The vegans’ nightmare!
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Different approaches to the same problem. Vegans and carnivores both reached the same conclusion: the current food environment is non-viable.
For me, plants were destroying my guts. Going animal only alleviated a LOT of issues I had, to the point that I discovered that a lot of what I considered to be "normal” was dysfunction. Spending time detoxing really went a long way.
It was honestly the Velocity Diet that helped me get there. It was a total reset button nutritionally, and from there I could rebuild.
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This is why it’s so hard to find a good doctor. Family practitioners rarely have experience with athletes so they don’t understand us when we show up. The only time I feel like I get any good information is when I go see a specialist, but you can’t really develop a relationship with a specialist (well, hopefully you don’t need to). I need a specialist who knows all the parts of my body that I break, not just one. I’m at the point where I feel like I need the TV doctor from “House” for my lower back.
I feel like there’s enough of out there to keep a doctor busy if he/she chose to be a weekend warrior specialist. That would cover those of us here on T-Nation and the population that still plays softball, basketball, volleyball, rugby, and runs for distance.
The closest I’ve found is my physical therapist, but they can’t prescribe any meds or give injections (steroid/anti inflammatory things like cortisone). My PT is probably the most qualified person to order an MRI or other imaging for my issues, but she can’t do that, either.
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@Frank_C I actually see the inability to prescribe meds/injections as a feature, rather than a bug, haha. In my line of work, that tends to be one of the first solutions (we refer to it as “Vitamin M”: the 800mg of motrin RX). I had to fight SO hard to get my doctor to refer me to a physical therapist for my knee, and that was all I needed. I had to tell him that anti-inflams cause my bowels to bleed before he’d consider any alternatives.
Having that good relationship is key for sure. I’ve also learned that we have to be our own advocates and be willing to tell them where our lines in the sand are. During the pandemic, I had a doctor that wanted to run all sorts of labs on me and prescribe me all kinds of meds, and one time, during a phone consultation, while looking at my lab results, he asked “Are you African-American?” I told him at that point that there would be no further discussion on medication or treatment until he could actually identify me in a lineup. This was the same doctor that referred me to a nephrologist for elevated labs in my kidneys, which, at that appointment, the nephrologist entered the room, took one look at me, rolled his eyes hard enough that I thought he was going to detach a retina and said “Oh geez, we get one of you guys here like once every 3 months” and went on to explain how lifting weights paired with a high protein diet causes this to happen…which, again, you’d most likely figure out if you actually SAW me before prescribing stuff, haha.
It’s a jungle out there!
AM WORKOUT (0345 wake up via dog, snoozed until 0400, but honestly a terrible night of sleep with windstorms)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 4, Workout 1
MAIN CLUSTER
Buffalo Bar Squat
4x8x330
Axle strict press from rack
2x8x158
7x158
5x158
SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER
(3) DB incline bench
2x12x70s
2x10x70s w/4 rep rest pause on final set
DB rows
4x12x125
GHRs
4x12x55
ASSISTANCE
GHR sit up
20
Notes:
- It’s absolutely bonkers weather right now. Wind gusts up to 50mph, tore the fascia off my neighbors house and heard it scrapping all night, made it hard to sleep. Still having really vivid dreams as well, so it’s honestly like a mixed blessing to not be able to sleep much.
- As much as sets of 8 suck, I continue to feel unjustifiably strong on the squat. I think my right knee was just holding me back for longer than I realized. It’s awesome feeling healthy again, and figuring out to use my grip shirt has gone a long way to make the low bar squat more viable. I feel really locked in.
- For rest periods, it was 2 minutes on the squat, 1-2-2 on the incline press, 1s on the rows and GHRs. For the press, I went 2-3-2, seeing if resting 3 minutes would let me get in all 8 reps on the third set. Since it didn’t, didn’t seem worth repeating. Next workout, I’ll rest pause to get all the reps if I need to, similar to what I did with the incline bench. I was running a little short on time due to some morning logistics.
- Elbows are feeling good enough. I have awareness of them, but no agony. I got through all 7 days doing 3x16 chins. I may only go 2x16/1x17 for this week. These past few goes, I’ve been focusing on moving my body by contracting the lats, rather than pulling with my hands, and it seems to help move through pain. I’m also noticing better body awareness on the rows as a result. My hips are doing decent as well.
