You read my mind. I was going to smoke the brisket, put it in a cooler to rest for 3-4 hours while I smoke as many turkey drums as I can fit. They are the best part anyway.
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I need to find a way to get invited to your house for Thanksgiving! Haha. At least you know you wouldnāt need to make any sides for me. Iāll bring deviled eggs and ribs!
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Anytime you want to come enjoy some altitude! Just bring those puppies and Iām in.
And these. These are invited too.
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Iām pulling a @SvenG here
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The Pwnisher is so awesome that sometimes we may even believe we are him.
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Nightly Operation Conan SITREP
Went out to my favorite BBQ place, got the full rack of ribs, no sauce, and a side of pulled pork. Put some butter on the pulled pork.
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Operation Conan SITREP and AAR
I stayed up late to watch the Tyson fight, so we stayed in bed until about 0830 this morning. Got in my 50 push ups and squats, and honestly felt the best Iāve felt in a LONG time on a weekend morning. Valkyrie made me a wonderful breakfast (since I still have leftover brisket, I had brisket omelets, and oh my god try to find something more anabolic), walked the dogs for a little over 2 miles, then got some Costco shopping done.
Fasted through lunch, we went and saw a production of āFunny Girlā, and then we hit up our favorite buffet.
Iām becoming quite the pro there: Iāve learned to just lean into the New York strip and eggs with the hibachi, rounding out with shrimp, beef and crab.
I did 2 more rounds after this, but they were light. Some shrimp, octopus, flounder andā¦some other white fish. Also a little bit of crab. Tried to keep it lean protein and not eat like an a-hole. It was a successful mission.
I am getting more and more excited about Specialization Bravo.
Also, regarding that Tyson fight, I had a real moment of joy today reflecting on it. I know people were upset with how it turned out, but I realized I got to check off a bucketlist item that I never though Iād ever get to do: I got to watch a Tyson fight live. Iāve been a Mike Tyson fan since I was a kid. Think about this: in the early 90s, the 3 scariest video game bosses were Bowser, Ganon, and Mike Tyson. But it wasnāt like I was going to be able to buy a Pay-Per-View back then. By the time I was āof ageā to be able to appreciate a Tyson fight, he was retired, and that ship had sailedā¦or so I thought. Iām really appreciative that I got to experience that.
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Iām salivating. What buffet is that, if I may ask?
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Place is called āThe Golden Appleā. Itās a real hidden gem. VERY reasonable: $18.99 weekend dinner. With how much I put away, itās a steal, haha.
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No greater breakfast meat than brisket. It provides enough fat to cook the eggs in.
I had a brisket Dutch baby this morning.
Couldnāt agree more. I havenāt been this excited for a fight since I was in my teens.
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@dchris Good brisket is life changingā¦which makes bad brisket SO disappointing, haha. That sounds like a wonderful dish.
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
OPERATION CONAN Spec Ops Insertion Phase
Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol Specialization Bravo-Cycle 1, Week 1, Workout 1
WARM UP:
Roll out on LAX ball
50x90 reverse hyper
Jump squats
Sets of bar, 85 and 135 for squats
MAIN WORK:
Buffalo Bar Squat
4x12x205
Belt squat
4x12x180
Axle strict press
4x12x93
Axle bench press
12x146
3x12x136 (racked on rep 11 of set 2, then got the 12th rep)
(3) Incline DB bench
10x50s
3x12x45s
Dips
9x5lb+3BW
3x12xBW (rest as long as needed)
ASSISTANCE
Hanging leg raise/band pull apart superset
3x10/20
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 50 minutes
BREAKFAST
Short walk w/dogs (got rained out)
Notes:
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Strict 1 minute rests between all sets.
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Day 1 of the program: feeling out the maxes Iāve selected. Biggest issue is that theyāre āfresh maxesā, and Iām hitting the later movements in later and later stages of fatigue. Itās a bit like the Deep Water bench day in that regard: something that shouldnāt be a challenge when youāre fresh is pretty damn exhausting when you get to it. This is why some weights dropped during the program, and Iāll recalculate from there. My structure is also interesting, but by design: Iām leading off with that strict press and THEN benching, so my shoulders are already pretty significantly fatigued, although it was really my triceps that were the most upset with me.
