PROGRAM CHECK IN: TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR: OPERATION "PLANET MONGO"

I got bit hard by the Tactical Barbell bug and have been diligently following Operator for the past 19 weeks, having completed 2 6 week cycles for my most recent strongman competition and appropriate bridge weeks before embarking on my most current 6 week cycle.  And I have full intentions of chasing this with another 6 week cycle after a 2-ish week cruise vacation, which will lead to another bridge week before I do ANOTHER strongman competition, after which point, my intent is to get back on the Mass Protocol so I can gain during the end of summer through the fall and into the Christmas holiday season, because that’s going to be an awesome time to eat and get huge.

 

Since I ran the last 2 cycles VERY “by the book”, I allowed myself some liberties with this cycle, and I wanted to document my deviances and experience with them.

 

Welcome to Operation “Planet Mongo”

 

WHAT IS PLANET MONGO

Thankfully, Planet Mongo came out in the 80s instead of the 90s

 

“Planet Mongo” is a reference to a quote from Paul Kelso in the book “Powerlifting Basics Texas Style” where, while advising a trainee on a program that prioritized back growth, he said “We’re going to build you a back from the Planet Mongo”.  For this cycle of Operator, that was my goal.  I used to be able to do 20 dead hang chin ups on demand without issue, but as I deprioritized my back, I found this ability dwindling, and at one of those USMC chin up stations this summer, I found myself struggling to get 14 done.  I noticed the absence of my back strength while competing in strongman as well, and I attributed it to my deadlifts wanning performance: a lift I used to be quite talented at.  So I decided to spend some time improving my back strength by going back (pun) to what has always worked best for me: submax training with high volume.  This was in contrast to what K Black recommends regarding weighted chins, to which I had tried his approach and found that (for me), it was not giving me the results I was looking for.

 

MAIN WORK

When you're eating carnivore, "meat and potatoes" becomes a meaningless expression

 

I saw my best growth back when I ran 5/3/1 and followed Jim Wendler’s suggestion to just do chins in between sets of the main and assistance work.  I made this work by NOT including heavy weighted chins into my cluster for Operator.  Instead, I settled on a very limited cluster of

* Buffalo bar squat
* Axle strict press

This cluster was limited in terms of movements AND total volume.  I went with 3x5, rather than 5x5.  The intent was that, by shortening the main work workout time, I’d have more time for follow on work (to be discussed later).

 

With this cluster, I set to the task of doing a set of some sort of chin (I alternated grips all the time) between all of my warm-ups and all of my main work sets.  I’d start the rest period once the chin was completed, rather than the main work lifts.  I kept it VERY sub-max: ensuring I never struggled on the set, in order to not allow this to compromise my recovery between sets of the main work, and allow me to rack up a lot of volume.

 

Along with this, on my non-lifting days, I made it a point to get in 3 sets of chins, spread through out the day, using a variety of grips.  Once again: just to get in more volume and practice.

 

As far as deadlifts go, I once again went back to the well of what worked best for me.  I stuck with K Black’s recommendation regarding incorporating deadlifts into Operator by sticking with 1 day a week to perform it (Wednesday), but instead of following the rep and set protocol with a traditional deadlift, I went back to my ROM progression style, employing a single set with 2 rest pauses, and settling on a fixed weight of 405lbs with a Texas Deadlift Bar.  Once again: my deadlift had fallen apart and I needed to get it back in good order, so I picked a light weight and sought to master it.  I selected a 6 week progression cycle, so I’d be pulling from the floor on the heaviest week of Tactical Barbell.  I saw great growth in this through the cycle, initially getting 14 reps on the first pull at 6 mats high and getting 15 reps on the 2 mat high setting later, and none of these pulls were to failure.  Still had a rep in the tank.  It was a good progression for me, and as of my writing this I haven’t pulled from the floor yet, but I’m feeling in a good way for it.  My technique has improved immensely, and I no longer experience significant pain with my pull.

