@The_Myth and @LoRez Really appreciate the exchange between you two. Very cerebral, and outstanding to see two intelligent individuals exchange ideas like that in a civil manner where we all benefit. Very much appreciate the kudos from you as well @The_Myth
@Lonnie123 I’m a dirty steak plebe in that all my grilling is electric these days, haha, but it definitely removes a lot of that monitoring pressure you’re talking about. I DO love me some kitchen gadgets though. In fact, all of today’s meals were made on a Ninja indoor grill/air fryer, haha. Definitely appreciate the intel!
Today was pretty wild. Small family medical emergency. Everything is fine, but my plans to go hunting over Wed/Thurs/Fri have turned into possibly just Friday. While tending to the family, training got chunked out over the day.
AM WORKOUT (0623 natural wake up)
100 20kg KB throws in 5 minutes.
AM WORKOUT (1000)
20x270 Breathing Squats w/pullovers
PM WORKOUT (1400)
140 reps of 20kg double kettlebell clean once and strict press away in 20 minutes using Dan John’s Ladders (2-3-5-10)
300 prisoner squats and push ups using Dan John’s ladders
Notes:
25 minutes of overhead today: I’m happy with that. It’s fun to see what we prioritize when time gets compressed. I knew I wanted to get in the breathing squats today, and anything beyond that was gravy, but I had the 5 minutes first thing this morning and made it worth my while. The DKB workout was great, and always a victory to get in the daily 300. A walk would have been nice, but I didn’t want to be away from home for anything.
It’s worth appreciating that I have been putting weights over my head 5-7 days a week for almost a month now, and I just keep improving. 140 reps is a 25 rep density PR. There is no overtraining: just undereating. Speaking of…
I made a fantastic lunch and dinner given my circumstances. I just thawed some stuff out of my freezer in the morning and hit it up on the air fryer. Lunch was lambchops, egg whites and pork cracklin, and dinner was pork ribs and more egg whites, both with a side of grassfed sour cream.
“Pick things off the ground and put them over your head”, is a pretty solid program. I knew that once (I’ve been reading through my old logs). I’m learning it again.
A nice workout-inspirational quote, from “The Phoenix on the Sword”:
Any other man would have already died there, and Conan himself did not hope to survive, but he did ferociously wish to inflict as much damage as he could before he fell. His barbaric soul was ablaze, and the chants of old heroes were singing in his ears.
@LoRez Much appreciated dude! I’ve actually got all the stories on my kindle. Picked them up a few years ago. Always nice to head back to the well there. Such great quotes.
More crazy days, but this one a bit more uniform.
Slept until 0625, got up and did Tabata KB devil presses w/20kg bells
Lunchtime workout as follows
CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONCILE Week 4, Workout 4
(5) Axle Mat Pulls w/12 breath rest pause 6+4+3x405 Immediately into the “Horrifically Awful 30 Minute Overhead Anyhow Challenge” from Jamie Lewis’ “365 Day of Brutality”
Using 143lbs (approx 85% bodyweight), I got 124 reps Finish with Kroc rows w/115 “He dwells on a great mountain. What use to call on him? Little he cares if men live or die. Better to be silent than to call his attention to you; he will send you dooms, not fortune! He is grim and loveless, but at birth he breathes power to strive and slay into a man’s soul. What else shall men ask of the gods?”-Conan All you can ask for during that challenge is the power to strive and slay.
Ate a lunch most fitting for such an awesome workout
7 wings, air fried with spray duck fat and salt, pork cracklins, egg whites and grassfed sour cream
Planning on getting in some push ups and squats, and hopefully be able to get out hunting tomorrow.
I’m pleased with how this training went. It’s honestly the most “in spirit” of “Chaos is the Plan”: just hammer that overhead until time runs out.
Spent the rest of the morning hunting. Walking woods, dragging carcasses, lots of general activity. I’ve got Tang Soo Do tonight, and I think I’m gonna call that “enough” training for today. I was happy to get that squat workout in first thing in the morning. Legit roll out of bed, get in garage, do 3 reps of warm-ups and then hammer a 20 rep breathing squat. That’s clutch.
Should have about 60-70lbs of venison in my freezer soon.
Nice! I went on a ride along hunting pheasant and quail when I was a kid but never did any hunting myself. Did you do the butchering yourself or drop it off somewhere?
Training question.
This makes sense to me, but does it make sense to you?
Double overhand Axle deadlift until grip goes out; then switch to barbell. Progress both of them. Do that as my “deadlift” workout in a single session.
