. Recalculated the dips to get a more reasonable number to work with for the load.

• Had to employ some rest pausing to get all the reps today, but in general very pleased with my performance. I think this is my most successful block of training to date. Body is feeling pretty decent day post deadlifts. My right knee hurts, but that’s primarily due to smashing it with a wooden staff in Tang Soo Do last night. Which, on that note: solid workout for 90 minutes. Lots of basics and hyungs/kata.

• Weighed in at 82.2kg. Yesterday was NOT a fasting day, nor did I restrict (as evidenced by the photos of dinner), so this is an interesting data point. Must have been holding onto a fair bit of fluids. And I’m using a slightly different rhythm for nutrition, having breakfast today as well and moving the coffee fast to tomorrow.

• Had a really awesome realization about this training block and future ones: now that I have a simple set-up for stone loading, I can actually include that in a regular training day vs an events day. Noise was the primary limiting factor before, BUT if I do the stones at the END of the workout, that’s the time that my wife is up and getting ready, so I won’t wake her, and my kid can sleep through a nuclear bomb going off, so that’s not a concern. PLUS, training stones at the END of a workout is actually closer to the conditions I’ll have to do stones in a competition, so there’s a bit of realism there as well. And then I can free up my Saturday workout to train other skills. I’m going to test this out tomorrow, making the “B” workout of Specificity a mat pull on the first day and stone load on the second, and then, when I transition to Operator, I can either do stone loads on Mon and Fri with deads on Wed, or just do stones on Fri, deads on Wed and keep Monday light to allow for recovery. Lots of options/potential.