 

Before I go further into Planet Mongo, I’ll discuss the remainder of my main work selection.  I was using SSB front squats for 12 weeks before this, in prep for a strongman competition.  I switched back to the buffalo bar because I wanted to move some heavier weight and get used to having a load on my back again.  I went back to a low bar style of squat vs high bar, because it just naturally suits me better and, in turn, I noticed that my right knee kept feeling better and better as time went on with this squat style.  That ultra high bar close stance style was tearing my knee apart, whereas this really suited me well.  I’m on the fence on if I’ll keep the buffalo bar or switch to a safety squat bar for the next cycle, but either way I’ll keep a bar on my back.

 

The axle strict press was selected because my strongman competition will have an axle press in it, and pressing with the axle always makes me stronger.  Just like the last cycle: I included a push press rep at the end of every set, in order to keep that movement pattern grooved.

 

FOLLOW ON/ASSISTANCE WORK

Yeah, a whole lotta this

 

Here is where I put my political science degree and philosophy minor to work, as I was able to justify a bunch of additional work in the program under the guise of “general conditioning” or “strength endurance” work.  In the books, K. Black gives the green light to getting in your conditioning after the lifting workouts of Tactical Barbell, and he gives examples of workouts that fit within that frame, but also leaves it open to the trainee to use what they need to benefit them for their activity (reference Crossfit athletes, martial artists, etc).  Operating under that framework, and with this still being “Planet Mongo”, I picked 3 different follow-on workouts to go with my main work.

 

For Workout A, I legit took the assistance work from Day A of 5/3/1 Building the Monolith and turned it into a 20 minute EMOM workout.  This is 100-200 dips, 100 band pull aparts, and 100 chins.  I selected this because it got me in a bunch of chinning volume (especially when paired with the chins between sets of main work), and Building the Monolith always does a great job of getting me to grow.  I threw in some ab work into the circuit as well (hanging leg raises), and doubled the pull aparts, because you can never do too many.  I started off with 7 dips, 3 chins, 2 hanging leg raises and 10 pull aparts per round, and finished with 10 dips, 4 chins, 2 HLRs and 10 pull aparts per round, getting me 200 dips, 80 chins, 40 HLR and 200 pull aparts.  I’m technically 20 short on the chins for BtM, but because of the work I get done before this assistance/conditioning circuit, I came out ahead.

 

I also did a lateral raise dropset once the EMOM circuit was done, because lateral raises make shoulders awesome.

 

Since Workout B is my deadlift/mat pull workout, I was much gentler with my follow-on workout.  I used BtM’s workout B here, because it, once again, met “Operation Mongo’s” intent, and it’s better that I follow someone else’s program vs do my own.  I still trained a circuit, but in a non-EMOM fashion, comprised of unilateral DB rows, reverse hypers, standing ab wheel and axle curls.  Technically only the rows and chins follow BtM, but reverse hyper and direct ab work are good things.  In keeping with BtM, the rows were 5x10-20 (I stuck with 10s) and the chins were 100 total (I stuck with 5 sets of 20 on an axle).  I honestly only had enough gas for 3 rounds the first time I did this post deadlift, but over time built up to the 5 full rounds.

 

Workout C got interesting.  I started this training block in time for Memorial Day weekend to hit at the end, and I try to make it a point to do the Murph workout for that.  And Murph honestly aligns really well with Planet Mongo due to the 100 weighted pull ups.  So for Workout C, I did the Crossfit WOD “Cindy”, which is effectively all the bodyweight work of Murph.  20 rounds of 5 chins, 10 push ups and 15 squats.  I started week 1 pure bodyweight, and then added 5lbs in a weighted vest each week, getting to 20lbs on the weekend of Memorial Day.  I kept an eye on time and tried to do my best to not have significant deltas between weight increase, managing to keep my time at exactly 21:42 for the 5lb and 10lb session and only adding 10 seconds when I did the 15lb session.  The 20lb session fell on the day that I was going to do Murph anyway, so I just did Murph after my Tactical Barbell lifting, getting a time of 46:08 with a 20.4lb vest and using strict chins rather than kipping.

