Too much awesome in here to quote. Nice job all round Pwn.
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@PowPowPunishment Dude no joke! Itās a new favorite of mine. Itās fantastically delicious. Beefcheek was decent too. Didnāt care much for the tripe, but I wouldnāt turn it down if itās what I have to eat.
@ChongLordUno Hell yeah dude. Iām partway through the podcast with Jon: I am beaming with fanboy envy, haha.
@simo74 Always appreciated dude! Things are too awesome to fully capture these days.
Woke up around 0700, got in some push ups and squats family got up and went on a 4+ mile walk (I stayed fasted) until brunch at 1000. Ate a hearty carnivore lunch and was informed this was the last brunch this place was going to put on. I like to think I put them out of business, but it looks like weekend Rampages are going to become a bit more pedestrian.
Life happened, got in a 20 minute workout where I did as many rounds as possible of
Log viper-log zercher carry-log rack/front carry-2 burpees over log
Then a dinner of āChow Funā, which for my wife growing up in Maui is effectively chow fun noodles, mixed veggies, Portuguese sausage, and then I ground up 1lb of pork tenderloin and tossed it n a combination of oyster sauce and some other stuff. Itās absolutely delicious, and perfect for carbing up, and I also had 3 of her āMonster Cookiesā, which are oatmeal and peanut butter based with M&Ms, recess pieces and chocolate chips.
Washed it down with a mug of skim milk. Carbs and protein.
Back on the Mass Made Simple train tomorrow.
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My daughter saw this picture and said āI want to make those for my birthday!ā
Any chance I could get a recipe?
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Your blog not only inspires me to keep going but makes my ass hungry.
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@LoRez Thatās actually a photo I found when I googled āmonster cookiesā. I know Mrs. Fields published a recipe for it, and thereās a site ābetter from scratchā that has some good ones.
@bigpappafrance Thanks man! Hopefully itās making your mouth and stomach hungry too!
AM WORKOUT (0400 natural wake up) FASTED
MESS (Mass-Easy/Strength Simple) Workout 19: Mass Made Simple Workout 10
Easy Strength Work
Axle continental and press away/weighted chin superset
3x3x161
3x3x45
(3) Axle double overhand deficit deadlift
3x3x231+chains
Standing ab wheel
1x10
Reverse hyper
75x240
Mass Made Simple Work
COMPLEX A (row-clean-front squat-press-squat-good morning)
5x2x150 (all completed) 1 min rest between complexes
Buffalo bar Squats (to 50)
23+7+6+7+7 (12 deep breaths between attempts)
2 mile run through the thunderstorm/heavy downpour
Notes:
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Upload issues with the video. Will post it when itās there.
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Easy Strength continues to teach me lessons as I run it. Biggest one I keep re-learning: treat EASY weight like itās easy. When I actually try to move the weight quickly, it moves quickly and smooth. Really tried to drill that with the press and deadlift today, and even included it in the chins.
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The reverse hyper didnāt tax me nearly as much as it did early in the program. Good to see that adaptation. Really wanting to focus on solid execution with it.
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Those lessons from Easy Strength carried into MMS. I really tried to focus on moving the weight quickly/explosively on the row to prime my body for the clean, and that seemed to work. Iām willing to accept some slop on the row if it means the clean makes it to the rack. The press was still a little slow, just to keep my shoulders in the sockets, but I got through all 5 rounds of the complex with a decent enough weight.
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The āto 50ā set proved to be a solid challenge, and now I have a real goal for the end of the program. I managed 23 reps in the first round, then used the Zeno Squat rest pause approach to carry me through the end. This was absolutely brutal and exhausting. Iām excited for the opportunity to grow from this.
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You may be able to hear the thunderstorm in the video, but it was intense this morning, and running through it was absolutely primal. I knew with the weather I wouldnāt get another chance to get in some outdoor mileage today, so I took the opportunity while it presented.
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From the nutrition/digestion from, I had some ātracer roundsā in my meal last night that presented themselves fully intact this morning, which shows how fast my system is moving AND how itās processing this foreign junk. Which is to say: it wonāt.
