Dave G's Metcon For Muscle Log

Training Logs
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@Christian_Thibaudeau
Hello Everyone,

I’m a bit late to the party here but very interested in getting started. I’m currently 48 years old, 5’6" and 182 lbs. I did take a photo this morning that I’ll post later. I also have training log going over in the training log section that has some recent videos. (Dave-G: Training Log)

I’ve just returned from a week of vacation during which time I did relatively little training. I considered it a bit of deload before getting started on Metcon For Muscle after having just completed Thib’s ‘Jacked Athlete’ plan last week. That program got fairly heavy towards the end.

On the day before I left on vacation I did a run through of the ‘Day 8 Physical Labour’ session just to get a feel for it and because I wanted to get one more challenging session in before taking most of the week off. I very much enjoyed the style of training.
The workout looked like this:

A1. Snatch Grip High Pull: 155 x 3 (I’m not sure what my 1RM is on SGHP as I’ve not trained that movement ‘heavy’ for a while; I estimated my current 1RM to be about 275 which would give a 60% training load of 165 but I edged down just slightly due to not having done this movement regularly for some time)

A2. Barbell Curl Walk: 65 x 20 steps (the prescribed load is 20-30% of bodyweight but, given my current bodyweight of about 182 lbs this would mean somewhere between about 37 and 55 lbs and 65 lbs actually felt very light so I stuck with that)

A3. DB Clean and Press: 40’s x 5 (the prescribed load is whatever load would normally be used for a set of 10-12 but I’m not sure exactly what that would be for me as I’ve never trained this movement in this way so I took a guess; this was more challenging than the loads on the other movements but that might have been due to the pace that I was trying to keep)

A4. Two Hand Anyhow Walk: 35’s x 10 steps/hand (the prescribed load is 20% of bodyweight which I took to mean 20% in each hand therefore I went with 35’s in each hand; I’ll likely bumped this up to 40’s next time around)

I returned from vacation last night and got right to work today on Workout One.

August 20th, 2022 - Phase One, Week One, Day One

A. Above Shoulder Two DB Carry: 20’s x 120 seconds
(this was very tough but maybe I’ll start at 25’s next time)

B1. Standing Barbell Press: 145 x 5, 5
B2. DB Lateral Raise: 15’s x 15, 15
B3. Overhead DB Carry: 15’s x 60 seconds, 60 seconds
(again, the pump was very significant, might go to 20’s on B1/B2 next time

C1. Bench Press: 280 x 5, 5
C2, Dip: BW x 17, 12
C3. Bear Crawl: BW x 60 seconds, 30/30 seconds

D. Dip Top Position Hold: BW x 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 15 seconds

E. DB Bench Press Loaded Stretch: 20’s x 120 seconds
(very challenging but might try 25’s next time)

My total workout time was 23:30. I’ll have to be a bit more diligent about my set up next time as I forgot to take down the plate storage pin at the top of my rack and I smashed my head off of it on my first rep of Dips.

I really liked the workout. The format is a welcome change from anything that I’ve been doing in recent years. I like the comparatively short sessions too.

Coach CT, I plan to focus more on fat loss than muscle growth during this program. I was thinking of doing the first couple of weeks at perhaps 15 or 16 times bodyweight for calories and then work down from there over the course of the program. I’m about 13 pounds heavier now than I was when I completed the Leaner, Stronger, Faster camp with you a couple years ago and I would be looking to lose roughly that amount of weight here. I recall on that plan we started around 16 times bodyweight and worked as low as 9 times bodyweight on rest days in the final weeks of the program. Do you think something similar is advisable here, within the context of the Metcon program?

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@Christian_Thibaudeau
August 21st, 2022 - Metcon For Muscle - Phase One, Week One, Day Two

I’ve done the first two training days back-to-back which is obviously not ideal. My reason for doing so is that I intended to do Day One on August 19th however I extended a trip that I was on prior to that by one day and therefore did the first workout on the 20th. I opted to do Day Two today because I start a new position at work tomorrow and I will be driving to pick up my new issued vehicle which will entail about a 10-hour round trip. I’m not sure what other ‘first day’ stuff I may have to deal with on top of that so I’m counting on maybe not having time to train tomorrow evening. I should be able to stick to the EOD format from there on out, maybe with the odd exception.

