Good to know. I will skip trying to season it.
I didn’t know that about an air fryer.
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AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
OPERATION CONAN: Initial Shocktrooper Assault
Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol: Grey Man-Cycle 2, Week 1, Day 1
Low handle trap bar lift
5x8x395
SUPERSET
Axle bench press
5x8x196
SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER
Belt squat (Fringe Sport Mammoth belt squat)
4x12x180
loaded Dips
4x12x20lb
Axle curls 4x12x48
ASSISTANCE
Standing ab wheel
3x10
33x10lb lateral raise
Total training time: 54 minutes
BREAKFAST
Moderate walk w/dogs
Notes:
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Each and every workout is the best one I’ve had. Perhaps that’s the silver lining when you start the program really beat up. The first time I ran this week, I basically self-destructed each time I put the weight down with the trap bar, and I’d have the world’s slowest initial rep to mitigate pain and prevent re-triggering the issue. Today, I felt very confident in breaking the weight off the floor, to the point that I was able to regrip on the 4th set when the weight tipped too far forward and get in another rep off the floor. No twinges or feedback from my back on this, and, in turn, I tore through this workout and felt strong.
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Bench weight was perfect. I miscalculated the first time I did this. Got some room to grow. With the dips, I was going too light, and this was still fairly easy, but more challenging than bodyweight.
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Still playing it fast and loose on the belt squat. I’m really happy I can include this movement though. Great to get in more squatting.
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I’ve been a very good boy as far as program compliance goes. Those lateral raises are the only deviation. It’s honestly nice to have something so structured that I can shut off my brain and just get done.
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Tang Soo Do wasn’t too terribly active last night, but enjoyable. We got to make up our own one-step self defense protocols. At one point, the Valkyrie stopped defending and just wanted to try to stump me when it came to escaping from grabs, which was a blast. Broke out a lot of Bas Rutten self-defense style stuff.
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Schedule is still a little screwy with travel: this is the final lifting workout of the week, despite only being 2 workouts. I’ll get in a mat pull on Saturday, and get in walking on Friday. I have the day off on Monday as well, but I’m going to see if I can finagle getting in a lifting workout in the afternoon on that day.
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On the Operation Conan homefront for meals, last night we went Bavarian…esque. For the Valkyrie and the Kiddo, we had some soft pretzels to go along with some sausages (which I’m going to offend my Bavarian/German/Austrian audience when I admit that, for the kiddo, it was a Hebrew national hotdog). Valkyrie is using “Factor” meal prep, and with that got some bison, pork, cheddar jalapeno sausages as a protein add on, so I grilled those up, and also threw in some Teton Waters grassfed beef polish sausages and some of those organic grassfed hot dogs I like, all 3 of which are on my plate, alongside some pastured sunny side up eggs, grassfed cottage cheese and pork cracklin’. I ended up having 1 more hot dog after this. I REALLY think that the cottage cheese is a fantastic lever for mass gain. It’s cheese, yes, which makes it hyperpalatable to me, but it’s so jacked up in protein compared to conventional cheeses that I feel it alters ratios in a beneficial way. I’m still trying not to overconsume it, but adding it to every meal seems to be working well. Unfortunately, it looks like the photo didn’t take: will try to upload later.
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Which, on the topic of working well, caught myself post-pump and I’m filling back out again. Spending the summer getting lean was a positive move for sure, and definitely set me up to gain, but I was very stringy at the end. It’s good to look more like how I feel.
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Those Factor meals are actually pretty decent.
Nice work work on those trap bar deads,
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Thanks man! I like what I’ve seen from the company. And she really likes what they make, which is a win.
@unicornsandrainbows , per your request, some more puppy pics
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Legs like a deer phase!
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She has my calf insertions.
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They are so floppy and amazing! Thank you for continuing to share.
I have been scanning local shelter ads quite a bit lately. This just helps the temptation.
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Absolutely. I eat 1 lb every morning. More filling and longer lasting (satiety wise) than a shake and much easier to prep vs the 6-7 eggs I’d rather eat.
But I still add a cup or so of the curd to those eggs on the weekend.
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@unicornsandrainbows always a delight to share, and hoping you’ll be able to meet that need for puppy love when the time is right.
@sirdanoman Man, a pound per morning: that sounds delightful! I may work up to that.
Back to the Operation Conan food porn. Last night’s dinner, as described.
