Alpha's Work IV

Training Training Logs
381

Pano: I don’t mind people asking questions about my gym at all, in fact i welcome it! It is just the job with the gun that i don’t want to talk about…And yea, since we are a fairly small location and are limited with staffing since we just started up, we run classes almost every day of the week. It is a bear with my schedule, but I make due. Most of my days start before 4:00 Am and I don’t even sit down to dinner until around 8 - 9:00 at night. But hopefully all of the work will pay off in the long run.

I really like running classes though. And to be honest, they really aren’t like classes. They are more like practices. If someone doesn’t show up, the other athletes will text/call them and get on them because we operate as a team. Everyone wins together and conversely, loses together. The entire gym stops when someone is going for a PR and every single person is elated when someone gets one. The conditioning together is shared suffering and it seems to bring people close fast, as you learn a lot about someone on a very intimate level when you are both just pushing through hell together. Then the strength portion is more individual, but people are always pushing each other to get better. And then the Event stuff is full of competition with each other. All of the athletes are trying to beat each other’s time/reps despite different weights because of different experience levels.

I have throw a few people out of the gym and given them there money back because they were negative or just sandbagging too much. Stuff like that is like cancer and will spread if it is not dest with. Since it is my gym and my prerogative, I have the option of doing that. It may hurt my wallet, but to me, it is not worth the drop in quality of athlete I produce or a dip in the environment like BJack mentioned.

As the gym grows, I plan on adding more classes and don’t think I will ever get rid of them for all of the reasons listed above. As manpower and demand rises, there will be more “open gym” time where people can just come in and do their own thing if they want, but I will always be holding a few “practices” a day for people who really want to become better individuals and competitors.

I look forward to seeing what you took the time to write man. It is a scary thing to bear part of your soul like that. I commend you.

BJack: Hey brother!!! Great to hear from you and thanks for the response you wrote to Pano. It means more coming from someone who has experienced it than it does coming from me.

That is awesome news about finding a facility, but selfishly, i cannot wait until you make it back. You add a lot to the dynamic when you are there. Everyone misses you and asks about you. We had a guy sign up last week who is an all American high school wrestler who finished 5th in nationals this past season (as a freshmen). He and I are working a lot on his strength and takedowns and I think he has a good shot at winning Nationals this next year. He would be a perfect training partner for you. You would definitely push this guy to be better. I am sure you will meet him soon when you are back in town!

Miss you man! Text me the address and time of the big competition this Saturday, if I get back in town in time, I will try to make it out there to cheer you on!

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“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.” --Arnold Schwarzenegger

MONDAY, 20APRIL2015 - Work For Today
Wave 1/Week 7/Day 1

CONDITIONING - Non-Stop work for 12 Minutes
:30 Seconds Max Effort Kettlebell Swings
:30 Seconds Double Unders

STRENGTH
1 Conventional Deadlift @ 595lbs
30 Sledge Hammer Swings
100 Foot Prowler Push
1 Conventional Deadlift @ 615lbs
30 Sledge Hammer Swings
100 Foot Prowler Push
1 Conventional Deadlift @ 625lbs
30 Sledge Hammer Swings
100 Foot Prowler Push
1 Conventional Deadlift @ 635lbs
30 Sledge Hammer Swings
100 Foot Prowler Push

ACCESSORY GIANT SET
Sumo Deadlift: 315x5, 405x4, 500x3, 550x2, 585x1
Reverse Hyper: 180x10, 230x10, 270x10, 270x10, 230x10
Toes to Bar: 15, 15, 15, 15, 15

EVENTS - 4 Rounds, As Fast As Possible
50 Foot Keg Carry 225b Keg
50 Foot Duck Walk 150lb Kettlebell
50 Foot Atlas Stone Carry 215lb Stone

NOTES:

  • Deadlifts felt like death today. I knew I was in trouble when 595 felt heavy. Normally this is a pretty fast rep for me. Not today. I think I am a little bit rundown from last week. I can never pull that heavy after a big rep week prior. I hit 500 for something like 30 total reps last monday and was pretty crippled from it. It showed today.
  • 635 was slow and a grind. That is not normal, but what are you going to do?
  • First time I have put any real weight on the sumo deadlift in like a year. i was surprised to hit 585 and will probably keep this in my Accessory bag for a while with he idea that if my sumo goes up, so will my conventional.
  • Major lower back pump after the giant set…like, still walking funny, kind of back pump…brah
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@Bjack @alpha,

thanks alot guys. Great to have such feedback!

