When you first shared the challenge in TfP’s log, I was actually trying to figure out how to do it myself. I was considering getting my Farmer’s Walk handles reassembled, loading them up with something resembling 135 (total) and giving it a shot.
After considering a few other situational things though, it wasn’t really the time for me to take on that challenge. But maybe I’ll give it a shot around New Years. That seems like a better time to risk not being able to move for a week 
@sirdanoman Glad you enjoyed that dude! I’ve always heard that rig referred to as “crazy bells/plates”. Something I could look into for sure. I wouldn’t need much load for the effect, since I’m pressing baby weights as it is, haha.
@LoRez You’ll be good man: won’t take a week to recover at all. I do it on Thanksgiving day because I KNOW I’ll eat enough to recover, haha. Just make sure you feast and you got it!
AM WORKOUT (0415 natural wake up, good night of sleep)
CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONICLE Week 6, Workout 4
100 complexes of the following with 20kg bells
20 minutes of Dan John’s ladder (2-3-5-10) with Prisoner Squats and Push ups
BREAKFAST
Walk w/wolf while wearing 50lb vest
Notes:
I woke up this morning fantastically sore in my shoulders and rear delts. That Klokov press/pull apart combo was amazing. I’ve definitely been sleeping on Klokov presses: they’re THE behind the neck press.
With the competition coming up on Sunday, it was good to pick a workout where the intensity wasn’t too high and the effect was a bit more tonic/restorative. That said, kettlebells are always interesting in this way. The entire time you’re using them, it feels ok, but as soon as you put them down you get hit with a truck. It’s a very different kind of fatigue. My heart and lungs were just fine through this, but once it was done I was exhausted. Not wiped out, but just “done”.
This was the complex I hit last week with a new addition with that pull up. I like getting in the pull up, but it breaks up the rhythm a bit more than I care to as far as a smooth complex goes. In the future, I might make this an EMOM with a pull up buy in to achieve a similar effect.
40 minutes was the original plan, but I was close enough to 100 that I just rounded it out. Woke up earlier enough that I had a little bit extra time to play with, and now I’m way ahead on my 180 minute goal.
That follow-on 20 minutes was absolutely brutal. This has done a great job of really lighting up my front delts. Between these bodyweight squats and my 3x a week breathing squats, my legs are pretty well taken care of too.
Thinking out loud for the future, some things I “miss” are dips, reverse hypers and GHRs. Secondarily, I feel like I could use some more KB swings and rows of some variety. Definitely room to play around, and maybe these will get factored into my next Famine.
Dude this is an absolutely sick workout.
@mr.v3lv3t Thanks man! Always a fan of chaining like-WODS together like that.
AM WORKOUT (0425 wake up via alarm, got to bed late watching the Cowboys game)
CHAOS IS THE PLAN: THE CIMMERIAN CHRONICLE Week 6, Workout 5
30 Minutes of Main work
GIANT SET (press-shrug-pull)
Axle continental and strict press away
5x156
2x4x166
Tree of Woe Shrugs
3x10
Band pull aparts
3x10
GIANT SETS (press-raise/ab-pull)
Axle clean and strict press away
5x10x123
Lateral raise
3x10x22.5
Wheel of Pain
2x10
Band pull aparts
6x15
Axle clean each rep and strict press
1x5x123
10% COROLLARY
Breathing Squats w/pullovers
20x245+chains
10 minutes of 5 dips and 5 KB swings w/40kg bell (18 rounds accomplished)
20 Conan Curls
20 Band pushdowns
BREAKFAST
Walk w/wolf (no weightvest)
Notes:
First uninterrupted week in 2 weeks: got to bookend it with 2 pretty “normal” training sessions, stealing from 5/3/1. This was 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake style, whereas the start of the week was more BBS. The topsets showed some improvement for sure, but the real story is in the supplemental work. I accidentally loaded 123 a few weeks ago and had to Malcolm X is to get it done, taking about 7 sets total. Today, I absolutely crushed 50 reps in 5 sets. Weight flew up. Definitely seeing improvement in this training: great to get those little validations.
Shoulders are still pretty sore/stiff from Klokovs and yesterday’s workout.
Squats are in an interesting place. My knees and right hip feel a little beat up on the day to day, and I felt my right hip twinge on a few reps during the squat, but in general today’s squatting felt the best out of the week. Around rep 3 or 4 I was finding it pretty easy to move in and out of the hole. Typically it takes about rep 7 to get there. I’m finding I actually have LESS stretch reflex as time is going on: most likely a sign my mobility is improving. I’m finishing off the final squats with quite a few breaths between reps, but find myself moving pretty quick through the squat itself.
Had some extra time, since I was so far ahead on my 180 minutes, so I brought in the dip/swing circuit to cover some of those things I mentioned were getting neglected. As like a pseudo conditioning workout as well.
Went without the vest for the walk, as I’m feeling pretty beat from a hard week of training, and still got the grappling competition on Sunday. On that note, my rash guard isn’t going to show up in time, which is a foul on amazon’s part, but I have some old gear I can still wear. They’ll announce brackets tonight. I also have Tang Soo Do tonight: lots of activity.
“Hey T3hPwnisher, why don’t you try to cut the 2lbs necessary to be on the next weight class?”
Because I eat like a warrior
And I still train pretty hard
What is in this dish mate?
Eggs and meat
@ChongLordUno nailed by @atlas13 . 2 bison and grassfed swiss omeletes with pasture raised eggs and grassfed ghee, sugar fee bacon and sugar free paleo chicken sausages, chicken breast patty, pork rinds, egg white wrap with cottage cheese, goat cheese and bone broth with electrolytes in the mug
Weighed in at 185
In full sweats
With shoes on
With my phone, wallet and keys
And this in my belly
Waiting on the rules meeting. Game on.