Tonight’s dinner, a Thursday night staple of breakfast for dinner
Apparently, I bought the EXTRA large pastured eggs, so that’s awesome. Each omelet is made with 3 of them, 2 of them filled with leftover piedmontese grassfed New York strips, one of them some kosher beef salami, all of them with grassfed ghee and New Zealand white cheddar. Alongside some beef bacon, grassfed hot dog, grassfed cottage cheese, sour cream and pork cracklin. This was perfect after a day of protein sparing modified fasting.
Mother-in-law comes in tomorrow for her Birthday. It’s sounding like we’re hitting up Texas Roadhouse. I have a coupon for a free appetizer. Their ribs are an appetizer. I’m legit thinking of getting ribs for an appetizer AND an entree. It’s gonna be a good day.
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A man of my word: here is the Operation Conan meal.
A salad course of hardboiled eggs
And a full rack of ribs WITH ribs as an appetizer…served alongside the main course
And in true Conan fashion, there were no survivors.
And astute survivors will note the ends of the bones are chewed off. I also got a side of sour cream to go with this, and it was wonderful on the ribs.
Its not puppy photos, but tagging my sister in riblove @unicornsandrainbows .
Because I also unboxed my new Ninja smoker today too, and I have 4 piedmontese bone in chuck short ribs and 2 piedmontese beef back ribs thawing out for Sunday dinner.
And tomorrow we are hitting up our favorite Hawaiian BBQ place for dinner…which has flanked ribs. Oh my god I am having a great Conan weekend.
EDIT: Hah! Forgot to log my training.
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
Roll out on LAX ball
75x320 reverse hyper
60 minute walk on treadmill at 3.5mph pace and 4.0 incline
BREAKFAST
Short walk w/dogs
PM Activity (1315)
5 5+ mile walk (leisure pace) out in the sun
Notes:
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Day off work today and I had some physical chores to knock out (taking the leftover wood from our deck project, loading it in the pick up and dropping it off at the dump) and was feeling pretty sore from this week, so I made this a legit recovery walk and just kept it light and easy. The reverse hypers still worked their magic. My hips ache, but not to an unreasonable amount.
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Got in an extra walk just for enjoyment. Time out in the sun was good
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No food porn photos today, but still an awesome day. We got up early-ish so we could spend more time with my in-laws before they took off. Got in my 50 squats and push ups, Valkyrie made me my typical weekend breakfast, we saw off the in-laws, and I fasted through lunch. I was still pretty satiated from dinner the night before, and breakfast had me in a good way. Took the family through the Culver’s drivethrough on our way to the Back to the Future musical though, so I got what was leftover of my kiddo’s double cheddar burger.
Went to our favorite local Hawaiin BBQ place for dinner, and I got a loco moco (very light on the gravy, like 1 forkful), along with kalbi ribs and some bbq chicken. Very clutch. In general, I underate today for Operation Conan, but it’s setting me up for a BIG meal tomorrow, as I’m breaking in my smoker with a LOT of ribs.
I also got in a fair amount of walking, and I got to do my mat pulls today, feeling about 95% back to normal now.
13+6+3x405 off of 6 mats. I MIGHT have had a 14th rep on that first pull, but this was still a big victory for me.
Started looking to the future. I have a cruise that leaves on 28 Dec. This means, sticking with Tactical Barbell, I can get in five 3 week cycles total (counting the one I’ve already done) before that cruise, which I can consider a bridge week. K Black recommends 4 3 week cycles of General Mass, followed by a bridge week and then 2 3 week cycles of Specificity. I’m intending on deviating from that, and doing the five cycles of General Mass, bridge week on the cruise, come back to specificity.
Once again: I am so excited to see this through. I love feeling this way.
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Today was another great day. Slept until about 0730, got in my 50 push ups and squats, Valkyrie made me a great breakfast, walked the dog, got in chores, fasted through lunch, more dog walking…and then…
Yup, it’s for real
Valkyrie got me the BEST early birthday present ever, and I put it to the test…and it crushed it
Piedmontese chuck bone-in short ribs. They were like butter. Tagging @freshyfresh and @tlgains for my smoked ribs aficionados.
I also made some beef back ribs too, and put it all together for a great carnivore tailgate spread
Here was plate 1
And here was plate 2
The Operation continues with incredible success.
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That looks amazing! Thick Short ribs and Dino ribs are something I’ve always wanted to try. The thin bone ones are the only ones I’ve found in store
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@freshyfresh They’re such a treat. You ever come my way and I’ll make you some. Otherwise, I order them direct from piedmontese. They occasionally got on 30% sale. Couple other places will do them too.
