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

Training Training Logs
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@dchris Dude, no joke. There is some GREAT cuisine at those truck stops. They’re really overlooked. People just wanna swing through a McDs or something “comfortable” on the road, but there’s some real love put into these spots.

@TrainForPain Hell yeah brother: that means so much coming from you! Especially with it being so nerdy: I’m happy to hear it can reach an audience.

@simo74 Thanks so much dude! Definitely a good message to take from it, haha.

Quick recap of where I’ve been. Left on Friday to drive to Wisconsin Dells for a Tang Soo Do tournament on Saturday. We stayed the day on Sunday, and we’re driving home tomorrow. Friday, Sat and Sun I woke up and started each day with 150 prisoner squats and 100 push ups by doing 10 rounds of 15-10. Beyond that, the only activity was walking and what I did at the tournament. Also, today we did a waterpark inside our hotel with a bunch of slides, and 92 steps (the Valkyrie counted) to get to the top of each slide, so that was a lot of activity.

Tournament went poorly. I took last in Weapons, Forms and sparring, and I withdrew from breaking because they changed the rules DURING the rules meeting and said we had to include a foot technique in our creativity break, which was not going to work with the bread I had put together, and I was just pretty pissed off with the organization at that point. But I got to participate in a “team sparring” event, which was a blast. We were on teams of 3, a member of each team would face off against another in 1 on 1 sparring for a single 90 second round, goal was to score as many points as possible in the time limit, and contact was permitted, not still not hand strikes to the head.

Contact was PERMITTED, but it was still in a quasi-state where “excess” contact was frowned on. I don’t do great under those rules, but I went up against a 2nd degree black belt that had tooled an equal ranked black belt from another team with the same technique: spin hook kick to the back of the head. I came in with 2 goals: shut him down and score A point. And I did exactly that. Everything he’d spin, I’d either move off angle, close the distance, or flat out kick his leg back down, and eventually he had to put away his favorite toy and fight me on my own stupid terms instead, which he wasn’t as comfortable in. I scored at least one point with a body punch, and possibly some more, but I came in 5 ranks below this person sparring in a style that is still alien to me: I walked out smiling. I even ate a kick to the face and felt so goddamn alive from that. I really miss for real sparring, and the grappling I do sorta scratches that itch, but it would be nice to bang again. Also, our team on Bronze, so that was cool. I was part of a team of patched together dudes who didn’t have enough folks from their school to form a team, and one of those members included a random Second degree black belt who asked if it was ok if he joined my team, and it totally felt like that scene from “Sidekicks” where Chuck Norris joins the team with River Phoenix.

The feedback I got for the forms is what I always get: I’m too stiff and I need to flow more. Years of lifting, where being stiff is a boon (outside of the ballistics) is hard to overcome, and I’ll have to decide if I care enough to do it. In sparring, my head wasn’t right. My family had a medical emergency in between my open hand form finishing and sparring starting, which everything is fine now, but I really just wanted to be done at that point. I also got kicked in the groin and the other dude was given a POINT for doing that vs losing a point. I probably should have sold it, but again: I just wanted to be done at that point.

It was still an awesome tournament though, because my kid actually won the championship cup. They placed the top in the age category amongst the ENTIRE competition: not just in their own individual division. They came home with 2 gold medals, 1 silver (silver in sparring), and the Cup. They’re absolutely over the moon and I couldn’t be prouder.

I get back on Monday, and will lift on Tuesday. I am legit excited about training. I can’t wait to get back to it. Been a LONG time since I’ve felt that way. Really, my headspace is in a great spot.

I’m also excited because my Ninja Woodfire XL came in the day before we left, so I have that at home waiting for me.

I underate today, and I have a feeling that I’m going to come back from this trip a little on the lighter side, but I remain in a great place to put on mass and in a great time to do so.

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That made my day. Seeing our kids work hard and get rewarded is simply the best thing. Quality.

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Nailed it dude. It immediately took away and bad day feelings I had.

Also, totally forgot: the place we went to for our Victory Dinner on Sunday had a “2 minute hang from bar” challenge. So I did that, so I could show off to my kiddo.

