Maximum Definition Diet recap
Breakfast was piedmontese grassfed New York strip kabobs air fried in grassfed tallow next to “the omelet”. Supposed to be 1lb of steak but I left a kabob behind: just wasnt that hungry.
Dinnner was a 26oz bone in ribeye with no seasoning from Texas Roadhouse next to 2 bowls of hardboiled eggs.
I saw this and immediately thought of you. Past and present diets merge into the future of performance nutrition, inspired by The Predator Program.
Oh gads!
@twojarslave I could think of no better way to represent to duality of my nutritional approaches, haha.
Today has been a high activity day. Got up, got in my 50 squats and push ups before breakfast. Hamstring is feeling better, and foot and ankle are almost 100% from after the race. After breakfast (photos to come), got in a 3 mile walk with the dog and Valkyrie, then off to Tang Soo Do class, which was a very solid workout today, and I made use of the pre-class warm up time to drill basics. Pulled something slightly on the left side of my groin on a side kick, but nothing horrible.
My instructor saw my strongman video, as we’re facebook friends. He thought it was pretty nuts.
After that, came home, got in 30ish chins, mowed the lawn, then hit the rower for a 1 minute on/1 minute off for a total of 4 minutes, which got me solidly gassed. Then took the dog for another walk, more around 2 miles.
For the Maximum Definition Diet recap
Breakfast was 2 omelets, one with 3 eggs, one with 4, both filled with piedmontese grassfed New York Strip kabobs and some kosher all beef salami, some grassfed beef tallow and some Sargento thin sliced swiss cheese (deviation), topped with grassfed ghee, alongside 3 strips of beef bacon and piedmontese grassfed beef jr hotdog.
Dinner was our favorite Habachi buffet, and on Saturday nights they do steaks, so I got 3 of them (they’ve moved from New York strips to sirloins, most likely to save money, but I sure showed them!), then a hibachi plate of 3 eggs and a LOT of shrimp, all cooked in butter. I also had 2 sidecar plates with oysters, shrimp, flounder, octopus and crab.
I want to reiterate, yet again, that I am LOSING weight/getting leaner eating like this.
Tomorrow is Easter, which is a perfect time for a family/high carb meal. My Valkyrie is making peanutbutter cheesecake, and we’ll be having ham. It’s going to be an awesome day.
“OPERATION PLANET MONGO”
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 1, Week 1, Workout 1
MAIN WORK
Buffalo Bar Squat (low bar)
3x5x275
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
3x5x143+1 push press rep per set
Sets of 4 chins immediately after all sets of main work
ASSISTANCE
20 minute EMOM
Lateral raise dropset
10x35, 5x35, 2.5x35, Empty hands x 35
KB swings
15x40kg
CONDITIONING
5 rounds of 45 seconds on/1 minute off on the rower (max intensity)
5 minutes easy rower
Notes:
Training program name comes from the Paul Kelso quote in Powerlifting Basics Texas Style “We’re going to build you a back from the Planet Mongo”. That is the primary goal of this training block: rebuild my back to what it used to be, which is why I’m doing so many damn chins. Along with what got done in the main work and assistance, I was doing sets of 5 chins between my warm-up lifts, which had me at 30 chins before the workout started, and 110 chins total at the end of the workout.
Squats are feeling awesome. The prep week was worthwhile: took a little bit to rediscover my form, but now it feels natural again. Depth is really on point. That little groin pull I suffered in Tang Soo Do on Saturday is still somewhat annoyingly present, but didn’t present during the squats themselves. I think I need to drop the j-hooks 1 more level, as I’m having to calf raise the weight back into the rack at the end.
Really trying to drill those push press reps hard at the end of the pressing.
The assistance circuit is lifted straight out of the Building the Monolith assistance work, and put into a format to get it done in 20 minutes. Having a headstart on the chins helps, but ideally I’ll finish this training cycle being able to get in the 200 dips and 100 chins in that 20 minutes time. The Hanging Leg Raises/ab work is additional, but I find it valuable. I’m up 10 total dips from last week, so progress is moving along.
