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

[T3hPwnisher]

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CONAN: Initial Shocktrooper Assault

Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol: Grey Man-Cycle 2, Week 3, Day 1

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL: Grey Man-Cycle 2, Week 3, Day 2

WARMUP

Roll out on LAX ball
50x180 reverse hyper
Sets of Bar, 85, 155, 225 and overwarm walkout of 335 for buffalo bar squat

MAINWORK

Buffalo bar squat
5x3x315

SUPERSET

Axle strict press
5x3x138

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER giant set

(3) Incline DB Bench
4x8x65

Weighted NG chin
4x8x17.5

Standing ab wheel
3x10

SUPPLEMENTAL WORK

GHRs
4x30

TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 50 minutes.

BREAKFAST

Stupidly short walk w/dogs

Notes:

• My hips/glutes were on fire with today’s squats. Lost a lot of the goodwill I’d built up prior to this point: just very stiff and painful ROM, very “like old times” feeling. However, it’s a lot more muscular than nerve. I do wonder if sparring the night before played a role: I was focusing much more on being light on my feet and bouncy, and getting in a lot more flowing kicks. Still made it through the workout, and my strategies of squatting out of the bar on the rack and hanging between rounds is paying off well. The GHRs are the end actually did an outstanding job of “unlocking” my hips as well, which makes me wonder if they should be part of my warm-up.

• Speaking of GHRs, doing 120 of them is pretty bonkers, but I can’t argue with the results. I MAY add some weight to them next cycle, but the high reps are playing pretty nice for now.

• Kept rests close to 1 minute throughout the workout

• DB press was very strong today, and chins had a good showing as well. I think I’m recapturing some lost strength finally. Big part of that is eating well enough to support it, I’m sure, but this progression model has been pretty logical and sustainable for me.

• I dig how I’m set up for the future so far on this. I like that I only have to squat once this week, and next cycle, when I DO have to squat twice on the heaviest week, it will be for 4 sets per workout vs 5, which seems more tolerable.

• I shamelessly cashed in my free birthday wings as Buffalo Wild Wings for pickup later today, and will include that in my Operation Conan meal, which will be another leftover’s night repeat. More sparring on the radar tonight. I made it into the second round of our tournament last night, wherein I got to spar the Valkyrie again. She got in a bodykick for 1 point and rode that out until the end of match time. Was a good opportunity for me to try out some sneaky footwork stuff.

[shaneinga]

Amazing that you won that free steak for a year. I would have to be hitting up that 20oz bone in ribeye.

[T3hPwnisher]

That’ll definitely happen, but I’ve also always wanted to try the porterhouse. That may be first on the list. And I feel like I’ll still have to get my sidekick of ribs, haha.

[dchris]

I would treat the free meal as an addition to whatever I would have spent. It’s not like you wouldn’t go otherwise, right? Haha

[T3hPwnisher]

I do have that thought as well, since I’m such a fan of their ribs, haha. But if nothing else, my kiddo is a big fan of the place too, so it sounds like we just built up a great monthly tradition for the next year. The Valkyrie tolerates the roadhouse, but says I do a better steak at home, so she’s not as big a fan…but that just means an even smaller tab at the end of the night!

[dchris]

That’s a great compliment! My whole family, sans me, hates steak. Which makes buying an expensive cut for myself because it’s Tuesday much easier to do. Also, allows me to guilt free go to steakhouses solo.

[T3hPwnisher]

@dchris

My whole family, sans me, hates steak.

You need to raise them right! Although it does create an advantageous situation that you outlined… I suppose my family is like that with BBQ as well. Valkyrie doesn’t care for smoked meat at all. She’s really turned off by anything that seems “burnt”. So more for me, haha.

[simo74]

@T3hPwnisher

You need to raise them right!

LOL I thought this too.

[T3hPwnisher]

The nightly Operation Conan report.

