Brandon's Backyard Buffoonery

This I really like.

This sounds fkn horrible. So I guess I kinda like this too. LOL

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11/19/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 8, Day 2 (deload)

Axle Muscle Snatch + Klokov Press - 66 x 1+1, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5, 4+4, 3+3, 2+2, 1+1
Viking Thruster - 88 x 3, 6, 9, 12, 15

Axle Curls - 23 x 50

20:29

  • I paired the snatches with the thrusters while working up the ladder, then ditched the thrusters while going back down. Wasn’t by design, just called an audible based on the clock. I wasn’t actually planning any down sets at all. The curls were one all-out set at the end.
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11/20/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 8, Day 3 (deload)

  1. Double KB Clean & Press (2x35’s) - 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
    2a) Chins - 6, 6
    2b) Dips - 12, 12
    2c) Heels-elevated Prisoner Squats - 20, 20

19:15

I think the kettlebells are my second favorite implement right now, behind the stones. I just think they’re a little different than everything else; almost like doing “hang” cleans and snatches. I also think it’s funny that they inspire so much division. The pro-KB crowd thinks they’re the greatest thing ever and all you need. The anti-KB crowd thinks you’d be better off doing pilates. As always the truth is in the middle. My goal is to do 10x10 with the double 35’s, and then move up to using a 35+44.

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I love how KBs make the quick lifts far more accessible to the average trainee. It’s going to take me a LONG time to clean or snatch a barbell, but the KB variant can be learned quick enough. Really opens up a lot of avenues.

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11/21/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 8, Day 4 (deload)

  1. Sandbag Clean & Press each rep (100lb) - 10 singles
    2a) Inverted Rope Rows - 12, 12
    2b) BW Tri Ext on ropes - 15, 15

19:20

One of those rare 10% workouts where you go in feeling like crap and leave feeling like the Hulk. I wasn’t even sure I could press that sandbag; I’ve only ever done it a few times and definitely never in the AM on an empty stomach. By the last few reps I was making them look like speed singles. Fear is the mind killer.

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11/22/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 8, Day 5 (deload)

  1. 100lb Keg Clean & Press + 20 ft OH Carry down and back - 1 + carry, 2 + carry, 3 + carry, 4 + carry, 5 + carry
    2a) Pullups - 6, 6
    2b) Wide Pushups - 15, 15
    3b) BW Face Pulls - 20

18:18

  • First snowfall of the year. Not enough to make things dangerous but enough to inspire some Rocky 4 vibes.
  • The more that I think about it, the more this 20-rep squat add-on idea doesn’t seem like such a good plan after all. A few reasons-
    *1. I’m feeling way too damn good right now, I’ve been chasing this feeling for way too long, and I’m incredibly hesitant to risk screwing that up. 20 rep squats are definitely a “newborn baby wreaking havoc on everything” type of disruptor.
    *2. The 2 horses/1 ass conundrum. All my effort and belief right now is focused on putting heavy weight overhead. Everything else I do is meant to support that. I just don’t care to take energy away from that to focus on the squat, or anything else, unless I thought it was the thing holding me back from reaching my primary goal (which I don’t).
    *3. I like the totally unplanned nature of what I’m doing right now and was immediately getting anxiety over the fact that I had to do “x weight for 20 reps on Jan 1st” (would’ve been the last day of the cycle). It may not work for all, but being able to make a gametime decision everyday is working out great as a dude in my 30s who has other shit going on besides lifting.

I’ll meditate on this over the weekend but my gut is telling me that I should keep on keeping on. Yesterday’s workout and the way I’m feeling day-to-day are proof that I got a good thing going right now, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

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Good work on that dude. You remind me of one of my favorite lines from NiN’s “Even Deeper”

“And in a dream I’m a different me
With a perfect you, we fit perfectly
And for once in my life I feel complete
And I still want to ruin it”

I fall for this SO much. Everything is going good, so of COURSE I have to ruin it. You came up with a great plan with the 20 repper: it just needs a right time now. Once things AREN’T going good, that’s a great time to give it a try.