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Iām still on the fence about keeping flat bench in. Iām hitting 4 different pressing movements here, and when I got to incline my right shoulder (the one with the torn labrum) was barking at me a bit. Iād rather incline and dip, and the strict press is non-negotiable. Another option might be to transition to the swiss bar bench instead, which would also speed up my transition time between movements.
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In that regard, Iām pleased with how the execution of this went. Very little downtime between movements: able to keep that 1 minute rest for the most part. But this also was a pretty long workout WITH those strict 1 minute rests: I have VERY little time to screw around or rest longer, and getting into 5 sets per movement instead of 4 will compound that, which is another compelling argument to cut out the flat bench.
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I liked the way I was able to hold onto the axle during the belt squats. I think Iām going to keep that going no matter the situation. The buffalo bar squats also felt pretty awesome. With the lighter weight, Iām able to keep better form, more upright posture, which allows me to hit the intended muscles AND not overtax my lower back. In general, I think this training block is going to be good for me to recover from the hard and heavy work, as Iām feeling pretty damn good after this workout.
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Had a post workout weigh in of 82.8 kg, which is up 1.5 from last week. Iāve definitely made sure to lean into eating this week. I do think a fair amount of that is inflammation. It sucks for me to say, but whenever I eat that full rack of ribs from my favorite BBQ place, I donāt feel as good afterwards compared to when I eat ruminant meat from home. In the case of the latter, after Iām done, I feel pretty light and will have an appetite by the time morning rolls around. With the former, Iām pretty heavy/sluggish and donāt want to eat for a while. Itās less about being satiated and more feeling queasy. I think itās a combination of the dry rub and the heavy amount of pork fat Iām consuming in that meal. We also grabbed Hawaiian BBQ for lunch yesterday, which doesnāt trigger as bad a response, but it definitely killed my appetite afterwards. Itās been pretty cool to be able to keep tabs on my bodyās response to stimulus like this. Tonight, I have a big chuck roast on the menu, which should help me get right. Should also be able to get in a few more steps while my kid is at show choir.
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Operation Conan Nightly SITREP
Broke out a classic that I havenāt indulged in for a LONG time: chuck roast. Covered it in some Maldon sea salt flakes, then put it in the pressure cooker with a little over a cup of kettle and fire beef broth. 40 minutes, then natural release and let it stew for 4 hours while I was at work, sliced it like a brisket. Deliciously tender and fatty, alongside 4 pastured XL eggs with some grassfed ghee and some grassfed cottage cheese. Used a little grassfed sour cream on the roast, but the real money move was I took the leftover broth and drippings from the roast, poured it into my Viking cup and sipped on that over dinner. Perfect on a cold and rainy day.
That photo is the ENTIRE roast. I didnāt eat all of itā¦though I definitely could. I love chuck roast. But I had a solid portion of it.
Hey, this is pretty awesome
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AM WORKOUT (0359 natural wake up)
OPERATION CONAN Spec Ops Insertion Phase
Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol Specialization Bravo, Cycle 1, Week 1, Workout 2
WARM UP
Roll out on LAX ball
50x90lb reverse hyper
Sets of 135 and 225 low handle trap bar pull
MAINWORK
Low handle trap bar pulls
4x12x290
NG chins
4x12 (as much rest as needed to complete the reps)
Axle curls
4x12x53
Reverse hyper
4x12x360
GHR
4x12x22.5lb (held behind head)
ASSISTANCE
Standing ab wheel/Band pull apart superset
3x10/20
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 49 minutes
BREAKFAST
Moderate walk w/dogs
Notes:
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Kept it at strict 1 minute rests again, and really tore through the training with only 5 movements vs 6. Also, sets of 12 on the trap bar with strict one minute rests SUUUUUCKS. I remember Dan John mentioning that with his 3x10 protocol. The first set is fine, second set gets interesting, third set you go looking for your lungs. Trying to hit the chins after that resulted in a pretty lackluster performance, but that might end up being a feature more than a bug, as chins are the one exercise Iām at peace with taking as long as necessary to get the set done. Iām still tinkering with movement order for this day: part of me thinks do the pulls at the very end so I can really just blow myself out, part of me thinks start with the pulls and then go GHR and reverse hyper to traction out the back and finish with the chins and curls, and if left to my own devices Iād just do the chins throughout the workout rather than straight sets, but Iām trying my best to comply with the instructions.