 

After Cindy, I’d do 100 band pull aparts, as that’s all I had any gas for.

 

FOLLOW ON CONDITIONING

 

What I pretended I was doing...

It gets more ridiculous here, and it’s why I discuss the liberties I was taking here, but as part of Planet Mongo, in order to get in MORE back work, I purchased a second-hand Concept 2 rowing machine on Facebook market, got a great cardio workout kicking myself for having not picked one up earlier, and made it a point get in some sort of rowing workout after I was done with the Main and Assistance work.  There were NOT long, extensive sessions: quite often they lasted about 5-10 minutes, and very often they were low intensity cooldowns (especially after the mat pulls on B day and Cindy on C day), but it was another way to accumulate some volume in my back without having to deal with an eccentric load.  Typically, on Day A, I had enough juice to do something higher intensity, and would settle in on power intervals with a 1:2 work to rest ratio (30 seconds on/60 seconds off).

 

REAL CONDITIONING

 

Not to be confused with fabled conditioning

For the ACTUAL conditioning of Tactical Barbell, I continued to prioritize the rower.  Between Day A and B, I would either do indoor power intervals with the rower, Oxygen Debt 101 with the rower (I googled what 200m sprint times were for a masters athlete my age, found them to be about 25 seconds, and set that as my time to chase for the interval), or Fobbit intervals with the rower and kettlebell.  Between day B and C, I would do a weighted vest treadmill walk/ruck, as I found it restorative after that hard deadlift workout.  The day after workout C, I’d do sandbag over bar workouts, as that was an event in my upcoming strongman competition that I wanted to improve on, and it totally fit in with “Planet Mongo’s” priorities.

 

On top of all this, I prioritized walking whenever I could, trying to get at least 10k steps a day, and often getting well over double that on weekends.

 

SPEAKING OF SANDBAGS…

I genuinely don't know why someone made this meme but now I HAVE to use it

 

I also kept my habit from the previous training block of doing a daily sandbag carry in my driveway.  The event I was training for was another “max distance sandbag carry”, so I would do 2 trips down and back, with a goal of minimizing rest/pause/recovery time and minimizing inefficiencies in lapping the bag.  It would do a decent job getting my heart rate up.

 

NUTRITION

There are definitely worse plans out there

 

Here’s where I REALLY broke some rules, because even though this was Operation Planet Mongo and I was prioritizing growing my back, I STILL had a strongman competition to compete in and a weight class to make…PLUS I had ANOTHER cruise vacation coming up in Italy and Greece, of which I was going to enjoy the local cuisine and my time on vacation.  So I wanted to lean out some more while running Operator to give me a buffer room.  It just so happens that there was a protein powder shortage at this time, and my default Velocity Diet/Apex Predator diet was no longer viable, so I tried out something I’ve always wanted to try: Vince Gironda’s “Maximum Definition Diet”, aka “The Steak and Eggs Diet”.

 

I actually purchased Vince’s book “Unleashing the Wild Physique” per Dan John’s recommendation, and was delighted to find out that the diet was incredibly simple: eat (unlimited) meat and eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Only consume cream or butter for dairy.  Every 3-4 days, eat a meal with carbs to replenish glycogen stores.  Vince also recommended a truckload of supplements, with liver tabs ranking high on his priorities, but I met intent there b just including liver in my daily meals, and using a lot of BioTest supplements.  I also stuck with two meals a day vs three, because I quite frankly just prefer to eat that way.  And my carb meal was once a week, rather than every 3-4 days, because that’s how often I prefer to eat carbs.

 

Despite those deviances, I was able to drop 1.2kg in 5 weeks eating this way, a rate of .528 pounds per week…without any sort of counting or tracking of macros or calories.  That’s pretty baller.  And I, of course, got leaner, meeting the intent of the Maximum Definition Diet.

