2 minutes rest between first 4 rounds, 3 minutes for final round. Emphasis was on being fully recovered and able to give maximum effort for the 20 seconds, making it a for real sprint. I need a few more sessions to really dial in my ability to do that: it’s been a while since I’ve really gone to town on the rower.
I was divided between this and Fobbits, but decided the latter was a bit too similar to what I’ve been doing for the past training block and wanted to introduce something new. The change in stimulus should be good. Meanwhile, the cooldown still gives me a recovery effect.
Keg carry last night was 227.5lbs. I went with my Elitefts SHD knee sleeves this time.
Just one day on specificity and already my connective tissue feels better. I’m sore muscularly, but not beat down like I’ve been. It’s a good change.
Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s one-steps week, which tends to be pretty light in activity.
AM WORKOUT (0352 wake up via alarm, snooze until 0400)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO
Operation MILO Cycle 3, Week 1, Workout 3
MAIN WORK
(6) Texas Deadlift bar Mat Pulls
11+5+5x455
DB rows
5x12x100
Axle curls
5x12x60
GHRs
5x12x20.4
ASSISTANCE
GHR sit ups
3x10
Reverse hyper/band pull apart superset circuit (no rest, just back and forth)
3x12x340/3x50
Chins throughout workout
Notes:
1 minute rest between all movements.
Went with 5 sets here, since I’m doing 1 fewer movement than my push day. Timed out about the same, so that works well.
Those mat pulls had a tough start, but not a painful one, which is a big difference. The follow-up pulls on the sets of 5 felt stronger. The weight feels heavy in general, but a part of that is that I’m not taking a deload between cycles. Instead, my bridge week will hit at the end of this cycle of Specificity, so right in the middle of the cycle.
Pinched a nerve in my upper back on my left side at some point. Felt it during the rows. Minorly annoying. I’m dealing with sprained fingers on that same side, so I’ve got some nerve dysfunction going on in general.
Didn’t get footage of the reverse hypers, just because I was dealing with some technical issues.
Tang Soo Do had us learning new material last night, which was fun. We’ll reinforce tonight.
Forgot to mention that I’m experiencing a significant amount of DOMS in my triceps and quads. It’s pretty fascinating: I’m doing the exact same movements I was doing during Grey Man (and, in fact, 1 fewer by cutting out the flat bench), but simply changing the layout of the program has a different impact. It’s a cool little data point that I remember Pavel talking about in Beyond Bodybuilding: how we can change the impact of programming by changing order of exercises. Just by going from full body to upper/lower, even while keeping the movements the same, the stimulus changes.
Phone ran out of memory: full workout not captured. But I got the squats, and those were the most brutal part.
1 minute rest for all the lower body work. For the press, went 90 seconds, 1:45 and 2:00 respectively. For the incline, went 60-90-1:45. For the dips, went 90-120-120.
Strict 1 minute rests between those squats is absolutely brutal. I’m a big fan of what that brings to the table as far as new stimulus goes. For a 3 week wave, this is definitely valuable.
Kept those rests short on the first workout for this exact situation: was able to push the rests a little longer while still staying within program parameters. The pressing was challenging, but should be beneficial.
That pinched nerve in my back has resolved thankfully.
Last night’s Tang Soo Do was light on activity again but high on learning. Another night tonight should round us out.
Keg carry was 230lbs yesterday. It felt heavy, but that tends to be the case when I do it on the day I do deadlifts.
Weighed in at 83.6kg this morning. Thursday was typically my lighter weigh in, because it was after 90 minutes of walking, but that’s changed with this program. I’m still including it, because it’s 4 days post carb load and a decent enough data point.
Breakfast was the same, alongside an extra piece of prosciutto.
Dinner was “getting after it” in leftovers form. 4 lambchops, 5 slices of pork tenderloin, 1.5 flanken ribs, a tin of sardines, and 5 scrambled eggs topped with ghee. Felt good to throwdown.
Took 1 min rest on everything except for the curls, which were 90 seconds.
For the chins, I got through the first 2 sets without rest pause, and then rest paused as needed for the remainder, but was able to at least get through 7 reps before needing to break. I’m deciding between add weight and adding reps for the follow on.
This was a good training day in general. It’s weird not having a “big” lift, but it felt good as far as sparing my body weight. No spinal loading, and no knee flexion work, so my body gets a little break but I still got a pretty solid pump.
I woke up fantastically sore. Novel stimulus is still working.