I found myself with an abundance of time due to the minimum effective dose on the mainwork and just simply moving quicker this morning, so I get in the lateral raises and some swings just for good measure. I SHOULD keep swings in, but I may hit them heavier for fewer reps than my previous attempts. And lateral raises fit well with the high volume of assistance for today.
Didn’t have much gas for the rower after all that, so got in what I could, and then went easy to cool down and get in even more pulling volume. I’m already feeling soreness in the lats from all the work in the previous week, so things are looking well.
I’ll be getting in a walk this evening with the Valkyrie and the puppy, and this is Tang Soo Do sparring week, so lots of activity there. We have to compress it to a double class on Wed, possibly another on Thurs, and then a class on Saturday. I also have a fitness test on Thursday.
I ended up not having a lot of carbs during Easter dinner, since the ham was so good that I just plain wanted that more than anything else. I had a small roll that was more a vehicle for butter than anything else, and a small serving of corn casserole. I got my carbs in dessert: Valkyrie made a peanut butter cheesecake that was absolutely phenomenal. Helped myself to 2 servings, and used that fuel very well this morning.
Weighed in at 82.8kg. A jump up, but given I’m full of salty goodness from ham and carbs from cheesecake, I’m not surprised. Currently goal is to continue leaning out as I approach my cruise in June, and then…
I found another competition I’m interested in. 26 Jul, so gives me just about 6 weeks after my return from my cruise to train for it. Events are Axle clean and press away, Frame Deadlift, wheelbarrow run (new one for me), sandbag over bar and ANOTHER max distance sandbag carry. This is definitely a competition tailored to me: no throwing at all, and the weights are light enough that endurance and conditioning are going to be major factors. Be very easy to train for it. Means I’ll delay my weight gaining goals for 6 more weeks, but I’m alright with that: I can still eat plenty well and stay lean with my current approach.
Maximum Definition Diet recap
Breakfast was something pretty special. I’ve had this Snake River Farms America Wagyu Corned Beef (my goodness that’s a lot of adjectives) in my freezer for a year. I wanted a special occasion to break it out, and being the week post competition seemed like a great reason to do so. I cut it into 12oz portions, covered it with some grassfed tallow and salt, and air fried it at 425 for 8 minutes…and it was delicious. I never realized how simple it would be to just slice a brisket and air fry it: this opens up a lot of opportunities for cheap, delicious fatty beef. Served alongside “the omelet”.
Dinner was 12oz of leftover Easter ham alongside 3 leftover scrambled eggs, 5 whites and a tablespoon of tallow. Gonna be a week of leftovers for dinner and corned beef for breakfast…so a good week.
OPERATION PLANET MONGO
AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 1, Week 1, Workout 2
“INDOOR POWER INTERVALS”
5 rounds of
Notes:
Per Planet Mongo, my emphasis is on the rower vs sprinting. I’ve got the resistance set at 5, which, if nothing else, I know is the middle resistance setting. The first 2 minute round was a very hard effort, but by round 3 I started petering out in the final minute of the 2 minute rounds. Still giving it my all, but by objective measures of the console my output wasn’t as strong as it was at the start. Part of that is simply the exhausting nature of the workout, but the other part is me not giving it enough rest for the sake of squeezing this workout into the time I’m allotted. The protocol allows for up to 5 minutes of rest, and I should really consider that sometime. But for now, this is still doing a good job of taxing my conditioning, and I think alternating between this and Oxygen debt 101 would do me some good.
Trying to focus on technique as much as I can while still getting in good power. Want to pull with my back rather than my arms.
My left groin is still a little buggy: I apparently borked it harder than I thought at Tang Soo Do. Felt it kinda slip on my walk with the pup and the Valkyrie yesterday. It’s just tender, but I have to watch out that it doesn’t become more.