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None of that is a critique or concern either. Iām totally digging the way this is all set up. Iāve basically created an anterior chain/posterior chain split, and right now my anterior chain muscles are quite sore, which intellectually I understand doesnāt mean anything, but on a bro level itās always a rewarding feeling. I dig the way Mass Protocol is set up to constantly provide that novel stimulus effect. Triceps, shoulders and pecs in particular are showing it, but the quads have come out to play as well.
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GHRs do seem to tax my lower back some. Iām sure the mega high rep sets I was doing before were part of the reason I had so much fatigue in there. Consequently, Iām feeling quite awesome these days: fatigue dissipated and Iām a lot lighter on my feet, which is a positive, because we have a double class for Tang Soo Do tonight and itās sparring night. Itās been ROUGH trying to kick high with the state Iāve been in, and these past few classes Iāve been able to really unlock with the fatigue gone.
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Tonight should be a carb up night as well. Should be good for my recovery. Iām noticing Iām looking flat.
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Really hope yaāll like Tom Waits āHell Broke Luceā, because thatās going to be the soundtrack for the rest of this run. At least youtube doesnāt block that song.
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AM WORKOUT (0419 natural wake up, slept in)
OPERATION CONAN Spec Ops Insertion Phase
Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol Specialization Bravo, Cycle 1, Week 1, Workout 3
WARM UP
Roll out on LAX ball
50x90 reverse hyper
2 minutes of light jogging
HIC
7 hill sprints w/2 minutes rest
Cooldown walk
2:45 hang from bar
BREAKFAST
Moderate walk w/dogs
Notes:
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Landed on hill sprints for my break-in HIC on Specialization Bravo. My 4 options were āAnabolic Sprintsā, which is sprinting for 30m, āReset 20sā, which is a 20 second all out effort on some sort of exercise, Hill Sprints, and Fobbits (2 minutes light jog interrupted with 10kb swings for a total of 20 minutes). I can see all of those making it into the rotation, but hill sprints were easily accessible and seemed like they carried less risk of hamstring borking compared to jumping straight into full on sprinting. Having the hill to catch each step along the way helps.
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Was still figuring out distance/timing on this, as K. Black lays out a 10-20 second effort for this. My first run was 40 seconds, so I found a different landmark to use and got in sprints that were right at the 20 second mark. From there, it was about re-learning the difference between a sprint and a hard run. The very last round was probably my best one. With the 15 minute cap for the workout, I managed to get in 7 runs, resting right at 2 minutes in between. My heart rate never got above 90, but with a RHR of 36-40, that seems significant enough.
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In general, felt good to do this. Felt athletic. Itās very hard to not totally bury myself with each and every workout, but I am really wanting to give this program itās due diligence and lay it out exactly as written. Trust the process. I may allow myself a deviation and break out the prowler for some sprint sessions at some point, but I feel like that still meets intent.
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I do appreciate that Iām getting in some higher intensity conditioning now, after all the time spent walking. In general, itās awesome to have periodization built in, and with my grappling competition coming up on 8 Dec, these will be valuable reps.
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My whole body is quite sore. Really digging the novel response here. Lower back is a little fatigued as well, which has me thinking to break out the belt for tomorrowās squat session. And, in turn, I think thatās a great battle rhythm there: start the week beltless, with the lightest workout, and finish it with a belt.
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I found a strongman competition on 12 Apr right here in my town that I am very excited for. Itās car deadlift for reps, press medley of keg, axle and log (final implement for reps), 3 sandbags over bar, a carry medley and stone over bar. Thereās only one event there that I donāt care for (sandbag), but itās my favorite variety OF that event, and car deadlift and carry medleys are totally my jam. I like the press implements (no circus dumbbell), and Iām always done for stones, as long as I donāt get glued to it. The weights are lighter as well, and I should have no issue making weight with it in my town: I can actually weigh in the day before. For some reason, the site wonāt let me sign up right now, but as soon as I can, I will: one of the few instances where we donāt have anything on our schedule that day.
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Double sparring night last night was a mixed bag. We crashed the junior class for the first round, so I got in 2 rounds of teaching junior trainees, restricting myself to hands only and working footwork, but I got to square off against the Valkyrie in the final round, and since Iām lighter on my feet these days, I played around with a lot of kicks. She was able to get in 1 point and hold on until the match ended, crowning her champion for the night. In the advanced class, I went up against the kiddo on the very first round, and they need the reps far more than I do, so I gave them a good fight, still restricting myself to hands, and let them get in the final point at the end so they could advance to the second round and square off against our resident Dojang champion. From there, I watched them score a point on a body punch, which is just awesome. And after the in school tournament was finished, we did a āKing of the Ringā kumite style approach for the rest of the evening, which gave me a chance to get in a few more reps. Same thing happened with the junior class. In general, it was a good enough workout.