Conditioning before strength is mostly avoided as the plague, but most people who live the real world need muscular endurance greatly. I guess this is going to be my new way to train. Pushing hard and taking my mind of things is just what I need right now. Life isn’t working out great lately.

Just go all in, don’t look back. I love it. Easing into things isn’t toughening me up. Suffering is just a gift of life, a chance to get strong it seems.

About removing sucky people, you can’t be more right. I heard in Russia they say: a drop of tar can screw up a whole barrel of honey.
When I’m at MA class, the crazy people help you and push your boundaries, the insecure, ‘reasonable’ people are no fun to be around.

You kinda sound as a dreaded crossfit gym: conditioning, strength work when fatigued and classes with groups;)

One last question: Are you fond of getting married to a bunch of excercises? Or do you see carryover enough to focus on patterns instead of excercises?

Good luck to both of you!

383

Okay, one more question:)

what exactly is warrior athlete training? I just know it’s what you guys do, but don’t really know about the system in itself except “get in, do the work, get out”-mentality.

384

That’s a great progress picture. Your shoulders look like cannonballs!

385

One really last question:) hahaha

what about explosiveness? Do you do some explosiveness training (snatches, jumps, med ball, sprints)?
I really asked this myself because you do so much conditioning that speed work will suffer I guess.

And if you don’t do explosive work yourself. How do you recommend it in a workout.
Before conditioning, then your strength stuff wouldn’t really be helped.
After conditioning, then you wouldn’t be very explosve anymore I think.

Maybe some thoughts on it guys?

386

Really appreciated your insight into the conditioning before strength. I have been trying to follow a program loosely based on yours when doing weights, but was always worried how the conditioning would affect the strength, but I may try ramp things up a bit.

Sounds like you have a really good atmosphere at your place. I have noticed a massive difference now I can join the rest of the squad when rowing on the concept2 in terms of motivation. Just going back to the mental battle, how do you motivate yourself and focus your mind to train at that intensity on those days where you are training on your own and fatigue (both mental and physical) and outside distractions from life threaten to ruin your workout?

Anyway keep up the good work man and thanks for taking the time to post in my training log, despite how busy you are in a day.

387

[quote]Alpha wrote:
A pic that one of my friends sent me from earlier today…I guess I am considering this a progress pic??[/quote]

Damn what a sizzling hunk of man meat!

(No homo … obviously)

388

Btw still can’t get my head around what you put yourself through with you job and your gym, plus your dedication to you training, diet, continual personal development etc. You are an inspiration brother and deserve every bit of success you get.

389

hay alpha,

any particular reason for the change to a more upper/lower split with the strength stuff? Joint stress?

390

[quote]ANIMAL M0THER wrote:
hay alpha,

any particular reason for the change to a more upper/lower split with the strength stuff? Joint stress?

[/quote]

I’m going to field a guess and say recovery and volume.

391

Pano: Yea man, you could say that it was similar to a crossfit gym, but for strong people. I think crossfit has gotten quite a few things right, the main one being the comrade built in their classes, so i adopted a similar idea.

Exercises question: Ummm, I would probably say that I am married to a few exercises and their variations. For me they would be the deadlift, squat, clean, overhead press, weighted carries and bench. Variations of those is really all I do. I have not touched a machine in years and do not believe you can replace any of these exercises and get the same results. I do not isolate muscle groups or believe that substituting compound movements for easier movements will get you the same results. So, basically, I don?t think you can replace the above movements and their variations. I guess I am married to certain ones.

