Strongman training for Tactical Games (TX_iron)

Training Logs
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Wednesday & Thursday - Sparring

Warm-up, then:

3, 3:00 rounds/1:00 break, followed up with heavy bag, speed bag, crazy bad, and shadowboxing.

NOTES
Three, three minute rounds is a total gasser for me. Coach said Thursday I did better than Wednesday and got in some good shots. But the end of round three, especially on Thursday, my conditioning failed me and I just started getting pummeled. I’m still a little dazed today, and sore everywhere. Especially in the face.

Things i need to work on are:

  • Being more offensive (driving forward, multiple punches, more frequency of engagement)
  • keeping my hands up
  • pumping the jab
  • controlling the center ring position

EDIT:
forgot to add the coolest part! After my session, I was approached by an older gentleman who boxed in the Olympics and he spent the next five minutes giving me pointers like freeing up my hands to block and jab/combo technique.

He also suggested I punch with weights, 50 reps/arm every day. I’ve read articles on how fighters shouldn’t do that, but if a man who boxed on the world stage recommended it to me personally, then do it I shall.

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That’d be solid, but I don’t see myself ever doing one now haha. I’m getting a burning interest in long range shooting matches though, and the Carolinas are home to some good ones so who knows!

I started doing PCSL/USPSA pistol matches and have been trying to get a two-gun to work with my schedule. Those actually kind of killed the desire to do tactical games for me. The shooting is just much higher level and that’s the draw. They’re also like $15-50 bucks per haha.

I think you can get down to my draw time pretty quickly with a couple weeks dry fire. Standard I use is 7 yards and A zone hits on a full size USPSA target. Very, very doable. Trick for me has been getting the same grip established every draw at speed so I can just break the shot as soon as the dot appears on the target.

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Goddamn that’s awesome. What an opportunity.

He also suggested I punch with weights, 50 reps/arm every day. I’ve read articles on how fighters shouldn’t do that, but if a man who boxed on the world stage recommended it to me personally, then do it I shall.

Yup! “If it’s stupid but it works: it’s not stupid”

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@mr.v3lv3t that’s a really cool pivot. Gun comps are way accessible and honestly I need to hop into some matches. Interesting you’re using dry fires. I’ve legitimately haven’t thought of doing that to improve: shows what I know. I’ll certainly start! I hear there are “rounds” of ammo that just sit in your weapon and put off a laser when the pin hits, and some even simulate a kick.

@T3hPwnisher it was awesome! Totally serendipitous and it really drove home the need to be more fluid. And I have definitely been doing it (the weighted punching)

Fight night is Saturday. Not sure what my coach has planned for me today, but probably fine tuning. Not sure if he wants me sparring this close but we’ll see.

Box Front Squat / Bench:
4 x 1 @ 225

531s week right now, but this program allows me to idle down as needed. 1-2 rep sets at 90-100% TM, for a total of 4-10 total reps, so I kept it near minimum.

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No doubt dude! Basically every trainer worth their salt will tell you your dry fire should exceed your life fire by like 5 fold at a minimum. Ben Stoeger has a great book on dry fire drills. It’s rather wordy but you couldn’t call in incomplete haha.

I’d skip the laser thing personally. I found you could almost cheat the laser “hit” to get your desired impacts. Better just being honest with yourself, “were my sights where I intended them to be?” “did the gun jerk during my trigger pull?”

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@mr.v3lv3t thanks for the tips! And saving me some money on a possible laser. I don’t have one, but apparently apple watch has a draw timer or something.

Fight write-up

I weighed in at 178, my opponent at 215. We went two, one minute rounds and they didn’t let us go a third because we went too hard.

Legally a winner couldn’t be declared because it was unsanctioned, but I lost. I gave him hell and got in some sound shots, but I played to his strengths instead of my own. He had a powerful forward drive that I should’ve been sidestepping but chose instead to directly engage and gave up too much ground.