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For such a short workout, this is a long post, but other information was I was the one that ended up making the carb up meal last night. Valkyrieās work consumed her and I told her I would handle it. I whipped up some 4 cheese tortellini with bison meatsauce and garlic bread, and added some sides of 4 sunny side up pastured eggs alongside some sardines for myself to get in a little more protein and fats. Also rescued 4 pieces of leftover ābirthday cakeā I had in the freezer from my birthday: pumpkin oatmeal cookie bars, which I topped with some raw honey alongside a mug of fairlife skim milk for dessert. The big thing is Iām really appreciating where Iām at with eating these days. Left to my own devices, Iād never cook pasta for myself, as I do simply prefer meat, but I was delighted to cook it for my family and to share in the meal with them. I know in the past thereād be some resentment and fear about āhaving toā eat this, but this was just another meal. It was special because it WASNāT special. Also, I was pretty proud of myself for making all of that food in 20 minutes, while wearing my āSpam and Eggsā apron I got from the spam museum.
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Interesting. Iām a big fan of that artist and this is my favorite of his. I actually have this tattooed on my right arm. Cool to see it somewhere else. I love the way he portrays perspective.
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@hillbillyk Oh wow, how cool is that! I keep telling myself that I want more ink, but I donāt want to take the time away from training to get it done, so I guess I know what my priorities are, haha. Maybe I need to time it with a deload week.
Well, if anyone ever wanted to read a 4000 word diatribe from me on the topic of programming, I wrote it. Iāll most likely post this to my blog, either in parts or whole, but figured Iād give a āsneak previewā here.
PROGRAMMING AS I SEE IT
INTRO
Typically, I write these things from start to finish, to include the intro, but this time I save it for last and Iām glad I did, because this grew into a BEAST of a post. My original intent was to just jot down a very basic understanding of programming as it relates to training, ultimately demonstrating the difference between a program vs a routine (a quest Iāve undertaken on many occasions). However, as Dan John has observed in his own writing, the more you try to simplify things, the more complicated they get, which is why heās written 3 books (over 600 pages total) on Easy Strength, which is a workout that was given to him in 6 sentences. And I actually ended up cutting this short, because I could see it still running away from me as I was writing it, but I feel like this is a good enough baseline for the ācommon manā to be able to understand what programming is and is not. This is not a manual on HOW to program, as I am not a coach and I have trained no clients. Instead, this is more an explanation for what makes a program a program, and how to recognize the facets within a program for what they are and what they do. With that, letās start at the beginning, as thatās often a good place to start.
STIMULUS AND FATIGUE
Fundamentally, all a program has to do is balance two variable: stimulus and fatigue. All other elements of a program serve these two masters. Stimulus is necessary in order to promote growth (from here on out, this will refer to growth of muscles, but this honestly applies to all manner of growth, to include conditioning, GPP, speed, power, strength, etc), and fatigue refers to the accumulation of damage/exhaustion one encounters through the pursuit of that stimulus. These two forces are on opposite ends of the scale: the more we stimulate, the greater fatigue we accumulate, and as fatigue accumulates, unless we find a manner to recover from it, we lose our ability to stimulate any further. Because itās not the training that causes us to grow: itās the RECOVERY from the training that results in growth. If we just keep mashing that stimulus button and donāt ever find a chance to recover, we train ourselves into the ground and get smaller and weaker.
So we understand the intent of a training program: find a way to generate the necessary stimulus to trigger growth while ALSO finding a way to manage the fatigue that is accumulated so that we can continue the process of stimulate/recover in order to continue growing. We are trying to find that goldilocks of total training volume. It is this understanding that drives the structuring of a training program. One can train 1 day a week or 7 days a week, so long as they are balancing stimulus and fatigue, which is why protocols like HIT can exist alongside the Bulgarian Method. So what variables do we have in order to trigger stimulus?