Anyway, the session today went very well except for some technical difficulties with the sled pushing and pulling. I train at home and tried to get my Prowler to work on the grass but it was not the greatest at all. I will figure something else out for next time.

The workout went like this:

A. Prowler Push: Two minutes continuous with 50 lbs added on the Prowler (prescribed weight is +25% BW so 50 lbs was a bit over but close enough

B1. Back Squat: 320 x 5, 5
B2. Leg Extension: 70 x 18, 17
B3. Sled Drag: Prowler + 50lbs x 60 seconds, 60 seconds

C1. RDL: 315 x 5, 5
C2. Leg Curl: 70 x 16, 13
C3. KB Swing: 70 x 60 seconds, 60 seconds

  • the prescribed BW % for the swings would have been about 55 lbs but my KB’s jump from 44 lbs to 70 lbs so I went with the 70 lbs

D. Goblet Squat Hold: 60 lbs x 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds with 15 seconds rest between the first three holds and 25 seconds rest before the last hold

E. Bulgarian Split Squat Iso-Hold: Left leg forward: 60 seconds / 15 seconds rest / 60 seconds; Right leg forward: 60 seconds / 15 seconds rest / 45 seconds / 15 seconds rest / 15 seconds
*the hip flexors and quad on my left leg are quite noticeably tighter than those on the right

Very solid workout. Need to troubleshoot the Prowler thing though.

Also, I’m not sure why my avatar does not show the Surge Challenge member logo. I purchased the Surge kit and I spoke with Jarred to get everything squared away. He said that I was good to go to set up my log and get started. My avatar only shows the Loyal T Club logo. Not sure why or if this matters at all.

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Im follwing along, been a while since I logged in here with regularity, but you were one of the Indigo lab people yeah? If so its cool to follow along with this long term kind of progress

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@Lonnie123

Good day, Sir. Indeed, I was in on the Indigo Project years ago and I remember your name from that time as well. Congratulations on getting picked for the Metcon program - given your work ethic you’ll do great with this, I’m sure.

I was looking for a new program as I just finished up Thib’s ‘Jacked Athlete’ program and I decided to purchase the Surge Challenge kit and jump in on this. I’ve dropped alot of body weight since the Indigo days when I was chasing alot more size and I was looking for a program that emphasized conditioning this time around so this looked appealing. I’ve always done well with Thib’s programs (in fact, I did online coaching with him for a couple years fairly recently) and this program is significantly different than the ones that I had been doing. Two workouts in and I’m really liking it so far.

I’ve been following along with everyone’s Metcon logs here and I’m very interested to see everyone’s progress as we move through it.

Thank you for checking in. Great to hear from you.

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Go into your profile and I think you can choose which sticker shows if you have multiple.

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@TrainForPain - right you are Sir. Thank you. I have switched it to show the Surge Challenge member logo.

Much appreciated.

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August 23rd, 2022 - Metcon For Muscle - Phase One, Week One, Day Three

This workout went very well…except for the *%#@ Chin Up Iso Hold. That was a bit of a mess for me. I held the top position with my chin above the bar no problem but accumulating that much time was much harder than expected, even using straps. I knew it would be tough but this was much harder than any of the Iso Hold sets on the other workouts so far. Out of a total training time of 34:00, I bet I spent over 6 minutes accumulating 2 minutes of hold time on the chin up. This was an eye-opener for sure.

I used more weight than prescribed on the Farmer’s Walk and these still felt a bit light. I used straps to make sure that grip strength was not the limiting factor and I could have handled a bit more weight for the prescribed times. I also used more weight than prescribed on Zercher barbell carries. I’ve done alot of these over the years and have worked up to 275 (not for a full 60 seconds mind you) on them before so a work weight of 95 here was not too bad. Going by the prescribed percentage I would have been using about 55lbs.