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Oh yeah, pretty proud of these Metabolic Drive waffles
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my keyboard thanks you for making me shower it with coffeeā¦LOL
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@simo74 You know Iām good for a laugh! Haha.
Hereās the video
Got in a 3 mile walk with the family as well. Thatās pretty awesome. Got the day off work tomorrow, planning on hanging out with the kiddo, getting in some fishing, eating my face off with a chicken buffet, and getting in some roller blading. Havenāt done that since the 90s. Itās coming back @TrainForPain !
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I feel like if thereās two dudes that can brute force it back, we can make it happen.
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Oh manā¦did you just say 90s Brute Force?
Iām feeling Buzz myselfā¦although with my frequent headband wear these days, maybe Iām more Snake.
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Whoa. I donāt even remember this one. Strong āCruising USAā vibes with a hefty dose of āDouble Dragonā
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Thanks for thinking of me with that drill you mentionedā¦much appreciated and Iāll definitely keep it in mind
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Holy cow days off are the busiest.
Sum
Woke up at 0430, lifted
MESS Day 20: Hard Conditioning
Axle Continental and Strict Press/weighted chins
3x3x171
3x3x40
(3) Axle double overhand deficit deadlift
3x3x241+chains
Standing ab wheel
1x10
Carrying kettlebells while wearing chains
Conditioning
20 rounds EMOM of burpee chin into burpee 24kg swing into burpee log viper w/150lb log
- Press is moving along well. Continuing to focus on moving quickly.
Took the kid fishing, then walked dog 1.5 miles while wearing 40lb vest, then a lot of fried chicken (pulled the skin off) and hardboiled eggs at Pizza Ranch for lunch, then tried rollerblading (still got itā¦kiddo not so much, only managed half an hour before we ran out of fun), smoked pork chops for dinner, 5.5 mile run post dinner, got in my push ups and squats.
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If youāre looking for a good home for equipment, Iāll promise to take care of them, haha.
Being serious there, but on a less selfish note, I bet a local high school or even a YMCA would take stuff.
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@T3hPwnisher - every time I come back to this log itās got 50+ posts to read through, and Iām constantly getting something out of it. Youāve probably had one of the, if not THE longest/most consistent training logs on here. Thanks for always sharing your thoughts and experiences.
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Saw you response to someone on Chongs podcast with Jon about diet. I love how (and by that I mean it annoys the hell out of me) people automatically go to AAS and then assume there is nothing that applies to them.
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@jshaving Hey thanks so much for that man! @Alpha definitely led the charge on that, but I am happy to continue on that tradition. And seeing others benefit has been amazing.
@simo74 That dude in particular is a negative force for sure. He had critiques about my use of Vikings in my own training. A typical armchair quarterback. And heās completely clueless to bring up PEDs with Jonās approach to nutrition in particular, because high fat/protein was THE approach used by bodybuilders BEFORE PEDs were introduced on the scene. Once insulin became a factor, THEN we saw the big push toward higher carb intakes. Jonās approach makes the most sense to me for a natural trainee, and then we factor in that Jon started eating that way BEFORE the drugsā¦
AM WORKOUT (0405 wake up via alarm) FASTED
MESS (Mass-Easy, Strength Simple) Workout 21: Easy Strength for Fat Loss Day
Axle continental and press away/weighted chin superset
3x3x166
3x3x42.5
(3) Axle double overhand deficit deadlift
3x3x246+chains
Standing ab wheel
1x10
Loaded carry
100lb keg on back+40lb weight vest for several trips
1 mile weighted vest walk
1 mile run (rain started falling, so abandoned the vest)
Conan Curls
Notes:
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Pretty exhausted from my āday offā yesterday. Knees, in particular, are beat up, most likely from the run. But in that regard, it was my first time running at this new bodyweight, and that was an interesting experience. I definitely āfeltā lighter, and moved faster.
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Really focusing on moving quickly on the first 2 movements of the day here, and on the continental and press in particular trying to speed up that continental. All the practice has really been a boon. And now, on my āweak daysā, Iām still moving good weight. Halfway through the program and Iām really digging the results.