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Wow, I never knew you could do 1,000,000 pull-ups at light speed.

It almost looks like you’re hanging for 2 minutes.

Great job!

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Huge congrats! Incredible stuff!

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This sent me off to the blog and on a catch up, it’s been a while, got the it used to be hard to get fat blog. Man reading about the crazy amount of food those guys had to eat, weirdly inspiring, I’m gaining pretty steadily at the moment but makes me want to go crazy. Half a pint of honey during the session, love it.

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Will reply when I am back at computer. Final travel day Operation Conan update.

Can of sardines at 0600 for breakfast

5 patties from Wendy’s for lunch. $1.29 per patty: what a deal!

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Texas Roadhouse to go for dinner. 2 sidekicks of ribs, with grassfed cottage cheese and pork cracklin

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Back to reality tomorrow, with the next phase of training

Edit: So yeah, good chance I lost some weight

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But also: can you imagine getting to eat like I ate on this trip and your biggest issue is being too lean when you get home? This is living.

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@tlgains Hey thanks man! My chin game really needs to make a comeback: I got hopes.

@TrainForPain Hey thanks so much brother! We dads get it.

@alex_uk Means a lot to have you as a reader. And it’s wild isn’t it! When you stay away from processed junk, it’s REALLY hard to get fat. We just keep getting more awesome instead, haha.

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Wendy’s food IS processed junk.

It’s hard to even find a nice sized roast for 20 bucks these days, which is expensive (those are the deals now) one of them lasts 2-days if I eat eggs with it.

5449

The patties are not.

Would you mind keeping out of my training log?

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5450

AM WORKOUT (0359 natural wake up)

OPERATION CONAN: Initial Shocktrooper Assault

Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol: Grey Man-Cycle 2, Week 1, Day 1

WARM UP

Roll out on LAX ball
50x180 reverse hyper
30 seconds at the bottom of a squat
30 seconds at bottom of squat w/bar on back
Sets of Bar, 85, 175, and 225 for warm up, overwarm walkout w/335

MAINWORK

Buffalo Bar Squat
5x8x275

Superset

Axle strict press
5x8x118

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER giant set

(3) Incline DB bench
2x12x55
2x12x50

NG Chins
4x12 (first 2 sets no break up, then stop at 10 and stop at 9 for next 2 sets)

Standing ab wheel
3x10

SUPPLEMENTAL EXERCISE

GHR
4x24

Assistance
50 band pull aparts

Total training time: Approx 50 minutes

BREAKFAST

Short walk w/dogs

Notes:

  • Best I have felt in a LONG time. No pain, and as such, I learned how pain begets pain and the opposite as well. Because my hips ached so much, I was moving really slow on the squats, which was putting a lot of stress on my knees, which caused my knees to ache. Since I could move faster through the eccentric today, my knees felt better. I’m still going to keep up the rehab, as it will now be prehab. But last cycle, this workout crippled me and I seriously wondered if I’d have to scrap the program, so this was a great sign.

  • Kept rests close to 1 minute on the main work until the final set, which was more around 90 seconds for the squats. Kept it close to 1 minute for the supplemental work as well.

  • The DBs were a bit too heavy for all 4 sets, but this is still progress to do 2 sets at a heavier weight. I can try to Hepfield this and just keep using heavier weight on more sets until I eventually get it on all 4. Similar progression for the chins.

  • I realize that hip flexor pain I was feeling on my left side might actually be from the GHRs instead of the squats, as I triggered it during that movement. I need to ensure I remain diligent through the execution of it.

  • My dog is enrolled in daycare now, so I’m not getting as much walking in the morning. Something to factor in.

  • Tang Soo Do tonight. 1-step week, so it tends to be a little less physically intense.

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Serious question: why do you think this is? It’s always the default response (control your movements!) and I always feel worse. Is it just milking the weak/ dangerous portion that’s making it hurt?