- Weighed 83.2kg this morning. Teetering between these weights. Wonderful family meal last night: another go with sourdough crust pizza, topped with pancetta, bacon, leftover kalua pork, pineapple and black olives. We had it cafeteria style on a baking sheet. I had something like 5 or 6 slices, and then 5 cookies with some raw honey. It’s awesome to have sourdough in the house: the Valkyrie is experimenting will all sorts of recipes. In turn, I’ve been considering how to work a cyclical or targeting ketogenic diet approach. I also used a 10 minute rower workout post meal ala the 10 minute walk, and that felt pretty nice.
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Because there’s nothing relaxing or restorative about walking into a 50 mph headwind! I made a similar choice last night.
I guess the power goes with the person behind it. I fully trust my PT to determine if I need a little help from science instead of just old fashioned PT. There are times where inflammation hangs around so long that the usual tricks just don’t get rid of it, so a little pharmaceutical boost might help.
My best “doctor” experience was a physician’s assistant at my old primary doctor’s office. I could make appointments with her and it was awesome. She understood me. She knew I lifted weights and abused my body. She knew I wanted to pretend I was still an athlete. All of those things were considered when treating me. Unfortunately, she left the practice for awhile and our insurance changed so I had to move on. Now insurance has brought that group back into the network and she’s back at the same office, but none of the docs are accepting new patients. I broke my ankle back in 2013 - cracked talus. She ordered an MRI and sent me to a specialist because she was worried about the location of the fracture and it possibly not healing correctly due to blood supply. All turned out well, but having someone advocate for me was such a blessing instead of the usual scenario where you’re shopping around for yourself. It wastes so much time when you have to do that.
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@Frank_C Shame to lose such a good connection like that. I’ve got a similar relationship with my urologist: just someone that gets me.
Nutrition Recap
Breakfast was 14.5oz of airfried grassfed lamb alongside some beef bacon, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites.
Dinner was a fun experiment. 2 piedmontese grassfed beef burgers (80% lean) cooked in the sous vide from frozen, then seared in the cast iron with spray wagyu fat, topped with a slice of jarlsburg swiss, a fried egg, and a strip of bacon. For the buns, I took a Don Lee Farm’s chicken breast patty and sliced it in half lengthwise to create all animal buns. I used some chosen farms avocado mayo and a few pickle slices to round it out, alongside 2 whole eggs (put 1 of the 3 on the burger) and 5 whites.
Ended up making a second burger with a single grassfed costco patty and another Don Lee Farms chicken breast patty bun. Was a fun way to do a burger night.
Also, purchased some 1 gallon glass jars on Amazon to be able to store my collection of tallow and stock that I’ve accumulated from all my sous vide and other cooking experiments. I didn’t realize how big of a stock I’ve already built up.
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AM WORKOUT (0529 natural wake up, slept in)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 4, Workout 2
“VIKING RAID”
15 minutes
- 100m row
- 150lb sandbag carry
- Add 100m to the row each round
Notes:
- Finished the 600m row when the timer ran out. Finished the carry still. I had some lapping issues on the 3rd round, which ate into my time. Right elbow was being a little pissy, so I was moving slower. In general, my time is getting worse each week, and I imagine it’s navigating around the pain that’s a part of that, as the first week I was able to rip the bag off the floor. But this is why I cycle low bar squats, rather than keep them year round.
- Forgot to hit record. Oops.
- This is still a solid conditioning hit. I was thinking about it on the ride to work as well. I’m doing a solid job of leaning into this mass gaining phase, even if I’m not chasing scale weight. I’m staying conditioned “enough” without going stupidly deep into it, and prioritizing sleep seems to be benefiting my physique and strength. I’m not as fat as I anticipated being at this point in the training block. It’s really been more of a recomp phase at this point.
- Which, on that note, I weighed in at 82.4, which is the lowest I’ve been on a Tuesday/post carb up weigh in for this training cycle. Wild considering I had over 1000 calories in burger patties alone for dinner last night. I think that’s been my favorite part of this experiment: discovering maintenance, and just how much wiggle room it has. Especially as I’m fasting through today on my way to 12lbs of corned beef I have in my sous vide.
- Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s “Wildcard/Cardio” week, and we’ll be attending a Saturday class as well, so lots of activity this week.
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Nutrition Recap
Fasted until dinner, then celebrated St Patrick’s day with over 12lbs of corned beef (2 flats and 1 point) from the Sous Vide, then seared in the instant pot in beef tallow and Amish butter. Had the brilliant idea to pour the drippings on top of the fat caps and then sear them with a blow torch vs in the instant pot. Helped myself to half a baked potato (skipped the skin, topped with butter and sour cream) to keep in the spirit, and had it alongside my 3 whole eggs and 5 whites. Also a little bit of a sourdough biscuit the Valkyrie made. Wonderful meal.