Very decent pump from the chins. Curls were tough. Felt some good hamstring cramping on the GHRs.
Another low intensity night at Tang Soo Do, but high IQ sorta stuff. It’s fun learning new material with the new belt.
Keg carry was 231lbs yesterday, and felt much lighter than yesterday’s 230lbs I carry this thing down my driveway and then back up, which means it’s a slight downhill incline down and uphill incline up. I’m feeling that incline a lot more these days…
Forecasting the future, I have a bridge week and then 3 weeks of Operator coming up, and I think I may actually use those 4 weeks to do the 10k swing challenge as my conditioning work for Operator. It should slot well: just do the swings and bodyweight work for the bridge week, and then do swings and bodyweight work after the lifting of Operator. I can then also do swings and a ruck for conditioning and then some sort of swing based HIC. I’m liking this idea because it reduces decision fatigue, and gives me a chance to actually run the challenge legit for once. We’ll see, but so far it’s where I’m leaning.
Another decent back shot for the thumbnail. I’ve been eating my face off for 7 weeks and haven’t put on any appreciable bodyfat: that’s pretty awesome.
Posting in my own little safe space here to lament.
My formal education is in politics. I have a BA and MA in that field of study (and a minor in philosophy, which I truthfully wish I had reversed those two, but I digress). I don’t say that to brag, because it’s not bragworthy, but just to frame my perspective.
A lot of us that post here have a solid education when it comes to physical transformation. Some have a full on formal education, and many are well educated through a combination of in the trenches experience along with self-research.
When we see physical transformation discussed online outside T-Nation, it can be painful to see what “everyone else” thinks on the subject.
Well, every once in a while, I go into the Politics and World Affairs portion of our little neck of the woods here…
I have similar education as you. Not exactly the same, but I have masters degree in history, bachelor made from mixed bag of political studies, philosophy, economics etc., and another bachelor in the study of religion (with some added theology).
I’m not an US citizen, nor a native english speaker, so I find it very interesting to talk with people here while comparing the rhetorics, narratives and values represented. I’ve done this with other Europeans too, but (not surprisingly) these things differ more here more than when talking to polish people for example. It’s also good practice for the language, since I’m a bit rusty with it.
So while it’s interesting and a way for me to develop myself, the loose way of using definitions and weird way of understanding some basic concepts makes it hard. Not just hard as a task, but mentally grinding.
The thing what makes me most upset, is that as I start to understand the narratives and core concepts/premises, I see that sometimes I fall for playing with them too.
Ps. I knew you had the inner philosopher in you! The way you have presented some questions in various threads.
Ps. I knew you had inner philosopher in you! The way you have presented some questions in various threads.
Game recognizes game! And it’s so frustrating because people are so guarded on internet discussions that no one wants to actually ANSWER these questions: they’re too afraid of what the answer may reveal!
In turn, I recognized in you someone that had some education on the nuances of political ideology and how “words mean things”. You definitely have greater patience than I do, but it’s especially admirable given english not being your native language.
That’s the first time I’ve seen you in there. I get sucked in every once in awhile because I want to see opinions on news as it unfolds and immediately remember why I don’t go there.
@SepCalla introspection can definitely be terrifying. But, of course, if it IS, we have to wonder what it says about US, haha. Much as Nietzsche warns about gazing into the abyss.
@dchris I’ve dipped my toes in there a few times, but it’s a rarity. It used to be bad back when threads would get moved more frequently around here. I’d post in something that was originally just “off topic” and suddenly find myself in PWI, to which I’d nope right out of there.
@OyAmPipMayo It’s amazing the ugliness that gets put on display there. It does reaffirm some of the thoughts I’ve had regarding some posters though, which in and of itself is validating. However, unless posts get reported, there’s not much for the mods to do. They don’t read every single post, especially in threads like that.
Breakfast was the same it’s been. Dinner was my full rack of ribs with a side of brisket. They clearly put sauce on the ribs and then wiped them off, as an oops, but it wasn’t worth getting upset about, as they were still delicious.
I love this site. It has helped me so much to get myself back together. But man. Some of the horrible things that people say to each other on those threads really gets to me. I find it so painful and disappointing that this place is so full of people who have so much in common, but they separate themselves so viciously. No one really talks about the situations or their views. They all just sling shit at each other. Throw insults. Threats? I feel sorry for our country and for my children who are growing up in this. I also usually stay out of those posts. Never actually comment on anything there. I guess it’s morbid curiosity that sends me into them.
