MORE TROUBLE THAN YOU ARE WORTH

This is going to be incredibly self-indulgent, but solipsism permits that.

And really, who is going to stop me?

Anyone that follows me on tnation has already seen a precursor to this, but I’ve had to take some time to consider what, exactly, it is that I am training for these days.  COVID struck right around my prime competing years in strongman and doesn’t look to be resolving at a reasonable pace any time soon, which has made attempts to compete a logistical nightmare as competitions either get canceled or travel to such comps becomes difficult to the point of being not feasible.  Yet still I train.  And a big part of that is, I never cared about being the best strongman I can be.  Part of THAT is I’ve fallen a bit out of love with the sport, as it used to be a freakshow event with all sorts of insanity and is now growing increasingly more standardized.  I went to through the same thing with MMA: what was once the “wild west” had become quite formulaic.  With strongman, there were now CLEARLY established protocols of how to train, what gear to wear, how much weight to cut, how far out to prep (to say nothing of how far out events were getting released), etc, and things were getting done on standardized equipment, quite often for the goal of “breaking records” rather than wining competitions.  Yet…I was still training.  Why?  And furthermore, how?

The how was interesting: I noted I had gravitated quite heavily toward a focus on conditioning.  I was doing it daily, and often multiple times a day.  Reference my “conditioning is magic” post to see the breakdown of how that shakes out, but in that conditioning I found myself drawn to either very short and super intense bursts or long, drawn out arduous tasks with heavy-ish weights that demanded a lot of grit.  Using Crossfit WODs as an example, Grace and Fran would be the former, Kalsu and Murph would be the latter.  I had no reason to train this way: it was just what I was naturally gravitating toward.  I still kept lifting as well, and used some awesome programs during that time (to include 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake, 5/3/1 Building the Monolith, Deep Water Beginner and Deep Water Intermediate), but the conditioning was really taking things to another level.

Combining two awesome things to make a super awesome thing is not without precedent

As for the why?  One day, while driving (when I tend to do a lot of my thinking), I realized what it was I wanted: to be “more trouble than I was worth”.  What does that mean?  Brian Alsruhe has articulated training to “be dangerous”, and I think that’s a fantastic goal that captures a lot of what I’m discussing.  Be big, be strong, be conditioning, be healthy: able to generate “danger” on demand.  I took it in a lateral direction, based off my experience with martial arts and, in particular, when I stopped training them.  The early part of my life was VERY focused on martial arts training, and, in turn, I had become quite “dangerous”.  However, martial arts training takes a LOT of time, and when I got married it was hard to justify all that time away from my new spouse.  I had to pick between martial arts and lifting, and I settled on lifting, with the logic being that, though I may not be as great a fighter as I could be with regular training, I could become so big and strong that, to any potential predator out there, I was simply “more trouble than I was worth”.  Yeah, I might lose the fight, but the other guy is going to know he was in a fight when it’s all said and done, and when they weigh the risks and benefits of trying to make me a victim, it’s just not worth it.

This mentality is easy to extrapolate beyond the realm of self-defense.  When it comes to competition, I want to be “more trouble than I am worth”.  I’m not there to be the best and win: I’m there to push other competitors SO hard in order to beat me that they HURT when it’s over.  They end up having to dig DEEP into the well to find that final deadlift rep, the feel their shoulders start to separate getting that final second on the Hercules hold, they check into the hospital to look for rhabado when it’s all over: that was trouble than it was worth.   I aim to be able to outmuscle whatever I can’t outfight, outwork whatever I can’t outmuscle, and outfight whatever I can’t outwork.

"Of course, the solution is so obvious now: just put him in a headlock and punch him!"

That established, and with a new year looming, lets lay down the principles for becoming “More trouble than you are worth”

---

* Conditioning will happen EVERY day.  There are no excuses or exceptions.  People that skip conditioning are worth the trouble.  You can do conditioning in 2 minutes (reference my “Keg Grace” workouts): there is no excuse.  When you CAN do more, do more.  When you can’t, do what you can and move on.

You REALLY don't have a minute and 45 seconds to spare?