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AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 4, Workout 3
MAIN CLUSTER
Axle bench press
4x8x231
(3) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
14x440
SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER
Lever belt squat
4x12x230
Dips
3x12x60
9+3x60
Axle curls
2x12x76
9x76
9+6x76
ASSISTANCE
Reverse hypers
3x15x360
Various ab work
Notes:
- Sleep continues to be less than awesome due to minor inconveniences. This was pretty funny though. At night, the kiddo knocks on our door and gives us the pug puppy when he starts acting up (the pup starts off the night in the kids room). I’m usually the one that wakes up to receive the pug. When my kid gave it to me, we didn’t exchange any words, just the dog, and I thought “the nightly pug deal”, and then I laughed to myself “hah! Pug deal. Like drug deal” And that amount of thinking unfortunately shifted my brain into “awake mode” for the next hour or so.
- This training day requires little motivation to get me to do it. I appreciate how little there is to it, yet how much at the same time. Anchoring off that set of deads is awesome. On that note, though I was 1 rep shy compared to last week, it was a moment of discretion being the better part of valor, because I was in no degree of pain but could feel my body giving me some warning shots there. Shut it down, walked away, felt great.
- And then I did a set of ab wheel and immediately triggered that familiar pain in my hips and forearm. So I’m going to just plain stop doing the ab wheel for the rest of this training cycle: juice isn’t worth the squeeze. I don’t feel any pain during my daily chins, minimal during squats, TONS during this movement, and there are like a jillion other ways to train abs.
- Breaking the weight off the mats for the deads was challenging but not miraculous. I think I have at least one more cycle in me.
- Weighed 82.7kg this morning. Despite only 1 meal yesterday, that’s a bump up in weight, but that one meal was a VERY sodium heavy meal of corned beef, so that tracks.
- Tang Soo Do was a moderate workout yesterday. Today is the 90 minute class. And I’m taking the next 2 days off work, so schedule is going to be a little off.
- I signed up for another charity strongman competition. It’s 8 Aug, and I’m currently signed up as a Masters LW of 220-. This event has 2 things I’ve always wanted to do: a caber toss and Dritvik Stones. What I love the most is that I’m excited about this competition. I had fallen out of love with strongman for a while, and these charity comps for fun are really bringing me back. It’s sorta like combat sports, how I’m having fun just showing up to competitions without actually training: I just want a pick up game. I’m already thinking about my training cycle for this, and picking up some new toys (to include a kilt). Details below.
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The description of that strongman competition got me so fired up! Awesome! As you said, caber toss and Dritvik Stones are the highlight but that tractor pull looks incredible too! I just hope they won’t mix bagpipes with country music.
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I love that wacky mix of events - straight out of the 80s or 90s!! I can’t stand the modern scene, amateur or professional, that is so regulated and repetitive. Every comp now seems like the exact same mix of events - farmers, yoke, axle, dead, circus DB, etc. The Arnold Classic is the worst offender. Coincidentally enough, I’ve turned my girlfriend into a fan of the sport, and the caber toss is her favorite event to watch, just because its so different.
Looking forward to watching the training unfold and seeing the highlights of gameday!
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@Hugo_Fillion Maybe I can put in a request for some ACDC, haha.
@BrandonCrawford Much appreciated brother! I am with you: I joined for a freakshow. MMA did the same thing to me. Too standardized and sterile. I want the wild west.
Nutrition recap
Breakfast was 14oz of beef rib fingers, part of a leftover burger patty, some beef liver, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites, with some cheese and sour cream.
Dinner was leftovers night. Kalua pork, corned beef, burger patty, 3 whole eggs and 5 whites. Actually pretty pleased with the plating
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Super stoked to see another competition on your horizon and that was one of the most enjoyable events summaries I’ve ever read. Love that it has a Highland Games twist to it.
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I feel guilty even thinking this, but do you prefer the corned beef brisket or traditional brisket? I’m curious your take on it because as I’m eating smoked brisket every day this week, I find myself thinking the corned beef brisket I cooked in the slow cooker was better and much easier to prepare… I don’t know how to feel about myself.
And before anyone questions my coming ability, I crushed the smoked brisket. It melted on the inside like it’s supposed to when you hit an internal temp of 203-204 over the course of 12+ hours.
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I like corned beef more.. I’d never admit that out loud tho.
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Thank you for the validation! I guess I just don’t have enough actual smoked brisket and when I do, it’s only a couple pieces. I think it’s a bit rich and I never say that about food.
