I have
written about this extensively over my time with this blog, but it’s what I
want to write about today, and since it’s my blog I get to do that.The longer I spend training and observing the
training and eating of others, the more I realize that there are ultimately a
nearly unlimited amount of ways to succeed at the goal of physical
transformation that, in turn, it’s somewhat baffling to see just how often
people fail in this quest.I’ve deduced
the variables of success down to 3: effort, consistency, and time, and
ultimately conclude that a failure to achieve physical transformation stems
from a failure to meet 1, or not ALL, of these variables.But then, from there, we must ask the
question of WHY a trainee is unable to meet these variables.If physical transformation is so simple
(which is it), what is it that makes it not EASY?Because, as I’ve written before, and as Dan
John has spoken of before I wrote it (because I don’t claim to be original),
simple and easy are two different things, and we can intellectually KNOW what
it takes to achieve our goals yet still be unable to do so due to some sort of
(apparently) insurmountable obstacle.And, like many monster movies, it turns out that WE are the monster: the
obstacle is us.Specifically, it is our
minds, and specifically within that, it is our psychological PREFERENCES that
dictate our success, and our inability to meet these preferences with the
appropriate tools that results in our failure.Put simply: you cannot put a square peg in a round hole.
Even if you're the smartest man alive
New trainees
to physical transformation tend to bemoan the same point: they are overwhelmed
by all the information that is out there.The laundry list of training programs out there include the DeLorme
Method, Conjugate, HIT, Western Periodization, DoggCrapp, Super Squats, Deep
Water, 5/3/1, Juggernaut Method, RTS, Tactical Barbell Cube Method, NeverSate,
and then programming styles without names that just belong to authors like Matt
Wenning, Paul Kelso, Stuart McRobert, John McCallum, Alex Bromely, etc etc.Go to nutrition and you run into the same
issue: flexible dieting/IFFYM, primal paleo, whole foods keto, vegan,
carnivore, Mediterranean diet, Dukan Diet, Atkins Diet, Warrior Diet, Vertical
Diet, Velocity Diet, Apex Predator Diet, ABCDE Diet, etc etc.And here’s the thing: all of these things
WORK.You WILL find someone, somewhere,
that has succeeded with these methods.That’s just simply the nature of this field: only the successful methods
survive to the point of being in the gestalt.A program or diet that 100% of the time fails will, eventually, fade
out, because NO ONE will be able to point to someone that succeeded with it,
and eventually people are gonna wanna see results before they buy off on
it.All of these programs work!
…but they
don’t ALWAYS work.Which is to say: they
don’t work for EVERYONE.All of these
programs and diets HAVE produced failures, and those zealots deeply imbedded in
their respective camps will always say the same thing: “they did it
wrong.”Well let’s say that’s true: the
only reason the diet or program failed is because the trainee did it
wrong.WHY did they do it wrong?It’s because the program and diet DID NOT FIT
THE TRAINEE!Specifically: it did not
fit their psychology!Something about
the approach did NOT resonate with the trainee for some reason: they did not
care for the movement selection, the progression model, the frequency, the
split, or for the diet, it was made up of food they didn’t like, meal
frequencies they didn’t care for, foods that they had experienced trauma with
in the past, was too boring, etc etc.Something about the approach resulted in non-compliance, which, in turn,
resulted in failure.
This dates back to when we thought milkshakes were healthy AND the Simpsons was amazing
Which is
ultimately HOW programs and diets matter: they MUST be something that the
trainee can and will actually FOLLOW!My
second paragraph of this post wasn’t just mindless filibustering: it was me
rattling off, from the top of my head, dozens of successful programs and diets
that exist out there, and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s out
there.What this indicates is that there
are a near limitless amount of ways to succeed in physical transformation,
because, ultimately, all these programs and diets are simply manners of
ensuring some manner of achieving effort, consistency and time in the pursuit
of physical transformation.The 1s and
0s OF these methods are genuinely inconsequential: there is no magic to be
found in their combination.Instead,
these are arranged in the manner that they are arranged in because they are
looking to appeal to a certain type of individual.And when that individual DISCOVERS this
method and gets locked in, they WILL invest that necessary degree of effort, consistency
and time to be able to achieve their goal of physical transformation.But if they’re NOT locked in?They pay lip service, go through the motions,
invest no passion whatsoever into the process, and ultimately fail.
This is why
the pursuit of the optimal approach completely misses the point: it operates
off the premise that it is the method ITSELF that matters most, and it is
incumbent upon the trainee to psychologically bend THEMSELVES to the
method.To make the analogy even more
incestuous, that’s the Bulgarian training method put into practice on a macro
level.The Bulgarians basically made the
hardest program on Earth and figured that any athlete that could SURIVE to the
end of it must have the necessary genetic chops to become a world class
athlete.It’s a SELECTION process.The program picked the lifter: not the other
way around.But we, AS the individual,
must go about the from the other end: WE must pick the program that suits
US.And, in turn, it’s not about taking
a program and BENDING it to our will: when we do that, we simply make a program
that WAS effective for someone else now ineffective for two people: that person
AND us.Much like my post about “quit
making it taste like ketchup”, we don’t need to find the perfect program and
diet and then try to find a way for us to like it: let’s just pick the program
and diet that we like from the get go and do THAT!
I mean...you DO get to eat PBJs...
Because we
cannot escape the power of our own minds.Ultimately, the heart wants what it wants, and it will do what it takes
to secure that.When we select a way of
training and eating that does not align with who we are, which is to say, as
per Sartre, we live “inauthentically”, we experience the necessary existential
cognitive dissonance and ennui that transpires from that, and ultimately end up
listless and unaccomplished.When we
force ourselves to act against our true will and desire, we simply exhaust our
own willpower in the pursuit of achieving excellence.We work AGAINST ourselves, and our outcome
reflects as such.My father always told
me “you can swim further downstream in one hour than you can upstream in
three”, and too many folks are attempting to be upstream swimmers.