* Conditioning will be chaotic.  The whole point is to get conditioning: not good.  When we adapt to conditioning, we lose the effect of the conditioning, because we become more efficient, and a more efficient athlete does not waste energy.  Energy waste is the GOAL.  In addition, when we adapt, we become comfortable.  Comfortable people are worth the trouble.  We’re going to be the most uncomfortable people on the planet.  We will live discomfort.  Frequent exposure is the key to overcoming.  All this to say that, we will vary conditioning a LOT.  Different protocols, different implements, different times of day, different movements.

* There will be no mobility work, no stretching, and minimal warm ups.  If we are truly being chaotic in our conditioning, and if we are truly doing conditioning every day, we will BE mobile and flexible.  Seriously: you want mobility, go do the Bear Complex Crossfit style-cluster into a squat thruster.  You will move everything through a full ROM.  And in that regard, if we are doing conditioning everyday, our body will be ready to perform on demand.  Those who are not ready are worth the trouble.  If you need more than a few light reps to get ready to train, find out why that is.

* The day will ALWAYS start with something physical, without exception.  This is a great opportunity to get in your mandatory daily conditioning: I’m a fan of Tabata burpees over bar these days, but have also done full lifting workouts, Crossfit WODs, prowler workouts, weighted vest walks, etc.  

* When we start the day with strength training, we will start it fed.  When we start it with conditioning, we will start it fasted.  For the former, we are wanting to ensure there is adequate nutrition in the body to support the recovery and building of muscles that comes from such training.   For the latter, we want to generate significant hunger response so that we can flood the body with nutrients.

NUTRIENTS!

* All pressing overhead will start with the weight on the floor.  Those that cannot take a weight they can press overhead and get it from the floor to the rack position are worth the trouble.  Taking a weight off the floor drives an incredible anabolic response.  Some sets will have us take the weight from the floor once and press away, others will have us take it from the floor every rep.  A variety of implements will be used here: barbell, axle, keg, log, sandbag, dumbbell, kettlebell, etc.

* Food will support training: never the other way around.  There will be some phases of training where volume is high, which means food intake will increase and weight will be gained.  Eventually, this will stop being sustainable and a break will be needed.  Volume will drop, with it, intensity will necessarily increase, and our food and bodyweight will drop as well.  Using training to justify eating big is disordered, as is using training to try to burn more calories for the sake of fat loss.  

* The food we eat will be healthy and nutritious.  This should be obvious.  A fat, unhealthy individual subsisting off of pre-packaged garbage is worth the trouble.  What are some easy guidelines?  Justin Harris said “if you can’t hunt it or grow it, don’t eat it”, Dan John said “Eat like an adult: avoid cardboard carbs and Frankenstein fats”, Jon Andersen has an outstanding food list in “Deep Water” and John Meadow’s “Mountain Dog Diet” has an amazing structure as well.  At this point, we know what clean eating is, and if we pretend otherwise we are doing just that: pretending.

* Training will be done under SUB-optimal conditions.  We will not be well rested, we will not be fully recovered, we will not try to time our nutrition to give us energy spikes during the peak of training, there will be no stimulants.  Those who require such preparation BEFORE training (which is to say, preparing before they prepare) are worth the trouble.  We will train ourselves to be able to perform under less than ideal conditions so that, when a less than ideal situation is encountered, we are ready to be more trouble than we are worth.

Just imagine how badly these guys will f**k you up when they AREN'T dealing with all this

* We will train to get physically stronger.  This means more than just our ability to lift as much weight as possible for 1 rep.  That involves focusing on one lift, peaking for that one lift, and eschewing other rep ranges: the opposite of being “more trouble that you are worth”.  We will get strong on a variety of movements through a variety of rep ranges and a variety of ROMs.  We will lift enough weight to overpower almost anything we come across.   Anything we cannot overpower, we will find other ways to be more trouble than we are worth.

* Effort will be the most valuable metric in all training.  If we set a PR on a lift or a conditioning workout but did not work as hard as last time, we failed.  If we lift 20lbs less than last time and gave our absolute all to the point that we blew out every blood vessel in our face and momentarily lost hearing, THAT is a PR.

* Our physique will be a reflection of our effort.  This will be our effort in our strength training, in our conditioning, and in our nutrition.  If we are truly working hard, it will be impossible to get fat or scrawny: we will simply continue to become bigger, stronger, leaner and better.  We will be so imposing that it is clear we are “more trouble than we are worth”.

People can debate how good a fighter he is...but no one wants to get hit by him

This is good to start for now.  Onto becoming more trouble than we are worth.