Honestly I love them both but if I had to make it regularly, corned beef all the way. So much more hands off work
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@PowPowPunishment Thanks man! It looks like an absolute blast. Nice to see things with some fun to them.
@Frank_C I enjoy both, but good brisket is life changing. I imagine part of it is that I don’t run into the “too rich” issue. I have the opposite problem: I get upset when people trim the brisket, haha. I always leave the fat on for brisket, ribs, pork, etc, and it’s my favorite part to eat, so a good fatty brisket is absolutely marvelous to me.
I do feel like where corned beef shines is that it’s delicious warm or cold, whereas I feel like brisket isn’t quite as fortunate there. But if you sat me down at a table and said “we have two dishes, one is a brisket prepared by the greatest texas BBQ master, and one is a corned beef prepared by the greatest corned beef master”, I don’t think I’d even make my way to the corned beef plate, haha.
Now, as far as MAKING them goes, I’ll take a corned beef. Just a lot less effort.
Not going to call this a training day, but I did get in a fasted 3+ mile walk with the 20.4lb tac carrier this morning. We went to the pizza buffet/arcade for lunch, where I won over 5000 tickets through a lot of lucky plays on various games and secured my kid the opportunity to buy literally any single prize they wanted, explaining to them that this is what generational wealth and privilege are.
Didn’t weigh in, due to wild schedule. Tang Soo Do was a good physical challenge.
For nutrition recap, at the buffet I was creative with the salad bar and taco bar, making a heaping plate of hardboiled eggs, pepperoni slices and taco meat with some butter and sour cream from the baked potato bar. I also grabbed a choice slice of pizza to eat the topping off of, and a pickle. Served alongside some decaf coffee. Went up for a second plate that was similar, minus the pickle.
Dinner was another round of leftovers. Scrambled eggs, kalua pork and corned beef.
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AM WORKOUT (0630 natural wake up, snooze until 0700)
TACTICAL BARBELL MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN Week 4, Workout …5
MAIN CLUSTER
Buffalo Bar Squat
4x8x330
Axle strict press from rack
8x158
2x5x158
6x158
SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER
(3) DB incline bench
4x12x70s
DB row
4x12x125
PM WORKOUT (1500)
GHRs
4x12x55
GHR sit ups
1x25
Notes:
- Day off work, so slept in and got the majority of the workout knocked out while the rest of the family was waking up. Cut out the “out of garage” part for later.
- Felt like the gravity was turned up today. Was just getting beat to hell by the training. Didn’t push the axle too hard, but got a PR on the DB press as a result, so I’ll take it.
- While doing my knee rehab stretches, I felt a small pop in my hamstring. Immediately stopped the stretch, and just feel a little tightness in the hamstring, but otherwise nothing too worrisome. I’ll see how it feels tomorrow.
- Been very active with family in town. Easy way to get in steps. Eating a little more as well, which is good for a gaining phase.\
- Valkyrie and kiddo still chugging away on the ABF, and I’ve been joining them at their weights as well, making it a tonic/recovery workout for myself. I feel like all the time pressing with lighter weights has been great for grooving my technique.
NUTRITION RECAP
Fasted through breakfast and had lunch out with the family at some outlet malls. Found a local Mexican place in the spirit of Chipotle. Dude working the counter was super legit and hooked me up.
“Hey, I wanna do a ‘build my own bowl.’
”Cool, what kind of rice you want?”
”No rice, no beans, can I just get birria.”
”You sure man?”
"Yeah. Hey, do you have an option for extra meat?”
”We do, yeah.”
”Can I get that?”
”Man, you must be on that carnivore diet”
”You got me dude”
And so, he PILED meat onto this thing, and I had to cut him off before he carpet bombed it with cheese and sour cream on my behalf. I asked him if they offered a discount based on my profession and he said “Man, I shoulda guessed. You’re built like a tank”, and he gave me 20% off. He told me he tried the diet and couldn’t make it work, it was too hard for him, and he wished me luck on it. Great kid.
And this didn’t deter me from having tacos for dinner as well. Reference my story of having tacos 3 nights in a row when my Valkyrie left me by myself for the first time in our marriage. I also made my first ever batch of scrambled eggs tonight, with 3 whole eggs and 5 whites, to put in the base of my bowl, making it effectively breakfast tacos, with 93% lean beef, bacon crumbles, hand shredded colby jack and organic/grassfed sour cream, with some avocado. Had 2 bowls that looked like this one.
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