I don’t know if I’ll do this again next year, but regardless I want to ultimately be better. Goals are to:

a) gain some real, quality size. I want to get to about a 10-15lb maintenance above LW strongman weight (175-181, so that’s roughly 190 walking around). I’m 6’ and naturally very skinny/smaller boned, but 178 feels too small.

b) Continue to improve my conditioning, through multimodal work. I think a good “test” is tabata on my air bike for calories, or 100 calories as fast as possible

c) keep working on fighting technique

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Dude, that is SO much weight to give up, and to keep on charging hard in the face of it is absolutely incredible! I love that you had to stop for going too hard: what a way to go out.

Excited to see you on the gain train. You’re in good company.

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Thank you for those kind words, amigo! Though it didn’t go my way, we left it all out there and having it called like that was a nice badge of honor. I took a few head blows and when they told me it was over my first thought was “oh man, I could’ve sworn we only went two - I really took a few.”

Choo choo, leaving the station! I like your back-to-basics approach, simple and effective.

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I think not being allowed your third round is a victory in itself, haha.

I have the ‘Splits’ app on my phone, would recommend it for sure!

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@mr.v3lv3t It’s going to be what I “hang my gloves” on, ha.

Ran a bodypart split last week to get a read on new training maxes, and, boy, did I lose some strength. I decided whether or not to continue the bodybuilding split or run 531 full body 17 with breathing squats for the widowmakers and a gallon of milk a day. 17 looked harder, more basic, and should flow well with three consecutive leaders, deload the week of Thanksgiving, and into a six week full body anchor/competition prep for a January 18, 2025 strongman comp. Also with so much lost strength, I kind of feel like I haven’t earned the right to a split right now.

531 Full Body 17 - 5s week, Leader 1
Yesterday

Agile 8, 10 med ball throws, band face-pulls/leg curls/vaccum crunches on knees

Bench/BB row
145 x 5 x 10

20 rep breathing squats (no belt) + calf raise at the top
180 x 10

Dips rest pause, push-ups finisher

Notes:
Did legs on Saturday, so ouch. Got all but about 10 ounces of milk in… I put my kids to bed and fell asleep while doing so.

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531 Full Body 17 - cycle 1, 531s week

Thursday
Warm-up + 10, 20lb med ball overhead throws

Bench/BB rows
180x5x10

Breathing squats
205 x 20

band face pulls, push-ups, band hamstring curls

Friday
Push press up to 175x5
Front squat up to 235 x5
no deadlifts - ran out of time

Curls, ham curls on stabiltly ball

Notes:

  • Cardio is pretty much all “active recovery” stuff. Lots of walking, manual labor, and playing with the kiddos
  • Elbow is a bit inflamed, getting hopped up on fish oil and wrist roller to combat
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531 Full Body 17 - Final workout of cycle 1

Warmup & med ball overhead throws

Press / chins
100 x 5 x 10 / like 7-8 sets of 10

Breathing squats
20 x 205

Notes: Truthfully, I like more variety in training vs doing the same thing over and over. Elbows are feeling a bit beat up, but weight is trending upward. 178 this morning on an empty stomach vs 174 evening weigh in on fight night.

I went with full body 17 over super squats because A) 17 looks interesting, and more importantly B) there’s a comp in January with a max axle deadlift, and I wanted to keep in conventional deads with the intention of doing a 12 week peak, which super squats doesn’t really leave room for.

I plan on running this for two more cycles, but may switch up on Wednesday when I start my Leader 2.

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531 Full body 17 - Cycle 2, 531s week

1 mile walk
face-pulls, mobility & 10 med ball slams / bench row warm-ups

Bench / BB Rows
175 x10

Stability ball hamstring curls x 25-50 (warming up for squats)

Breathing squats
215 x 20

50 lateral raises with 10s

Notes
This doesn’t accurately reflect how awful this was. We’ve all got a bug, and I was tasting my lunch coming back up on the walk. Given, it’s still 90f/30c here. I threw up a little after the first working set of bench and thought about calling it. But, I just kept going. Do a set, dry heave under the garage fan, repeat. Finally upon racking the 20th rep on squat i just lied there on the bench in a nauseous stupor, but it was done.

