**FUTURE PLANS**

The next competition I have coming up is a grappling comp on 8 Dec, which has me in the 171-185lb weight class.  I’m not concerned with making weight there.  I have a cruise coming up post Christmas (around 26-27 Dec through the new year), which I’m not too concerned about needing to be absolutely peeled for.  I’ve spent the entire summer leaning out, and I feel like, per Dan John, I’m in an excellent position to start gaining.

Thus begins “Operation Conan”  

**THE METHOD**

I’m going to use Tactical Barbell’s Mass Protocol.  Reading the book got me excited about training, and I’ve learned over the years that, when that happens: I should pursue it.

Specifically, I’m going to employ the “Grey Man” program for my general mass gaining program, and the Alpha protocol for my specificity phase.  I was torn between Grey Man and General Mass, but settled on the former because I wanted to be able to include overhead pressing and I felt that alternating between squats and deadlifts will allow me better recovery, and altnerating between bench and overhead press will improve my strength.

For the Supplemental Clusters, my plan is Incline Bench, weighted chins and bodyweight GHRs on the squat and press day, and weighted dips, BW chins and axle curls on the bench and dead day.

I’ll be including the low intensity conditioning through out as well. 

**THE DEVIATIONS**

I’ll be employing the trap bar for the deadlifting portion of the Grey Man program, rather than a barbell/axle.  I feel like this will help a bit more with my recovery, and truth is, I’m WORSE with a trap bar than I am with a straight bar, which should allow a better hypertrophy response.

Along with that, I WILL be including straight bar deadlifting in the program.  I’m going to continue my weekly ROM progression work on Saturdays.  This is a very positive thing for my strength, and whenever I stop doing it, I regret it.  I’m willing to accept the consequences of including it.  I may also occasionally include some sort of high intensity conditioning session when the mood strikes.

I suppose pairing the squat with the press vs the bench and the dead with the bench vs the press is technically a deviation as well, but depending on how you read the instructions in Mass Protocol it’s fine.  This is how Building the Monolith is set up, and it works well.  For my training space, this set up makes more logistical sense.

And, of course, the biggest one: I’m going to continue my carnivore nutrition approach, rather than employing the calorie counting high carb approach advocated in the book.  In the book, the author frequently says he does not recommend a low carb diet, but he also includes “maybe you are different”.  Yes I am K Black: yes I am.  I’ll be focusing on upping the content of meat and eggs I’m consuming, rather than falling back on dairy and pork rinds, as I’ve done in the past.  I’ll include those latter items, sure, but they’re not going to be my default variable to manipulate.  And that’s what is making this “Operation Conan”.  We’re taking on the operator mantel of Tactical Barbell while eating in a Conan approved manner.

I AM considering going back to Feast/Famine/Ferocity as far as my overall nutritional structure goes: going back to 2 week famines and 4 week feasts as a means of keeping bodyfat in check through the process.  That one I’ll figure out as I go.

**EVEN MORE FUTURE PLANS**

My leaning out over the summer happened on accident.  I went to visit my in-laws in May, which become a “cruise” from DoggCrapp, and when I got back home, I had 6 weeks until a strongman competition, so I decided to put DoggCrapp on hold, start more strongman focused training and lean out so I could make the 181 class.  That was how Phryrexian Dreadnought got started, with the first phase focusing on getting back into “strongman shape” and the second phase focusing on competition lifts.  The Jul comp got canceled, I signed on for a similar comp in Sep, and then had a grappling comp in Aug that still required making a weight class, so the Dreadnought got extended through the end of the summer.  That said, I honestly liked how this shaped out: I had spent the academic year follow programs, gaining weight, getting bigger and stronger, and then spent the entire summer training my own way, leaning out, and not having to eat so much goddamn food all the time.

I feel like this wasn’t a bug but a feature.  I’m now in a great position to gain through the holiday seasons, which are, coincidentally, great times to eat.  I’m already 5 turkey legs deep, according to my kid’s tally, with plans to take on several more, with a birthday coming up in Oct and an opportunity to gorge at Texas de Brazil, followed by Thanksgiving, Christmas and the cruise.  And now I know that, when summer rolls around, I’ll have zero issue stripping off whatever adipose tissue I put on and getting myself back down to anatomy chart lean.  It’s ZERO struggle doing that with this way of eating: it’s actually EASIER for me to fast than the eat in most cases.  So I may actually look to make this the annual plan: 8-9 months of following programs and building, 3-4 months on my own and leaning out.

I’m sure I’ll have more to follow, but I’m excited to keep going with this.  I’d love to take some before photos and make this a for real documented journey, but I only have so much bandwidth.  We’ll see what happens.

I feel like I’ll spend the 2 weeks post competition screwing around a little and getting myself ready, and then start in earnest at the end of Sep/start of Oct.

MAXES

Going to lay out the maxes I'll be using for the program, using Jim Wendler's 1rm calculator

Bench: 275

Squat: 420

Trap Bar Dead: 565

DB Bench: 105

Weighted Dips: 325 (this is bodyweight PLUS added weight, per the instructions)

Weighted NG Chins: 260 (as above)

Axle curls: 85

BW Chins: 15

BW GHRs: 30