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The deadlift was similar today. I think my grip is finally solid enough that I can really maximize the benefit of this approach to pulling.
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The carry was another moment of ālets try THIS outā, since Iām doing everything I can to not repeat the same workout. Interestingly taxing. I prefer shoulder vs on the back, but this still achieved something.
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As you can see from all the lightning crashing, it was stormy weather, and I had a suspicion that I wouldnāt be able to walk my dog this morning, and with Tang Soo Do tonight a post dinner walk wasnāt on the agenda, so I settled on making this a āFor Fat Lossā day. Managed a mile walk before the rain started, and since my vest uses iron plates I didnāt wanna rust it out, so I booked it back to the garage, shed the vest and ran out the rest.
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I plan to do a write-up in the near future, but I wanna log this down here: āEasy Strengthā is the solution to the shortcoming of āTo Valhallaā. I noted that the latter wasnāt really building my strength, and I was naturally neglecting my direct ab work. Given that those workouts tended to run 30-40 minutes and Easy Strength is around 20-25 minutes, opening up a āTo Valhallaā workout with an Easy Strength workout would allow for a full 60 minutes of work wherein I get in my strength work at the start and my conditioning at the end. I can definitely foresee a block of that in the future.
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This is always my favorite part of your training blocks. Definitely good to pick up a few things along the way but the big lessons learned write up is always chock full of gold.
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@mr.v3lv3t Ask and thou shall receive, haha. Gonna post this weekās blog early here
OBSERVATIONS FROM BEING HALFWAY THROUGH EASY STRENGTH/MASS MADE SIMPLE
About a month ago, I had finished up another run of Jamie Lewisā āFamineā training protocol and found myself in a situation wherein I had a pretty chaotic summer schedule ahead due to travel and family obligations, and could not, realistically, commit to a structured, rigid and involved training program like what āFeastā would entail. So I needed to take on a new approach. I had read the āEasy Strength Omnibookā over Christmas (reviewed on this blog. Spoilers: itās amazing: read it!), and finally found myself in a position wherein I could run itā¦
ā¦buuuutā¦I had JUST finished Famine. I needed to do something that was going to make me GROW! Easy Strength, in and of itself, was NOT going to accomplish thatā¦which begged the question of what I would do for the āeverything elseā portion of the program in order to force some growth. I, of course, instinctively dove toward Super Squats, and considered how itād answer the āwhat do you do for squats on Easy Strengthā questionā¦but then it got me thinking about ANOTHER hard squatting program I hadnāt run yetā¦which was ALSO a Dan John program.
Enter āMass Made Simpleā, a program that had LONG since been on my list of programs to runā¦but, in truth, I could not wrap my brain around the upper body portion of the program. Having read through the book a few times, it seemed to violate the āsimpleā portion of āMass Made Simpleā, because it required a LOT of tracking, planning and tinkeringā¦while āEasy Strengthā actually seemed simpleā¦
ā¦LIGHT BULB! Combine them! Let Easy Strength take care of the strength and Mass Made Simple take care of the mass. From reading Danās work and listening to his podcasts, the upper body training portion of MMS was really just boilerplate stuff that was thrown in to get in SOME upper body work, whereas the real āmagicā of the program was in the complexes and the high rep squats. That sounds JUST like the āwhatever elseā of Easy Strength. Do the Easy Strength workout, and THEN do complexes and high rep squats for āwhatever elseāā¦the goal being hypertrophy vs athletic performance (the latter being the more typical goal/āwhatever elseā of Easy Strength).
With that, I had a way forward, and decided to be cute and call the whole thing āMESSā, standing for āMass-Easy, Strength-Simpleā, and fully capturing just what this adventure is. And after 20 Easy Strength workouts Iām halfway through Easy Strength, and after 9 Mass Made Simple workouts Iām over half-way through MMS, so I felt like laying down some observations NOW before too much time passes and I forget any of this. And now Iāll have the intro knocked out when itās time to do a full-up review.
That said, letās bulletpoint this up and get some observations down.