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Leader 2, full body 17, finale
Ended second cycle with 225x21 on breathing squats. That was supposed to be the weight for the final workout of the third cycle, but I couldn’t bring myself to do another round of 17. Joints were feeling a bit beat up, but honestly, I needed a switch because it was becoming super tedious. I Like training, and when I had to drag myself in those last couple weeks I knew it was time.

5s pro SSL made sense. It’ll serve as a short intensification block before I go into my 2 cycle/6 week competition prep

Leader 3, 5s pro SSL, Week 1

BENCH
Warm-up & mobility

Bench 5s pro, up to 200x5 / med ball slams & face pulls

3 board bench, + slow eccentric & pause / Goblet squat
5x5x175 (SSL) / 5x10 50lbs

finished with chins / DB incline / triceps band blast. active rest totaled 5 airdyne miles between sets

DEADLIFT
1 mile walk & mobility focused on hips

Axle deadlift up to 340x5 (kept conservative) / 20lb med ball overhead throws x2

pause axle deadlifts - as many sets of 3 in 20 minutes
totaled 11x3x270 (80% 5RM)

Axle Zercher carries - as much work as possible in 10 minutes
400 yards x 132lbs

Note: I switched from 5x5 SSL to this variation and plan to continue forward this way. 5x5 is boring as hell, and I didn’t feel like I got in enough work on bench. Having a time cap to do as much work as possible fixes both without letting me go too nuts.

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Move & Shooting competition

we ran 6 courses. with 2 ones that “counted.” pretty new to all of this, but my times were pretty slow because I didn’t really know the course rules and wanted to be safe. Lots of moving around though from target to target and simulated “hostage” scenarios. Pretty fun stuff & I think I beat one old fella.

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Went awol

HUNT
Went deer hunting for the first time ever this weekend, and shot a doe with a bow at about 19 yards. I hit her liver and we spent about an hour tracking her. 120lbs, which will yield about 30lbs of meat. Killing things is, by far, my least favorite part of eating meat. I don’t enjoy the kill at all, and appreciate her sacrifice. The “thrill” came from the ability to provide and kill/clean my own food.

TRAIN
Been feeling like crap lately, and had to drag myself in today. I just could not bring myself to plug away at my 531 spreadsheet. I saw an interesting Crossfit + BB combo once and took a screenshot, and for the next few weeks will run it combined with Cube layout.

Rep Effort Lower
Axle deads (from 2cm deficit)
worked up to 3 x 365

Conditioning
50 calories on air bike, 5:30

Hinge Bodybuilding supplemental/assistance
Axle SLDL: 205 x 11, 8, 8, 7, 6
Hip thrusts on yoga ball, slow neg: 65lbs x 4 x 8-12
Hanging knee crunches: 30 reps
calf raises on curb, single leg. 25lbs x 7 DC style

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Checking in. Lots of physical irons in the fire. Signed up to compete in Tactical Games on May 24-25, and it’s looking like there’ll be a boxing rematch in the fall.

Last year’s fight and sparring was a BIG wake up call for me. I didn’t get it… I circuit trained religiously (kryptiea style) for so long, looked great, and felt so capable, but would get completely gassed during sparring/fighting. I did the easy/hard training a la 531, but there was a ceiling I just couldn’t seem to get past no matter how hard I worked. Something needed to change to ascend to the next level. @T3hPwnisher recent TB blogpost morriors many of my own observations on this front.

Enter Tactical Barbell 2. I’ve read and reread and have done base bulding and am six weeks into Black Professional continuation protocol. I’ve paired it with in season conjugate training, specifically In Season Conjugate for Rugby Athletes by Ashley Jones, which really breaks down condensed conjugate and orients it toward folks who proiritize condititioning and sport training as much or more than lifting. Plus, the max effort lifts are 2:1 hinge vs squat and 2:1 overhead/incline vs flat, so great for strongman.