This is
where the value of introspection manifests: find out WHO you are and what
drives you.I KNOW that I can NOT stand
to count, measure, weigh or track anything when it comes to nutrition: it’s why
I vector toward nutritional protocols that are based on nutrient and time
restriction vs energy restriction.Other
folks live and die by their spreadsheets: they CRAVE data, and if left alone
without it, they’ll have a breakdown.When I first discovered Deep Water, it was like the heavens opened up
for me, as I found a program that pacified my desire at the time to train
psychotically hard and eat a meat based diet and grow, and grow I DID!Meanwhile, other folks have taken on that
same approach and completely failed to physically transform, because it did not
resonate with their psychology in the slightest, and they were living a life
AGAINST themselves the entire time.When
I tried to address my health by following a low fat AND low carb diet, I got
the leanest I’d ever been in my life and absolutely destroyed myself physically
and my drive to train.I was not eating
in the manner that suited my psychology, and it took it’s toll, compared to the
first time I ran Super Squats, where Randall Strossen’s PhD in psychology got
into my head so well that I never felt more “authentic” in my life than I did
between squats 17 and 18, knowing I had a full gallon of milk waiting for me in
my fridge back home.Meanwhile, other
folks think there’s nothing special about a 20 rep set of squats.
What could Jesse Marunde have possibly known about getting big and strong?
…they’re
wrong, but that’s ok: we can enjoy being wrong!As long as we get results, it doesn’t matter what program or diet we’re
following.We need to follow the one
that gets us to comply!We need to fit
the square peg with the square hole.We
need to make the obvious successful match ups that will ensure we are able to
fully invest ourselves with effort, consistency and time toward our goal of
transformation.When we try to go about
it backwards, carefully selecting the optimal diet and program in a vacuum,
completely ignoring the very real element that is US and our humanity, we force
ourselves to act against our nature, and in doing so work AGAINST ourselves in
our pursuit to better ourselves.When
all parts of us are aligned, mind, body and soul, we work as one toward one
goal, and our strength is all the more multiplied in that pursuit.
As far as trinities go, you could do a whole lot worse
* I intended
to keep this short.I failed.It’s over 4000 words.I don’t know why I do that.But I’ve been running Tactical Barbell
Operator for the past 8 weeks now in order to prep for a Strongman Competition
in the second week of April along with a 10 mile race in the first week of
April, all while dropping bodyweight in order to make the weight class for said
strongman competition.I made a few adjustments
to make the program best fit my needs for strongman and running, but still
stayed within the lanes and rules OF the program in order to do so, and wanted
to lay out what I’ve done, how it’s gone, and what I’ve learned.
BACKGROUND
Reading this book will sum me up pretty well
* In
preparing for my last strongman competition, I ended up breaking my body
HARD.Two biggest contributors were
doing my own programming for it combined with my initial competition getting
canceled and signing up for a new one that was 2 months down the line from the
last one.If I isolated these variables,
I probably would have been fine, but I ended up pushing myself too hard in
training for too long that, by the time I got TO the competition, I could
barely perform, and then I had to spend the next 8 weeks AFTER the competition
healing from my efforts.This can be
observed in the training videos post comp/my first run of Mass Protocol’s Grey
Man, as I struggle just to get into deadlift position and basically combust
after every set of squats.The day of my
first post comp workout, I had a co-worker ask me if I had a compressed disk,
because I was limping hard and favoring one side.
* On top of
all of this, I’ve genuinely lost my appetite to lift weights more than 4x per
week, and even then that’s a bit of an ask.I didn’t care for that during the Specificity phase of Mass Protocol, so
3x week is my sweet spot.I discovered
that during my most recent run of Building the Monolith, which led me back to
DoggCrapp, and even my own self-built programming was 3x week, so this made
Operator a great fit.
* I had a
few specific goals to train for.One is
the strongman competition in April, the other is a 10 mile race my wife and I
run every year, which was the week BEFORE the strongman competition, and I also
had a Disney Cruise in March and one in June, for which I wanted to be lean for
the sake of looking awesome on the pooldeck AND being able to just absolutely
eat my face off without regard for the impact it had on me.
* Which, on
the subject of cruises, before starting my strongman competition prep with
Operator, I had just finished running 2 cycles of Grey Man followed by 2 cycles
of Specificity Bravo from Mass Protocol before going on a 1 week New Year’s
cruise, resulting in me putting on 15lbs of bodyweight in 16 weeks, landing at
190lbs and needing to be 9lbs lighter in order to make weight for my weight
class, meaning I needed to engage in training where building muscle WASN’T the
focus.
* All of the
above led me to select Operator from TB1, and the Black conditioning protocol
from TB2.
HOW I RAN IT
About the only kind of running I can stand
* The
strongman competition I was preparing for had a press medley, topping out with
a log press for max reps, a car deadlift, atlas stone over bar, a triple
implement carry medley (husafel stone, keg and sandbag) and a sandbag throw
over bar series.This helped determine
my movement selection for the Operator Cluster: SSB front squat, log clean and
strict press away, weighted chins, kb swings and trap bar lift for my deadlift.For the first cycle, I’d train the deadlift
once per week for 3 sets on Wed, and then would perform the KB swings on Mon
and Fri for 1 set of 100.For the second
cycle, I kept the deadlift the same, but started including the KB swings in an
assistance circuit (detailed below).
* Thought
process: the other two implements in the press medley were the keg and the
axle, and the weights were light enough that I wasn’t concerned with my ability
to clean and press then, so I wanted to max focus on the log.The trap bar deadlift doesn’t EXACTLY
replicate the car deadlift, but it’s close enough for my purposes, and easier
to program compared to a lever deadlift set up.Neutral Grip chins spare my elbows from pain, which is crucial when
training for strongman, as they tend to take a beating from heavy loading, but
keeping that pull in the program is good for the sake of maintaining a strong
back.I opted for a front squat variant
over a back squat because I knew that, training for strongman, my lower back
was going to get heavily loaded from the stones, deadlifts and carry medleys,
and I didn’t need to add on top of that.A front squat naturally forces one to use a lower amount of weight,
which is less load in general.I went
with the SSB because my ability to maintain a front rack is limited by
mobility, and the SSB front squat actually feels a bit more like a log and
stone movement based on where the weight sits on the body compared to a barbell
front squat.
