Can confirm the Omnibook is Excellent. Definitely one of his finest texts.
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Slept until 0630, dog was going nuts, brought it downstairs, fed it, got in a Tabata squat and push up workout while it ate and immediately went on 2 mile walk with dog after that.
Came home, Valkyrie made amazing breakfast, signed up for 2 strongman competitions.
30 SEP: Strength Games V at Johnston Iowa
14 Oct: QRF Strongman Invitational
Currently 11lbs below the lowest weight class and weak as a kitten: rock on. Already developed a way to make Easy Strength and MMS work for this. Boxing is most likely going to get hung up again while I shift focus toward events stuff, but this will be a small pivot. Will flesh it out when I have more time.
Had a lot of pork ribs and chopped brisket for lunch, came home, got in this workout
DEATH BY STONING
EMOM, 20 rounds of 1 135lb stone to shoulder and 5 burpee chins, then went on a 2 mile walk with my kid
Already figuring out where to get in the events work.
Valkyrie made Crack Chicken for dinner. Made it with some real high quality ingrediants. Goatās milk cream cheese, grassfed New Zealand Cheddar, āSmart chickenā chicken breast (local company, uses air chiller technology, kinda unique), Trader Joeās brand ranch seasoning and Trader Joeās no sugar bacon. It came out amazing. Super anabolic. Told my wife and kiddo they have a job to fatten me up like cattle for this competition.
On that note: brunch tomorrow. Carnival rather than Rampage. Will Rampage with steak dinner tomorrow.
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Remind me what ācarnivalā is if you donāt mind.
Excited to see your competition write ups , those are always fun to read
Was supposed to be ācarnivoreā. Autocorrect.
Appreciate it dude!
Haha I was over here like ādude is going to town on funnel cakes and deep fried twinkies on a Ferris wheel?ā
That makes much more sense
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Itāll be cool to see how this shifts in the strongman direction. Certainly more time to focus on event work.
Also, I ran across this:
Curious if you still feel that way now that youāve completely revamped your eating philosophies.
yes but this would be true chaos. LOL
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@Lonnie123 and @simo74 I have definitely thrown down on more garbage food than that, but I actually feel like Iāve found a solid balance with this approach. Big carnivore brunch, then a carby meal with homecooked food in the evening. Actually did that tonight: venison steak and piedmontese sirloin for protein, homemade sourdough bread and local sweet potato with raw local honey on both, alongside some fresh local fruit (apples and pears), and then some homemade āhalfling oatmeal sweet nibblersā for dessert (3 of them to be precise) alongside half a glass of fairlife skim milk. Fairly clean carbs, lots of food: think thatās mission accomplished.
@LoRez Appreciate it. When I have a bit more time, Iāll lay it all out, but ultimately very little will need changing. Iām going to put the boxing to the side and use my time after ES that ISNāT MMS to do some event work. Ultimately, Iām done training for competitions. I show up, treat it like an events day, and move on. I donāt have time in my life to not do the things I want.
Regarding being run down: I gotta imagine itās the āhaving testosterone levels ABOVE that of a pre-pubescent boyā thatās really the X-factor in how I feel these days, haha. But how Iām eating is definitely gelling with me a LOT better than it was then.
Quick sum: got up at 0700, tabata bodyweight squats and push ups while dog ate, walked the dog 1.5 miles while wearing a 60lb vest, stayed fasted until brunch at 1000, several plates of eggs, much bacon, the topping of about 5-6 slices of pizza, some breakfast sausage. Felt queasy for a while afterwards: some of the eggs were part of a veggie scramble, and some of the slices of pizza had some mystery sauce drizzled on top. I may need to just keep my nutritional ship closer to the shoreline.
Mowed lawn and edged outside in sun for 2 hours, did 5 minutes of burpee chins for 56 reps total
dinner of steak, sweet potato, sourdough, raw local honey, fresh fruit, 3 halfling oatmeal sweet nibblers
and a half a glass of fairlife skim, then 3.5 mile while outside with the family.
Day 2 of MMS tomorrow morning. Plan is to PSMF until dinner tomorrow, and I think thatās going to be the way forward after Rampage days. I have even MORE to write about nutrition, so hopefully no one is bored of that yet, but Iām less changing things and more discovering WHY Iām doing what I do.