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Thanks man. If I ever need a break from this program, or god forbid I have some kind of injury that forces me to take a break from pressing overhead, well now I have a 6 week backup plan that’s guaranteed to be transformative also. That’s how I see it anyway.

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11/25/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 9, Day 1

Axle Clean & Press each rep:
66 x 5
88 x 3
99 x 1
110 x 13 singles in 10 minutes

Assistance during warmups:
Rope Chins - 3x5
Pushups - 3x15
Heels-elevated Prisoner Squats - 3x25

29:44

This was another good workout. That’s the most volume I’ve done with 50kg on the axle taking every rep from the floor, and I did it at the end of the workout after all the assistance work too. The deload/reload week of shorter workouts did it’s job.

Playlist highlights - Static X, Fear Factory, Korn

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that made me want to train. thanks

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11/26/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 9, Day 2

  1. Atlas Stone Clean & Press each rep:
    65 x 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
    95 x 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Assistance b/w rounds:
2a) Lateral Raises - 10’s x 10, 10, 10
2b) Hammer Curls - 10’s x 15, 15, 15
2c) Good Mornings (+20lb vest) - 25, 25

Finisher after everything else:
3) Atlas Stone Clean & Press each rep: 95 x 3 in 60 seconds

29:36

  • That was another good workout. That was my first time doing reps on the big stone. Goal is to build up to doing 5 RPM with it, and then add a bigger one to the arsenal.
  • Vest good mornings turned out well. Plan to use the vest for squats/lunges as well. Also thinking of doing some carries for lower body assistance; farmer style with KB’s in hand or front carries with a sandbag. Just looking for some leg variety but nothing that veers into the territory of “main work”.
  • Playlist highlights - Symphony X, Dream Theater, Queensryche

Meal plan for today -

  • Breakfast - 6 pasture raised sunny side eggs, .5lb of pasture raised beef shoulder roast from my friend’s farm cooked into birria, a potato cooked into home fries, a banana and some blueberries. Would have liked some peppers/onions chopped into the potatoes but no tengo.
  • Lunch - Leftover Shepherd’s Pie of .5lb of grassfed lamb, mashed potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion. Also 3 pasture raised eggs on the side, cooking method TBD.
  • Dinner - Baked Potato stuffed with .5lb grassfed ground beef cooked a la taco meat, some peppers/onions sauteed that I will grab at the store today, homemade hot sauces, homemade guac, and some grassfed sour cream. And 3 pasture raised eggs on the side, cooking method TBD.

I don’t plan on logging this every day but wanted to give an idea of what I eat, especially after that thread I started. I hate the idea of protein shakes (or any powders/supplements honestly), refuse to eat outside of the typical “3 meals a day” schedule as I’ve found it to be social suicide, and have zero interest in counting or weighing anything beyond what the package already says. My lifts are going up, my body composition is awesome, and my recovery is great; zero plans to change anything.

4 Likes

11/27/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 9, Day 3

30 minute circuit, cycling between implements every 2 minutes:
Keg Clean & Press each rep (100lbs) - 5 sets of 4 (alternating hand placements each rep)
Circus Dumbbell Clean & Press each rep (51lb) - 5 sets of 2 (1 per arm each set)
Sandbag Clean & Press (100lbs) - 5 sets of 1

Assistance b/w some of the rounds:
Inverted Row on ropes - 3x10
Dips - 3x10
Sandbag Front Carry (100lbs) - 3 sets of 30 yards

29:45

  • This was the 3rd straight day of heavier implements/lowish reps, and I could definitely feel that my “top gear” wasn’t quite accessible due to fatigue. Wouldn’t normally arrange things this way, but rain is forecasted overnight so I’m expecting an indoor kettlebell workout tomorrow, and then I’ll be traveling Friday so that’s another KB workout. Thus, my “light days” this week will be pushed to the end. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, I guess.