* For the
first 3 weeks of my first cycle of Operator, I did no strongman implement work
for conditioning.I, instead, opted for
very general conditioning, with a focus on running in the 400-800m range along
with some bodyweight work.Strongman
implements can really beat up the body, as I learned in my last training phase,
and I didn’t want to burn out too early.I went through a variety of workouts in TBII, to include Black Out on
Oxygen, Buffalo Laps, Meat Eater 1, etc.We had good weather, with no snowfall, so I was maximizing my outdoor
training capability during that time.I
also would include a regular 90 minute walk/ruck.After those 3 weeks, I started training stone
over bar and carry medleys on my conditioning days, specifically on weekends,
performing the Operator Workouts Mon/Wed/Fri with some TBII workouts on Tues
and Thurs.I started including some
non-running based workouts for the TBII work, like Heavy bag resets and Meat
Eater II, primarily when weather was bad or when I was short on time.I continued this protocol into the second
cycle, at which time I settled into a pretty steady rhythm of M/W/F Operator,
Tues Oxygen Debt 101, Thurs 90 minute ruck, Sat Stone over Bar, Sun carry
medley.I would train throws when I had
time to do so, but they weren’t a high priority.I picked weekends specifically to train
events because they’re LOUD, and I train at 0430 on weekdays, so I wasn’t going
to wake up my family.It did make it so
that my weekends weren’t very restorative for my lifting efforts, but I just
had to manage recovery as best I could.
* On the
first cycle, I would finish each lifting workout with some ab/core assistance
work.I took to performing a circuit
that was 3 rounds of a 30 second timed front rack hold with the SSB heavily
loaded, along with either a set of 10 standing ab wheels or hanging leg
raises.The front rack hold was
something I remembered from the aughts/10s that people were really into, and
it’s like a heavily loaded standing plank.After that, I’d get in 100 band pull aparts, and then either direct
chest work via dips and push ups, direct arm work with curls and band
pushdowns, or a lateral raise dropset.During the second cycle, I started training the assistance as a circuit,
turning it into a small conditioning workout.I would do 3-5 rounds, 30 seconds each, of SSB front rack holds,
standing ab wheel OR hanging leg raises, dips, KB swings and push ups.The first time I did this, it just happened
to fit my schedule, but I ended up appreciating it so much I made it a permanent
feature on the second cycle.
* Two other
additions I made on the second cycle was the inclusion of 1 heavy log clean per
week, performed on Wed before the trap pull sets.The intent was to condition my body to moving
heavy weight on that one lift so that I wouldn’t waste energy on it during the
competition.Along with this, I added 1
push press rep after finishing my 5 strict reps on the log for each set, once
again with the intent of re-grooving the motor pattern of push pressing.
HOW I CHANGED IT
Nailed it
* I
didn’t.My cluster was basically the
grunt cluster (front squat, overhead press, weighted chins and trap bar lift),
the 100 KB swings was something I lifted directly from TB2, I stuck with the
recommended structure of the Black conditioning protocol and considered my
strongman events as HIC workouts.About
the only thing that could be called deviations was my inclusion of direct arm
and side delt work, as even my core work was permitted as assistance work and
the push ups and dips fit within the general conditioning workouts.I wanted to make sure I ran this program as
laid out so I could give it a fair evaluation.
* If I WERE
to change anything, I’d consider changing the order of the weeks, employing a
3/5/1 rather than 5/3/1 structure.Which
is to say, instead of going 70% week 1, 80% week 2 and 90% week 3, I’d go 80%
week 1, 70% week 2, 90% week 3.I liked
that layout from 5/3/1, as the 70% in week 2 effectively primes you for a big
performance in week 3, whereas the gradual scale up in weight week to week can
leave me feeling beat up by the time I get to the final week.I may experiment with that in future runs,
but as it stands, I’m not messing with success.
* I also
think, instead of straight deadlift sets, I’m going to bring back ROM
progression.I’ll still only pull once a
week for 1 set, go for max reps rather than a fixed set of 5 at a percentage,
and increase the ROM each week.I’ll
have to experiment and see how much it impacts recovery: I may have to do it on
Friday vs Wednesday in order to have more recovery time.
WHAT I LIKED
Hey, double Homer Simposon
* 3 days of
lifting gave me 4 days to do things OTHER than lifting.It made it easy to balance strongman event
work, alongside general conditioning work, walking, and 3x a week martial arts
classes.
*
Sustainable progression.Lifting the
same weight 3x a week gave me ample opportunity to recover and “master” the
load before moving on, and the percentage increases between weeks were gentle
enough that I didn’t get crushed in the next week, even WHILE losing
bodyweight.I employed a forced
progression between cycle 1 and 2, rather than testing maxes, because I had
specific marks I had to hit for my competition.
*
Flexibility of set and rep ranges to account for demands outside of lifting and
recovery.There was a bare minimum and a
maximum to work within, and it gave me a chance to autoregulate as necessary.
* Wide
variety of conditioning workouts to choose from in TB2.There were some days I wanted to sleep in,
and I’d pick a very short and intense HIC workout, and other days I had more
time and could expand to a 90 minute E workout.
* This was
the first time in quite a while I managed to drop weight without just
completely jettisoning it.Muscles
stayed full as I leaned out, and my strength improved through the process.
* I liked
how the conditioning was laid out that we did an easy week during the heaviest
week of lifting.It made this week a
week where I could sleep in more, since the workouts were shorter, which meant
I recovered better, and therefore could put in my best performance.I also liked how K. Black had specifically
scaled workouts in TB2 so I KNEW how to “make it easy” vs leaving it up to my
own devices (since I would inevitably do something stupidly challenging
instead).