My dad is recently ācoming into the foldā on this stuff, so Iām chatting away with him on it. Itās been pretty awesome.
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You definitely have this mate, and I am very happy for you.
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That truly means a lot @simo74 A family man like you gets it.
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I honestly laugh so hard when I read comments on here about how hard training is for people to fit in and they are in their 20ās with no kids. Training is the easiest part of anything I do. Balancing everything else and feeling happy without guilt, frustration or selfish is another thing altogether.
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@simo74 Absolutely. Iāve had people get legit offended when Iāve used the phrase āwe all get the same 24 hoursā. Argue for your limitations and you shall have them.
AM WORKOUT (0355 natural wake up, snooze until 0410) FASTED
MESS: Mass-Easy, Strength-Simple Workout 4/MMS Workout 2
EASY STRENGTH WORK
Axle continental and strict press away/weighted chin (underhand) superset
3x3x146
3x3x13.25lbs
(3) Axle deficit double overhand deadlift
3x3x215+chains
Standing ab wheel
1x10
Reverse hyper
75x180
MASS MADE SIMPLE WORK
COMPLEX A (row-clean-front squat-strict press-squat-good morning)
1x3x95lbs
1x3x115
3x3x125 (1 min rest between complexes)
Buffalo Bar Squat
2x30x102lbs (1 min rest between sets)
1.25 mile walk w/40lb vest
Conan Curls (band curls w/band around wrists)
1x33
Notes:
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This day works so well. As I was walking post workout, I was just upset with myself that it took me THIS long to figure it all out, but at least I did and now Iāve got this tool in my toolbox as well.
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Coming into this workout post-Rampage meant I was āfeelingā strong, so the weights are up. My midsection was more swollen, which made my belt fit better and gave me a wider base. On that note, my shorts were literally falling off of me yesterday, which is indicative of just how much waist Iāve lost, which sounds really cool if I was a bodybuilder, but as a strongman it sucks because thatās where so much strength and stability lives. Iāll have to focus on thickening up my midsection. Kettlebells, traditionally, do that for me, and Dan John speaks of how back squats have done that for him, so hereās hoping MMS has the answers there.
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Dan says that the military press is the limiter on the complexes, so Iām doing my best to keep that press strict and let it happen organically. As much as I think push pressing makes more āsenseā, Iāll stick to the plan as much as I can. But in that regard, Dan also says he likes a strict 1 min rest vs EMOM work, and I used that for the complexes, which helped make them suck quite a bit before doing the same thing with the squats.
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I woke up 10 minutes earlier and had 15 extra minutes to train with. Thereās something interesting there. In turn, I got in a good amount of weighted vest walking to count toward my 2 miles a day.
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Those squats are amazingly fantastic, and really putting the āholy sh*tā in me thinking that I need to somehow have my bodyweight on the bar for 50 when 102 for 30 is a challenge. I love having that in the back of my head. In a little bit, Iāll draft up how this will all fit into strongman prep.
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Iāve already noticed my arms shrinking back again, which is why those Conan curls came in at the end. It doesnāt take much direct work to get them to blow up, and it doesnāt take much NOT doing it for them to shrink down again.
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Alright, time to get even MORE thoughts down.
TRAINING STUFF
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Regarding strongman competition training paired up with my MESS protocol: very little will need to change. Iām keeping the lifts I picked. My two competitions are within 2 weeks of each other, and somewhere in them there is a demand for an axle press and a demand for an axle deadlift, so keeping those grooved will be just dandy. My Mass Made Simple days will remain in tact. Thatās going to help with the goal of filling out the weight class, since Iām 11lbs underweight from the lowest weight class. The ārechargeā and ārestā days of MMS are going to become a bit more directive. Right now I have an absolute Looney Tunes bonkers idea of doing a log-Kalsu workout the day after MMS days on the ārechargeā days and then a carry focused workout (sandbags or stones primarily) on the ārestā day. That ālog kalsu per weekā may quickly meet contact with the enemy, at which point I may tailor it to something a bit more realistic, but Iām digging the idea of āhard style WOD day after MMS, easier carrying and loading day before MMSā. Somewhere I may work in some manner of throwing, but I honestly just plain donāt care for throwing. I also need to get in some manner of sled dragging, which Iād like to throw in on the ārestā day, since it IS a restorative exercise, but having to travel WITH the sled to get somewhere that I can use it really just kinda sucks when Iām training in the morning. Might be a better fit for weekend conditioning workouts.
