Well, you already look ridiculously cut, but when you go from ‘flat from cutting’ to having full muscle stores, I can imagine it goes from ridiculous to absurd…
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@OTHSteve much appreciated dude, and definitely what I’ve noticed. Flat and depleted can result in being “washed out”, such that definition gets lost and it’s easy to mistake it as fattening up. Once things pop though, it gets crazy. It’s something I’ve grown to appreciate about being on the leaner side: far easier to track on the impact on changes to nutrition.
AM WORKOUT (0900) POST NIGHT SHIFT (relief showed up 2.5 hours late…)
Front squats w/5 burpees between sets (no rest otherwise)
4x300
1x300
3x300
2x300
1x225
2x225
3x225
4x225
5x225
4x225
3x225
2x225
1x225
6x185
1x185
5x185
2x185
4x185
3x185
12x135
Transition immediately to 2 mile walk w/80lb vest
Notes: Wanted to see what I could do with 300lbs, and even with post night shift not being ideal testing time, it went well. Biggest thing was that 300lbs didn’t feel heavy at all, such that I honestly forgot it was supposed to be a “big deal” until I got to the second rep and wondered why this was so much harder than usual. My torso strength is really high. If I wanted to give this workout a pithy name, it would be “Oreo”, because you got the cream of Tower of Babel in between a Juarez Valley sandwich finished off with the tall glass of milk widowmaker. In truth, I was just winging it after that 300lb set and going for pain and time, as this took about 31 minutes. Got in the walk afterwards with the doggo while the weather was cool-ish. All of this was supposed to happen much earlier in the day, but my relief hosed me.
Daily work and Tang Soo Do later. It’s sparring night. I’ve been doing a poor job of logging my lessons, since they happen in the evening, but maybe I’ll get this one down.
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What does a strengthlifting meet entail?
The silly answer is “strengthlifting”. Googling usstrengthlifting will go into all the details and nuances, but it’s powerlifting where the bench is replaced with a press and things are sillier after that.
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Do you feel that your strength gives you a significant advantage in your martial arts sparring compared to people similar in size to you? Of course, technique is also very important, particularly when someone has a much higher skill.
@AnthonyP For sparring it SHOULD be a non-factor, as sparring is really a “game” where we’re just trying to work on skills and improve our fight game. In a fight, being strong has been invaluable. For striking, it’s not the biggest deal (knockout power is often more a question about timing and angles vs sheer brute force), but it still shows up in the clinch. Getting into a proper grappling situation, it can really start making stuff interesting, as I can resist a lot of my opponent’s efforts and “make” things work. One of the most awesome things I’ve ever done in a roll was sprawl out on my opponent, wrap my arms around their midsection, and pick them up vertically so that he was set up for a textbook pro-wrestling piledriver. I set him down gently, but we had to both appreciate the reality that, were it NOT a friendly situation, I legit could have killed him.
Where I tend to shine is my conditioning. A 2 minute round can kill a lot of casual folks, whereas I’m not even breathing hard. Allows me opportunities to capitalize on openings.
AM WORKOUT (0540 wake up via alarm, 0640 workout)
20 chins (underhand)
GIANT SETS (bench-chin-pull)
Axle bench press
5xAxle
5x156
5x211
5x241
5x271
Chins (underhand)
5x8
Band pull aparts
5x10
10 standing ab wheels
SUPERSETS (bench-row) 90 seconds between sets/total time 22:50
Axle bench press 211
5x10 (pause first 3 reps)
DB rows 115
5x10
10 standing ab wheels
(3) Incline DB bench 90s
9+4+3 (+4 w/Metal Catapult) DC rest pause
Transition immediately to 50 dips
Transition immediately to lateral raise stripset
20x20lbs
20x10
20x5
20x2.5
20xEmpty hands
2:05 empty hand crucifix hold
Transition immediately to 2 mile dog walk w/80lb vest
Transition immediately to 1 hour of lawn mowing
Notes: Busy morning, and really just taking a break to let the battery recharge for my lawn mower before getting back at it. My whole body is incredibly sore: really feeling the effects of pushing things. I was dragging hard in Tang Soo Do last night. We got our Orange Belts, so that’s cool. Sparring was a bust: we ended up just working combinations on the wavemasters. There is a tournament in 2 weeks and I think they wanted to keep from people getting injured. I’m getting looser with the lower body and throwing some fancier stuff, so that’s cool.
As much as I dug focusing on the press these past 7 weeks, having a bench focused day really slots in well with this weight gain protocol, as it’s far less intense and gives me a bit of a break before my deadlift workout. Stole from Paul Kelso and paused the first few reps in the set to up the challenge. Will try to pause all of them on 5s week and forego pausing on the 1s. Didn’t make the 20 minute mark, but I’m doing unilateral rows, so that takes twice as long. May go for a different approach next time.