A. Farmer’s Walk: 100 lbs (trap bar) x 120 seconds

B1. SGHP from Hang: 175 x 5, 5
B2. DB Shrug: (1212 tempo) 55’s x 15, 12
B3. Farmer’s Walk: 100 lbs (trap bar) x 60 seconds, 60 seconds

  • should maybe have gone a bit lighter on the DB shrugs given the 2 second top hold and stretch hold on each rep; it got hard to stick to that tempo as the sets wore on

C1. Pendlay Row: (3010 tempo) 225 x 5; 205 x 5
C2. Chest Supported DB Rear Delt Raise: 15’s x 15; 10’s x 12
C3. Barbell Zercher Carry: 95 lbs x 60 seconds, 60 seconds
*lightened the load on Pendlay Row for the second set to ensure that I got a 3 second eccentric on each rep

D. Chin Up Iso-Hold: BW x 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 20 seconds, 20 seconds, 15 seconds, 15 seconds

E. Pull Up Hang Stretch: BW x 60 seconds, 40 seconds, 20 seconds

Total workout time: 34:00

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That hold and hang is the toughest part of the workout! Oddly enough I had a harder part with the hang even with straps.

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@CEZAR

I found the hang stretch to be much less of an ordeal than the chin up hold but I often include a dead hang as part of my warm up - not a two minute hang of course but probably in the neighbourhood of 30 seconds or so - so I’m somewhat accustomed to that. The chin up hold on the other hand, while I certainly didn’t expect it to be easy, was far more challenging that I had anticipated. Lots of room for improvement there.

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August 24th, 2022 - ‘off’ day

Sticking with the EOD lifting schedule, today was an ‘off’ day. For many years I’ve done conditioning and ab work on my ‘off’ days from lifting. I’m keeping the extra work minimal while on the Metcon plan so as not to hamper recovery although, after years of always doing a bit of work on my rest days, I think my work and recovery capacity should be okay here.

It was a short session during which I did some calf work and some ab work mixed in with some explosive work. Less than 15 minutes of total work. Got a decent sweat going and then took the dog for a 45 minute walk. After that, I went to the beach and went in the lake for about 20 minutes

A1. Standing Safety Bar Calf Raises x max reps 2202 tempo
A2. Bodyweight Calf Raises x max reps 2202 tempo
A3. Jump Rope x 60 seconds

B1. Ab Strap Hanging Knee raises x max reps
B2. Body Saw (on turf, using furniture sliders under my feet) x max reps
B3. Medicine Ball Slams AMRAP 60 seconds

I alternated sets of A circuit with sets of B circuit, completing each 3 times with no rest between rounds.

@Christian_Thibaudeau - Coach, I may have missed it somewhere in the Metcon plan or in the forums, but what do you recommend in terms of caloric intake (as a multiple of bodyweight) and macros for maximal muscle growth or for maximal fat loss on the Metcon plan? Thank you.

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August 25th, 2022 - Metcon For Muscle - Phase One, Week One, Day Four

Physical Labour Day - AMRAP in 30 minutes

A1. Deadlft: 5 reps @ 315 (60% 1 RM)
A2. KB Bicep Walk: 20 steps @ 40lbs (a bit over 20% of BW)
A3. DB Clean and Press: 5 reps @ 45 lb DB’s
A4. KB Suitcase Carry: 10 steps/arm @ 40 lbs (a bit over 20% BW)

Completed 12 rounds in 29:13.

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August 27th, 2022 - Phase One, Week Two, Day One

A. Above Shoulder Two DB Carry: 25’s x 120 seconds
(increased the weight from 20’s to 25’s this week, still able to do two minutes unbroken with arms at lockout throughout)

B1. Standing Barbell Press: 150 x 5, 5
B2. DB Lateral Raise: 15’s x 17, 12
B3. Overhead DB Carry: 25’s x 60 seconds, 60 seconds
(B1: increased by 5lbs over last week; struggled a bit to get 5 on the second set due to taking almost no rest whatsoever; might have to drop weight a bit on second round next time to be able to get all 5 reps with 3 second eccentrics)
(B2: got two more total reps across the two rounds at the same weight compared to last week)
(B3: increased from 15’s to 25’s here and still able to get 60 seconds unbroken)