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I just wanna take a moment to give Dan John for developing Easy Strength. Pavel may have birthed it, but Dan has really done some great work here, and, in turn, this just makes SO much sense to me as far as Strongman work goes. Easy Strength will take care of the ābeing strongā part of the competition and allows me to focus on the events training.
DIET STUFF: MAKING IT ALL FIT TOGETHER
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As far as nutrition goes, I keep ādiscoveringā more and more on how everything Iāve been doing that makes sense, āmakes senseā. One of the most interesting things Iāve recently reconciled is how so many Carnivore advocates advocate for fasting and how I donāt feel like Iām doing so. Dr. Kevin Stock opened up the avenue when he expressed that, for an athlete, especially one focused on building/maintaining muscle, a Protein Sparring Modified Fast is a more ideal āfasting protocolā compared to traditional fasting. The latter is more popular amongst a populace that is actively seeking fat loss FROM A STATE OF OBESITY. And that makes a lot of sense; these folks simply need to SHED TISSUE, and they have minimal protein/muscle TO spare in the first place. But someone that is starting from an already lean state does not need to use such a drastic protocol AND are in a state where they DO have muscle that is in need of sparing. This also coincides with what Jamie Lewis wrote in āFeast, Famine and Ferocityā and his Apex Predator Diet as well, the latter of which he summed up eloquently with ānot eating sucks!ā A PSMF has many of the benefits of traditional fasting from a metabolic standpoint while still allowing for an athlete to maintain musculature and some degree of performance.
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My VERY brief experiment with traditional intermittent fasting confirmed the above insomuch as it applies to me personally, which is the one entity I care about entirely through this process. But, alongside that, I also recognized WHERE my fasting periods exist in the overall scheme of things. Many Carnivores recommend fasting as a daily practice, and I heard Dr. Robert Kiltz recommend only one meal a day. This approach is VERY popular among the carnivore community. The idea Kiltz proposes is that the very ACT of eating is, in fact, more harmful than it is beneficial to the human organism, as it damages the lining of the gut to process/digest food. And heck, weāve seen articles that discusses how frequent eating can actually result in premature aging
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That, of course, kills my previous āDeep Waterā lifestyle, wherein the idea was to increase the frequency of eating to āstoke the metabolic firesā: very ā90sā thinking (Shoutout to @TrainForPain ! The greatest decade once again). But therein we once again see the issue of frequent insulin spikes and consumption of food being negative compared to infrequent eating.
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Well, again, if we take fasting to INCLUDE a PSFM, this all blends together, and once again matches up incredibly well with the Velocity Diet and the Apex Predator Diet. With these protocols, one āfastsā until the one Healthy Solid Meal a day. And if it really is the digestion of actual food that is the issue, the shakes are meeting the intent just fine. We may not be getting ALL the benefits of fasting (which I am not nearly smart enough to speak to if they do or do not occur), but weāre meeting the mark of only having 1 meal a day, fasting until otherwise. Now, with the Apex Predator protocol, Jamie has days where 2 solid meals are allowed, and my āFamily Manā adaptation of the Velocity Diet allows for similar deviations, but it ALSO allows for days wherein we only have 1 HSM. At present, Iām having JUST that sort of day, which Iāll detail more in this diatribe.
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The other thing worth appreciating is that, alongside my wherein my fasting exists on a micro-level, as a macro-level, due to my employment OF the āFeast, Famine and Ferocityā model of nutritional planning, I have 2 solid weeks within every 6 week window wherein I engage in āprolonged fastingā. This āfamineā portion of the protocol has me engaging in far more frequent full on fasting days (once again understanding that a PSMF is a form of fasting) compared to the 4 weeks of the block wherein I am āfeastingā, for during the famine, on those days I have 2 solid meals, one of them will STILL be lean pure protein meals (typically egg whites and VERY lean meat), if not both of them, or I may even just have a pure shakes day if my schedule can fit it. So in THAT regard, the fasting of Carnivore occurs both on a day to day level AND the prolonged fasting occurs DURING the āfamineā.