3 of those venison and pork meatballs, along with my 6 free wings from BWW, 4 scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, cracklin’, and some leftover sausage. Also got some sour cream and ghee in there.

[T3hPwnisher]

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

Roll out on LAX ball
85x320 reverse hyper
3.5 mile/60 minute treadmill walk at 4.0 incline
2:30 timed hold w/pull up every 30 seconds (12 second PR, realized I logged previous PR incorrectly)

BREAKFAST

Short walk w/dogs

Notes:

• My back is feeling a lot better. Still not 100%, but a very significant return. I imagine I merely strained it yesterday vs re-triggered my nerve issue. Rolling it out and reverse hypers go a long way toward restoring it, and moving around last night in Tang Soo Do was good as well. Movement is the medicine. However, on that note, I wasn’t as mobile as yesterday, so I couldn’t pull off my Andy Hug axe kicks during sparring. I managed to still beat one of the black belts in a close match wherein they fouled out due to kicking me in the back during a spin kick after we went into overtime, but on my second round I lost by points against one of the other black belts in another close match. Got one more class tonight, and a bonus class on Saturday.

• My instinct to push the conditioning harder earlier in the week so I could use today as a recovery day was well founded. Keeping this easy was exactly what I needed, and I could feel myself unlocking as time went on.

• Realized I’d misreported my previous PR on the time holds: it was 2:18 vs 2:48. Today was the first time I crossed into the 2:30 realm, which is still awesome.

• Work schedule should finally lighten up after today, which can mean a bit more time to walk the dogs after breakfast.

[bjiral]

I’m sure you’ve mentioned this a thousand times but I can’t seem to find it:
On a PSMF during your typical day do you wait to get hungry or just chug a specific number of shakes throughout the day?

[T3hPwnisher]

If I waited until I got hungry, I’d never have the shakes, haha. No chugging though: I eat them. I mix them with just a splash of hot water, so that they’re like a pudding. I actually throw in a teaspoon of beef gelatin, to really thicken the texture.

I get up at 0400 to train, and will have my first shake at 0615. Next will be 0930, then 1230, meal at 1730, shake at 2030, and a middle of the night single serving of Metabolic Drive. THAT one is an actual shake: 10oz of water, a scoop of Metabolic Drive and some salt.

[Stormblessed]

@T3hPwnisher

and a middle of the night single serving of Metabolic Drive

That’s super interesting. Do you wake up naturally for that or set an alarm? That’s a great idea for early AM training.

[T3hPwnisher]

Hey thanks man. I stole the idea from both Dan John and Jamie Lewis. Before I started taking P-Well, I could rely on a middle of the night bathroom break to be what got me to take the shake. I now no longer have that, but I still have a moment in the middle of the night where I tend to wake up for SOME reason, and that’s when I go and have my shake. And absolutely spot on: though I train “fasted” in the morning, there’s still a good supply of protein in me.

Also interesting enough: I feel like I sleep BETTER once I take down that shake. It’s honestly a very peaceful filling to have a belly full of yummy vanilla flavor. And, thankfully, my most recent dental visit has revealed to me that this habit has not been destructive, despite me brushing my teeth before I go to bed and not brushing them again post shake.

[T3hPwnisher]

Breakfast for dinner Thursday’s continue

3 omeletes, finishing off those eggs from my co-worker, with a combination of piedmontese grassfed New York strip and some beef I got at Walmart

It’s honestly pretty legit stuff: just beef and salt

Along with some swiss and grassfed ghee.

Also got some pork bacon and cracklin, grassfed beef hot dog, cottage cheese and sour cream

[T3hPwnisher]

Chaos, as always, is the plan. Last night, during sparring, I took a kick to the knee that seemed inconsequential at the time, but before I went to bed I observed a lack of mobility, some swelling and some pain. I got up in the middle of the night to pee and my knee locked up in extension and wouldn’t unlock. At that point, I decided to shut off my alarm and get up when my Valkyrie did, because this morning was going to be heavy trap bar lifts, which tend to stress the knee, and when combined with the stiff back, I was not set up for success.