@T3hPwnisher Isn’t it interesting how quickly the meat and eggs thread devolved from “am I eating enough of the good stuff?” to “what is the definition of meat? what counts as milk? how many meals should I space this over? does it matter if I’m bulking or cutting?”. So much paralysis by analysis, majoring in the minors, and letting perfect be the enemy of good.

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Yup! It’s exactly why I aimed to provide the simplest nutritional protocol possible for the book. “Eat meat and eggs when hungry, stop when not”. Because we see what happens when you give people just a degree of latitude on it. Dan John talks about this too, when asked “What should I drink” and he responds “Water”, and people go “Like
just water?”

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11/28/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 9, Day 4

1a) Double Kettlebell Clean & Press each rep (2x35’s) - 1-2
9-10-9
2-1 (100 reps total)
1b) Prisoner Squats - 10 sets of 10 (b/w about half the rounds)

29:21

That was a little harder than it looked on paper. Not necessarily from a muscular standpoint, but the squats and the cleans combined just had me panting like a dog. I originally wanted to do the squats between all the rounds and get 200 total. Something to work towards, I guess. The 8-9-10-9-8 part of the C&P pyramid was especially spicy.

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You wrote that it was bodyweight about half the rounds on the prisoner squats. Does that mean you were doing them with the KBs behind your head for half the rounds?

I love this workout! You hit everything with it. Kind of a deconstructed ABC.

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Haha not quite, the “b/w” is my shorthand for “between”. I just did sets of 10 prisoners squats between most of the lower rep rounds of C&P. No weight on any of the squats. The higher rep C&P I needed the rest to actually rest!

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11/29/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 9, Day 5

30 minute EMOM, at the start of every minute do 5 4-count burpees (150 total)
1-arm KB Snatch (35lb) - 40 sets of 5 (200 reps total, divided evenly b/w arms)

29:32

Kind of like Kalsu. I did a set of snatches every minute, but every third minute I made it 2 sets so that I would get to 40 total. That was a good travel workout when all I brought was a kettlebell and it was too wet to use the nearby playground. I need to be doing burpees more, my conditioning has dropped ever slightly.

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12/2/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 10, Day 1

Axle Clean & Press each rep:
66 x 5
88 x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Assistance here and there:
Chins - 5, 5, 5
Pushups (+20lb vest) - 10, 10, 10
Heels-elevated Prisoner Squats (+20lb vest) - 15, 15, 15

28:38

  • Huge, huge PR on the 5x10. I may have done that weight for that scheme in the past on strict press, but never with taking every rep from the floor, and certainly not with the axle. Grip was honestly the limiting factor; on the last few sets I actually had to let the bar rest on the ground in between the last few reps (normally I touch-n-go). I have a beater bar I could use if need be, but I think the axle is definitely making me stronger in ways the barbell wouldn’t.
  • Probably not the right call for assistance today - arms and abs would have been a better compliment to this workout. Need to remember that if I repeat it and try to beat this benchmark.
  • 22 degrees outside this morning. Honestly wasn’t as bad as it sounds, I had 2-3 layers on and my privacy fence blocks out most of the wind. And the body warms quickly when you stay moving. Hands are really the only issue because gloves wouldn’t work with these workouts. I just keep them in my pockets between sets.
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Outstanding work on that PR dude! Great to see the effects of your hard training.

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12/3/24 - Chaos Is The Plan: Week 10, Day 2

  1. Atlas Stone Clean & Press each rep - 65 x 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
    1a) BW Curls on ropes - 12, 12, 12
    1b) BW OH Extensions on ropes - 15, 15, 15
    1c) Atlas Stone Squats - 95 x 10, 10, 10

28:00

  • Most pleasant surprise of this program so far - bicep growth. It makes sense with all the snatching and cleaning of odd objects, but it’s like waiting for test results, you don’t really believe until it’s in front of you. My girlfriend’s new favorite catcall for me is “hello biceps”. She’s also taken to calling me top heavy, which seemed impossible given my oly lifter past.
  • The stone squats were a great “functional” exercise, but kinda missed the mark for leg assistance. My upper back, grip, and lungs were hurting way more than my legs. Still chasing the dragon trying to find a good fit there.
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