I signed up for that strongman competition I was talking about, and it honestly works out pretty perfectly with my schedule. I’ll complete this 6 week cycle, have 1 extra week of training before my cruise, then have almost 2 full weeks off before coming back to have a full 6 weeks to run another cycle of Operator before the competition. The events will be very easy to work into my current training, and, in turn, I already did some max sandbag carry work yesterday, and intend to continue that daily habit along with the chins per Planet Mongo.
Forgot to capture this in yesterday’s meal recap, but I’m intentionally eating 12.5oz of meat vs my previous 16oz. Part of that is because this American Wagyu corned beef is VERY fatty, but the other part is to further the experiment of the Maximum Definition Diet and try reducing some portion sizes to lean out even more. If that ends up being the wrong move, I’ve got no issue bringing the food volume back up. I’m contemplating adding another egg to the omelet to compensate a little as well. It’s pretty easy to experiment when there are so few variables to account for.
Maximum Definition Diet recap is the exact same meals as yesterday, although I forgot to mention the liver with breakfast, so there’s that.
OPERATION PLANET MONGO
AM WORKOUT (0340 natural wake up, snooze until 0400)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 1, Week 1, Workout 3
MAIN WORK
Buffalo Bar Squat (low bar)
3x5x275
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
3x5x143+1 push press rep per set
Sets of 4 chins between sets of main work
(6) Texas Deadlift Bar mat pulls
15+6+6x405
ASSISTANCE
3 round circuit of
10x80lb DB rows
10x270 reverse hyper
6 standing ab wheel
20xAxle curls
CONDITIONING
11 minutes low intensity rower
Notes:
Got in 25 chins during the warm up via sets of 5, and snuck in a 5 rep set during the main work to total 50 chins for the workout.
Squats were feeling even better this morning. Very solid depth. Press was strong as well.
Those mat pulls are coming back very strong. The biggest variable is dealing with the acid reflux like sensation while I’m bracing. I have to rebuild that capacity. But otherwise, I’m not touching failure on these: still stopping a rep or 2 shy of all out grinders. Allowing myself to go really high in the reps on this and give myself plenty of runway to grow.
The original goal was a 5 round assistance circuit, but I could feel my back being tender on the rows, so called it at 3 sets. I can add sets per week to match the increase in training intensity. I went too heavy on the initial round of curls and walked it back to just the axle for a set of 20, getting a good pump.
With how intense today was, and my previous 2 days of training, I opted for low intensity on the rower and just focused on technique and getting in even more volume on my back.
Got in a 2 mile walk with the Valkyrie yesterday, and continued my daily sandbag work with an emphasis on max distance carry. Got in my daily 20 chins as well. My elbow continue to remain feeling awesome, and that’s going to be the metric I focus on to determine how things are going. I noticed that they were doing great leading up to my competition, which is a rarity for me.
Double class of Tang Soo Do tonight, and it’s sparring week, so that should be a good workout. Tomorrow is a fitness test, so my morning workout is going to be a recovery walk rather than a ruck, as my foot is still not fully healed from my 10 mile race and I don’t want to push it too stupidly.
Maximum Definition Diet recap is another repeat of yesterday. 12.5oz of meat and “the omelet” But check out how huge that slab of corned beef is!
OPERATION PLANET MONGO
AM WORKOUT (0354 natural wake up, snooze until 0400)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 1, Week 1, Workout 4
Recovery Walk on Treadmill
Incline: 1
Speed: 3.5
Distance: 4.75 miles
Time: 1hr 21min 30sec
9 chins
Notes:
With my fitness test later today, and all I’ve put my body through over these past few days, this was 100% the right call. My upper back was incredibly sore upon waking this morning: a result of those mat pulls. I’m discovering that the strength is still there, but the structure needs rebuilding. Slow and steady.
Slow and steady describes the pace today as well. 3.5mph is a comfortable pace for me at this point. Moving forward, I’m going to keep around there or 3.8 and focus on just upping the incline and keeping the ruck on.