Wanna get in something short and intense today to get the quads opened back up. Thinking about doing some sort of Grace-esque workout using back squat thrusters. I want to get in more behind the neck pressing.
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When I was training MMA, my coach used to say that conditioning was the stupidest and laziest reason to lose a fight. It is the only thing you have absolute control over in the ring.
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@cyclonengineer So very true. I remember my “ah hah!” moment in high school wrestling. I was a terrible wrestler, having started late with no background, and was surviving a match my first year at a tournament against another dude who was as terrible as me. 3rd round, we’re both gassed, neither one of us is doing anything and I realize that I could win if I just did SOMETHING, so I basically charge and spear tackle him and put myself on top of him, wherein he lets me pin him out of sheer exhaustion. At that moment it dawned on me that, when both dudes are gassed, the one who is LESS gassed can win.
At that point, I became the best conditioned dude on the team. Other guys had been wrestling since they could walk, went to elite training camps, had futures, etc etc, but no one was in better shape than me. It got to the point that, when we went on team runs, the coaches let the whole team get about a 5 minute head start and let me pick people off as I go, STILL finishing first. I was STILL an awful wrestler, but I was a handful.
Been moving all day. Somewhere in there I tried out that behind the neck grace idea. Didn’t pan out: technique deviates under load and I ended up clocking myself in the back of the head a few times. Much better when done like the Bear complex: thruster, catch bar on back, back squat thruster, catch bar in front. Still, got 30 reps of front and back thrusters in 5-ish minutes. Need to figure out if I’m conditioning or deadlifting tomorrow: soreness and fatigue will dictate.
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I wrestled in middle school 7th and 8th grade. I always spammed the half nelson cause I couldn’t really remember any other move. I did score points though and the team was undefeated when I was in 8th grade. There’s a banner hanging up in the middle school gym with the year on it.
Sorry for clogging your log. Umm let’s say if u wanted to run a series of programs like how boileman is doing but with deep water and super squats. Etc.How would you do it?
Excuse my bad grammar but spthis site sucks on my iPad. I can’t even see what I’m typing
Fun anecdote, I legit did this my first high school wrestling match. I had been wrestling for all of two weeks, had no idea what I was doing, and didn’t really know what to do what I had the guy vertical. I didn’t fall to me knees like In WWE, but I did jump up and slam this kid on his back as hard as I could…. Which ended with me being disqualified for illegal moves in my first ever mat appearance. Whoops. Coach wasn’t even mad, though we did start teaching anyone who hadn’t wrestled before all the strict rules violations before they could go into a meet.
@tlgains My go to was the crossface cradle. It was my ONLY move…but as a result, I could get it from anywhere. One of the coaches was mad at me for not trying new stuff, so he said he was gonna square off with me and keep me from doing it. I nailed him with it from 3 different positions. He got pissed and ragequit. One of the captains of the team said “But coach, he’s only got one move” and the coach replied “He only NEEDS one move!” It was pretty funny.
I think Deep Water and Super Squats would play fantastically well with each other from a programming standpoint. You go from 10 sets of squats to 1 big set of squats, basically trading volume for intensity. Issues lay in the nutritional strategies: gallon of milk a day is VERY much not “Deep Water”. Now there’s something to be said about the value of alternating nutritional approaches too (Marty Gallagher wrote about this in Purposeful Primitive), so maybe that would actually be a pretty cool approach, but part of me thinks it would wreck gut health.
If I were to ignore nutrition, the other thing I’d be concerned about is how psychologically taxing both programs are. You become obsessed with training and nutrition with both, and there’s elements of legit fear in both programs. It could easily break the psyche.
So having said all that, I think breaks would be necessary. I’d use 5/3/1 for that. Could do something like Deep Water Beginner-Deep Water Intermediate-5/3/1 with 5s pro main work and FSL widowmakers for 6 weeks-deload-Super Squats for 6 weeks-Building the Monolith for 6 Weeks OR Back to 5s Pro w/Widowmakers-Deload-repeat
@atlas13 Hah! It’s such a common thing in combat sports too: when guys “know how to play”, you kinda know what to expect, but when you take someone fresh off the street and throw gloves on them, sometimes even an accomplished fighter can get wrecked because you just don’t expect the crazy things they’ll come up with.
I remember Mike Tuchscherer sharing stories about taking combative classes at the Air Force Academy. He REALLY didn’t want to play, but some dude wanted to be Billy Badass and take on the big powerlifter. Mike brute forced the guy into a position most humans can’t naturally assume…
AM WORKOUT (0530 wake up via alarm, 0700 workout)
40 minutes of the following
95lb barbell: clean, front squat thruster-back squat thruster-front squat thruster-back squat thruster-front squat thruster
5 chins (any grip, strict)
5 dips
35 rounds completed, called out on first thruster of 36th round
2+ mile walk with dog (unweighted)
Notes: Decided on the conditioning workout today for 2 reasons. 1: legs were still sore and I felt like this particular approach would fix that, and 2: I realized I could break up my deadlift workout tomorrow so that I do all the assistance work in the morning and then the main and supplemental work in the afternoon. That’s probably going to be my way forward for the next 5 weeks of the program.