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Total aside, but I also want to voice my approval for the vernacular āintermittent FEASTINGā vs āintermittent fastingā, because I find the former better expresses how to eat DURING the Feast block of the nutritional programming. It is periods of GORGING interseppted with extended periods of not-eating. I feel like this establishes a better relationship with food and better lays down the groundwork for approach. When I DO eat, I eat until I am DONE eating. I do not restrict myself. And this isnāt a āRampage mealā: itās simply feasting. Part of that is ensuring that I donāt season the food Iām eating: if I need to trick myself into eating it, Iām not actually hungry. Iāve grown QUITE the taste for just plainly salted meat and egg whites, and once I donāt want to eat that, Iām done. Dairy, in turn, is used in limited quantities.
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Now speaking to a weekly structure: I think Jamie is right on regarding the need to wave calories vs having them be consistent on a day to day approach. Once again: my personal experience confirms all of this. When I try to make each day similar, my results are poor. When I have swings, I get great results. Chaos is the plan. The body seeks it, because of the necessity of disharmony to ACHIEVE harmony. In this regard, even though I genuinely donāt care to eat carbs, I find that, when I do NOT include a weekly Rampage meal with carbs, my results suffer. BUT, in turn, I find it most successful to follow up that weekly rampage with a STRICT PSMF day on the follow-on. This does a fantastic job of throwing the body into disarray: granting it a day of massive calorie surplus and macronutrient variety and then a day of severe restriction. Thereās also something of a āhealingā effect that happens as well: after having my guts swollen and distended from the sheer intake volume of food on that day, a day wherein Iām not filling it and just focusing on keeping protein high makes it easy to bounce back and maximize the benefits of the food intake.
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Now getting into the nitty gritty of my nutrition layout: Weekdays, very easy to go Apex Predator/Velocity Diet with a carnivore bent. I have a Metabolic Drive shake with a raw egg in it at some point in the middle of each night, which allows me to train āfastedā first thing in the morning without issue. After training is a 2 scoop Metabolic Drive āshakeā, which is typically prepared liked an oatmeal, in a bowl, mixed with either cooked egg whites or some warmed up bone broth (really digging using that in my nutrition these days). 3 hours later is another āshakeā (these days, Iāve taken to mixing the protein with ice and eating it with a spoon, as it forces me to slow down the intake, consume over a longer period, and allows me to get the benefits of cold intake), and then 2 days a week itāll be another shake at the noon-time, 3 days a week a solid meal then, and then, almost all days a solid meal in the evening. Legit x-factor is the presence of the Mrs. When sheās around, I have more solid meals, because I can share them with her. When sheās not around, I have more shakes, since I donāt need the meals. Currently, the 2 days a week that have the longest fasting windows are Mon and Thurs based off work scheudles, and Monday is ideal because itās the follow on day of the Rampage. In that regard, Sat is a day of non-fasting with high carnivore emphasis (at least 3 solid meals that day, breakfast lunch and dinner, and typically a shake before bed). Sunday is now shaping up to be a day with a big carnivore brunch and then a ālightā Rampage meal (I realize how silly that sounds) of home made cuisine. Thatās a recent change that I want to do another bullet for.