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Just please, don't give him any more ideas
* Resting a
minimum of 2 minutes between sets.Try
as I might, there was no way to avoid it.K. Black had me beat at every turn when I tried to find a way around it.
I thought about super/giant setting the main lifts, only to read in his FAQ
that you’re free to alternate between movements: just rest 2-5 minutes between
them.When I ran the Mass Protocol
workouts, I rested the bare minimum 1 minute between sets to make it really
challenging, but there was no avenue for that here, and it honestly just killed
my soul to rest that long.BUT: I did
it.Because I wanted to give the program
a fair chance, and not change it from the start and then complain about it not
working.
* The very
consistency that made progression sustainable is also going to be flat out
boring.Doing the same workout 3 times
in a row makes you start to wonder if the third workout is any more valuable
than the second, and the temptation to skip or mess around is there.
WHAT I LEARNED
I could kinda see why Skynet wanted to kill John Conner after this movie...
* My entire
time with Tactical Barbell has been a real eye opener on the balancing act
between stimulus and recovery, and how one needs to work “hard enough” rather
than trying to make every single training session a war.At least, if the goal is to improve in the
metrics of strength and size, AND to do so while also still improving
conditioning.There’s definitely room
for the maniac training I’ve done in the past, but that ultimately did a great
job of building my conditioning at the EXPENSE of other qualities.I DO have a resting heart rate of 38 these
days, which I attribute to all that time, energy and effort, but now, with
Tactical Barbell, I can throttle back on maximizing conditioning and instead
allow my other qualities to grow.
* Make the
strength work strength work and the conditioning work conditioning work.Similar to my above point, I tried too hard
to make my own workouts everything at once, and in turn none of it was much
good.Similar to my blogpost about
greatest hits albums, I also may write a post where I equate this to buying the
jar of peanut butter mixed with jelly vs just getting two separate products and
mixing them on your own: the latter will work out better than the former.When strength work is JUST strength work, you
focus hard on that one objective and you crush it, and then, when it’s time to
do conditioning work, you do the same, and you maximize the RESULTS of both
efforts.When you try to sneakily turn
your strength work into conditioning by playing around with rest times and
giant sets, you end up degrading your strength work so you can accomplish a not
great conditioning workout along with it, which is, as Stan Efferding puts it
“stepping over dollars to pick up dimes”.
* And with
that above point, K. Black DOES employ a good “no dessert until you eat your
dinner” approach with how he lays out Operator.You want intensity?You want
variety?Cool: that’s what CONDITIONING
is for. You do your lifting to get your strength done, and then, when it’s
conditioning time, go wild.Pick any
workout you want (within the prescription of Green or Black) and have at
it.You want to suck wind?Do Oxygen Debt 101.Feel like suffering for a long time?Do a 90 minute LISS session.Need some Crossfit stuff?Do the general conditioning circuits.And he’s got challenges in there too. I
suppose this is more of a “what I liked” bullet, but it ties into the above.You CAN make the strength work the strength
work, because you know that, after you get that done, you can go wild with the
conditioning.
* On THAT
note, what I like about TB is how easily it can map to other programs.TB1 is basically a structured version of Dan
John’s “Easy Strength”: it just slightly breaks the rule of 10 reps, but you’re
still not struggling on the reps and focusing on building the SKILL of
strength.Meanwhile, TB2 totally answers
the 5/3/1 question of “what should I do for conditioning”, and could ALSO be
mapped directly onto Dan John’s Easy Strength if you wanted to use THAT program
instead.
NUTRITION
Trying to get more Dakota Dude and less Buffalo Bull with the high beef intake...and props if you get this reference at all
* Since my
goal was to drop weight, I still stuck with a similar approach to what I did
during the weight gain phase: I just changed the end of day meal.To recap: I’m employing the Velocity
Diet/Apex Predator diet, wherein I consume a protein supplement throughout the
day leading up to one evening meal of solid food.Specifically, I’m using Metabolic Drive by
BioTest, with me training first thing in the morning at 0430, then having 2
scoops of MD at 0615, 0930, and 1230, then a solid meal around 1730, 2 scoops
of MD at 2030, and then 1 scoop of MD in the night, kept in a shaker bottle in
my bathroom that I’ll drink at some point when I wake up to pee.
* When I was
gaining, that evening meal was MASSIVE, and very high fat.I’m sticking with carnivore, so the main
feature was some sort of large amount of fatty meat, and then 4-6 whole eggs,
pork crackling and cottage cheese, with ghee typically to backfill some
energy.Now, with fat loss as the goal,
I’ve leaned out the protein source, switched to egg whites, and cut out the
cracklin and cottage cheese.
* I should
point out that the above describe my weekday nutrition.On weekends, I have 2 solid meals: my wife
makes me a great breakfast, consisting of 2 omelets made with 3 whole eggs,
ghee, swiss cheese and whatever meat we have leftover from the week, alongside
3 strips of beef bacon and a piedmontese grassfed hotdog.For dinner, on Saturdays we go out somewhere
(frequently it was either our favorite local BBQ spot where I’d get a full rack
of pork dibs without sauce or an awesome Hibachi/buffet spot where I’d load up
on all sorts of grilled seafood) and on Sundays I’d typically cook steaks.
* Aside from
water with electrolytes, the only other thing I’d drink is a green tea twice a
day, also mixed with electrolytes.I
picked up some sort of cold around week 5 of the program, and took to including
a teaspoon of cinnamon in the tea, as it felt good on my throat.
* After week
9, my intent is to attempt Vince Gironda’s “Maximum Definition Diet” of
steak/meat and eggs for all of my meals, ideally doing a breakfast and dinner
daily with this approach.I’m currently
below weight for my weight class, and should ideally be able to eat UP to
weight leading up to the competition.
OUTCOMES/LESSONS LEARNED
Honestly, this would be just as accurate for many program jumpers
* Since I’m
still running the program with the intention of competing at the end of the
second cycle, this is a “check in” rather than a program review.Along with that, I have no intention of
testing maxes to evaluate results, as this is the year I turn 40, and I’ve only
got so many maxes in me and I intend to use those IN competition.So instead of “results” or “before/after”,
I’m going to list the current outcomes I’ve gotten from running Operator for
these past 8 weeks (along with TB programs in general for these past 23 weeks).
