More Trouble Than I Am Worth: Chaos Is The Plan (T3hPwnisher Log)

Training Training Logs
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For the most part. On this

I could be in a deficit or maintaining. But I don’t need to eat enough to gain at this point.

Spot on! I’m never thinking “when do I need to get lean”, but “when can I start growing”. Growing requires a lot of time, energy and effort, so I have to be deliberate with it. When I can’t do that, my training becomes more intensification based and my nutrition adjusts to support.

No problem dude. What would you like to know?

Definitely dude. Part of Jim Wendler’s “Don’t get fat” menality, I don’t find myself in a situation where I need to lose fat: just where I need to make weight.

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I could be in a deficit or maintaining. But I don’t need to eat enough to gain at this point.

Gotcha.

What would you like to know?

I remember you saying in your blog that you had high cholesterol. I’m guessing that was the scare. What health problems did you get from being too lean? Just curious.

Also, what were the changes you made to your diet that allowed you to maintain this level of leanness?

Part of Jim Wendler’s “Don’t get fat” menality, I don’t find myself in a situation where I need to lose fat: just where I need to make weight.

I Googled “Wendler don’t get fat” and got this: Never Get Out of Shape

The post reminded me of Evander Holyfield’s idea of the best way to get in shape is to stay in shape. Good read, and sadly way too true for me as someone who was obese as a kid haha.

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This is such a common theme in life though. One of those places where the gym and the weight room can really teach you lessons to take into the real world. If you let yourself get behind on something, you’re going to have to work really, really hard to catch back up.

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Yup. Big wake up call for me.

Insomnia was real bad. Mood tanked too. I’m pretty sure I was displaying signs of depression. Was just really robotic. Libido was tanked too.

Diet was a total overhaul. I eliminated all fast food, whereas I was a very regular consumer of it. Cut out all non-grassfed beef and went from eating like a pound of beef a day to 4oz of grassfed. Swapped out all my eggs for pasture raised vs the 99 cent a dozen stuff. Cut all cheese out of my diet (was eating a LOT of it). Most dairy became fat free. Basically a lot of elimination of saturated fats, a focus on getting more mono and poly unsaturated fats, getting QUALITY saturated fat sources when I did get them, an elimination of trans fats, and, of course, eating less food in general.

Portion sizes had gotten out of control. I was eating up to a weight class for a while, and though it helped me set a lifetime PR on the strict press, it wasn’t what I needed to be doing to be healthy.

I am going to flat out say I don’t like being lean. It’s not at all how I want to see myself. My heart will always want to be a 308lb powerlifter. That’s “masuline” to me. But being lean, for me, means being healthy, and with a wife and kid needing me to be around I’d rather be lean and healthy than big and unhealthy. Some folks out there can do big and healthy, but for the genetic hand I’ve been dealt it’s just not in the cards.

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Got back from my 12 and crushed 18 rounds of “Snake handler Mass” in 40:15. It was -15 with windchill outside. My hands were numb for half the workout, but once I started sweating it self resolved. Ate a large breakfast afterwards. This is no joke what I live for. Train hard and then eat well. I can’t tell if my liver chorizo is getting better the longer it rests in the fridge or if I am just developing a taste for it, but either way it’s such a treat.

Got most of my meals ready to go for shift #2. Probably some Tabata front squats before that. Getting after it.

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Now that I’ve got some time for a real breakfast, decided to take a page out of your playbook. Picked up some organic grass fed ground beef, eggs, some Keto tortillas, and some avocado. Going to slam some high fat high protein breakfast tacos in the morning, and I’m beyond excited for it lol.

Also spent about 5 minutes going back and forth between the ground beef or ground bison. I LIKE the idea of bison, but it’s just dang expesive, and idk if there’s really any health benefit when compared to plain old beef

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@atlas13 Hell yeah dude! Hope they serve you well. And hey: why choose? Get both! Haha. You can make the bison go further by “cutting” it with the beef. Mix them together, kinda like I did with my liver. But otherwise, grassfed beef has tons of great stuff in it as it is.

Got in my tabata front squats before shift, AND managed to get in all my daily work still. Firing on all cylinders.

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I’m honestly kicking myself for not thinking of just doing that. I grabbed like 3 packets of ground beef, I could of just swapped one out and had a blend. Live and learn

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Absolutely dude! I got the tip of blending protein sources from Jon Andersen. I like doing that with all sorts of stuff. Mixing turkey and beef together is a way to make beef leaner and turkey better, haha. Any time I can mix animals, I will.

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I blend kangaroo (nil fat) and lean beef mince for my breakfasts too.

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Insomnia was real bad. Mood tanked too. I’m pretty sure I was displaying signs of depression. Was just really robotic. Libido was tanked too.

Jesus Christ lol. I haven’t heard of people getting insomnia from having too low of a bodyfat percentage, but I’ve heard of all the other symptoms. Then again, as someone who’s never gotten lean to that point, a part of me can’t wait to get those symptoms as a badge of honor for becoming that lean :rofl:

I was eating up to a weight class for a while, and though it helped me set a lifetime PR on the strict press, it wasn’t what I needed to be doing to be healthy.

It seems the way you ate shifted from a focus only on performance, to at least an equal focus on both performance and health. What’s awesome is that the changes you made seem to be quite simple and common sense. Truthfully, my portions have always been big (I once won an eating challenge right after having a lunch twice my normal size lol). I definitely need to reduce them. Since if I’m gaining fat while still being able to recover from my training sessions, it seems obvious that I’m eating more than I need to in order to recover.