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Previous Rampage meals were typically Saturday afternoon or evening and usually something eaten while eating out. The logic was sound; be out enjoying a meal with my family and eat whatever I wanted. However, the truth is: I REALLY donāt care to eat garbage at this point. The novelty has worn off significantly. I donāt feel good when I do it, I donāt feel good AFTER I do it, and I really, truly genuinely just enjoy eating meat. I was forcing myself to eat garbage while out with my family just to enjoy the social aspect of it, but these days I find that in the MAJORITY of places I go out to I can STILL eat off the menu AND keep it carnivore AND enjoy my time with my family. Meat is delicious, and many places will prepare delicious meats in the form of steaks, burgers, ribs, chicken, fish, etc etc. The big thing is: I simply have to be unafraid to spend a lot should the need arise and make requests of the cooking staff. But if Iām out, Iām celebrating, and itās a time to treat myself. Meanwhile, my wife is an INCREDIBLE baker, and for years Iāve been NOT eating her baked goods, and then turning around and eating garbage, simply because it was āin my rampage windowā to do soā¦so Iāve moved the rampage to Sunday evenings, wherein I cook up some fantastic meat of some variety on the grill and pair it with ācleanā carbs in the form of local sweet potatoes/sweet corn and fruit, homemade sourdough, local honey and Iāve since tasked my wife and kid to come up with a dessert for these meals that Iāll eat then and there. I also poured myself a glass of fairlife skim milk, and forgot just how much I miss drinking milk. Iām making sure to TOTALLY flip the script on these meals and trying to minimize fats while eating a lot of protein and carbs, per Jameiās recommendation. So this is a time for sirloin steaks vs ribeyes, and honey vs butter. Iām not going to be a nutritional martyr over those macros, but where I CAN make a swap, I will. Meanwhile, social engagement still in tact, and, in fact, itās even MORESO. I eat out with the family on Saturday AND get to enjoy myself on Sunday too WITH food that theyāve made. And, to top it off: I look, feel AND perform better eating THESE carbs vs just pure trash. Thereās still room for garbage, if thatās what the situation demands (believe me, if I get to a Jack in the Box, itās go time), but as far as a playbook goes: this looks like it.
I am sure Iāve, once again, forgotten something I wanted to get down, but this will at least clear out a little bandwidth in my skull. Itās been pretty cool getting all of this to make sense. Like a puzzle, putting it all together.
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That was a lot of words. 
At first it sounds overcomplicated, but I know your end result is even more simplicity.
Iāve found this is true in many ways about many things. At first, stepping away feels like a loss of control, but really youāre just handing off some of that control to something that can do it even better. You manage at a distance. Learning to āinfluenceā rather than control. Sometimes your body knows better than you.
For me, from a practical standpoint, itās more about trends and ranges. Monitor everything closely, but let the chaos play in the short time scales, just keep it within the rails.
That was something I was wondering. Even if youāre going cheap, nothing youāre doing right now is inexpensive. And itās not a cheap (read: efficient) process to convert protein into sugars, even though the body certainly can do it.
Have you done anything to deliberately focus on the āsidesā? Weighted side bends, or sideways bends with a bar on your shoulders (I saw both, recently, in Chinese weightlifting videos).
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Hey mate, just finished reading āGutā by Giulia Enders - a very interesting read if you havenāt read it yet. It discusses amongst a plethora of content the gut, villi and a great starting point with a heap of article/paper references.
Iād counter the quote above with the fact we need food to survive - but fasting periods definitely allow a cleanout of the stomach, intestines, etc. Obviously comparing extremes of never eating vs constant refueling, we canāt sit in either camp forever, but balanceā¦ (or chaos?)
Itās a fascinating read, and Iāve been slack on reading in recent years. Hoping this one gets me back into the habit, but saw your post and thought youād benefit from the book too.
And Iād anticipate youād be able to walk up to any of these strongman comps and dominate your weight division with the sheer amazing conditioning you can bring, let alone the strength you possess.
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@raven78 Appreciate that nod for sure. Kiltz solution is one meal a day, which I can see how thatās another form of balance. Fasting up until that meal, eat the meal, continue fasting. Heās also big on a fat based diet rather than a protein based one. Itās interesting for sure.
@LoRez Honestly, how I eat is far less expensive than how I WAS eating. Eating just meat and eggs is way inexpensive compared to all the keto junk I was putting away, and eating so infrequently helps there too.
Thereās honestly very little complication here, but much like how Dan John can write a 300+ page book on 5 sentences, you can take something uncomplicated and explore the complexities of it. Similar to how you can learn how to play chess in an afternoon and spend a lifetime trying to master it.
The simplicity is there: if itās an animal, eat it until you are no longer hungry. But the complexity is there too if you want it.
Whenever I deliberately focus on training my obliques, I hurt my back on the next workout. Itās happened enough times that Iāve stopped trying to understand it and just realize itās something I have to not do.
For the PM, got in a 2 mile walk outside with my kid and 300 squats and push ups.