Upon waking, I tested the knee out with my weekend protocol of 50 squats and push ups, and took my dogs for a walk, and it’s responding well, so I’m pulling out my Dr. House MD credentials (I watched the whole series twice, so I pretty much attended med school) and believe I’m merely experiencing some “impact-induced edema”, since my symptoms worsened after I sat on the couch last night and were really bad after laying in bed all night, but when I get up and move around the knee seems to resolve. So as a pivot, I’m going to see if I can get my lifts in after work today, because we’re also doing “Boo at the Zoo” tonight, which is effectively a lot of walking around at our zoo while we Trick-or-Treat at various stands, so I’ve got a fair bit of activity on the horizon. If the knee is just being stupid, I’ll shut down the training: I already did this workout on Monday, this would just be getting in the reps. And since it’s the weekend we’re celebrating my birthday, I’d rather not be hobbled.

But on the topic of Tang Soo Do sparring: I was last night’s Dojang champ, beating our resident black belt champ in a close match. Highlight of the evening was my Valkyrie getting shut down by a dude that was using some dirty tactics (stepped on her foot to keep her trapped), to which she said “avenge me” when it was my turn to go against the dude, and I shut him down 3-0 savagely. Along with that, after the tournament was concluded, we immediately went to a “King of the Mountain” format, which was similar to a Kyokushin style Kumite, in that I got to stay in the ring and take on opponent after opponent, as long as I continued to win. I cycled through the Dojang until I got to my kiddo, who effectively swarmed me, took me out of the ring, and scored a body punch.

[FlatsFarmer]

[T3hPwnisher]

Oh my goodness, just a few days before I turn 39 and this helps me feel incredibly old, haha. But is somewhat enlightening as well!

[burien_top_team]

Wanted to ask you a quick Tactical Barbell question, if you don’t mind. What do you think about swapping in horizontal pulling for the weighted vertical pull? For both practical reasons (BJJ) and aesthetic reasons (a thicker upper body), I’m very interested in more horizontal pulling than vertical pulling at this point.

Thanks!

[T3hPwnisher]

@burien_top_team Happy to chat dude! Under the context of which Tactical Barbell program do you ask?

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PM WORKOUT (1440)

OPERATION CONAN Initial Shocktrooper Assault

Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol Grey Man-Cycle 2, Week 3, Workout 3

TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL: Grey Man-Cycle 2, Week 3, Day 3

WARM UP
Roll out on LAX ball
50x180 reverse hypers
Sets of 135, 225, 335 low handle trap bar lift

MAIN WORK

Low handle trap bar lift
5x3x450

SUPERSET

Axle bench press
5x3x221

SUPPLEMENTAL WORK CLUSTER giant set

Lever belt squat
4x8x230

Weighted dips
4x8x57.5

Axle curls
4x8x71

ASSISTANCE

3x10 standing ab wheel

Notes:

• After sleeping in due to the knee pain, I managed to squeeze this in cutting out of work early before I had to pick up the kiddo. In turn, I blitzed through it. 1 minute rests through out. My right hip got achy on the first set of the pulls, and it was hurting pretty bad from a nerve perspective at the end, but it’s been a few hours now, and I’m feeling pretty solid. Compared to where I was 2 days ago, it’s a huge victory, but I imagine I’m going to forego mat pulls this week.

• Just pleased I got all the way through this cycle. I’m seeing the results. Loving this protocol.

• Got some walking at the zoo in my future.

From the “Operation Conan” side of the house, we ordered out tonight.

I got 2 sidekicks of ribs at Texas Roadhouse, cashing in a birthday voucher for 1 free sidekick, and using some creative strategy in ordering to get the second one at a discount, which was cool. Alongside it are the usual suspects of cracklin, grassfed cottage cheese and scrambled eggs, and I topped the ribs with some grassfed ghee and sour cream as I ate them.