My heart will always want to be a 308lb powerlifter. That’s “masuline” to me.

I can relate. My ideal “physique” is 265lbs Francis Ngannou (UFC HW champ). However, I’m not 6’5" and don’t have his giant bone structure, so I know it will not be healthy for me to try to match his size.

Thanks for all this! Your eating style makes a lot more sense now. As for the last question I have, I’m actually gonna make a thread so others can add their thoughts to it.

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My quality of life was really poor there my dude. I wouldn’t wish it on people.

This tight rope has been EXTREMELY difficult to walk, and I’m still figuring it out as I go. It’s a razor’s edge. I’ve appreciated the challenge, but it’s honestly amazing how the two seem related and can be WAY different.

I’ve found that MANY trainees, especially those coming from a background of obesity, have never actually experienced under-recovery. They’ve ALWAYS eaten enough (and typically MORE than enough) to recover, so they don’t have a frame of reference for what it’s like to NOT do that. Some time being hungry will go a long way.

Glad I could help dude!

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They’ve ALWAYS eaten enough (and typically MORE than enough) to recover, so they don’t have a frame of reference for what it’s like to NOT do that. Some time being hungry will go a long way.

Yep, I’ll agree to that (to my own shame haha). I will say that most of the time when we do feel underrecovered, it’s due to our poor fitness. Case in point, when I was 14, I tried out for my school’s basketball team. I was obese then and had never done any serious physical activity before that point. After tryouts, which would’ve been a breeze to any normally active person, I felt severely sick for a day because it was such a shock to my body.

I experienced this again after my Elhers Danlos sidelined me from training for 7+ years. Doing some band pull aparts and dumbbell curls would feel exhausting. Though, after a few months, the fitness quickly came back.

Your blog posts on work capacity are spot on, by the way. The amount of volume I can recover from seems to keep going up even with the same amount of food as long as I don’t plan it idiotically.

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Today has been nuts. All good, but hair on fire. Gonna throw down a quick log and come back to flesh out details sometime.

AM WORKOUT (0700 post 12 hour night shift)

Texas Deadlift Bar TnG deadlifts
5x135+chains
3x225+chains
1x315+chains
1x385+chains
10+4+4x455+chains (12 breath rest pause)

12 minute EMOM

Odd minute: (3) Deficit deadlifts 315
Even minute: SSB squat 205

8-7-6-5-5-5

1 minute break for profanity and blasphemy

No rest between any of the following

40 axle shrugs against short strong bands–50 band pull aparts–neck harness–40 reverse hypers w/50lbs–20 standing ab wheels–50 dips–25 band pushdowns

LATER IN THE DAY

CONDITIONING

10 KB clusters w/45lb bells
10 burpee chins

4 rounds of the above accomplished in 9:40, bought out with 10 more burpee chins to get my 50 and finished at around 10:57

Tang Soo Do later tonight. I’ve currently slept 30 minutes over the last 24 hours. Rock on.

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Slept until 0630, did a fasted workout of 21 rounds, tabata timing, of

40kg KB swings
45lb KB thrusters
Burpee chins

Talking about yesterday, it was a less than ideal day to end the ROM progression cycle, but I’ve appreciated just taking that day on like any other day vs building a ritual around it, so off I went. Most interesting thing was how poorly my lifting belt fit. Typically, I’m bloated coming off shift and its too snug, but that day it was much looser and was gripping in weird spots. I could feel it move between reps. Neither the very topset of 10 nor the backoff sets of 4s were me pushed to my absolute limit, but the degree of effort I was willing to put in after an overnight 12.

The EMOM work is STILL awful, and will most likely need to be a regular feature of mine in the future. Definitely a value added experience from this training cycle.

Tang Soo Do was basics night. I’ve been drilling a series of movements over the past few weeks that were difficult for me to grasp and absolutely nailed it. Got some kudos.

Realized kind of the big difference between what we’re learning and what I learned in combat sports. In the latter, it’s assumed somewhat equal footing in terms of physicality (weight classes and such) and so you’re learning how to go the distance, control the fight, endure, outwight, etc etc. With traditional martial arts, it’s assumed you’re outmatched. Someone bigger and stronger than you is wanting to start something. It’s why there’s such a focus on “one shot one kill” sorta stuff. You’re probably only going to get one or two chances to do something, so you learn how to put as MUCH of yourself into one movement in the hopes it’s enough. As much as I don’t care to chamber my punches because it drops my guard, I “get” that we do it to create torque into the ONE punch we’re most likely going to get when the chips are down. We don’t need to keep our guard because this isn’t going to become a boxing match: either we hit the dude and can get away or we were already f**ked.

I DO think we throw away a lot of that good will with non-contact sparring, because it drills pulling the very punches that we need to fully commit to, but such is life. I also have to appreciate that, in most cases, I’m going to be the sand-kicking bully vs the 98lb weakling.

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What’s the EMOM work specifically brother?

I hit a 30 minute navy seal EMOM last week and it was brutal

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This right here

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Jesus Christ

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It is soul breaking, haha. Lower back screams. It started as 8-7-6-5-4-3 and I keep adding reps to the back parts until things even out. Kinda like Hepburn.

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Recent blog post is giving off very Shane Patton vibes. An awesome quote that has been unfortunately bastardized by a lot of folks that don’t really live it, but an awesome quote nonetheless.

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