@Stormblessed No joke. At least we KNOW that stuff is toxic. People are still caught off guard when they find out their “healthy” breakfast is anything but.
@simo74 Oh yeah, I count the UK/most of Europe as “Western”. We’re all falling for this. And the RDA for protein is SO low that ANYTHING can get that protein sticker slapped on it. Once again: we’re all being deceived so blatantly.
@tlgains I am SO glad I never got into TikTok. So much social media just seems like poison.
While we’re talking about food, we went out to the buffet and I REALLY got my Operation Conan on. This one has a hibachi, so my first place was 4 eggs and then a TON of beef, shrimp and lobster, to which I added one pork chop, some octopus, some more shrimp and some oysters.
An atypical weekend, since I have to work. Got up at 0600, got in my squats and push ups after rolling out my hip. I’m having some “fun with fasting” today, as I’m still quite satiated from my meal last night, and since I’m not with family and have no social obligations I figure I may as well just see how long I’m not going to be hungry. Still had some tea with electrolytes to start the day, but that’s about it.
In a sort of “bad news/good news” thing, that pain I was having on my right hip has now manifested onto my left one. I was in denial, but it’s pretty much the exact same nerve pain in the same spot. I felt awesome before, during and immediately after yesterday’s workout, but this just gradually set itself in. That’s the bad news. The good news is, since it’s on the other side now, I’m no longer thinking this is some sort of disc issue as I did before, as I would only ever get this on the right hand side. Along with that, I have a gameplan to treat this, because it worked on the right side. But looking further downrange, I wonder if I need to stop proving whatever it is I’ve been trying to prove by using a close stance, high bar, deep beltless squat, because it absolutely doesn’t suit my anatomy. I don’t get hurt from pulls, but it seems like the squats blow me up. I also may have to scrap today’s mat pull workout, but we’ll see. I could also break out the gateway briefs again.
@dchris Good to see you on the mend dude! I’ve been thankful that this has just been pain vs dysfunction. Still been able to train: it just hurts! Haha. But definitely worth getting ahead of.
Looking to break my fast at about 1400 at this point. Feeling a slight twinge of hunger. I COULD push further, as I’m not starving, but gaining is the goal, and considering I’m just breaking the fast with Metabolic Drive, I feel I’m in a good way. Coming from being a guy that used to have to eat every 30 minutes, it’s pretty cool to be able to go this long without food.
Really very much digging this fast and feast approach, or “interimmitent feasting” as I’ve heard it called. After fasting for 16 hours, I broke it was 2 servings of Metabolic Drive at 1400, but still didn’t have an actual meal until 1900, and I made it count.
20 naked bone-in wings, charred, alongside some cracklin’ and grassfed cottage cheese. I also topped the wings with some grassfed ghee and grassfed sour cream. In-laws are in town, after I got off work we spent the day at the pumpkin patch walking around, and I picked up pizza and wings for dinner on the way home.
I ate to hunger, and actually still felt a little hungry at the end, which is a great sign. As much as I prefer beef, this was still some bone-in meat, and Jamie Lewis wrote about the merits of chicken wings for Apex Predator, so…
Another atypical weekend, as it’s effectively a workday. Got up at 0605, 5 minutes before my alarm, rolled out my hip, got in some push ups and squats, drank some tea with electrolytes and fasted through breakfast again. I’m digging that. I absolutely love when my wife makes me breakfast on the weekends, but if that’s not an option and I haven’t done any sort of real training I’m not seeing a demand to eat. It helps that I have that Metabolic Drive shake in the middle of the night as well: I’m never too stressed about protein. Well…that, and having consumed 20 chicken wings like a Tasmanian devil last night. Which is another thing I dig about the fasting: it’s “Intermittent Feasting”. Be curious to see what my bodyweight reflects tomorrow with this approach.
Plan is to continue this Velocity Diet-esque approach through this week as well. This is my final week being 38, and we’ll be celebrating that on Sunday, wherein I’ll be at Texas De Brazil enjoying copious amounts of red meat, so I’m once again no longer concerned about undereating for weight gain. I figure I can come in ready to rock with another long stretch of Metabolic Drive and one meal of the days.
I’m skipping the mat pulls this week, and will re-start the cycle this weekend, assuming my left hip is in a good place. It helps that I have nothing to prep for, such that this ROM progression cycle doesn’t need to go anywhere. I can take my time, heal up, and know it’s there for me when I’m ready. And with Tactical Barbell, I’m still pulling frequently enough that I’m not afraid of losing my ability there: it’s just proficiency with a straight bar I need to keep. And I have to be proud of myself for being at peace with NOT training: that’s something that took a while to develop.
In fact, my time with Tactical Barbell is really affirming how much of a “dose” I really need in many aspects: nutrition AND training. I’m noticing that the LESS I train, the better I perform AND look. Abs are staying sharp, but body is filling out as well: not looking as stringy as I was at the start. Of course, periodization is still a thing: I imagine I’m riding the wave of all the volume leading up until this point, but it’s good to appreciate the effects. One day, I’m sure I’ll have to pay the piper to keep this up, but I’ll be recharged and ready to do that. Until that point, this seems very sustainable, and I’m excited about the next few cycles of training. I really feel like this can carry me for quite a while.
Brother, I hope you follow the above thought train to its logical conclusion. I am not a natural bolt-upright squatter either. Not particularly long legged but I have long femurs.
I fell in love with Olympic lifting so nearly a decade of my life was dedicated to squatting ass to the grass until I bled from every orifice. And that’s not counting the cleans and snatches. I smashed that square peg into the round hole with a vengeance.