C1. Bench Press: 280 x 5, 3
C2, Dip: BW x 18, 12
C3. Bear Crawl: BW x 60 seconds, 60 seconds
(C1: only got 3 on second round due to taking almost no rests whatsoever up to this point in the workout; will either take some rest next time or drop the weight a bit on round 2)
(C2: got one more rep than last week)

D. Dip Top Position Hold: BW x 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 15 seconds (basically the same performance here as last week but the workout went faster with little rests so fatigue was higher)

E. DB Bench Press Loaded Stretch: 25’s x 45/45/30 with 15 second rests between bouts of work
(was able to do this unbroken last week at 20 lb DB’s but fatigue was definitely a factor here due to very little rest between D and E)

My total workout time was 22:30. This is one minute faster than last week using, in some cases, higher loads. Fatigue was definitely a factor but overall I see some performance improvement over last week and I’ll take that as a win.

@Christian_Thibaudeau - would you recommend slowing things down a bit, taking a bit of rest here and there and keeping the loads going up or concentrating more on beating the clock (without sacrificing technique of course) and not focusing on increasing the load unless it becomes too easy?

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August 28th, 2022 - ‘off’ day
Short ‘extra’ session today. Bit of calves and ab work with a conditioning element built in. Took just over 16 minutes. No rest between exercises, 15 to 30 seconds between rounds. Did 3 rounds.

A1. Standing Safety Bar Calf Raises x max reps 2202 tempo
A2. Bodyweight Calf Raises x max reps 2202 tempo
A3. Jump Rope x 90 seconds
A4. Seated Weighted Cable Crunch x max reps
A5. Swiss Ball Crunch x max reps
A6. DB Snatch - Alternating arms x AMRAP 60 seconds

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August 29th, 2022 - Metcon For Muscle - Phase One, Week Two, Day Two

A. Prowler Push: Two minutes continuous with 50 lbs added on the Prowler (the Prowler does not push well on grass at all, no matter what I’ve tried, so I got a bit pissed off and just did a backward drag instead because at least that slides reasonably well. Really need to come up with a better plan for this. There are a few gyms in town with sleds and turf but none of them are set up well for the circuit style of these workouts)

B1. Back Squat: 320 x 5, 5
B2. Leg Extension: 90 x 15, 14
B3. Sled Drag: Prowler + 50lbs x 60 seconds, 60 seconds
(increased the load by 20lbs on Leg Extension from last week)

C1. RDL: 315 x 5, 5
C2. Leg Curl: 90 x 16, 13
C3. KB Swing: 70 x 60 seconds, 60 seconds
(increased the load by 20lbs on Leg Curls from last week)

  • the prescribed BW % for the swings would have been about 55 lbs but my KB’s jump from 44 lbs to 70 lbs so I went with the 70 lbs

D. Goblet Squat Hold: 60 lbs x 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 15 seconds with 15 seconds rest between the holds
(same weight as last week but got a longer first hold and used less rest between the 3rd and 4th holds compared to last week when I had to rest 25 seconds between the 3rd and 4th.

E. Bulgarian Split Squat Iso-Hold: Left leg forward: 120 seconds unbroken; Right leg forward: 90 seconds / 15 seconds rest / 30 seconds
(big improvement here over last week; right leg forward is still a bit tougher than left leg forward though

Total workout time was 30:05 vs 34:40 last week. Not all of that is a performance improvement though - I had some set up issues last week that I had sorted out before starting the session today.

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Dave in the workout 4 description he says not to sacrifice form/performance for time, and I imagine that Carrie’s over to the other workouts as well.

