Genius. I’m headed to Costco in an hour and will be trying this
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What’s the wrap in the bottom left?
Egg white wrap with cottage cheese
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Pwn Roll-Ups
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Thats a cross face cradle, right @SkyzykS ? Haha!
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For the Win!
Man, that looks good.
Nice tightgut chicken wing stack too!
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Ahem
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We had some serious game. No doubt.
Signed,
One of those girls 
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Alright, another quick summary, then a photo bomb, then flesh out later.
Woke up 0730 ish, tabata squats and push ups, 20lb short weighted vest walk before doggo and I got rained out, fasted until 1030 brunch, kept it carnivore, lots of eggs, cheese, some processed meats, chicken, burnt ends, all good stuff. Chores, eventually a workout
Done right after each other
Carb up meal was some spaghetti with bison meat sauce and texas toast garlic bread and homemade banana bread for dessert, and a 3.25 mile walk with the family.
Gonna do a Mass Made Simple day tomorrow. It fits the plan. Which is chaos.
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Ill check that out, thanks for the share… And oh look he has a dan john Mass Made Simple interview too! Awesome timing
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Chaos.
I get it now. Just re-reading Mathew Perrymans Squat Everyday book. He refers to literally this concept a lot, chaos literally be the plan.
My training is typically very structured. By nature of my personality maybe? Or perhaps more influenced by typical standard lifting lore “This is the way to gainsville”.
I dunno. At this point I’m spitting reactive thoughts, need more time to really nut out what I think I’m thinking here.
But any case, I see your “order in chaos” approach a little clearer again.
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@Lonnie123 Glad you can appreciate the commentary there, and I think all of us meatheads struggled with 5/3/1 for that reason, haha. Never done any of CT’s programs. Dude is super legit, but I’ve never been able to get his approach to gel with my headspace. He’s too nuanced, haha. But Easy Strength seems like a great paradigm breaker in that regard.
@TrainForPain Appreciate you reading the blog and the feedback! I totally remember recording on those cassettes too: what a wild world that was, haha. All the background noise in the music!
@ChongLordUno Appreciate the link! Life has been crazy and I wanted to be able to sit down and take my time before I got all the info out there. We knocked that one out of the park! Always a pleasure to get to talk, and it will be even better now that I don’t have a bunch of crap in my lungs.
@Wiseman83 Glad you can appreciate it. A big part of the duality is understanding that order and chaos BOTH have to exist, and where we have one, there will need to be a compliment of the other. Training is in order? Life is in chaos. Life is in order? Training is in chaos. Training is chaos, so nutrition is locked down. Nutrition is chaos? Better dial in the training. And a lot of this comes from Camus’ “the myth of Sisyphus”. Chaos is inevitable. If we CHOOSE chaos, we then have control of the uncontrollable. When we try to avoid chaos: it controls us.
It’s funny: we’re repainting our kitchen cabinets right now. The whole kitchen is turned upside down, drawers pulled out, paint tarps everywhere, etc. Ultimately, repainting the cabinets was a passion project for the Mrs, because I don’t care about that stuff one way or the other, so she told me “I appreciate how tolerant you’ve been about living in chaos right now”, and I said “Have you SEEN my wallet?”, haha.
AM WORKOUT (0445 natural wake up…slept through alarm) FASTED
MESS (Mass-Easy, Strength Simple) Day 9: Mass Made Simple Day 4
EASY STRENGTH WORK
Axle Continental and strict press away/weighted chin superset
3x3x156
2x3x40/1x3x30
(3) Axle double overhand deficit deadlift
3x3x231+chains
Standing ab wheel
1x10 (good stretch today)
Reverse hypers
75x190
Mass Made Simple Work
COMPLEX A (row-clean-front squat-press-squat-good morning) (90 second rests)
3x5x125 (unable to get 5 reps of press: 3-4 per complex, push pressing when possible after press fails)
Buffalo Bar Squat
3x25x122 (1 min rests)
BREAKFAST
2 mile walk w/dog
Notes:
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Technology failure had me sleep past alarm. I was able to salvage most of my time, but had to rush a bit. Ultimately felt the impact on the complexes, but still got in what I needed for today.
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Feeling strong on my post-carb up workout, although the chins suffered. I’m most likely going too heavy on the presses for “easy” strength, but a big part of that is it being the first movement of the workout and me not doing any sort of warm-up. By set 3 I’m feeling my strongest.
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In that regard, the press biffed during the complexes, primarily because I had to rush and was feeling super fatigued. My push press strategy worked when I needed it to, and I’ll use that moving forward (be good to get practice in with that movement anyway), but today was circumstances. Also had a weird front squat hold on the first complex which made the transition to the presses tricky. Wasted a lot of energy.
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Those squat sets are getting fantastically terrible. I dig how well I’m adapting to the new squat style.