* The
biggest thing is that I healed up a lot of nagging injuries by following
programs with controlled volume and intensity.Once again, if you roll back to my training videos at the start of Mass
Protocol, you can see how dysfunctional my squat pattern is, and it was because
my right hip was in so much agony that racking the bar after each set
effectively crippled me.It was a
significant amount of nerve pain, and there’s a fair chance I had/have some
manner of compressed disc that is pressing against a nerve, but with enough
time on an intelligently laid out program, I’ve managed to heal to the point
that I have much better mobility and do not need to hang from a bar between
sets to stretch out my back.My warm-ups
have also gotten shorter, as I need less prep for training.I’ve also eliminated the persistent pain I
have in my elbows, which typically grows during strongman competition prep.
* But all of
this healing has come along with consistent performance IMPROVEMENT as well,
compared to the results one gets when they simply rest to recover.I haven’t tested maxes, no, but I am moving
weight easier in training while my bodyweight continues to drop, which in and
of itself is an observable form of progress.My Stone of Steel workouts get stronger each week, I’m able to lift more
loads during my strongman medleys, I see progression on my log clean maxes, and
my technique is getting sharper from all the consistent practice.
* Part of
the healing process was also about me not being stubborn any more.I was still dealing with pain during Grey
Man, and it was primarily a result of my squatting style.2 years ago, when I radically changed my
nutrition, I ALSO radically changed my squat style, because I was taking a page
from the Dave Tate injury playbook of picking brand new movements so that I
wouldn’t have my old ones to compare against.I went from a belted, VERY low bar moderate stance squat to a beltless
very high bar VERY close stance squat, to the point that my heels practically
touched.When I first started squatting
this way, there was no problem, as the weights were so light, but once I
started getting strong on it, it started putting pressure on my structure that
I wasn’t able to support.If you look at
me, I’m built for conventional pulling and low bar squatting, as I’m pretty
much all femurs with no upper torso.Squatting high bar with a close stance had me squatting about a mile
before I reached depth, and without the belt my core was getting hammered.Eventually, this resulted in my grinding up
my right knee (I tore the meniscus in it on a log clean over a year ago, which
most likely happened because I was stressing it with this squat style), forcing
me to squat SLOW to work around the knee, which put more pressure on my core,
which I imagine is why my hip was so beat up.I finally got over myself and put the belt back on and widened up my
stance a little for the Operator phase of training, and since that time my
healing has really taken off and I’m feeling incredible.I think there IS still a place in my training
for that style of squat, but not as a main strength movement.
Day 1 of Mass Protocol
Training as of today. Note the difference in squats
* I’ve lost
around 10lbs in 8 weeks, once again without having to count or track anything
that I’m eating, and through the process have grown in strength and managed to
hold on to enough lean tissue that I don’t like stringy as I did after my last
strongman competition prep/fat loss experience.I imagine this is a product of NOT trying to turn the lifting workouts
into conditioning workouts, and actually giving my muscles an opportunity to
recover from heavy work while still getting stimulus from that and some of the
conditioning work.That, and also
keeping conditioning on point, to either be short and intense or low effort and
long, avoiding the middle ground of moderate intensity for moderate durations.As I learn more, I realize how significant it
is to understand what energy systems you’re training and what fuel sources
they’re using.I don’t want to be a
“sugar burner”.
SUMMARY
You mean to tell me there is no room left for a trained weapon of mass destruction?
* These past
8 weeks with Operator have been a success, and I imagine that will continue
until I get to my competition.After I
finish week 9, I go on a 1 week Disney Cruise, which I will be counting as a
bridge week, then come back and finish up the last 3 weeks of the program,
culminating with the 10 mile race, followed by another bridge week, and then my
competition.I’ll do a write up of those
events, and from there we’ll see what happens.8 weeks after the competition, I go on ANOTHER cruise, this time for a
longer time, to Greece and Italy, of which I am excited for the cuisine and my
attempt to LARP Heracles.I’m kicking
around a few ideas of how I’ll train leading up to that, but ultimately how I’m
doing after my competition will determine that.
* And, of course, if you want to watch all the videos of the training up until this point, here is the playlist.
I already know from the title that there will be much
gnashing of teeth and racing to provide counter examples of tales of gluttony
and hedonism during some magical 2 week all inclusive stay at some resort and
reports of 20+lbs gained, but as a man that is intimately familiar with the
interior of many a cruise ship AND Vegas casino/resort/buffet (to say nothing
of Reno as well, because really, the less said of Reno, the better), please allow
me a moment to explain myself. Quite
often, I observe anxiety of those about to depart on some sort of vacation in
regards to the loss of “all of their gains”, concerns about getting fat,
halting progress, etc etc. I observe
similar concerns when it comes to an even more micro level issue, such as ONE
bad night of sleep, and it’s impact on the recovery from training. OR, ONE bad training session itself, and the
impact it has on the progress of the trainee as a whole. And again, as one that has been to many a
vacation locale, participated in the debauchery first hand AND witnessed my
fellow participants, I can safely, soundly and surely inform you of the truth:
no one GETS fat on vacation.
But we can sure try!
…you were already fat before you got there.Yes, THAT Is the truth.Even IF you had spent the last 4 weeks
undergoing the most INTENSIVE physical preparation and dietary restriction in order
to get yourself beachbody ready, you were already fat before arrival.Even if you APPEARED lean, you were simply
what is currently being referred to as “skinny on the outside, fat on the
inside”.And how do I know this?Because one does NOT get fat in the span of a
week or two.The body simply cannot
build tissue at such a rate.It does not
possess the biological capabilities to do so, baring some sort of horrible
genetic mutation (looking at YOU Fred Dukes).If we COULD get fat in just a week or two, we’d solve the world hunger
crisis by rolling in to impoverished nations with a firetruck loaded with
melted ice cream and just water board (ice cream board?) citizens until they resembled
the average American at Disneyland.No
dear reader: the seeds of fatness had already been sewn WELL before the
vacation: the vacation simply provided even more sun, water and food to help nurture
those seeds.