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I’d say that what needs to be appreciated is the nuance between “control” and “artificially slow down”. We can be fast AND controlled, and that tends to be more the ideal in most circumstances. Meanwhile, the knees aren’t much different from the elbows: both extenders. Think about if you were to do a preacher curl where you intentionally move slowly through the ROM; the next day, your elbows will be screaming at you. Meanwhile, you can do a controlled preacher curl where you get in a solid contraction/pump but ALSO spare yourself elbow pain.

The knees most likely like being at one end or the other of the ROM: loading them at that midpoint is less than comfortable. Similar to how my ACL could handle that 775lb yoke when I was locked out, but trying to pick it up with a loose leg blew it out.

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Continuing the Operation Conan meal updates.

Lunch was field rations. After traveling, I didn’t want to make food for lunch, so I just had 250g of egg whites mixed with one of these

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It’s pretty lean, and decently flavorful.

Dinner was far more awesome though.

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15oz of piedmontese grassfed New York Strip, 10oz of that covered in grassfed ghee, alongside 4 pastured eggs, some grassfed cottage cheese and some pork cracklin. I also ended up cutting off/eating the fat strips on 2 more of the New York Strips I had out, because they’ll never be as good as they are when they’re fresh.

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that steak looks delicious but those eggs look even better.

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@simo74 Thanks man! That’s high praise, as it was my first time ever making sunny side up eggs. It turned out really well. Used my Ninja griddle and it was quite simple. Little duck fat spray to keep them slippery.

AM WORKOUT (0352 natural wake up, snooze until 0400)

Roll out on LAX ball
75x320 reverse hyper
60 minute treadmill walk at 4.0 incline
First half mile was at 3.5 pace, then each half mile went up by .1 until the 3 mile mark, then did .25 miles at 4.1, then the remainder of time at 3.5 to get in 3.73 miles in 60 minutes.

BREAKFAST

Short walk w/dogs

Notes:

  • This continues to be one of my favorite parts of the program: it’s always just what I need when I need it. I woke up quite sore from yesterday’s training, specifically in my glutes, hamstrings and quads. Rolling out helped, and then movement was the medicine. Once again, said I was going to take it easy, which is why I started at 3.5, but I saw a portal and jumped through it, ala Jon Andersen. By the time it was done, I felt restored.

  • Outside the scope of this workout, but I also really appreciate the simplicity of execution on this. I set up the gym the day before the workout, to speed up my mornings, and it’s awesome only needing to get 2 bars set up.

  • Reverse hypers continue to be very restorative.

  • Tang Soo Do tonight. We signed back up for 3x a week, which will start next week. Valkyrie has her fire lit up on getting after more rank, and my kiddo wants to be able to defend their crown. I think I might actually try to conquer this whole “loosen up” thing I keep getting told to do during my hyungs.

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You have me looking hard at a Ninja Griddle thing. They have them on amazon right now for smoking deals. I was going to buy a new grill but am wanting to go with a flat top grill instead of another standard propane grill. How I use mine now, 90 percent of it is cooking my meats for dinner, these things would be perfect.

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Hell yeah brother! Love my Ninja. If you’re looking specifically at the woodfire, they have a griddle top AND a griddle/grill top split option, but otherwise the indoor models work well too. Biggest thing is you gotta take care of the surface: I had one that the non-stick got in a bad way. Using a magic eraser type sponge when you clean goes a long way, and no scrubbing, just wipe it down.

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That’s good to know about clean up. I am sure the griddle will need to be seasoned before use.

I ended up ordering the IG651. Indoor grill/griddle combo. I like the griddle option. Perfect for fajitas, eggs, etc. Air fryer is a bonus as well.

You also inspired me to buy that little 10 dollar egg boiler. Seriously, that is one of my most used kitchen gadgets. I make 14 eggs every week with it. Been doing that before Christmas last year. Thing has lasted me almost a year now. Best 10 bucks I have spent in a long time. I even inspired a guy at work to buy one for his wife for Christmas. She loves hers as well. :+1:

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Not the ninja one, no. It’s not like a cast iron.

Kick ass on the egg boiler too. I use our Instant Pot for that, to make a ton of eggs all at once. Apparently you can air fry eggs to boil them too.

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