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Moving forward, I’ll always have a Mass Made Simple Day on Mondays. Since I don’t lift on the weekends, I’ll always have 2 days off from my last lifting workout, which coincides with the “recharge-rest” schedule of MMS. In order to keep it at 6 weeks though, I’ll need to have some weeks where I do 2 MMS workouts and some where I do 3. It’s a program deviation, but so is combining MMS with Easy Strength.
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I REALLY dig how I’m approaching my Rampage days these days. I think I’ve gotten it dialed in super tight right now. The big carnivore brunch and then smaller carb up meal for dinner is hitting all the right keys. I’m getting the CALORIC excess from high protein/fat foods, while the carbs are more controlled and precise but still accomplishing the job. Along with that, I’m making the carb up meal a family meal on Sundays, which means I’m eating GOOD carbs instead of garbage. Last night, we did spaghetti with a bison meat sauce and garlic bread, and used an organic pasta with only 2 ingredients (imported from Italy too: how fancy) and a similarly based sauce vs some sugary abomination. My kid was so amped. “I love spaghetti night: it’s my favorite!” My wife and kid would only ever have that when I was away on business, because they would bend to my nutritional weirdness. Being able to integrate family meals into all of this is just outstanding. And the long walk after dinner helps me digest, the fasting day afterwards gives my guts a rest, and I’m already looking lean and peeled after this carb up and not feeling like I’m sweating Crisco from eating a bunch of junk. I’m getting the brunch figured out too: I had a TON of scrambled eggs, a REASONABLE amount of bacon, and a fair amount of cheese and processed meats/pizza toppings. Basically kept 1 serving away from being absolutely stuffed. All the little tweaks and exploration are pretty awesome.
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More thoughts to come later.
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I’m really loving this mash up I’ve come up with here and (yet again) feel like I’ve discovered magic a new way forward that is infinitely sustainable and pretty much all the stuff people who regularly read this log have come to know and love about me: it seems like I’m always ready to find a new permanent home for my training. So that said, I’m gonna get some random thoughts down here.
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I’m only 9 days deep into the protocol, which is nearly 1/4 “done”, but next time I run Easy Strength, I wanna use weighted dips as my pushing movement. They aren’t a “vertical” push, but they satisfy my need of “high speed/low drag”, because the set up and execution is much simpler than benching. Dan John originally ran Easy Strength with incline bench, so there’s a place for a more horizontal style press in this protocol as well, and dips lend themselves well to “Easy” work. I also think it would make the program move FASTER than I’m currently doing it, despite my initial thought that using an axle for press and deads would make things simple. Next bullet will address that.
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Next go-round, I’d set up dips, some sort of chin and then trap bar pulls, and run that like a continuous circuit. Dip into chin into pull into dip. By the time that dip rolls around again, I should be rested enough, especially if I’m being real on the “EASY” portion of easy strength. Should make the whole process move even faster. Ab wheel, being only 1 set, can have its own time. There will be days where I can even take that trap bar for a spin for the loaded carry as well, which will really streamline stuff.
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I realized I kinda biffed on matching up MMS with ES because MMS runs off a continuous calendar which would INCLUDE weekends, whereas Easy Strength doesn’t need to include that. If I want to make MMS a 6 week program, I need to get 14 workouts done in 6 weeks, which is averaging 2.3 workouts a week. I was running MMS-Recharge-Rest-MMS-recharge-rest-Weekend-Weekend-MMS and that was going to make it a 7 week protocol at that rate. Not the end of the world, but not meeting the intent of 14 workouts in 6 weeks. I’ll play catch up on that. There’s also a slight chance I might have to abandon course on this entirely due to a new (awesome) opportunity, but it’s a question on if it fleshes out or not.
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If I were to pull this off, it begs the question of “what do you do for the remaining 2 weeks of Easy Strength?” A simple logic leap would be to keep Dan Johning it up with 10k swing challenge. Something the total opposite of MMS, and a bunch of hinging to “undo” the squatting. If one gave themselves the full 14 days, that’s 715 swings a day vs 500, which isn’t a HUGE ask, and you could work the Easy Strength work in between sets of swings. If we did 3x3 for 4 movements and let the swings take care of the swings, you’re looking at working 12 total sets of work there, so 5 days a week you’d do a workout of sets of 60 swings with a movement in between, and then 2 weekend workouts of 715 swings and whatever else you want. And if I were to pair that with my nutritional protocol, that works pretty damn well with Feast and Famine: 2 week Famine during 10k swing, 6 week Feast for MMS. That’s not going to be what I do next, but it’s AN idea, and I like coming up with these ideas. After telling myself I was gonna do 15k swings in 3 weeks on top of “To Valhalla” and that being a terrible idea, I’m a little sworn off swing challenges for a bit.
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I suppose, if I wanted to be smart, I’d use the final 2 weeks as a “competition taper” and focus on events and let the rest of the lifting take care of itself. That makes sense. I might do just that. This is why I do these streams of consciousness: it gets me thinking.
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Totally unrelated, but new avatar: sorry for folks who don’t like change. Chaos is the plan.
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That sounds delicious!