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AM WORKOUT (0355 natural wake up, snooze until 0410) FASTED
MESS (Mass-Easy/Strength-Simple) Day 5: Light Log Kalsu
EASY STRENGTH WORK
Axle clean and strict press away/weighted chin superset
3x3x136
3x3x32.5lbs
(3) Axle double overhand deficit deadlift
3x3x215+chains
Standing ab wheel
1x10
24KG KB carries while wearing swinging chains
Lockout walk down/rack lockout back
Farmer there and back
Rack 1 arm/farmer the other, switch arms
Suitcase carry
Goblet carry
Duck walk carry
100lb log viper Kalsu
100 reps as fast as possible, EMOM do 5 burpees
Accomplished inside 37 rounds
BREAKFAST
1-ish mile walk outside with the dog
Notes:
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First day with this protocol and itās a smashing success. I came in feeling a little weak. Picked up a slight stomach bug yesterday that managed to pass over the course of the evening but took a little out of me. Only the press really suffered: was able to keep up the pace with everything else. Honestly feeling strong on those deadlifts.
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I really dig wearing the chains for the loaded carries. I have them set up to swing a lot, which created a great deal of instability, but I could also wear them more ātraditionallyā draped across the neck. That lockout walk was a very interesting test of just about everything. I was huffing and puffing at the end as well, which made the transition into Kalsu pretty brutal.
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I am glad I settled on 100lbs for the log. Iāve done a full up log Kalsu viper workout before with the RX load, but that was THE workout of the day. Hitting it up after the ES work with the loaded carries at such a low bodyweight on a day Iām not feeling super great definitely made things interesting. I was able to keep up 3 reps of the log for the first 16 rounds, but after that the wheels fell off, I took a full round of rest, and then transitioned to 2-3-2-3 in order to get 5 every 2 rounds. I got in one more full round of rest around the 75 rep total mark and finished out strong. VERY solid test of conditioning and strength, got in a lot of reps, remembered how to Viper, and my body temp was elevated for a LONG time even after a very cold shower.
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The diet continues to be magic. 2 days post carb-up is always when I see the most dramatic results. Just absolutely peeled.
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I have to read this like 5 times before the horror of it truly sunk in. Nice work mate.
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An interesting thing i am also noticing lately. I get a small strain type thing going on in the days following my suitcase carriesā¦i never made this thought connection until reading this one line. Its making a lot of sense. The imbalanced exercise, although great, is punishing those stablizing muscles, which evidently do A lot of work already even with relatively simple exercises like SLDL. ALWAYS more tight in the erectors and such from SLDL if iāve completed the suitcase carries on the day previousā¦Seems i need to move suitcase carries to the end of the grouped training days to give my back a better chance to overcome and adapt.
Will try it.
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AM WORKOUT (0410 wake up via alarm) FASTED
MESS WORKOUT 6: Easy Strength for Fat Loss
Axle clean and strict press away/weighted chin superset
3x3x146
3x3x35
(3) Axle double overhand deficit deadlift
3x3x226+chains
Standing ab wheel
1x10
80lb weighted vest fat grip d-ring chain carries
Lockout walk
See-saw press walk
Various racked walks
Drags
Transition immediately to 80lb weighted vest walk for 1.75 miles
Notes:
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With my schedule today, this was going to be my only chance to get in a walk, so made it work. The sky opened up and we got a bunch of lightening so soon as I was done, so timing was solid. Tomorrow will be a MMS day, and the next day I can get in some loading/carrying, and that might be the way forward. Chaos is the plan.
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Documenting my current level of leanness. Itās hard for me to look so small, but I feel like itās worth throwing up the photo to showcase that Iām doing exactly as Dan John prescribes in MMS: leaning out BEFORE starting a mass gaining phase. Coincides perfectly with the Feast and Famine approach as well. Now I just need to actually eat enough.
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The carries were not super challenging, but I threw enough variety in there that I was huffing and puffing toward the end. The heavier vest went a long way. It was also a bear going on that walk. An 80lb vest is much more significant at 170lbs vs 200lbs.
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Was able to up the weight on just about everything today. Skill is improving.
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Tang Soo Do tonight, assuming we donāt get rained out.
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