Warrior Athlete: The best short answer I can give man is to head to my site and read up. It is a name that I came up with to describe my programing and how I train people. It is more about combining the mental and physical aspects of training. Here is how I describe it on the site:

Warrior Athlete has been called many things by many people…Most of which have not been overly positive. Insults such as “Idiotic”, “Over training” and “Irresponsible” have been some of my favorites thus far. However, offenses such as these do not bother me. Why? Because these colorful monikers have been applied by NORMAL people…and NORMAL people will never have what it takes to do what a Warrior Athlete is asked to do every day.

You see, when I write the Warrior Athlete programs I don’t have the “average” Person in mind. These sessions are designed to be a line in the sand; it separates those that CAN from those that should stay behind the people getting it done. An easy day for a Warrior Athlete will break a “normal” individual…but being who we are, we are charged with the massive responsibility of protecting these “average” people who are so quick to judge. Their worst day and biggest fears are our Tuesdays. Too many of them have forgotten what hard work really feels like and what the satisfaction of constant and never-ending improvement can do for a person.

The sessions are made to strengthen every fiber of your soul, physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. We are rebuilding something primal inside of each of us that a coddled, soft society has tried so desperately to breed out. Each and every day is a stretch. Completing these sessions hardens us to the cruel reality of what is asked of us on the blackest days of our collective existence. Days where if the strong do not rise, than all will fall…This is where we fit. This is what we were put on this earth to do.

What separates us is not our genetics, skill or knowledge; it is our drive. The drive I speak of is not an innate characteristic in any man. It needs to be fed, it needs to be nurtured, it needs to be tested. It is the drive that tells you to keep fighting when the entire world around you is screaming for you to stay down. It is the Drive that makes you keep pushing forward when every single solitary thought in your head is telling you to quit. It is the Drive that will bring innocent people around us home safely to their families at night. We are not building better bodies. We are building a better society.

We have no time or energy for people who quit when things get hard, who give in mentally before their bodies give out, and who only train to look good oiled up on a stage. We are a results and performance based team who strengthen each other, push each other to higher levels than we ever thought possible…and we will be there, running toward what everyone else is running away from when things go bad.

This is our calling.

This is who we are.

This is Warrior Athlete.

Explosiveness: If you go to my site and read the programming I put out every day, you will see that every third week is a speed week for whatever big compound movement the workout is based upon. With four main strength movements, that means every single week has at least 1 speed day and 1 rep day in place of the strength work.

Also if you just go to my site and read the daily workouts you will see things like sprints, plyo, stuff, medicine ball slams, sledgehammer work…all of it…in the conditioning every day.

In my programming, speed work, and explosiveness are not mutually exclusive and both are often combined into the conditioning portion. Or it is thrown in during the strength giant set. For instance, today’s workout had KB Swings/Double Unders for the conditioning. That would be speed, explosiveness and conditioning all rolled into one.

Then the strength was heavy deads/sledgehammer swings/prowler push. So that was Strength, explosiveness and conditioning. i do not believe that you need to separate the categories. Warrior Athlete combines them all at once. I hope I am getting my point across here and it answers your questions. Really man, I would just head over to the site. I have over a year’s worth of info, workouts and articles over there.

LiftingStrumpet: Thanks so much! …I literally just typed…and then deleted like 4 different responses, but all of which really made me sound like a douche. So i will just leave it with the thank you!

IronWarrior: To echo what BJack said, some people may have a little trouble for a week or so, just the same as starting a diet or switching up any program but then you will quickly adapt and it won’t be a problem. Most of the people who have tried doing this actually feel like their strength increases because they a fully warmed up and their CNS and muscles are primed for work.

It is just like a MMA fighter or boxer hitting mits prior to going out to fight. You work hard backstage, blow out your first lung and get a good sweat going. That conditioning session is not going to negatively effect his performance in the ring, it is going to improve it because he has prepped his body for what he is about to do. I try to do the same thing in my programming. So today was heavy deadlifts for the strength section, so I did KB swings as part of my conditioning so that my hips, legs, lower and upper back would all be ready for what they are getting ready to go through with the heavy deads. I prefer it, you should give it a try.