MESS IN GENERAL
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As far as making the schedule āworkā, my situation forced me to get creative. I donāt lift weights on weekends. Thatās my time with my family. I will wake up before everyone on the weekdays to get in a lift, but on weekends I sleep in with the Mrs and spend time with the kiddo as much as I can. This meant all my Easy Strength workouts were Mon-Fri, and I would have to find a way to get in 14 Mass Made Simple workouts in 6 weeks with that approach (Dan DOES permit one to stretch MMS out to 7 weeks, but that wasnāt something I was interested in doing). In order to make the 14 MMS workouts fit, it required a schedule of effectively 2-3-2-3-2-2 MMS workouts over the corresponding weeks (2 on week 1, 3 on week 2, etc).
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On the above, my preferred structure was to have MMS workouts be on Mon and Fri, with the 3rd one being Wed if applicable. The reasoning for this was how my nutrition was structured, which I wrote about recently in my ānutritional alchemyā post, but, ultimately, on weekends I tend to eat more food than on weekdays. So a Friday MMS workout meant Iād have the entire weekend to eat to recover from the training and force muscle to grow, and then Iād have my Rampage/carb up meal on Sunday and have that to train off of on Monday to really drive hard. Iād go through my āfastingā meal on Monday, which had enough protein in it to recover and, combined with the HARD MMS workout, did a great job of causing some distress on my body to recover.
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The above schedule ALSO helps fit MMSā intent of following up the hard squatting workouts with a ārechargeā workout followed by a ārestā workout. For me, these would be 20 minute hard conditioning workouts and long walks, while still including Jamie Lewisā RX of 300 squats and 300 push ups daily. Iād use the weekends to be generally physically active, but not engage in Easy Strength style workouts or anything that was stressful for long durations.
EASY STRENGTH IN GENERAL
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Itās EASY strength: it needs to be treated easy! Iām a āgrinderā, as Derek Poundstone would put it, and super mega slow-twitch, so I move 135 and 405 at the same speed. But when the weights are easy, they should be moved fast and explosively. Jim Wendler has spoken about this as well. We get faster and more explosive by moving that way: grinding light weights just makes us even worse at moving light weights.
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Thatās not to way that rep quality should be poor: the opposite. Reps need to be owned. This is an opportunity to master these movements, because the weight is light and we have a chance to really nail stuff. My continental has grown in leaps and bounds because of the frequent practice and mastery.
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The parallels between Easy Strength and 5/3/1 become more and more apparent as I experience the program and review the lessons from Dan and Jim. The difference is primarily that Jim is more prescriptive than Dan, which is funny because people comment on how Jim doesnāt spell out enough of the program, so theyāll REALLY dislike Easy Strength. But, ultimately, the main work of 5/3/1 IS Easy Strength, especially when using 5s pro: itās a small number of reps with light weight performed with the intent of owning the weight and crushing the rep. From there, Jim lays out the āeverything elseā that Dan leaves up to the reader via prescribed supplemental, assistance, conditioning, jumps and throws. Your āeverything elseā is hypertrophy? Cool, do BBB or Building the Monolith. Itās conditioning? Great: prowler challenge. Jim also spells out what weights to use, whereas Dan leaves it up to the trainee, and Jim forces you to use light weights whereas Dan tells you to do so. So perhaps 5/3/1 is Easy Strength training wheels.
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Yes, there is a difference in that 5/3/1 doesnāt have you do the same movements everyday for 40 workouts, and instead tends to focus on 1-2 lifts a day, but thatās getting into nuance and preference. One of the big takeaways here is how easily one can blend the methods as a result. If you want to use Easy Strength AND build muscle without using my MESS approach, you could do Easy Strength and chase it with BBB, Monolith or Hardgainer supplemental/assistance/jumps throws and conditioning. And hey: Easy Strength for Fat Loss is EXACTLY the ālight conditioningā days of 5/3/1.
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In that regard, other places to steal for āeverything elseā would include the 10k swing challenge, Tactical Barbell (especially volume 2), Crossfit (do the Easy Strength program, then the WOD), Neversate/Brian Alsruhe programs (Iād skip Brianās mainwork and just steal the assistance/conditioning to make this work) and, of course, Mass Made Simple.