Got in some chins yesterday as part of my daily effort. Still keeping 20 the minimum goal, with room to go higher as needed, using elbow pain as the governing metric.
On top of my daily sandbag yesterday, 2 sparring classes of Tang Soo Do had me in the Dojang for 2.5 hours, and was a solid workout. We got in a lot of practice rounds before the in school tournament, so I got in a lot more activity than usual. For the first class, I got a bye in the first round and then squared off against my kiddo, so I took the match into sudden death with each of us at 2 points before giving them an opening to get the final point and advance to the semi-finals, wherein they fought well but were beaten by judging. My Valkyrie was able to avenge the family in the finals. For the second class, I got to face off against one of our junior higher level members, and I once again used it as an opportunity to show them some angles while challenging myself by restricting myself to hands only. Took it to sudden death and scored a final point to get to the semi-finals, wherein I face off against our senior black belt. I lost to judging: had a judge actually call for point BEFORE the black belt had thrown a technique, and then when they threw a technique after the call, award the point to the black belt…which makes me wonder what they were calling for before that. But after class we did a “king of the ring” style single point elimination sparring, where I held on for the entirety of the class and got to face off against the other king in the other ring, scoring a victory by leading them in a circle straight into a roundhouse to the head. Just a good night of activity. As much as I wish we did something harder contact, I have fun playing this game.
Fitness test today is going to be 1 minute of push ups (I need 51 to max), 1 minute of sit ups (52 to max) and a 1.5 mile run (I need less than a 14:30 time to pass…I’m not worried about that). Good opportunity to get in more steps.
I might of missed it, but is this for work?
What’s the minimum here?
During warmer nights, I like to find some kind of challenge with my older daughters. Lately it has been shooting baskets in a tiny toddler hoop. Whereby, ‘if I make this, you have to do 20 pushups’ or ‘15 squat jumps’. In the rare instances my kids make their shot, it’s always 50 pushups. Not sure how strict form has to be, but 51 in 60 seconds should be doable. You’re much stronger than me and I’ve knocked this out.
Yup.
No idea on the minimums: I can get the maxes on the push ups and sit ups in well under the 1 minute time limit, and getting max points there means I need that 14:30 run time to score well enough that I only need to test once a week. Scoring below that means a twice a year requirement, which is burdensome.
Not sure how strict form has to be, but 51 in 60 seconds should be doable. You’re much stronger than me and I’ve knocked this out.
Thanks man! Absolutely not concerned about the push ups at all, haha. As I’ve gotten older, the standards have become less and less. Used to be 62, which I still managed without issue.
When I was in high school, my dad told me a story about a buddy of his in the Air Force that did 200 push ups a night and was absolutely jacked, so I made that a goal of mine. Once I managed that, I worked my way up to 400 push ups at the age of 19…and then promptly stopped doing them, because I wondered why the hell I was doing them in the first place, haha. But since that time, I’ve pretty much had a lifetime push up reserve in me, wherein I can always knock them out no sweat. On the weekends, upon waking, I always start my day with 50 prisoner squats and 50 push ups, just to get blood flowing, limber up and wake up, WITHOUT being totally gassed and out of breath when I open my door and see my kiddo.
Maximum Definition Diet recap
Breakfast was so good I had it twice. The second time was actually a surprise from the Valkryie: she whipped it up on my way home. Ham in the omelets, along with some cheese, 4 strips of pork bacon and some ham rinds on the side.
PT test was a 95/100. Maxed push ups and sit ups, then a 12:25 1.5 mile for 55 points.
Run was leisurely: breathed through my nose the entire time. Stress fracture didn’t bother me and plantar faciaitis didn’t act up.