This particular conditioning workout was a good one. It didn’t blow my lungs out, but it was definitely fatiguing AND it helped me get that blood flowing to my legs, which was key. I really like passing the bar over my head and working multiple angles on the thruster. Getting in 175 dips and chins is pretty cool too.
Went sans vest on the walk today. I’m thinking there’s too much of a good thing when it comes to weighted vest walks, and it’d be a good idea to have a few where I just take in the environment.
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Wanna take a wild guess of the series of programs I’m gonna run after I finish deepwater intermediate?
College was an awesome time for Super Squats. Wish you were on a meal plan, but still plenty of opportunities to store some milk in that fridge.
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I’m not sure if you’ve ever discussed this on the forum, but have you ever read any of Taleb’s work (Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan or Antifragile)?
I’m currently reading Antifragile and I find his arguments interesting, but they sometime go over my head. He frames a lot of things through economics, which I struggle to understand.
Mine was chicken wing with either a tight gut or half nelson. I’d do what ever from where ever to get to it, but that’s what was going to happen.
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@j4gga2 I’m not familiar with his work. I’ve heard of The Black Swan, but that’s about it.
@SkyzykS It’s funny how it all shakes out. Hell, Joe Frazer made a career out of a left hook. We have this idea that good fighters know a million different techniques, but often you can be a one-tricky pony so long as it’s a GOOD trick.
AM WORKOUT (0510 natural wake up) Near Fasted (1 lite n fit 80 calorie pumpkin pie yogurt…going to be eating a LOT of these while they’re still in season)
GIANT SET CIRCUIT (no rest between exercises) of Chin-ab wheel-chin-neck harness-repeat
10x10 chins (various grips)
5x4 ab wheel
5x10 neck harness w/55lbs
SUPERSET CIRCUIT (row-pull)
Axle rows against light bands
1x10
1x8
1x6
2x5
Band pull aparts
5x10
SUPERSET (shrug-pull)
Axle shrugs against short average bands
1x50
Band facepulls
1x100
Kroc rows 115
1x18
50 dips
25 pushdowns
25 reverse hyper leg curls
CONDITIONING
Thieves Guild Initiate Quest
20 seconds of alternating DB snatches/10 seconds of goblet squats w/20lb DB for 8 rounds
Notes: Got in all my assistance work before the family woke up so that I can do JUST the deadlifting later today. I’m transitioning away from shift work into a more 9-5 M-F sorta setting, so I think this can be my new way forward on Saturdays. I prefer getting ALL the training knocked out before the family gets up, but deadlifts are just too loud to pull that off, and this seems like a decent compromise. In that regard, careful observers will note that there is barely any loading of plates in this workout. Lots of bodyweight and band stuff. I am planning on getting 1 big set of reverse hypers in with my afternoon deadlift workout as well, simply because that can be a bit noisy too.
I need to remember to get in some Kelso shrugs. I keep telling myself I will, and then I autopilot away from them.
Chins are really in top form right now.
Physique update for the “end” of week 1. Really highlights what I’ve been saying: I’m getting a lot of “pop” in my musculature from the increased calories and trace carbs. Once again got to visit my favorite Chinese place, and despite eating foods on the “good” list, I’m still soaking up every trace carb and all the salt, which isn’t a bad thing at all.
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That sounds pretty awesome
You look indestructible dude.
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@boilerman Much appreciated dude! Feeling that way. Food is so anabolic. The schedule has been the ebb and flow of my career. It all has it’s perks. I dig the chaos of the shift work, because I like REacting and damaging controlling, but the 9-5 is so much better for the family.
PM WORKOUT (1500)
Texas deadlift bar touch and go deadlifts
5x135
5x225
1x315
5x380
5x435
5x490
5x10x380 (done in 16:45)
Reverse hyper 180
1x40
High handle trap bar lifts touch and go
60x135
Notes: Took 1:45 between first and second set, then 2:00 between all other sets. That “switch” that typically took the third set to flip was flipped on set 1 and every set afterwards was absolutely demolished. Feeling very on point, which, of course meant that 380 felt heavy as hell in warm ups. Funny learning to read the signs.
As holidays are getting close, getting the urge to bring back that trap bar deathset, so threw in something high rep at the end. I need to make this round of Beefcake “greater than” anyway.
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Got 100 non stop fasted burpeee in 5:24 this morning. Not a record, but 3rd time ever doing 100 unbroken. Good to be able to keep that grooving.
EDIT: Got in 50 minutes of frisbee with the kiddo while the wife ran a half marathon, then went on a 2 mile 80lb weighted vest walk with the dog. Gonna get the daily work in as some sort of circuit later and probably call that a day.
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That is huge. That’s great stuff
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