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Meanwhile, for contrasting programs to run AFTER Easy Strength is done, Danās 1 lift a day program is pretty much the total opposite of Easy Strength (focus on 1 lift a day, train that lift once a week, do it for a higher volume of total work), Deep Water (some lifts are trained once every 14 days, and you absolutely smash that lift), and possibly DoggCrapp (youāre rotating through so many movements that itās a long while before you come back to it). Conjugate would also strike a similar chord in that regard.
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The next time I run Easy Strength (which will most likely be very soon), I plan to use dips or incline bench vs overhead pressing for the press work. I get in a good amount of overhead work with my conditioning, and with MESS it happens during the complexes as well, whereas my horizontal press these days is primarily the 300 push ups a day I do per Jamie Lewisā mandate.
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What I have found the most interesting thing about this is how my physique actually seems to be IMPROVING with Easy Strength, if not at least maintaining. I felt like I would see a decline from the ālack of workā, but when you lift the same lifts 5 days a week, you DO get in a substantial amount of volume with high quality reps, vs a bunch of garbage sets.
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Another theory I have about this is that I have āearnedā this minimalist approach, as Dan writes about. I had been going VERY hard and with lots of volume leading up to Easy Strength, and now this minimalist approach has allowed me to realize a lot of the potential Iāve been building up to as the fatigue dissipates and the body rebuilds. Perhaps this also speaks to the āhormonal cascadeā that Dan speaks of occurring once the lifting is done.
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On top of all of that, I canāt ignore how important my shift in nutrition has been as well. Iām taking in SO much protein and quality fats these days and finally eliminated the ketojunk for good.
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Short burstfire thoughts: Easy Strength works: Iām halfway through and already seeing results. It IS easy, which is a good thing. I dig these short workouts BECAUSE it allows me time to do other stuff. In that regard, itās good to cycle through the āwhatever elseā portion of Easy Strength and build other qualities. Periodization, yet again. Strength isnāt everything, and hypertrophy is a fine goal, so use Easy Strength to build your strength and use your āwhatever elseā to build your size. Thatās totally fine.
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A good approach to taking on Easy Strength at the start is to pick ānewā movements to you so you can reap the benefits that come with improved mastery ALONGSIDE the benefits of Easy Strength as well. Youāll observe rapid progression. So go beltless if youāve been using a belt, use chains or bands, go double overhand on your pulls, or use an axle, or use different foot/bar/hand placement, etc etc.
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Remember that a loaded carry is a LOADED carry. If you just carry something: thatās a carry. A loaded carry is a carry UNDER LOAD. It took me a while to appreciate that. Itās why Iām wearing weight vests and chains during most of mine. Other alternatives are to pull a sled while you do it. If you look at the cover of āNever Let Goā, youāll see Dan really personifying this by carrying a sandbag while wearing a loaded backpack and pulling a sled.
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For this particular run of Easy Strength, I kept it easy AND simple. Dan said, if he could do it all over again, heād just do 3x3, so thatās exactly what I did. I also am keeping all the lifts the same throughout, minus the carries of course, since Dan said specifically to never repeat that workout. The next time, though, I plan to play around with reps and sets and the movements as well. Specifically, if I were to do another run like MESS or something similar with a hard lifting workout thrown in, Iād most likely make that particular Easy Strength day the 1x10 variant OR use the 1x10 variant for the follow-on day as a means to recover from the workout. The 5-3-2 day would be a good realization day, and then 2x5 would be a good āpunch the clockā sort of workout. So, again, if this was MESS, you could do 5-3-2 on the MSS day, then do 2x5 as your recharge and 1x10 as your rest.
With that, thereās my halfway report. Iām excited to see where this second half leads.
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Ha and there we have it! Iām glad to see we were on similar wave lengths as far as our Easy Strength experiences go. Next time I hope to go after that program fully healthy because the āeverything elseā really suffered, but the ES part was always there to keep me sane.
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Sorry dude! Definitely not what I had in mind in that post haha. I have a lot of other peoples stuff and random junk in my garage that needs to get gone asap.
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