Hey man, I’m scrolling through trying to find the right posts but I thought you’d mentioned barefoot shoes a few times semi-recently. Is that still something you’re including? Have they been treating you well?
I was talking to some people the other day about feet and we all come from different places - one person went barefoot/minimal shoes for a long time and now needs very supportive footwear to avoid foot pain, I feel best in shoes with minimal support but also have a terrible gait (my feet collapse inwards and I’m pigeon toed) so I’m wondering if it’d be good to find some better insoles or talk to someone about correcting my walk. I’ve read those imbalances can really add up over the years and cause some joint issues later in life so I wouldn’t mind addressing the issue now if possible.
Anyway, felt like I’d seen you mention the shoes and wanted to hear your thoughts on it.
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@bjiral I assure you, of all the amazing stuff on that plate, that is the least delicious, haha.
@jshaving Hey man, I haven’t been commenting on them because it’s a default that I wear them, haha. Every single walk I am logging is done in those shoes, and they’re my regular kickaround shoes. Bearfoot is a fantastic brand and I keep waiting for more of their inventory to get in stock. Speaking of…
Got in another 2+ mile walk with the family and 300 squats and push ups.
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AM WORKOUT (0405 Natural Wake Up) FASTED
MESS (Mass-Easy, Strength-Simple) Day 10: Hard Conditioning
EASY STRENGTH
Axle continental and strict press away/weighted chin superset
3x3x156
3x3x30
(3) Axle double overhand deficit deadlift
3x3x225+chains
Standing ab wheel
1x10 (abs super sore, short ROM)
100lb Log low zercher carries while wearing chains
3 trips
HARD CONDITIONING
30 minutes of
- 1 log viper press w/170lbs
- American KB swing/KB throw w/24kg bell
EMOM, do 3 burpee chins.
Ladder the swing up to 5, then start over (so round 1 is 1 press and 1 swing, 1 press 2 swings, 1 press 3 swings, up to 5, start over at 1)
Then max vipers for a minute at the end (5 total)
28 Conan Curls
Breakfast
2 mile walk w/dog
Notes:
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Really tried to focus on moving faster on the press today. Something I’m picking up about myself is I’m a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to being slow twitch. I treat every lift like it’s heavy, so every lift moves slowly. I learned from the deadlifts that I can move light weight fast, so now I’m trying to do that for all the lifts. Just like Jim Wendler talked about moving things powerfully and explosively in the 5/3/1 main work. Which, in turn, it’s pretty interesting how it took Dan John for me to understand Jim Wendler, but given Dan speaks highly of Jim, they gel together. And, in turn, I can understand Dan through the lens of Jim.
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Because my belt doesn’t quite fit right with my current bodycomp, I tend to strain my abs on the overhead work, which happened today. Part of that is the ab wheel really stressing it as well. Which, I’ll say that the hanging leg raises in FFF were a breath of fresh air for ab work and I can appreciate where Jamie is coming from with them, the ab wheel is still king as far as ab strength and size goes. I’m certain it’s why my abs are “popping” again. But also, when I ran “to Valhalla”, I was totally NOT doing any direct ab work, so lesson learned there too.
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Those log carries rock! Wearing the chains is pretty goofy, but it’s a “loaded carry”. I can definitely see making these a more regular thing.
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That conditioning workout I came up with ranks at “Kalsu level” of suck, which is high praise. I’ve learned that, as much as I don’t care for EMOM work, it keeps me honest compared to straight up AMRAP work, so I refer to those burpee chins as “harmony disrupters”. I need to throw those into an AMRAP for time workout so that I have something chasing me the whole time, as otherwise I’ll meander between reps and sets. Knowing that the time is ticking and I’ve got something evil waiting for me at the top of every minute makes me move quicker between rounds. Meanwhile, I had slightly more than bodyweight on the log (weighed in at 168.6 this morning), so it was heavy enough. The KB work is designed to improve my throw over bar, rather than be a hinge or swing proper. Originally, I was going to make this more of a Tower of Babel workout, but realized that the swings would eventually consume too much time and cut into log training, so settled on ladders. They’re a reliable standby, and totally answered the mail for this. I really dig what I came up with here: gonna need to keep that in the rotation.
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I meant to include this in my training ramble yesterday, but today was a good proof of concept for why dips would be a good choice for Easy Strength pressing: I can get in my overhead work with the conditioning vs the strength stuff.
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Something I noticed, because it’s something I was told to work on, long ago.
With your log presses, you get your head through really quickly and press vertically. But with the axle presses, as the weight as gone up, they seem to be moving further from your face. Looking a bit more like a high-incline press with the backbend. Obviously you’re strong enough with the 156 to handle the competition 185 like that, but just an observation.
If it were me, I’d throw in some lock out presses. Could get it up and then do a few top end partials, maybe as part of a complex. Or could unrack from above your head.
Maybe even some BTN or yoke presses too. Just ideas.
I think the biggest x-factor is I am axle pressing first in the workout with zero warm up, whereas with the log I am hitting it when I am warm and loose
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