FREQUENCY, VOLUME, AND INTENSITY
We have training frequency (how often we train), training volume (how much we train within a given session) and training intensity (in this instance, how heavy we train, rather than āperceived intensityā, which is to say, how hard the training feels). Much like stimulus and fatigue, these 3 dials must be properly adjusted in order to allow FOR that balance of stimulus and fatigue. If you turn all 3 up to max, you get max stimulus AND max fatigue, which means no recovery, and ultimately burnout. If you turn all 3 down all the way, you get no fatigue AND no stimulus, so you still donāt grow. Once again: finding the balance is part of what makes a program a program, rather than a routine.
Breaking things down further, we can understand stimulus through the lens of volume on multiple levels. Above, I wrote āwithin a given sessionā just to give vector to the conversation, but ultimately, with a program being a program, weāre going to understand volume from a wider perspective, to include weekly training volume and training volume within a training cycle. Is it possible to āovertrainā in the span of one day? We can call that āoverreachingā. Weāve seen/heard the stories about people doing their first crossfit class and developing rhabdomyolysis, and you can certainly do something like the 10k swing challenge in one day and push yourself too hard, but typically, in the discussion of āovertrainingā, weāre referring to pushing beyond the bounds of recoverable fatigue for a long and consistent timeframe to the point that recovery is no longer possible without SIGNIFICANT intervention, such as multiple weeks away from training. Which, in that regard: an intelligently designed program will seek to mitigate this, ideally through intelligent application of training volume across the duration of a training cycle. So what are ways to effectively manage volume?
Herein we have the other 2 variables at play: frequency and intensity. If we determine how much volume we need in order to trigger the desired stimulus to grow, we now have to determine how we want to divide this volume in order to effectively trigger stimulus without overcoming our bodyās ability to manage the fatigue. This is how you see programs that can be so wildly different yet still effective: theyāre finding the volume needed to grow and parsing it out as necessary. HIT style training may only have āoneā workset, but it tends to include a lot of ramping up TO that one set, and once that one set is done, itās followed with a bunch of intensity modifiers to eek out even more reps, pushing way into the recovery well of the trainee and absolutely obliterating them with stimulusā¦which is why the training is so infrequent. Contrast this with more traditional higher volume training, which employs more worksets and tends to leave reps in reserve, which allows a better opportunity to recover from session to session, allowing for more frequent training in order to continue to trigger the same amount of stimulus.
And in all this discussion about fatigue, I havenāt even discussed the OTHER element of a program that makes a program a program: fatigue MANAGEMENT. Because as weāve discussed: if we overcome the body with fatigue in the pursuit of stimulus, we ultimately regress. An intelligently designed program needs to find some way to deal with all of this. One of the simplest ways to do so is a prescribed deload: a period of time with reduced, if not completely eliminated, stimulus, in order to allow fatigue to mitigate. Matt Wenning talks about incorporating these into Westside style conjugate, and Jim Wendler includes them in 5/3/1, Tactical Barbell refers to them as āBridge Weeksā, and I honestly first learned about the idea from Pavel Tsastoulineās book āBeyond Bodybuildingā, but John McCallum wrote about downtime in āThe Complete Keys to Progressā and really, the precedent exists in a LOT of other places as well. Like getting an oil change BEFORE your engine blows up, the idea of a deload is that itās PREVENTATIVE maintenance: you take the deload BEFORE you need it. Because as weāve discussed: when we push too far into fatigue, we overwhelm our ability to recover so much that we require significant intervention.
However, for some trainees, ādeloadā is a dirty word. Some believe that you can effectively manage stimulus and fatigue simply with intelligent programming, and that an intelligent program, by definition, is one that does not NEED a deload. Thereās enough people out there that can make this work that I believe itās true, and ultimately itās going to require a solid understanding of your own body, fatigue indicators, and an ability to only push as hard as necessary to generate stimulus in your training. I know some dudes even make use of specific fatigue tracking software, to include monitoring of resting heart rate increase and the āpen tap testā, as a means of monitoring fatigue status. In either instance, once again, we observe what makes a program a program: it has SOME form of fatigue management in place.
