Our tempo had cooled a little and I was able to come in an hour later today, so I finally got in some steps, because I’ve been chained to my desk all week. Felt nice, and the time passed quickly compared to the past time I was on the treadmill. Vest is lighter and incline lower, to coincide with the easier week.
Weighed in at 83.4kg. Weight is still all over the place.
Another good night of sparring last night. I actually rotated through the entire Dojang for king of the ring at the end. Was good to get in some activity that way.
As much as possible in 5 minutes of 1 burpee-10 chins, 2 burpees-9 chins, etc.
Notes:
For the conditioning circuit, I finished on the round of 7 burpees, getting through 2 of them. I’m on my 5th 12 this week and had to keep the workout short. This became a good taper week leading into me starting up Grey Man on Monday.
Felt plenty strong coming into this. Considering how my week started, that’s awesome. Had good mobility through the front squats.
Weighed in at 84.9kg. Still no real idea on bodyweight, but I only need to care come 7 Dec. I have re-introduced black coffee into my nutrition this week, drinking a cup in the morning when I get to work, since it’s there and it sounds nice, but otherwise things are just a little topsy-turvy.
Final day of 12s (6 in a row total), and just wanted to get in some activity. My plan is to fast until dinner, but I may get my arm twisted to get some lunch, as we’re supposedly getting off early today.
Which, on the topic of food, I’m just going to capture my thoughts here. I turn 40 in a few days. I’ve been binge watching cooking videos on youtube during these 12s. I really like cooking. I really like eating the stuff I cook. I really love being strong and eating to be strong. And honestly, I don’t care about being lean. I know how to do it, it’s a cute trick, but it’s not a priority for me. It’s one of the things I hate about competing; having to fit into a weight class, and how it restricts me in my training from realizing my potential. I honestly may just kick start this decade with a focus on becoming as big and strong as my body will allow me to become while eating in the way that best suits me. Because I’ve done both of those things before, but never at the same time.
That said, @EmilyQ shined light on something that was really so awesome to me: the whole world pretty much forgives “self-centeredness” in the month of January. It’s the month that you get to be all about you, because it’s all about “New Year, new me”. And yeah, that’s SUPPOSED to be for ALL year, but no one sticks with that. BUT, it means you get a blank check for that month to be extreme in your physical pursuits and everyone will be like “Oh yeah, resolutions” and let it go. So it means that I can still have 1 month a year where I reign it in and lean out to keep from going too nuts. And that’s a cool little mental insurance policy as well, because even if I DON’T act on that month, I can always tell myself that I will while I’m achieving my max potential throughout the rest of the year.
And, of course, Chaos is the plan: all of this subject to change. But it’s where I’m at right now. I really love training and eating to grow, and I’ve paid enough gym dues over 26 years of training that I’m allowed to just do what I like now.
Weighed 85.0kg again. Still no idea if that’s my real weight or not.
EDIT:
As proof of concept of the above, I was just told we get to take Monday off to compensate for working through the weekend and my first thought was to get home and defrost my short ribs so I can smoke them for lunch tomorrow after hitting up day 1 of Grey Man, and just how much joy that thought brought me.
Axle strict press from rack
2x8x148
7x148
5x148
4x148
SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER
(3) Incline DB bench
2x12x65s
2x11x65s w/2 rep rest pause on final rep
DB rows
4x12x115
ASSISTANCE
5 chins between sets of main work
Notes:
We had late reporting for work to compensate for all the 12s, so I slept in, but Valkyrie apparently had her alarm set 10 minutes later than usual, so my schedule was still a little off. I cut out the GHRs and ab work for now, but we’re working a short day today, so I’ll knock them out when I get home before I mow the lawn.
The reps are all screwy this workout, so I’ll explain. I mixed up specificity and grey man in my head on the very first set, so did a set of 12 on squats. It’s pretty cool I can do that though. Noticed my feet were really wide, so brought them in a bit closer for the final 3 sets. For the press, it’s most likely too heavy, but I just used the trick of taking as many sets as necessary to get the reps (Jim Wendler refers to it as the “Malcolm X method”). For the incline DB bench, I did something similar with a rest pause at the end. I’m not going to lower the weights: I’m going to force growth and eat big enough to make change happen.
2 minutes of rest on the big lifts, 90 seconds on the DB bench, 1 minute on the DB row.
Once I do the GHRs, I’ll splice the video together and upload. I’m also resuming my keg carry experiment, starting over at 200lbs.
I love this approach. Chuckled a bit. I had this thought a few years back (7 OMG) when I did DeepWater. Stopping mindset in a squat to try and eek out another one, then another, etc.
How are you changing your intake for this? Will you be introducing carbs or just adding meals/to meals with more fat/protein? Is there a level of leanness you will want to set as ceiling? Like losing visible abs or?
Much appreciated dude. Zero change. There is literally nothing that would compel me to re-add plants to my diet, aside from my once a week meal with the family. My life quality improved immensely from their removal. I’ll be sticking with my 2 meal a day approach. Zero focus on a leanness ceiling. Training has always been what drives outcomes, and that’s what is going to do the same here. So the difference is I’m going to train for mass more than I usually do, while continuing my approach of eating to support that training. Whereas, before, I’d transition away from mass gain training more frequently, moving forward I’m going to prioritize mass gain training.
This is going to be so fun to watch. Are you sticking with Grey Man for your mass phase? Also, do you have an idea of what bodyweight you want to push to?