The main alternative I’d consider is to rotate between them every couple weeks, but the above option seems to make slightly more sense.
@LoRez Thanks man! Took it to a shop for processing.
As for the training question: when you switch to barbell, is it with straps? If so, that’s just two different workouts, which is fine: one is grip training and one is deadlift training. If not, then it’s just a long grip training workout.
Yeah, the intent is a grip workout that mostly serves as a warmup for a deadlift workout. I haven’t had grip failure yet while deadlifting with a barbell, but I suppose it would/could be in this case. I typically hook grip with a barbell, but would use straps if that failed on me.
Chaos Is The Plan: The Cimmerian Chronicle Week 4, Day 5-“Go Home Conan: You’re Drunk”
Original plan was a 15 minute workout, but I was so close to 50 rounds at the end I just finished it out.
100lb keg
Sprawl onto keg
One motion keg overhead
Overhead carry to crash pad
Drop
Repeat
The story: Our Cimmerian has taken in a bit too much of the drink and begins to cause a ruckus at the local tavern. Still quite the handful, it takes 50 of the town guard to be able to best our Cimmerian in his drunken rage.
Once this workout was over, I ended up doing 150 prisoner squats in 5 minutes, and I’m thinking that should be an intentional piece to this. Give yourself 15 minutes to get in 50 rounds, and for however many minutes more it takes you to do the 50, you are “sentenced” to that much punishment in prisoner squats. It’s fittng.
@mr.v3lv3t Thanks so much man! At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, but you’ve made me reflect on it and it is pretty ridiculous to wake up 10 minutes earlier for an already stupidly early morning to hit a 20 rep breathing squat workout before sitting in a treestand all morning looking for meat, haha. I had a buck walk STRAIGHT underneathe me first thing and I didn’t have any tags for it, haha. Next time. I should really embrace my inner Gaston and load up on eggs beforehand next time…but Metabolic Drive was a good choice too.
@alex_uk Much appreciated man! That workout is pretty awesome. I honestly think I need to retool “Chaos is the Plan: The Plan” to include level changes at this point: they’re in all my workouts. And I make that Offspring joke SO much in my life,.
CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONICLE Week 5, Workout 1
40 minutes of overhead
SUPER SET (press-chin)
Axle continental and strict press away
5x156
3x161
4x161
Chins w/chains
3x6
GIANT SETS (press-chin/ab-pull)
Axle clean and strict press away
5x10x118
Axle clean each rep and strict press
5x5x118
Chins
5x9
Wheel of Pain
4x9
Band pull aparts
9x13
10% Corollary
Breathing Squats w/pullovers
15+5x280
25 Conan Curls
25 pushdowns
10 Tree of Woe shrugs
Notes:
Gravity was turned on high this morning. Because my schedule was all screwy last week, I was training a bit harder on the weekends than I usually do, and between that and the wild swing in nutrition, I imagine I rolled into this morning not quite as fresh as usual. Those squats in particular snuck up on me. I’m experiencing that same Super Squats hip pain on my right side that I had last year, which I need to be mindful of, since it took a LONG time to heal from that, but part of me thinks when I get my nutrition back to animal fuels it might sort out.
On the topic of the squats: I have an abundance of ways to succeed from here. I’m in the 5th week of the program, which is a good run so far, and the OG strategy was to only do the squats twice a week anyway, so there’s room to play. I’m thinking about dropping bar weight and adding chains, and going for reps beyond 20. I might also do the SSB but with hands on the bar vs the handles, as that’s pretty brutal. There’s also a possibility of changing gears and going MMS, putting bodyweight on the bar and just going for max reps. Too many ways to win.
I’m not able to get as much done in 40 minute as before, but I realize it’s because I’m adding reps as I go to the assistance work, which is going to eat into the main work. Funny how it all balances out.
Video is being screwy: will post it later.
Something I’m needing to capture: I was really flat and lost a lot of definition when I was leaning really hard into the protein sparing modified fast, and since focusing on really upping the dietary fats I’ve noticed myself being far more defined and bulbous. There’s a few things I feel to take from this. One is that I am most likely “fat adapted” at this point, which could explain why this morning’s performance was a little subpar when I had just had a higher carb meal leading up to it. The other is to ponder if the right call is to skip the protein sparing modified fasting (famines) OR if the famines prep me such that when I DO feast I’m able to really thrive. I’m inclined to believe the latter over the former. I feel like the sparse periods prep my body to really make solid use of these windows of high intake, but maybe it’d be worthwhile sometime to see how far I could push a high fat nutrition phase.