As far as getting the work done when i physically don’t want to be there…Physically, (I am actually writing an article about a similar topic right now) i always have an intent for each workout. So if it is a AMRAP set on my last round of deads or 10x3 squats @ 85%, i will walk through the doors and tell myself that that is all I need to get done today. I will do the minimum required reps to fulfill my intent for that workout. Usually after I do that, i feel better and will add from there. Really it is just about getting in and moving. The hardest part for most people is just starting and deciding what to do. If you have an intent for each workout, then that is already decided for you. If you still physically feel like death after your intent is done, then you can leave knowing you still competed the most important aspect of the workout.

Mentally, I think knowing that I am getting it done when 99% of the population would have bagged it in motivates me. I take pride in being able to suffer more than anyone else. I also remember why i am there (why I train) and I think about how truly fortunate I am that I have a working body and a competent mind and not taking advantage of that privilege is truly repulsive to me. I have a lot of friends who would literally give their life for one more chance to push themselves to the point of puking. Guys who would give up the rest of there lives just for the ability to walk across the room…When you put it in perspective, being lazy is about the most selfish and disrespectful thing you can do. Like Pano said, suffering is a privilege that most people take for granted. Arnold said, “I’d rather be dead than average.” I wish I would have said that, because it is how I truly feel. You have to choose to be average, you have to have settled. I will never settle. That is why I named my site NEVERsate. As in my desire for never ending improvement will never be sated. Every single breath is a gift, and (bc of my brain tumor) I will never live to be an old man. I’m going to make sure very “gift” I receive, I take advantage of. When i think like that, I find it very hard for me find excuses not to train.

And I am never too busy to check out what you are up to in your log. You and I go pretty far back on here and I really appreciate and respect the work you put in. You are an inspiration yourself, Keep it up!

justrob: Thanks man, I really appreciate that! I am doing nothing more than trying to make the most of what opportunities I have. But it means a lot that you would say something like that!

ANIMAL MOTHER: Not at all man, no joint stress. Pano related it to an upper/lower split so I kinda agreed to help him understand my thinking. But it is still full body every day when you look at the conditioning and events. Also, It was just time to switch things up to different strength programming, so I went with more of a cube method so that we could concentrate on different variations of each lift. After this, it will either be some bastardized version of DUP or we will go back into the full-body ramping sets. In my programming, I try not to stick with anything former than 10 weeks or so. I am a little bit different, I can run the same junk for years on end just by changing up rep schemes, but I have to think of my athletes’ attention spans and how their bodies are holding up. Some of them are fairly new to the lifting game and aren’t as familiar with when to push and when to back off, so self-regulation can’t really happen as easily. That is what I think you are seeing. I hope that answers your question brother!

…ok I think that is all of the questions answered…If i missed any, I apologize, just re-prase them and i will do my best to answer.

392

As for the conditioning before lifting thing, I recently incorporated and can echo what BJack and Alpha said. It might be a rough start, but I actually just set a 5x5 record in my squat weight, so it cant be hurting too much.

In addition to the “CNS Priming” effect it has, it also keeps fat gains at bay, and kind of redefines in your mind what hard work is… It’s been very beneficial for me, and I’m kicking myself for looking at it for so long saying “No way I could do that!” instead of just doing it.

393

Feeling kinda giddy you give me a nickname:)

Thanks man, I just connected the dots and understood neversate is your site. It hadn’t clicked, I was searching for 'alpha tnation"…

I will check it out right now! I thinks I adjust it here and there from what I’ve seen on your log.

Starting with the essay right now (om smartphone tho)

394

Thanks man for the long answer. Stepped up the conditioning today and yeah I was definitely taking it too easy. Today’s was brutal and I only did 8 minutes of work!

Really enjoy reading the insight into your mentality. Although there is always room for improvement in any training programme, I do find there a lot of good ones out there, but the challenge is to get it done and to truly push myself regardless of other distractions, long day at work, lack of sleep etc.