There is also room for discussion for ACTIVE fatigue management. Which is to say, the elements of recovery. Ignoring non-training ones, such as sleep and food (to which the Barbarian Brothers are famous for saying āThere is no overtraining: only undereating and undersleepingā), along with things like ice baths, massage, etc, one can actually slot into their program training that has a restorative function rather than a function of stimulus. Dan John refers to these as ātonic workoutsā, and weāve also heard of feeder workouts (not the same thing as feeder sets) and simple recovery workouts. Here, the intent is to just get some light, restorative bloodflow to the muscles that were trained, in order to promote quicker recovery between workouts and alleviate soreness. Light conditioning can also have this impact, with walking being one of the best examples. One is not going to recover themselves out of a state of overtraining with these approaches, but they CAN be a useful means of immediate fatigue management in the scope of oneās overall programming, and they also tend to be a missing variable in many of the āprogramsā that are created by those lacking awareness of these principles.
THE OTHER STUFF: PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD, SETS, REPS AND MOVEMENTS
Notice how I havenāt even discussed progressive overload, sets, reps or movement yet? Yet, when a new trainee wants to discuss their ānew programā, ALL that want to talk about are sets, reps and movements. This is why program design is best left NOT to new trainees. Which, on that note, they tend to overfixate on progressive overload, as though THAT is the answer to all programming concerns (or, more specifically, the answer to āwhat makes this a program and not a routine?ā) And yes, there is a significant issue of wheel spinning amongst the general populace, wherein they just go to the gym, move around a bunch, go home, and repeat for years on end, without producing any actual results because theyāre not actually challenging themselves to IMPROVE during their sessions at the gym, but progressive overload is NOT the silver bullet itās made out to be: itās simply A manner of generating stimulus.
Weāre going to get into āno true Scotsmanā territory here, because technically what Iām about to say can be understood to mean āprogressive overloadā, but letās appreciate what they layperson means when they say it: doing MORE than you did the last time you were at the gym. Super Squats makes this simple by keeping the sets and reps the same on the big set of squats (1x20) and telling the trainee to just add 5-10lbs to the bar each time they squat: thatās as basic as it can get with progressive overload. You can also do this with a classic ādouble progressionā approach: you pick a rep range (8-12), start at the bottom of that range, work up to the top of it over a series of sessions, then add weight and start the whole process over again. There are other methods as well, but ultimately, all these methods accomplish is creating the STIMULUS we discussed earlier in order to trigger a growth response from the body. In turn, commonly defined āprogressive overloadā is NOT necessary as a means to grow: itās simply A way to grow.
John Meadows was notorious for never repeating the same workout twice: heās always change things from workout to workout, and this was by design. This allowed a natural form of autoregulation for the trainee, preventing them from becoming too skilled at a lift to the point where they were more improving their ability to RECRUIT motor units into the lift to maximize poundages lifted (which, in turn, can elevate the risk/consequences of the lift) and, instead, forcing them to focus on generating the necessary degree of strain in order to create the stimulus to grow. The old adage āthe body doesnāt know how much youāre liftingā holds quite true: one does not need to lift more weight from training session to training session, NOR do they need to increase reps/sets/volume/tonnage, etc: they simply need to generate the stimulus necessary to trigger a growth response. What this DOES require is for a trainee to be in tune with their body enough to know when theyāre actually pushing it to the point of triggering growth, which is why progressive overload tends to be the more preferred approach to āguaranteeā results, but we say all this to acknowledge that this is simply A manner to achieve stimulus, with stimulus itself being more the primary concern of the roots of a program. And, of course, I bring up Meadows, but heās not alone in this approach: Jon Andersen also employs it, as did Ivan Putski, and if you read Jamie Lewisā ā365 Days of Brutalityā, youāll find that MANY old school musclemen were far more āad hocā in their training, choosing movements that DAY and just going hard on them until they were done.
While on this discussion, some other methods we can employ to progress training include increasing training density (getting the same amount of work done in less time), increasing the speed that the bar/weight moves, improve our control over the weights, lift the same weight for the same reps while under a greater state of fatigue (Pavel Tsastouline had a great program based on this where youād do the same exercises every day but switch the order of them), etc. These metrics become helpful when we discover that we are, in fact, human and not necessarily always capable of adding weight to the bar every session.