It’s funny: in modern days that seems to be the case, but this was 100% how things were when I was coming up. Bulking was about how you trained, as was cutting. It was never “I’m going to eat a lot of food and then train and hope it turns into muscle”, it was “I’m going to TRAIN really hard and then eat a bunch of food and grow some muscle”. And then I read things like Super Squats and that just re-affirmed it, as did Deep Water. You train hard and then you eat well and then you grow muscle.
I feel I’ve very poorly explained myself, so I’m going to attempt to give it another whack.
With mass gaining, my goal isn’t scale weight. My goal isn’t weight gain in general. That’s a byproduct. I don’t care at all what weight shows up on the scale: the only time I DO care about that is when I have a weight class I need to make (which is partially why I don’t care for competition much).
My goal is to make it through many successful cycles of mass training. In order to get through those cycles, I’ll HAVE to eat well to recover from them. If I don’t eat well, I won’t recover, and I won’t make it through. A byproduct of that recovery is going to be weight gain, but my primary focus is going to be get through the end of the cycle, add weight to my maxes, repeat.
In regards to me saying I’m not at all concerned about a leanness ceiling, that doesn’t mean I’m going to be getting fat just for the sake of getting fat. It means I’m simply not going to be looking at myself in the mirror and evaluating leanness. Because it’s not my priority: getting through the training cycles is. If I’m lean when I do it, awesome. If I’m not, that’s awesome too, as long as I’m making it through the cycles. Since I’m eating a diet wherein I only eat carbs for 1 meal a week, I do imagine getting fat will be a challenge anyway.
Prior to this, I was prioritizing Operator over Mass Protocol. My intent is to reverse that. That’s all this is: training and eating in a manner to maximize getting as big as my body will allow. This is still “O-M-S”, just with shorter O phases.
PM WORKOUT (1300)
GHR
4x12x20lb
GHR sit up
3x10
Mowed the lawn for 75 minutes w/20.4lb tac vest
Notes:
Just finished up the rest.
NUTRITION RECAP
I’m actually pretty proud of lunch. First off, another long fasting block, eating this at 1230. I originally wanted to smoke some beef short ribs, but they reneged on our day off today and made it a half day instead. I had these in the freezer and never cooked them before
Turns out, they’re like lamb back ribs/baby back ribs. I opened it up, and for the first time I understood what people meant when they said lamb is “gamey”. Prior to this, I’d never experienced that, but this one had a funk to it. So I covered it in Papa Gyro’s Greek Seasoning (because lamb, duh), broke out the instant pot, sprayed it down with beef wagyu tallow spray, sauteed each side for a few minutes for color, then put it in the pressure cooker with 1 cup of water mixed with some liquid smoke for 45 minutes. Went to work, came home, took them out of the instant pot, pat them dry, sprayed with more wagyu tallow and air fried at 425 for 4 minutes to give it a little crisp. Served alongside 3 whole eggs and 5 whites. I’m really proud of the color and bone pull back. They were slightly overcooked, falling off the bone, but for indoor smoking it totally worked.
I like the fact that I am also entering into a phase of mass training. I love how you explain the process of feeding to recover. I think the fitness industry in general has done a good job of making this really hard for people to understand.
My training program will be different to yours of course and my nutritional approach is also not the same, but at its core the next 8 weeks for me will be focused on growth and if all goes well, I’ll be a stronger (and bigger as a by product) version of myself.
I think the fitness industry in general has done a good job of making this really hard for people to understand.
Nailed it. That’s what “the industry” is: take simple things and make them complex. Which we understand is the OPPOSITE of what education is: take complex things and make them simple. The goal of education is to make people self-sustaining, whereas the goal of the industry is to make people helpless and dependent. “Teach a man to fish, you feed him for life” is the goal of an educator and a WARNING to those working in the industry. They want to always feed you a fish…and for a charge.
I look to animals and they have it totally figured out. You don’t see a fat or weak animal in nature: they’re fit and capable, and no one has to tell them what to eat or how much: they just know. We’re the only species that needs education on this, haha.
It’s an excellent season for growing! I’m excited for your journey…even though, apparently, we need to “get real”.
AM WORKOUT (0520 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL GREY MAN Week 1, Workout 2
“ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT”
20 minute recovery row
Notes:
Holy DOMS. It’s amazing how such seemingly small changes in programming can still create that novel stimulus, although I suppose along with a change in reps and sets I also changed from front squats to squats. I’m really digging this program/movement rotation I’ve come up with. However, it also meant that the recovery row was the absolute right move this morning. Anything more intense would have just been a detractor. Now I should be in a good way to train tomorrow.
Carried a 200lb keg yesterday. Was tempted to refer to this as Operation MILO ago, but honestly logging that way was getting tedious. With winter coming soon, we’ll see how viable this remains.
Woke up at 83.3kg this morning. Weight is still all over. Schedule is finally back to normal: had breakfast this morning rather than fast though the day.
Tang Soo Do on the schedule tonight. They’ll most likely incorporate my birthday into it, so we’ll be doing 40 of things. A decent workout. We’re also doing a pumpkin cheesecake tonight and breakfast for dinner, because my wife is incredible.
I was thinking the same thing today and I haven’t even deadlifted this week yet. I am also thinking how liberating it is to have a simple goal and then to just train hard.
Served that up alongside some liver, 3 eggs and 5 whites.
Birthday dinner, Valkyrie took care of me. 5 beef bacon strips, 4 pork bacon strips, and 3 omelets with 3 eggs, a combination of pork chops and gyro meat, a slice of jarlsburg light swiss and some beef tallow rendered from what I smoked those beef back ribs.
I am sore as hell and loaded up on eggs: I am back baby.
I always like to revisit this photo. Today I turn 40. This picture is from my 17th Birthday. I still have that shirt too, but even back then you can see I was bit by the ironbug.