AM WORKOUT (1100, day off work, trained around lunch)
OPERATION CONAN: Initial Shocktrooper Assault
Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol: Grey Man-Cycle 2, Week 2, Day 1
WARM UP
Roll out on LAX ball
50x180 reverse hypers
30 second squat stretch
Sets of Bar (w/30 second stretch), 85, 195, 245 and overwarm walkout with 335
MAIN WORK
5x6x295 squats
Superset
5x6x128 axle strict press
(Hang from bar for 30 seconds between press and squats)
SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER
3x10x55/1x14x55 incline db bench
4x10x10lb NG chins
4x27 GHRs (off camera)
ASSISTANCE
3X10 standing ab wheels
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 48 minutes
Notes:
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Keeping this brief for now, but got this in after breakfast before lunch. Day off due to federal holiday. Kept rests short and really crushed this workout. Hip was feeling great and I could move fast. Really just strong in general.
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Forgot to advance the incline DB bench weight, realized it toward the end, so went for max reps on the final set to compensate.
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I’d say based on the youtube thumbnail Operation Conan is a success so far. I weighed in today at 80.6 kg, which is a dropoff from 81.4 2 weeks ago, but between travel and that weigh in being artificially high, I’m trending in a positive direction.
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Got in a LOT of leisure walking today. About 6+ miles total, all outside in the sun. Walked the dog 3 times and went on a family walk.
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Today was the carb up meal: 2 generous servings of a rigatoni casserole with Italian sausage, 2.5 pieces of garlic bread, and 4 of my wife’s wonderful pumpkin snickerdoodles with some honey (the local stuff and the stuff from Cozumel) and fairlife skim milk. We went out for breakfast, which was at First Watch, where I got a bacon and jack cheese omelet with butter and sour cream, 2 sunny side up eggs, a pork sausage and some bacon, and for lunch I had 5 patties from Culver’s with butter, and the majority of my kid’s leftover triple cheddar burger (I ordered a double, they put on an extra patty, never correct your enemy when they are making a mistake).
5 burger patties
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and we are back in business. Yay!
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I have FINALLY caught up in here. So many great posts in the past month and a half. I can tell how much you’re loving life through HOW you’re typing up your posts. It’s so awesome.
Also sounds like you’re digging grey man quite a bit- I’m still reading through the programs, but from what I’ve read so far I’m absolutely feeling a bit more inspired on the lifting front and something new to focus my efforts on.
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@simo74 Gotta love when my phone goes rogue, haha. Last time, it bought a Dan John book on kindle. Thankfully, it turned out to be a good read.
@boilerman Dude, I’m honored you took the time: I know how busy you are. Your observations are spot on: I’m in a real good place these days. And I’m excited to hear the book is resonating well for you: it definitely checked all the boxes for me. I know we have some good TB reps here on the forums as well.
AM WORKOUT (0350 natural wake up/snooze until 0400)
Roll out on LAX ball
80x320 reverse hyper
3.5 mile/60 minute treadmill walk at 5 incline
2:30 hang from bar, pull up every 30 seconds (15 second PR)
BREAKFAST
Short walk w/dogs
Notes:
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I’m back on schedule after travel and, in turn, really want to focus on recovery because things are going to get hard and heavy, so kept the speed consistent and just upped the incline from last time. Feels good on my hips. My left hip flexor is a little angry right now, which is an improvement from the pain on the right side, but still something I need to keep aware of.
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I still look forward to these training days. Really just dig this plan.
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That PR on the hang from bar was pretty awesome. I definitely want to keep this regularly programmed into the training. Very low effort and high effect.
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Already seeing/feeling the carb magic. It’d been 2 weeks since my last carb-up, so I imagine this will be even more dramatic than last time. Once again, it’s awesome how I actually experience satiety from the meal and don’t feel a compulsion to binge. I enjoy the food, eat my fill, and then walk away ready to get “back on the program”.
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Which, on THAT note, this is going to be a week of fasting focus/Velocity Diet. And not because of the above meal, but because my Valkyrie is teleworking this week, so I have no one to eat lunch with. It’s much simpler to pack Metabolic Drive than make a meal for myself, and without someone to eat with I have no real incentive for a “real meal” for lunch, so I’m just going to PSMF up until my end of day meal Tues-Fri, and then eat a BIG end of day meal. I’m excited for this: it’s how I’d prefer to eat, if given the choice. I’d rather feast WHEN I eat than have small meals. Kinda why the warrior diet always appealed to me.
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You got a lot of work done in 48 minutes. Nice squats.
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