Don’t get caught standing chest to chest on your feet, don’t stick your neck out when you hit the mats.
Good Luck!
Now im super hungry ahah. Love the workouts lately
Dude, that is epic. I am looking forward s to the write up
Matches 1, 2 and 3. Lost the first in sudden death, won the last 2 by kimura, which got me first overall
Will post some thoughts later. Chaos is the plan
Tagging @twojarslave The bully handbook paid off!
Awesome!!
Let’s not forget to mention the massive forearm in that pic.
Americana, not Kimura. So simple an American can do it, or so the legend goes. Kimura deranges the shoulder joint in the opposite direction.
I’m guessing these guys were blue or purple belt level, definitely capable grapplers on the ground, at least. There’s a reason they were pulling guard on a dude like you. Well done.
I loved how you kept being unapologetically stronger and fitter the entire time in all three matches. You kept standing back up, which is a great way to frustrate guard-pullers, and by the end of the first match you had a major gas tank advantage if rules hadn’t forced a stoppage and contrived scenario to resolve it.
Great work and congratulations!
Man, what a quote. This is fantastic, feels like it should be the slogan for some training program
@FlatsFarmer Lunatic fringe! Haha. Always appreciate you dropping by, and I definitely took that advice to heart.
@bigpappafrance Get on board the meat and eggs train dude! You won’t be hungry often. And thanks!
@atlas13 Thanks so much man! Had to represent the Chaos out there, and show that those of us piloting a desk can still be dangerous, haha. Concur about that quote too: might have to be another tagline sometime
@tlgains Thanks man! I thought my vascularity was pretty wild, haha.
@twojarslave Appreciate the correction there: I kept saying kimura and then thinking “that doesn’t sound right”. Goes to show what happens when you haven’t attended a class in 20 years. REALLY appreciate the analysis there. The division I competed in was SUPPOSED to be novices, but there’s always a chance of some sandbaggery. Absolutely nailed it too: I knew I was stronger and fitter, so I had to just tire them out so they’d make mistakes and then I could impose my will on them.
I’ll probably write more sometime, but I came into this at the very bottom of the weight class, as previously noted, with absolutely no training for it. Been relying on “Chaos is the plan” to carry me through.
I lost the first match, despite getting my hand raised at the end, because the other dude was able to escape from me in sudden death faster than I could escape from him. But for that match, I really was just trying to remember what the f**k I was supposed to be doing in the first place. I didn’t do any sort of warm-up prior to the match, didn’t spend any time on the mat: just wanted to go out there raw. We tied up a bunch, he was strong in the clinch, didn’t find any takedowns or throws, and we scrambled a whole bunch. I wasn’t having much luck securing subs, but I could also tell around minute 5 that he was exhausted while I was feeling like Captain America: “I can do this all day”. So I just kept giving him more stuff to deal with the whole time, hoping I’d secure a sub. He was so fatigued that I wasn’t really worried about him escaping: I could muscle out of his attempts to secure position and try again. We went to sudden death, I didn’t really have a plan, and just kind of held on until I couldn’t, then took too long to escape him.
I was told I won, I celebrated, then I was told I had to compete against him again and that I actually lost and they reversed the previous decision. At that point, I no longer made having fun the goal: I was honestly pretty mad my victory was taken. So I went out there with some “bad intentions”, knowing the dude’s gas tank was already compromised, and tried my best to bully him. I found it a bit easier to secure positions on him, got another americana, cranked it far more aggressively than before and secured the tap.
This got me into the finals. The other guy I was competing against secured an armbar on the last guy I beat, so I knew he had some technical chops. He was also very active in the clinch, and just kinda spazzy in general. I tied up and found out he wasn’t nearly as strong as the other guy: I could impose my will on him far easier. I kept going for lazy single legs, which weren’t successful, but probably put a scare on him. He kept going for hip throws on me, which I enjoyed, because it put me in a position to get closer and put my bodyweight on him. I was able to outmuscle him enough whenever we got to the floor, which allowed me to get the positions I wanted. Once again: when I finally got the americana, I cranked it and got the tap. This got me first.
The commonalities between all the matches: I worked some weird angles in the clinch with my arms and hands that these dudes weren’t prepared for, and I imagine that was my Muay Thai and wrestling background coming through. I also would put pressure on them whenever I could: forearms on the neck or across the mouth or face, make their breathing labored or uncomfortable, and basically put a panic on them. I could feel their strength and stamina departing pretty rapidly into the match, and it was like a shark smelling blood when it happened. It drove me to be more aggressive and try to drain them like a sponge. I could play stupid games with them where we both went force on force, knowing they would swerve first in our game of chicken. A dumb move against a more skilled opponent, but play the cards you’re dealt.
I loved my aggression today. I didn’t have that when I was a kid. I think KNOWING I was stronger and fitter went a long way. It was also my ONLY tool in the toolbox, but it goes to show just how valuable those assets can be. “More trouble than I am worth” completely on display: JUST enough skills to be dangerous, and enough strength, size and conditioning to impose them.
Some dude came up to me afterwards and asked “Weren’t you at mid-Americas?” I replied this was my first competition, and I don’t even train in this. He was puzzled. I went on to say “I do Tang Soo Do…but I wrestled in high school 18 years ago”. He was still bewildred. “But where do you train out of?” My garage man, unless you count Tang Soo Do. He eventually congratulated me, and I told him “Thanks: Chaos is the plan”