OPERATION PLANET MONGO
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, good night of sleep)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 1, Week 1, Workout 5
MAIN WORK
Buffalo bar squat (low bar)
3x5x275
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
3x5x143+1 push press rep per set
ASSISTANCE WORK
Crossfit “Cindy” WOD
20 rounds of
Time: 21:23
5 round circuit of
CONDITIONING
11 minutes/2000 meters on the rower (low intensity)
Notes:
My dog has been on the mend, which, in turn, has meant my sleep has been better. After sparring nights, it’s a little tough to get the energy back down to get to sleep, but last night was really good.
I woke up super stiff. Between the mat pulls and the sparring, my back was pretty tight. Thankfully, I’ve got more time to warm up these days, so I spent some time hanging from the bar and twisting and get in some extra reps on the warm ups to get a little more limbered up. When I got under the bar for the first work set, things felt solid, and I was getting to the depth I wanted.
No chins between sets of main work due to the assistance having a full 100 reps. Wanted to approach it fresh.
Push press wasn’t quite as strong due to that lower back stiffness.
My time on Cindy is a small PR compared to my last effort, but when I take the context that the last time Cindy was performed in isolation compared to today where I performed it after the main work and in this state of fatigue, I’ll take the W. The big thing I focused on was not having to break the chin sets into 2 pieces like I did last time, so that was the real W. This should get me in a good way for Murph.
Still figuring out how I want to do ab work and swings. I may also want to bring back that front rack hold. I don’t want to put too much assistance into this, as the whole point is for this to be Operator, but I can accept the consequences.
Low intensity was the right call on the rower after this, because I was pretty gassed from Cindy, so really assistance and conditioning blended into each other. Just using the rower for the back volume, which is ALSO conditioning and assistance blending into each other.
I only had 1 round in the tournament last night, going against our Senior black belt, but I hit him with a hook kick to the head that was so beautiful that our head instructor stopped the tournament in order to laud me for it, and the whole dojang was in agreement. It was one of those “roll a natural 20” sorta moments, where I set it up to look like a roundhouse and caught him completely defenseless flush on the other side of his face. It was my only point for the night, but a good one, and then, at the end of the class, I got to be king of the ring, which was redeeming. Got in a lot of movement during warm ups as well: just feeling springy and active.
Maximum Definition Diet recap
For breakfast, I ran out of corned beef, so switched to chuck roast. Cut it into 2 6oz steaks, slathered with beef tallow and salt and air fried it. Chuck roast is legit one of my most favorite meals, going all the way back to when I was a child, and I only just NOW discovered this amazing way to prepare it and now I want to make up for lost time. Good thing I bought 18lbs of the stuff when it was on sale: going to have some awesome breakfasts for the next few weeks.
Dinner was a full rack of ribs and some brisket from our favorite local BBQ place, and tonight the pitmaster was on fire. These may have been the best pork ribs I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve been eating a LOT of pork this week, going through the Easter ham, and I can tell that I’m dealing with some inflammation from it, but this was absolutely and totally worth it.
I’ve been following you both in T-nation and Reddit. And I’ve been reading your blog for some years…
I just realised that you never run a pure “bodybuilding” routine. I remember the 5/3/1 period, the Deep water period, you wrote about Super Squats, Doggcrap and now Tactical Barbell.
Have you ever wonder what the results will be physique and conditioning wise if you did something completely different from “strength focused” routines?
Of course, you include your conditioning and daily work so technically you are not only doing these routines (tactical, 5/3/1 etc).
Have you read the article “a tried and true bodybuilding template” by Dr. Hyght in this site?
I believe you would like the combination of sound principles and freedom of it.
And it has both strength and hypertrophy sets…not just pump work.
@gladius Dude, it means a ton that your first post here after being a member for years is in my training log here. I find it interesting you feel like I haven’t run a pure bodybuilding program before, because Super Squats and DoggCrapp are absolutely those. And they tend to get me out of my performance oriented comfort zone as a result.