What this is arriving at is the reality that we are a product
of our HABITS, and NOT of our deviations.And “deviation” does not necessarily have to infer negativity, despite
the term “deviant” typically used in a pejorative manner.Deviation tends to be viewed in a negative
light because it’s an implication of deviation from the NORM, and, in turn, the
norm is implied to be the acceptable standard we all agreed upon, wherein
deviations are violations of our social contract.However, in a debased and corrupt society,
deviation is to seek health and justice, and in a debased and corrupt
individual, deviation is to seek correction and “rightness”.In turn, when we deviate from our standard of
gluttony and hedonism INTO a practice of regimented nutrition and hard physical
training, this IS a deviation…and, in turn, will NOT be reflected in our
being.These are just one offs: they are
not our “core essence”.We are, instead,
a reflection of our habits.
'He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby
become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also
into you.'
But this is NOT inherently a negative.Much like the whole “good, bad, we’ll see”
notion of Zen, understanding that deviations are not immediately manifested can
be liberating IF we engage in those habits that will develop us into what we
desire to be.Once again hailing back to
“being that which does”, we are going to be an outward manifestation of our
habits in all circumstances.In turn,
one does NOT get fat on vacation IF one is not regularly one who does fat
things.One who regularly engages in
monk-like adherence to nutritional and training protocol is going to be a
manifestation of that habit, such that, when they DO engage in a 1-2 week
deviation of hedonism and debauchery, this deviation will not be persistent
enough to impact their actual being.They
will come out the other side of this deviation STILL as an individual that
engages in monk-like adhered to nutritional and training protocols.1-2 weeks is not enough to disrupt the
lifetime of work leading up to that moment.
And the same is true, one again, on that micro level.One bad night of sleep is NOT going to undo
the machine that is your body that has been successfully recovering from
training for weeks, months and years on end.It is going to take a sustained HABIT of poor sleep before we begin to
witness this impact.One poor workout is
NOT going to undo the efforts of a fully fleshed out training protocol: it is
going to take many poor workouts, at which point we must analyze WHY these
workouts are going so poorly.One bad training
CYCLE is not going to undo years of good ones: it’s WHY we have the license to
experiment, try out new things, and learn.Hell, we heard all the reports about how Soviet athletes would take 3-6
MONTHS off of training once the competition was done, primarily because many of
these athletes simply had no access to training EQUIPMENT immediately post
competition, and they’d come back better and stronger than before, because 3-6
months of NOT training could NOT undo a lifetime of training.We saw the same thing during the pandemic,
with Mark Felix being restricted to only 225lbs of weights to train with, only
for him to come back and STILL set world records and win WSM masters.Meanwhile, we had people that quit training altogether
because they didn’t have access to a belt squat…
225lbs does a body good
Knowing you can’t get fat on vacation is liberating, because
it grants us the license to HAVE these vacations.The story about people gaining weight over
the holidays is only half the story.YES, people tend to put on the majority of their weight during the
holidays, with an average of 1-2lbs per year which, over 20 years, gets you
40lbs overweight.However, they KEEP
this weight because of their consistent habits of inconsistency when it comes
to managing their physique and nutrition.The individual that “cheats” every DAY with office place snacks and
treats “because I deserve it” is the individual that has made cheating the
norm, rather than the deviance.When the
holidays roll around, they are simply manifesting the accumulation of their
habits in a concentrated time period, whereas those that have been “on the
program” all year can have this deviance, experience it to it’s full effect
(stay away from the sugar free chocolate, for reasons beyond hedonic joy) get
back on the program in January, and be no worse for wear.They may, in fact, be in a BETTER position
than they started, for they are refreshed, recharged, and reinvigorated to go
out and get it after the downtime.Like
those aforementioned Soviet champions, or like returning from a deload, the
deviance provides a moment of RECOVERY, whereas most other individuals are suffering
from sustained OVERrecovery.
No one gets fat on vacation, just like how no one gets
jacked in 2 weeks.Change, positive or
negative, takes time and dedicated consistency of effort.Self-improvement AND self-destruction both
take dedication, whereas deviation is ephemeral.
In this post, I am going to become everything I despise,
because I am about to levy a critique on a martial art/concept which I have not
studied, have not fought against, have not received instruction in, NOR have I
ever read the book “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do” to be able to actually have an
informed opinion. Instead, I am going to
offer a critique to a soundbite of Jeet Kune Do, BUT, it DOES happen to be the
most popular soundbite available (which, in turn, may be an instance of me
critiquing popularity, like some edgelord counterculture Hot Topic goth kid,
but I digress): “absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is
specifically your own.” Right away, a
bunch of kids wearing button down anime shirts running the physical gamut of methed
out skinny to “4 Cheetos away from ‘holy sh*t’ (and, for some reason, no in
between) all got excited at the mention of such a quote, because it became the
mantra of every wannabe “martial strategist” who has a TON of great IDEAS about
how to win a fight…just no actual practice experience. It’s because this is one of those quotes
that, on the surface, seems incredibly enlightened, progressive, and revolutionary
but, upon the slightest bit of scrutiny, completely falls apart. What appears to be a recipe to achieve the
most optimal outcome by using ONLY what is useful instead results in a disastrous
mishmash of half-baked concepts that never amount to anything successful. The fact of the matter is, everyone else was
ALREADY doing all of this before we got here: we just couldn’t appreciate it
BECAUSE we lacked the experience to understand what it was that we were
observing, believing that we ALONE were the sole determiners of the useful and
the useless.
This WAS a pretty quick way to make that determination...