 

I was fortunate that Costco had some awesome meat sales during this time.  I did 3 weeks living off of Australian grassfed boneless leg of lamb, then 3 weeks of beef chuck roast, then there was ANOTHER sale on leg of lamb.  I’d use this meat for breakfast, and pair it alongside an omelet of 3 whole pastured eggs, 5 whites, and a tablespoon of beef tallow, along with some beef liver.  Dinner was a bit more “ad hoc”, during the week including steak, burgers, chicken meatballs, leftover lamb/chuck roast, pulled pork, meatloaf, etc, alongside a similar configuration of eggs from breakfast.  On Friday and Saturday, we’d eat out for dinner, and I was fond of getting an entire rack of pork spare ribs (no sauce) from our favorite local BBQ place along with some beef brisket and hitting up our favorite Hibachi buffet and loaded up a plate with shrimp, some beef and 3 eggs, and then cruising the buffet for more shrimp, octopus, salmon, squid, flounder, and pretty much any other seafood I could get.  I also was found of getting 20 smoked wings from Buffalo Wings and Rings. On Sunday, I’d have a breakfast like the above, and then typically my carb meal, which was a family affair, typically featuring either spaghetti with meat sauce or some sort of pasta casserole dish, some sort of bread with butter, and then dessert featuring some cookies my wife made (all quality ingredients), raw local honey, and a mug of fairlife skim milk.

 

I took photos of almost EVERY meal.  I’ll share some.

A fairly standard breakfast of chuck roast, liver and eggs

Smoked wings

2 grassfed burger patties, sardines and eggs/egg whites/tallow

Pulled pork and eggs

Ribs and brisket

THE RESULTS

 

Certainly feeling this way

As is typical, I’m writing this review before I’m done with the cycle, as it’s what my bandwidth will allow. I just finished day C of week 5, and it’s the first training week where I missed lifts: I didn’t get all 5 reps on 2 of my 3 press sets on Day A, and on Day C I missed the 5th rep on the second set.  I DID manage to get all 5 on day B.  Given my bodyweight is dropping and how hard I’m training, I’m not surprised about this.  I also used a training max based on my log press vs my axle press, which was most likely too aggressive.  But otherwise, I’ve seen progress everywhere else in the program.  I’m squatting better and deeper than ever before, without any knee pain.  My mat pull continues to progress week to week without any hip pain.  I went from 140 dips in my 20 minute EMOM to 190 today, on pace for 200 next week.  I originally got 60 reps of chins in that 20 minutes for a total of slightly over 100 when combined with sets of chins between main work to 145 total chins today, with my between sets number climbing from 4 to 6 and my warm up sets from 5 to 7.  My Cindy workouts have me going up in weight on the vest while maintaining a tight performance on the timeline.  I’m leaner and lighter than when I started and my weight belt fits better, along with the rest of my clothes.  I’m not “stringy” like I was at the end of Phryexian Dreadnaught, having kept muscle while shedding fluff. 

 

In all: this has been a success.  I co-opted Building the Monolith’s assistance and tacked it into Tactical Barbell’s main work, and blended the conditioning requirements of both alongside some strongman requirements, all while following a bodybuilding definition diet: quite the Frankenapproach!  But it also goes to show that the things that “work” work against disciplines. 

 

WHAT’S NEXT

 

Seems inevitable really

I'll finish up week 6 of this cycle before I depart on my 12 day cruise vacation, affording me 2 days beforehand to do something incredibly stupid before I depart.  Once I return from vacation, I enter into a 6 week strongman competition prep phase, which will still be Tactical Barbell Operator, with a possibility of swapping out the Buffalo Bar for a Safety Squat bar.  I’ll keep the axle press and mat pulls, but bump up to 5x5 for Mon and Friday.  I’ll no longer be prioritizing back growth, but I’ll keep the chins between sets.  I’m thinking of brining back my “ultimate shoulder circuit” from the Book of Bad Ideas on Day A, quite possibly keeping Cindy for Day C, and figure out something on Day B.  Beyond that, it’s getting in more event reps and staying lean until the competition, and then rolling into the Mass Protocol.  Stay tuned!

 

And, of course, if you want to see the whole thing in action, here is the youtube playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfcuGAffLlSefwBgSOteDmK0in_ZIjnvf