I’ve never really been curious about the results to my physique from physique training, primarily because I’m not in any way set up to have worthwhile results there. Aside from my genetics, frame and structure, I’ve got a torn left bicep, I’m missing part of my left hamstring because it’s been used as a graft for my ACL, and various tears, tweaks and injuries over the years have made it that my body is a bit of a horrorshow, and physiquewise it’s not going to present terribly well. Aside from that, tempo and nuance really doesn’t interest me as far as training goes, and I only really care to lift weights 3x a week these days, MAYBE 4 if I’m pushing it. Which is why I was drawn to Super Squats and DoggCrapp as far as bodybuilding training goes.
I do appreciate the nod there to Dr. Hyght. If I ever find myself heading that way, I’ll give it a look!
Today is pretty packed, but I’ll upload the sandbag training and maybe talk to it more later
Thank you for your answer.
I’ve been reading T-nation for YEARS…
I got a lot of useful information from the articles but the best return was the knowledge I gained from the member posts.
Your training logs have been the most inspiring. Your philosophy on conditioning and its importance on making everything “easier” and better has been a game changer for my training.
Other valuable practices that I have adopted is the concept of “daily work” and the liberating mentality of “you have my permission” (that can be applied not only to training but also business and arts).
@gladius So glad those have been valuable for you dude! It means a lot that you read them and applied them. Happy I could be of any help.
OPERATION PLANET MONGO
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 1, Week 2, Workout 1
MAIN WORK
Buffalo bar squat (low bar)
3x5x315
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
3x5x163
Set of 4 chins between sets
ASSISTANCE WORK
20 minute EMOM of
Lateral raise dropset (35x10, 25x5, 25x2.5, 25xEmpty Hands)
CONDITIONING
Rower
1 min on/1 min off for 5 rounds (10 minutes total) max effort
1 min cooldown
Notes:
I’ll frame some context: I went to sleep on Saturday and was woken up twice in the middle of the night by my bowels, and had 2 similar emergency moments on Sunday. For dinner on Saturday, I drove an hour to pick up my Valkyrie’s favorite Hawaiian BBQ and bring home. When I called in my order for a loco moco, they said “Sorry, we’re all sold out…WAIT! We have one left: you can have a loco moco”. I think I’ve learned, when they’re down to the last one: don’t eat that one. Curiously enough, I had noted that my physique was looking particularly washed out before the stomach sickness hit, and once again I see the correlation between physical illness and how my body presents. But last night we still did the family meal, which was a new recipe: cheeseburger alfredo casserole, which we had alongside some biscuits and a small slice of homemade peanut butter cheesecake and a snickerdoodle with raw honey for dessert. I woke up this morning looking much leaner and more filled out, and weighed in at 83.0kg, which is .5kg above last week. Given the wild nature of my biology currently, and that I’m on the Maximum DEFINITION diet and not the maximum weight loss diet, I’ll take “heavier and leaner” as a victory. This also reinforces a lesson I already knew: I can’t carb load on dessert. I tried that last week with the easter meal. I can include dessert, but I need some complex carbs as well.
For the chin count, I got in 30 during my warm-ups, going with sets of 5, and started off the EMOM with 55 in the bank, totaling 125 for the workout. I also got 160 total dips, which is a 10 rep PR from last week.
315 on my back felt heavy in the warm-ups, but once I got under the bar for the work sets, it was solid. I have to exercise a little discipline to not put the bar TOO stupidly far down my back, but I am noticing my right knee feels better and better each week with his low bar set up. Elbows are holding on as well, which is the determining x-factor, especially while I pursue strongman goals. That sandbag over bar really beat it too hell, and daily chins and low bar squatting on top of that can get it in a bad way.
The press felt heavy, but manageable. Push press reps were solid.
The rower was a good effort. Glad I got it in. Good on my heart and getting in more pulling volume.
My daily sandbag carries felt really strong yesterday. Got the bag in a good position quickly. The less energy I can waste there, the more on the carry.
Tonight is supposed to be a walk with the Valkyrie, but we have some bad storms rolling in. May have to pivot.