Breaking this down from a martial arts perspective, here’s
where the concept tends to fall flat.If
one were to apply this concept in a vacuum, it would mean taking an individual
with no martial arts training whatsoever and Frankensteining an entire martial
art from the ground up by selecting only the best techniques from every style, rejecting
all the “useless” techniques.Take the
roundhouse kick from Muay Thai, the left hook from boxing, the double leg from
wrestling and the triangle choke from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and you’ve got the
ultimate package!…yeah, except: what
STANCE do you execute these moves from?What GUARD do you employ?Ever
watch one of those matches were a pure boxer fights a kickboxer in K-1?The boxing stance tends to get it’s legs
chopped down with low kicks, BUT, that is the BEST stance to throw that left
hook from.If you try to throw it from a
more upright Muay Thai stance, it loses a lot of it’s power, but trying to
throw that Thai roundhouse from a traditional boxing stance is a disaster, and
both of those stances are garbage for shooting that double leg, but the ideal
stance for THAT technique really lowers your guard and allows you to eat knees to
the face.And god forbid if you wanted
to mix any capoeira into this, or some drunken boxing, or what about some
weapons?
What are we discovering here?There needs to be a FOUNDATION to work upon
first, and this, ultimately, boils down to my previous discussions regarding
understanding through the lens of CONTEXT.Those things that seem “useless” upon initial inspection suddenly make a
WHOLE lot of sense when understood from the context of the foundation.Traditional Muay Thai’s punchwork may appear
like inferior boxing, until you realize that it was designed with a more
upright and open stance in mind, and used as a means to create openings for
kicks and elbows while also being able to WARD OFF attacks from 6 other limbs
that boxers don’t need to concern themselves with.And even when we THINK we’ve figured it all
out with modern Mixed Martial Arts, we have to understand THIS through the lens
of context, as you can watch the “evolution” of successful MMA styles
coinciding with changes in the rules.Bas Rutten’s success with open palmed strikes in Pancrase was not
replicated once gloves became a more standard practice in MMA, and the soccer
stomps allowed in Pride greatly changed the ground game compared to what was
permitted in the UFC.And, along with
all of that, so many of the greats IN MMA came in WITH a foundation to build
upon: the notion of a ground up MMA fighter is a modern novelty, and in that
instance, it was their instructor who arrived with a foundation in the first place
that ultimately developed their style.
Soccer kicks make the decision to pull guard and scoot an undesirable one...
Which, of course, leads us into the realm of physical transformation,
wherein we have to again view everything through this lens to understand that
those things we consider “useless” that are worth rejecting are, most likely,
more a product of necessity within the context of the foundation of the
programming.Alex Bromely, in a recent
Dave Tate podcast, spoke to understanding “the spirit” of a program, which
captures this notion so well.It’s too
easy to just look at a program on paper and say “I don’t like this, I’ll take
this out, I’ll add this part from this other program I like”, etc etc, but one
must FIRST understand WHY the program was structured the way it was to be able
to even consider making these changes.Was this program built around high frequency in order to get lots of
practice on the movements?If so, you do
NOT want to burn yourself out with max weights or max reps in a set, even IF
you find that you respond well to that stimulus.Though sub-max may seem like something “useless”
for you to throw out, in the context of the programming as a whole, it makes total
sense and is incredibly useful.
It's why a foundation is so essential.So many young trainees want to just build a
training program from scratch, and it ends up exactly as you expect.For one, it’s not even a program, but simply
a routine, and all it boils down to is a selection of exercises, sets and reps,
because they think that a foundation means “train a muscle group 2x a week” and
that the only way to accomplish this is with a 6x week Push/Pull/Legs split.And, much like my earlier critique of JKD,
what we end up with is a mishmash of half-baked ideas that don’t actually
amount to anything successful, because there is no actual foundation being built
upon.There is no structure to the
progression, no plan for managing fatigue, no control mechanism for eliciting enough
stimulus for growth without achieving TOO MUCH, etc etc.If one were to take an established foundation
in something like 5/3/1, Conjugate, Juggernaut, Western Periodization, DUP, etc
etc, they could at least have something to build UPON and refine.
Sometimes that foundation IS sure brutality and insanity
In that same podcast, Alexander DOES go on to say that one
SHOULD personalize these approaches based on their own personal experience,
which is the last little bit of that JDK quote that is absolutely and totally
applicable.But, in turn, the necessary caveat
there is that it has to be based on EXPERIENCE, which can only be gained
through time and repetition.If we try
to reject what is useless from the get go, we never get a chance to actually
try out all of these ideas in the context they were intended to be
employed.Similar to my “ketchup” rant,
if we never actually experience these ideas as intended, we never get to
understand HOW they work such that we can later employ them to our own
advantage.When studying a martial art, study
it EXACTLY as it was designed FIRST and THEN take the time to play around with
it.When learning a training system,
give the program a run as designed for at least ONE full cycle and see how it
goes.I’ve been lifting weights for 25
years, and I’m running Tactical Barbell Operator EXACTLY as it is laid out by
K. Black right now.I’ve been training
martial arts since I was 9, and I’m in my Tang Soo Do classes right now doing
EXACTLY what my instructor says to do, even IF I think the Muay Thai roundhouse
is a better kick than the Tang Soo Do one.I’m here to learn SO THAT, when the time comes, I can make the necessary
adaptations.But until I understand the
WHY, I won’t be able to execute the how.
If I can be
credited for giving any “gift” to the world of physical transformation, it
would be the identification of my 3 keys to success: effort (what I would like
to call “intensity”, but that, unfortunately, is equated to mean percentage of
1rm, so I say effort), consistency, and time.And, of course, I’m not the first to have identified this, as Dan John
quotes “little and often over the long haul”, which he himself attributes to a
coaching mentor, and, of course, all thought originates from the Greeks
anyway.Plus the Simpsons already did
it.But all that aside, in the
discussion of effort, consistency and time, it’s worth appreciating that I
phrase “AND time”, rather than “OR time”, indicating that all 3 of these
variables are important.The absence of
one negates the value of the other two.If you consistently put in minimal effort over a long time, you will
achieve minimal results, and if you inconsistently kill yourself in the weight
room over a long time (like those folks that get charged up at New Years and
right before spring break, and then fall off for the rest of the year), you’ll
forever spin your wheels and stay in some sort of skinnyfat limbo.And, of course, when we remove time from the
equation, we find that killing ourselves in the gym consistently grants little
in the way of results…because we haven’t WAITED long enough yet.But this is the LEAST satisfying prospect of
the 3, because we can always train harder, we can always be more consistent,
but try as we might: we cannot compensate for a deficit of time with a surplus
of effort.