TB2 explains condititioning in such a detailed and thorough way, yet offers a ton of variety in how it’s implemented. 531 system was great in enforcing that conditioning was important, but was simultaneously too broad (do some easy, some hard, 2-5 days a week for however long) and too restricive (hard = exclusively prowler/sled or hills for 50 yards, maybe short runs; easy = get your blood flowing for a while). TB2 explains the specific cardiovascular adaptations and how the energy systems play off each other, and you can fit virtually any kind of gadget or pet exercises into the mix in, but know definitively where it should go.

I can feel the difference, and feel like my training is so much more productive now that I’m not trying to jam everything into a single session. My sessions are shorter, and so much more focused.

2025 plan

No alcohol from 2/14/25-2/15/26

Complete in strongman comp January 18 (complete)
Base building 8 weeks (complete)
black continuation 9 weeks (week 3 of 9)
Deload week, complete in tactical games - May 24-25
Rerun base building 8 weeks
Black/green 9 weeks
Deload, fight “September 13”
Unstructured training until Sept.29
12 weeks until holiday break, size program (TB Mass?)
2 weeks OFF for Christmas/New years!

Currently running
Black professional protocol:
2 days Full body lift, 2 HIC, 1E, 1 recovery, 1 rest
“In season conjugate for rugby by Ashley jones”

Day 1: DE upper, ME lower
Day 2: DE lower, ME upper
(I found DE work done first primes me well to leave it all for the following ME)

2-4 assistance exercises both days (tend to focus mostly on easier isolation exercises for anterior/posterior core, triceps, and some kind of upper body pull)

Dynamic effort lift use 531 FSL (90% TM) for percentages
banded Box squats & chain strict press, done “EMOM” (between every 30 seconds to 1 minute, depending on how I’m feeling).

DEL
12x2
10x2
8x2

DEU
10x3
8x3
6x3

Max Effort: To line up with TBB easy week, do 5rm week 1, 3rm week 2, 1rm week 3, as Jones suggests

Wave 1
Double purple band Box squats: 345 TM
225 12x2
240 10x2
260 8x2

Axle strict plus + chains (+50lb at the top): 157.5 TM
105 10x3
110 8x3
115 6x3

ME lifts:
Good morning 205x5
3 board feet up bench 205 x5
Axle hack squat +50lbs chain 365 (at top) x 3
45 3 board close fat grip incline 165 x 3
Front squat 285x1
Axle continental clean & push press 210x1

Wave 2
Double purple band box squats
(Bar weight) 355 TM
230 12x2
250 10x2
265 8x2

axle strict press + 50lbs Chain: (At top) 162.5 TM
105 10x3
115 8x3
120 6x3

ME lifts
Axle Zercher GM from pins (tip height) + chains 235 (at top, 185 bar) x 5
Single green band close grip bench, 5 second negative, 2 second pause 2” above chest 205 (at top) x 5
Wide grip 26” rack pulls + 50lbs chain & double black band 315 (bar weight) x 3
28 degree 2 board incline 200x3
Axle zercher squats, 5 second negative, 2 second stop resting on legs, explode up, hold 10 seconds 225x1

Favorite conditioning sessions have been: indoor power intervals (blew out something in my calf that makes running painful), heavy bag endurace sessions, partial Murph (straignt from Wendler) and fobbit intervals (using airdyne + sandbag DT versus treadmill and kettlebells)

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Good to hear from you brother! Your experience with 5/3/1 and TB2 definitely match my own. I see TB as the 5/3/1 “Rosetta Stone”. Suddenly things make a LOT more sense when you’re able to view it from the more exacting lens of TB. Having the exact workouts to pick from, along with them being scaled to 3 different levels (beginner, standard and advanced) gives you a real sense of just HOW hard to be working, and how often. From there, it’s easy to move back and forth between the programming, and even some Dan John stuff fits in too. I’ve really just become a total sucker for the whole methodology.

Hope this plan bodes well for you! I’m excited for your rematch.

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“Rosetta Stone” is a great way to describe it, and has opened the door for me on training the different energy systems. For a long time reading about such was very technical to the point where it kind of all went over my head. TB2 explained it in a way that I could really take some thing away and appy elsewhere. I still think I fancy a more concurrent approach versus a whole aerobic block and anaerobic continuation, but that might just be lingering bias… and the more is better trap.

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