I’m 43 and likely need both hips replaced. I mean, I also have competed in powerlifting since 15, wrestled for six years, fought wildland fire for 4, logged for a couple…well, you get the moral of this story: I’m an aging Neanderthal that has to warm up to get his boots on in the morning
You have the training smarts and you’re reflective so you’re likely wiser than me. Best of luck.
I appreciate that dude! This has been a 2-ish year deviance for me from low bar squatting for about 2 decades. It was a part of a full on rebuild from the ground up, as I completely changed how I was eating, which completely changed my body comp, and I wanted to get away from my old numbers to get out of my head. I’m going to keep monitoring the situation and see what unfolds. I’m not opposed to getting back to where I was, as I imagine I’ve built up quite a bit of strength from training my weak areas so much, but it’s all an experiment.
Chaos is the plan. My Valkyrie has surprised me by offering to make me some spaghetti tonight since I’ve been working all weekend. Carb up meal will be today, which works out well given my fasting all weekend strategy. I’ll have some excellent fuel for tomorrow morning’s workout.
AM WORKOUT (0353 natural wake up, snooze until 0400)
OPERATION CONAN: Initial Shocktrooper Assault
Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol: Grey Man-Cycle 2, Week 3, Day 1
WARM UP
Roll out on LAX ball
50x180 reverse hyper
Sets of 175, 265 and 355 low handle trap bar lift
MAINWORK
Low handle trap bar pull
5x3x450
SUPERSET
Axle bench press
5x3x221
SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER giant set
Lever belt squat
4x8x235 loaded
Weighted dip
4x8x57.5
Axle curls
4x8x71
ASSISTANCE
Standing ab wheel
3x10
Total training time: 51.5 minutes
BREAKFAST
Stupidly short walk w/dogs
Notes:
This is absolutely my favorite week of the program. Despite it being the heaviest, triples after weeks of 8s and 6s are a breeze. It’s a little gift from K Black: from a logic perspective, you’d assume we’d be doing sets of 4 to go with the pattern of go up 5% and drop reps by 2, so to drop by 3 is honestly recharging.
I screwed up hand placement on the first 2 sets of pulls, but was able to hold on and get the rep in. Bar was tipping forward. On the 4th set, I noticed a significant reduction in speed on the initial pull, and the 5th set was similar. Most likely playing cautious with my hip, which felt awesome during the workout and currently feels good. I think a weekend away from doing stupid stuff helped.
Kept rests as close to a minute as I could as applicable. Very much still digging what I have for my supplemental cluster here. Lotta value added with those belt squats.
Weighed in at 81.9kg (180lbs). This is a post workout weigh in. That’s a good jump, but once again, not quite apples to apples, since my carb up meal was last night whereas this is typically my MOST depleted weigh in. But still, seeing a positive trend there.
On the discussion of post carb: last night was 2 moderate servings of spaghetti with bison meat sauce, 2 breadsticks, 3 fried eggs, and then 3.5 large servings of my wife’s oatmeal pumpkin bars topped with some honey from Costa Maya. This was actually a preview of my birthday cake this year: she’s going to make a brownie pan of this recipe, we’re going to put some candles in it, blow it out, and cut it up like a cake to eat. I’m incredibly excited about that development. Might even employ some honey icing.
And discussing future Operation Conan meal developments, kiddo and I are on my own tonight, so I’ll be doing surf and turf, ala some Piedmontese grassfed New York Strips and some sardines. Also planning on eggs, cottage cheese and craklin’ of course: can’t beat the classics. I also have a lot of birthday goodies to cash in, since I’m signed up for some many food services, to include some free wings at BWW and some free ribs at Texas Roadhouse. It’s a good time to be gaining.
10oz grassfed piedmontese New York Strip, 5 pastured eggs from my friend’s chickens, both topped with grassfed ghee, grassfed cottage cheese, 2 cans of Trader Joe’s sardines and some pork craclkin.
That bit about the eggs is an awesome story. I brought my wife’s cookies into work (I do this every Monday, she likes to make the office happy), and one of the dudes there said “Take this in thanks for the cookies: they’re from my chickens”. I couldn’t ask for a better act of thanks. And they were incredible!
And a sneak preview of tomorrow’s Operation Conan. While I was eating dinner, I was cooking up some venison and ground pork meatballs. The ground pork is from Truebridge foods
Roll out on LAX ball
85x320 reverse hyper
3.5 mile/60 minute walk on treadmill at 5.5 incline
2:48 hang from bar, pull up every 30 seconds (18 second PR)
Notes:
No walk with dogs: schedule is still compressed this week.
Hips were a little stiff this morning, but the hypers and walk seemed to sort it out.
Upped the incline on the walk. Still trying to not become a walking champion here, but I feel like the incline actually helps the hips. On that note, I decided that, while I still have pain, I’m not going to try to pursue weighted walking. This is ultimately going to be a recover operation vs increase my conditioning. Funny enough, I actually have Tang Soo Do to accomplish the latter these days. Which, on that note, it’s sparring week, so I’m pretty amped. We have that on top of physical testing requirements, and we’re actually going to go 4 days this week, because we’re doing a special Halloween class on Saturday. I’ll be dressed up as Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.
That hang from bar PR was unexpected and awesome. Hands were sweaty to start, so I was in a good way. I really wonder if those little 30 second holds on my squat day are actually contributing to this.
They’re so abused in the gym, haha. It’s become my go to warm-up. Get a nice back pump before the real work start. I totally get the prescription to do them daily now. Big thing is to not OVERdo them.
Oh my goodness the gods of gaining have smiled upon me: I was just notified that I won a free steak dinner a month for a year at my local Texas Roadhouse from a contest I entered earlier in the month.
For the Operation Conan meal report, it was leftover’s night. Had 4 of those venison and pork meatballs, alongside 4 scrambled eggs, some grassfed cottage cheese, leftover grassfed sausage, some bacon and some pork cracklin.