What else do beginners fixate on when it comes time to āwrite a programā? Sets and reps of course. And really, itās just reps, because most beginners only the numbers 3 and 5 when it comes to sets (no one does 4 sets of 4, ever). Beginner trainees tend to believe that rep range ultimately determines outcome of training, wanting to know what they strength rep range is vs the hypertrophy rep range vs the endurance rep range vs the cardio. With just the briefest of scrutiny, all of this falls apart: weāre told that 8-12/15 is the āhypertrophy rangeā and anything above that is endurance/cardioā¦until you do Super Squats and live your life around a 20 rep squat set that makes you grow like an absolute weed for 6 weeks. Or Dan Johnās āMass Made Simpleā, which has you do a set of FIFTY reps with your bodyweight by the end of the program and, once again, triggers a LOT of growth. Where else have we seen programs that trigger growth? 10x3 was very popular in the mid to late aughts, because it took the 3x10 convention and turned it on its headā¦and it STILL worked for creating hypertrophy. Although we also found out we werenāt nearly as innovative as we thought, because Bruce Randall pitched the idea of flipping sets and reps in order to get in more reps with heavier poundages back in the 60s. But itās also interesting how that same 10x3 that promotes hypertrophy can ALSO promote speed when executed per Westside Barbellās āDynamic Effort Methodā. Heck, I always get frustrated when people see the 10x10 of Deep Water and assume itās the exact same thing as German Volume training, because itās a testament to how much folks only look at the sets and reps and never the actual PROGRAMMING of a program.
What am I trying to get at with this diatribe? Sets and reps are merely mechanisms available to determine/control the VOLULME of the training, which, in turn, is simply a mechanism meant to achieve stimulus without overexceeding the fatigue threshold. The body isnāt a computer that you program with a certain formula of sets and reps and it spits out a predictable outcome: weāre simply employing these sets and reps with an intent of achieving the outcome of enough stimulation without too much fatigue. In turn, sets and reps WILL vary by individual and can very well vary from day to day based off the needs of that individual in the moment. Do ācookie cutterā routines work? Absolutely: Iāve employed plenty of them myself, but the ones that DO work tend to be designed by someone with enough coaching experience that they CAN extrapolate a very GENERAL approach to training that will work with the majority of people. When youāve coached a few thousand athletes, you have a pretty good grasp of what generally works, and you can scribble that out on paper and give someone something that will get them some results, similarly to how a decent dietician can guesstimate the general amount of calories you should consume along with the foods that will trigger the least amount of inflammation/gut issues and promote the most general health (Hell, I suppose Stan Efferding can do both of these things, and so did John Meadows, and probably Justin Harris is a good pick, and Jon Andersen seems to be knocking this out too). However, a brand new trainee, trying to extrapolate FROM the extrapolation, is setting themselves up for failure.
And from here, we have the discussion of movements, which, once again, those without experience simply sees as a means to train a MUSCLE, not understanding that the intent of the training is, once again, to generate stimulus to grow. āIsnāt it stimulus of a MUSCLE to grow?ā No: stimulus of THE BODY to grow. That seems like the same thing at an initial glance, but in the case of the former we observe trainees develop what Dan John refers to as āFrankensteinās Monster trainingā: leg extensions for the quads, leg curls for the hamstrings, glute bridge for the glutes, flyes for the pecs, raises for the shoulders, etc. Thereās nothing wrong with isolation exercises, and focusing on a muscle is a great way to ensure that it grows, but herein weāre understanding two different types of stimulus: local (the muscle being targeted) vs systemic (the entire body).
This is why big heavy compounds are so prized in the world of physical transformation: yeah, they target a lot of muscles, but they also put the entire BODY under load, which, in turns, triggers that stimulus FOR the whole body to grow. The squat will have the trainee place a heavy bar onto their spine and stand there for the duration of the set: signaling to the WHOLE body āwe are going to need to get bigger and stronger so we can hold loads across our frameā. This is how we get that wonderful hormonal response to training, what Dan John refers to as āThe Hormonal Cascadeā, which he admits he lifted from someone but I canāt remember who that is at the moment. Consequently, itās also why these movements are also quite uncomfortable and, in turn, frequently avoided by new trainees, much to their own downfall. Their hope is that they can carefully curate the perfectly selected collection of movements that expertly targets each individual muscle they wish to train while avoiding anything that causes pain, discomfort, or awkwardness in order to achieve an awe-inspiring physiqueā¦but if it were that easy, EVERYONE would be jacked.