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August 30th, 2022 - ‘off’ day

Did another short session with some calves and ab work with an element of conditioning added. Also, began tracking calories and macros yesterday. Currently aiming for 15 x BW for cals (works out to about 2700). I’m aiming for about 1 gram of protein/ pound of bodyweight for now and splitting the rest of the cals across carbs and fats, skewing a bit higher on the carbs on lifting days. I’ll give this about a week and see how it affects the scale and then make adjustments. Over the course of this workout plan, I would imagine I’ll ratchet down the bodyweight multiplier to effect some fat loss. In doing so, I may also bump up the protein and decrease the carbs and fats, as needed, closer to the end of the plan.

Anyway, today’s short mini-workout went something like this:

A1. Donkey Calf Raise: to failure, 2 sets
A2. Standing Bodyweight Calf Raise: to failure, 2 sets

B1. Hollow Body Hold: 40 seconds, 40 seconds
B2. Banded Crunch: max reps, 2 sets

Conditioning:
C1. 200m run
C2. Power Clean x 10 @ 135
C3. Swiss Ball Crunch:
Did three rounds of this with a descending number of reps in each round of Swiss Ball Crunches so I did 50 reps, 40 reps, 30 reps

Nice and short. Got a good sweat going. Headed to the beach right after a dinner of calf liver, potatoes, and broccoli.

Very much looking forward to the ‘Pull’ day tomorrow. I am really enjoying the set up and pace of the Metcon workouts. Although, that damn chin up hold is tomorrow - that was a rough go last time but I’m determined to improve upon last week’s shoddy performance.

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The holds are so brutal, when you need to use your chin as an assistance aid you know shits bad haha

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Sorry, for missing some questions. Been sick for 3 days and really I’m just catching up.

Honestly, the answer is the always underwhelming “it depends”.

For example, because your daily activity level can heavily influence caloric expenditure which would tend play a big role in caloric intake recommendations.

Another factor that people don’t often factor in is your current and previous caloric/food intake.

For example, someone might have been eating 2200 calories for several months and another one, at the same body weight might have been ingesting 4000 calories per day for several months. If they both go to 2000 calories/day they will have completely different changes occur despite being of the same weight because the body does adapt to a certain caloric expenditure.

It is likely that the guy who was previously ingesting 2200 calories might see a very small amount of weight loss while the guy who was at 4000 will see a dramatic weight decrease.

And there are other factors at play too. For example, the MORE insulin you produce, the LOWER your metabolic rate (thus energy expenditure) will be (look up the work of Dr. Ben Bikman). This can be influenced by the food choices you make and by your level of insulin sensitivity.

While calories in vs calories out is the main factor involved in weight gain or loss, it is overly simplistic to only look at that variable.

So I can’t really really give you a specific number to shoot for. The best I can do is give you an adequate number when it comes to weekly weight changes to shoot for.

For fat loss, shoot for a 1% weight drop per week. For example, if you are 200lbs, aim for losing 2lbs per. week. Up to 3 (1.5%) would be acceptable, but more than that (except for the first week) might lead to rapid metabolic adaptations and maybe muscle loss. So adjust your caloric/food intake to reach that level of weight loss.

As for maximum muscle growth. The maximum average a non-beginner can build is around 1 - 1.5lb per month. For maximum growth I’d accept a 1 to 1 muscle to fat/water/glycogen gain ratio, or about 2-3lbs total per month… so I’d shoot for that… maybe up to 1lb per week. So again, adjust food intake to have a weight increase of 0.75 - 1lb per week. More than that you are likely going to gain too much fat.

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The goal should not to beat the clock. I prefer to maintain a higher quality and see performance improve.

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No worries. I hope that you are feeling better.

I haven’t been tracking calories or macros in the last couple of years, although my daily intake is roughly always in the same ball park and my bodyweight does not fluctuate much at all.

For the purposes of this program, I started tracking things yesterday with a starting point of 15 x BW for calories, about a gram per pound of bodyweight for protein, and the rest split between carbs and fat. My plan is to stick to that for about a week and adjust down to 14 x BW if the scale weight has gone up, stayed the same, or gone down less than 1%. if it goes down greater than 1% or 1.5% then I’ll likely stay at that level of intake until my weight levels off.

Let me know if that thinking is flawed.

I should add that, as the program goes along, I would be prioritizing fat loss over muscle gain with this approach.

Thank you.

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