I am enjoying the current sessions I am doing and am hoping to build the capacity to add a bit more fairly soon. I felt destroyed after the insert today, but my deadlifts still went fairly solid.

395

Lonnie: I am really glad that it is working out for you brother! And the fat loss/repellant is never a bad thing either! It means a lot more coming from you guys than it does coming from me, so I really appreciate you guys saying what you have.

Pano: Yea man, I wrongfully assume that most people on here know my website, but that is wrong. I am sorry for the mix up, I hope you like what you read over there!

Ironwarrior: Man, some of the shortest ones are the worst. There is no pacing, just a flat out sprint…And I thank you for giving me a platform upon which to pontificate my mentalities, hahaha. Seriously though, trying to get out my feelings on mentality are tough to just sit down and write. When I get a good question like yours, it just kind of flows out. I am really glad the pre-conditioning idea is working out for you. Like I said above, your testimony means a lot more than my words.

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Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.? ?Edgar Allan Poe

?The true genius shutters at incompleteness - imperfection - and usually prefers silence to saying the something which is not everything that should be said.? ?Edgar Allan Poe

?Invisible things are the only realities.? ?Edgar Allan Poe

TUESDAY, 21APRIL2015 - Work For Today
Wave 1/Week 7/Day 2

CONDITIONING - 8 Rounds
60 Meter Hill Sprint
60 Meter Bear Crawl
25 Burpees
50 Double Unders
** Rested only the time it took me to walk back down the hill.

NOTES:

  • Currently In less than stellar workout conditions at the moment, so I had to make due…Hill sprints always make me want to die.
396

There has been great information and discussions these last few days so thank you everyone!

Alpha, I was wondering if I could come to your gym on a Friday or Saturday.

397

Really nice work on those axle presses. How are you liking doing it with the lifting shoes?

398

Nice site. Pretty intense dude! Are you a devote Christian. Just curious, no hate intended.

I probably take your layout, but take fewer excercises and a different loading scheme. I guess this is going to be easier to track and build some.

I’m going to post a concept I wrote a time ago here. Hope you could give your opinion, alot of people don’t want to burn their fingers on it I guess. It was written before I found out about your method. Heavily influenced by Max Shank (awesome guy).

The essay will here soon. I wrote the half yesterday, but erased it by accident:(

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Working out mon, tue, wed, fri and sat.Â

Part 1 ) Explosiveness  
Every day.  
After a warmup :  
SUPERSET  
A ) power snatch from blocks ( just above knee ) with double progression : 10x1 built up to 10x2, each day 1 more, add 5 kg when reps met.  
B) box jump ( focus good form / hip extension, not height ) 10x1  
C ) Mobility drill ( hip flexor emphasis )Â

Part 2 ) Stength  
Wed and Sat.  
SUPERSET  
A ) deadlift : double progression working up to 5x3  
B) dips : double progression working up to 5x5  
C ) Mobility drillÂ

Mon, tue and fri.Â

  1. front squat: double progression working up to 5x5Â
  2. pull ups: double progression working up to 5x5 (keep abs on hard, focus on scap movement, hold it at the peak for a sec or 2)Â
  3. Mobility drillÂ

Part 3) Density work  
every day, start really light and build up  
21-15-9 structure  
Behind the neck press and full contact twist on DL day.  
military press and l sit on squat days.Â

400

Part 4) Conditioning  
After each DL day: Sprinting 5x75m. 2,5 minute of mobilizing as rest.  
After Squat day 1 and 2: Farmer walks, 5x75. 1 minute of mobilizing.  
After Squat day 3: 10 forward rolls, 10 shoulder rolls each side, 10 cart wheels each side. Maybe 2 or 3 rounds. Start easy, go up from there.

This is pretty much what I postes, hope you have some ideas for improvement. 
The goals are partially named above. Athleticism (all-roundness:strength, power, work capacity, mobility mostly) is my main objective.