ON TRAINING TO FAILURE, SPLIT STRUCTURE AND REP RANGE CONFUSION
Further into this pitfall, these trainees misunderstand what the stimulus to grow ACTUALLY is, hyper-fixating on the need to go to failure in order to trigger said stimulus. Yes, training to failure CAN signal the body that it needs to grow, but it is not NECESSARY to do so, nor does it necessarily do so as well, AND, it can in fact have the opposite of intended effect, wherein it generates too much fatigue to be able to recover, resulting in REGRESSION rather than progress. If we take High Intensity Training (HIT) as an example of āto failureā employed effectively, we observe how significant appropriate recovery is to the HIT protocol, with very infrequent training necessary in order to be able to recover from the very hard training. We saw the same thing with Stuart McRobert in Brawn, and with the infamous āSuper Squatsā program. Along with that, we see that these protocols make use of HARD compound exercises ALONG with training to failure to generate this stimulus. Meanwhile, new trainees with hyper-fixate on training to failure and will intentionally pick movements that make training to failure EASIER to accomplish, because they are more concerned with the āto failureā aspect than the āhard movementā portion of āhard movement to failureā. Lateral raises to failure, leg extensions to failure, curls to failure, etc. Because theyāre so concerned with achieving failure, they select no movements that put them under a total systemic load, and they short themselves on their results. Meanwhile, theyāre obliterating the muscles they CAN train, pushing beyond the point of their own recovery ability, and end up just spinning their wheels, training stupidly easy movements stupidly hard.
This has already grown into a monstrous tome, and I still have some ideas that I want to throw out there and donāt have the patience to find a way to weave it in, so Iām just going to spit them out and then try to summarize. Another dead giveaway of someone just Mad-Lipping their way through a program is not considering the impact of oneās dayās exercise to another. I also get a great chuckle when I see a chest/shoulder day right before leg day, because this tells me this trainee has never tried to hold a barbell across their back when their pecs and front delts are SCREAMING at them from yesterdayās workout. The other is on rep ranges: the notion that certain rep ranges have certain impacts tends to ignore the reality that certain movements simply benefit from certain rep ranges. Instead, we get myths like āthe rear delts need high reps to growā. No, itās not that: try doing a heavy triple for a face pull: itās not going to work. Itās going to become a row. To actually be able to hit the damn muscle, you have to take the weight down, which makes the reps go high. In turn, youāre not training ineffectively if you end up doing a few hundred reps of band pull aparts: thatās about the only way you can get volume there.
CONCLUSION
In summary, programming is a matter of balancing stimulus and fatigue: we must generate enough stimulus to promote growth while not generating enough fatigue to hinder/regress growth, cause injury, or enter a state of overtraining. This represents the ideal total volume of training: balancing that razorās edge. To manipulate/control that volume, we can control the frequency of training, the volume within individual training sessions, the intensity of that training, and the implementation of fatigue recovery via a deload. From there, the training plan itself is a matter of selecting movements that will generate stimulus on a systemic level, in order to promote whole body growth, along with on a local level, in order to provide targeted growth. Sets and reps are merely a mechanism in order to achieve that desired total volume: thereās no wizardry with rep range equating outcomes. Instead, itās more the case that certain movements simply lend themselves to certain rep ranges. Similarly, progressive overload isnāt the panacea itās made out to be: itās simply A method of ensuring that the desired stimulus to grow is utilized, typically in the instance of a trainee who lacks the body awareness to be able to push hard enough irrespective of the exercise being implemented. In that regard, training to failure is also not necessary in order to generate this stimulus, and the pursuit of failure above all else can frequently result in ignoring the real variables necessary in order to grow.
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Events look good mate, hope this goes ahead.
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Love this so much, the āDad, mentor, and teacherā mode is strong in this one.
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@simo74 Thanks brother! I just registered. Iām the first one! I plan to take the day off work the day before so I can just weigh in and have no issues the morning of. Iām legit excited about this one: no travel AND good events. Thatās so rare.
@raven78 Thatās a huge compliment: thanks so much dude!
Operation Conan Nightly SITREP
Leftover night, which is becoming a classic. This is a split combo of leftover chuck roast and leftover brisket, both topped with grassfed ghee. I broke protocol by making a fresh batch of eggs for leftover night, but I DID use up the rest of a dozen by doing so, so I feel like thatās in the spirit of things. And some grassfed cottage cheese. Iāve been appreciating how my meals have been more egg and meat based and more limited in the application of pork rinds/cracklin.
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Great piece.
Never figured you were a Matt Wenning kinda guy haha
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