Remember deer antler velvet?
I was first
exposed to this reality when I was recovering from ACL reconstruction.My regular readers (the few, the proud at
this point) recall what happened: in my attempt to carry a 775lb yoke 30’, I
made it 29.5, went for a quick pick up to secure the distance, and ended up
rupturing my ACL, tearing my meniscus and fracturing my patella all in one
shot.I ended up getting a hamstring
graft after waiting 6 weeks for my patella to heal up enough to have some
screws put in, at which point I began what would boil down to 5 months and 22
days of recovery before being cleared to return to regular training.I had heard of the 6 month recovery time for
ACL reconstruction, but I was different: I was going to be EXTRA diligent with
my recovery.I was going to do
EVERYTHING in my power to heal faster.I
was going do train my uninjured side as hard as possible, push the limits, and
lick this thing in no time.I shared all
of this with my surgeon and my physical therapy team…who went on to inform me
that ligaments DON’T get much blood flow in the body, compared to muscles.They take a long time to recover because
that’s how LONG they take to recover.It’s not a matter of doing your physical therapy harder than everyone
else, it’s not a matter of taking the right drugs or using the right protocols,
it’s not a matter of nutrition: you simply can’t rush the healing process.But you CAN absolutely set yourself back in
your progress by pushing too hard too soon and compromising the recovery of the
healing ligament.And I certainly came
close to doing just that in pursuit to prove them all wrong, and for my effort,
I managed to shave a whole EIGHT DAYS off my recovery time…go me.
We see this
same thing whenever people find themselves with an abundance of free time.“Guys, for the next 3 months, I have no
obligations whatsoever.I can LIVE
training.How can I maximize this
opportunity?2 a day training every
day?”The answer is, sadly, so very very
pedestrian.There is very little one can
accomplish in such a short window, and, most likely, the best thing this person
can do is use this opportunity to maximize RECOVERY rather than training.Because the body can simply only grow SO much
in a given time, and once we’ve flipped the growth switch, we cannot “flip it
harder” to make it grow more.But,
comically enough, quite often, the very things that ARE suggested to do during
this time are flatly ignored, because they’re not “sexy” enough for the
trainee.Use these 3 months to rest as
much as possible, eat as well as possible, and learn as much as possible, so
that, when you find yourself ABSENT the time to do all these things, you’re so
much further ahead.
Lee Priest setting the example
Make no
mistake: effort IS the driver OF the progress, but time is to governor of it’s
distribution.Yes, it is true that many
trainees ARE undertraining as far as the necessary degree of effort goes in
order to drive a stimulus and, in turn, these trainees will see “faster”
progress once they learn how to properly up the effort, but this isn’t a
demonstration of how more effort equates to faster progress universally: it
demonstrates WHAT the necessary base level of effort is in order to maximize
the benefits OF consistency and time.It’s why I say all trainees should run Super Squats at least once in
their lives: just to learn what effort FEELS like.But what I DON’T say is that these trainees
should run Super Squats 7 days a week in order to get twice the results,
because it just plain doesn’t work that way.
In point of
fact, quite often, our attempts to speed up time with effort have the opposite
of intended effect: they REDUCE our results and slow us down.Dan John related a story about his brother,
who did no training for a marathon and ran it cold.Typically, the prep phase for a marathon is 3
months.By skipping these 3 months of
training, his brother “saved” himself 3 months!...except, after the marathon,
it took a full 3 months for him to regrow all of his toenails and heal his feet
enough to be able to walk normally again.Which meant, not only did he lose the same 3 months he would have lost
before, but he lost even MORE training time, because a normal marathon runner
is able to actually TRAIN in those 3 months leading up to the marathon, whereas
his brother was sidelined the entire time.
All that time you saved skipping out on boxing lessons is going to get spent re-learning how to tie your shoes
We see this
same thing when it comes with diet: those that are on the quest to drop fat and
improve their physiques want to do it as fast as possible, and in doing so,
engage in some sort of crash diet that rapidly jettisons their lean tissue and
puts them in a terrible hormonal state, setting them BACK significantly further
than they would have been had they simply taken a more sane path, even if it
“took longer”.And we even see this
among those who THINK they’re “taking the long road”, by attempting the ever
famous “long slow lean bulk” in an attempt to avoid ever having to have a fat
loss phase.Because they’re trying to
save themselves the time of the cutting phase by investing heavily in the
effort of the bulking phase via precision nutrition, they end up spinning their
wheels for months, putting on minimal, if any, new lean tissue, and squandering
a LOT of hard training hours in the gym.Had they simply been willing to invest the necessary TIME into the
second phase of the nutritional protocol, they would have actually come out
ahead.
None of this
is doom and gloom: it’s quite the opposite.Physical transformation is one of the few guaranteed returns on
investment out there in life.If you go
to any gym, you will find a ton of jacked dudes who are training in all sorts
of ridiculous manners, simply because they’ve put in enough TIME under the bar
that the results happened.And not only
does interest generate on your investment: it compounds!The longer you do this, the better you get at
it, which improves your ability to engage in physical transformation, which
allows you to get better at GETTING better.That speaks to the value of “consistency” in the “effort, consistency
and time” equation.All it requires is
patience, which is, of course, in short supply in a world of literal instant
gratification.But, in turn, think about
how ridiculous of an X-men power that is to have: the ability to WAIT.That’s a super power you can pick TODAY
without any need for genetic mutation or exposure to radiation, and it will put
you SO far ahead of everyone else who is simply unwilling to wait for the
results to come their way.Put your head
down, dig in, wait, and you will see the results of your effort.