A PEEK UNDER THE HOOD

With my recent write-up comparing 5/3/1 and Tactical Barbell, I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the “Uncrustableness” of Tactical Barbell as it relates to planning out the my training for the next year.  Because, yes: with TB, it’s simple to map out a year of training.  By knowing my bumpers and milestones to vector around, TB provides plenty of latitude to be able to maneuver, plan and execute.  Ideally, if you’re interested in employing TB in your own training, you can take from this approach and employ it on your own.

 

TO START: THE BUMPERS/MILESTONES

 

Not to be confused with this, which is how I lost my first ever Magic the Gathering tournament

I am a big fan of limitations, because they provide us structure.  If I just say “Go make a workout”, there’s too much openness in the statement and we end up suffocating with options.  If I say “Go make a workout using only 1 kettlebell and a chinning bar”, suddenly we have a vector and can make something incredible.  In that regard, when it comes to mapping out a training plan, I start with what my limitations will be.  These are the bumpers/milestones: events occurring during the year that will lend vector to my training.  In that regard, here is what I’m operating with.

 

* My birthday is late Oct, which is a day of feasting.

* After that, Thanksgiving happens: another feast.

* After that, Christmas happens, another feast.

* After that is the New Year, which is a time when anyone can engage in a hard training program and strict dietary protocol and no one will bat an eye.  It’s the expectation. 

* I am signed up for a strongman competition on 20 Feb.  I have no issue with making weight for it (Masters 220).

* I go on a Cruise for my kid’s spring break in late Mar.

* The wife and I run a 10 mile race in Apr.

* Memorial day is the end of May, which, along with a day of remembrance, we celebrate the memory with a feast.

* Though unannounced, there is most likely going to be another strongman competition in Aug.  And at that point, I’ve come full circle for the year.

 

STORYBOARDING

 

Sometimes you gotta break out the crayons

Knowing the bumpers and limitations, we can begin drafting up some general thoughts to help guide the actual plan development.  Here is what we know.

 

* Looking at the above, fall through winter is a lot of feasting opportunities.  It’d be a poor time to try to prioritize fat loss, while ALSO being an excellent time to try to leverage all that feasting toward hard training.  We’ll have no shortage of fuel, and recovery will be good.  This is sounding like a “Mass Protocol” situation.

 

* The New Year’s will be an excellent time to “detox” from all the feasting from Fall to Winter.  It also is leading right into a strongman competition.  It would be a great time to focus on getting fit, strong, and lighter.  This is sounding like an “Operator” situation.

 

* The cruise in Mar would be 3-4 weeks after the strongman competition.  That will be after about 7 weeks of leaning out since New Year’s, and the cruise itself will be an avenue for feasting.  Taking the above 2 data points, it sounds like it could lend to a 10-11 week leaning out phase before the start of some growing.  3-4 weeks is an opportunity to continue running Operator OR to do a Work Capacity training block.

 

* After the cruise, aside from that 10 mile run, the next milestone is a Memorial day Feast.  This means I have some feasting bookends: the start of feasting at the cruise, and the final feast on Memorial day.  This lends to a Mass Protocol situation for 8-9 weeks.  

 

* Now we’re in Jun, with a strongman competition in Aug.  It could be the start or end of Aug depending, so we’re looking at 2-3 Operator cycles for 8-12 weeks (factoring in a bridge week).

 

* The 2-3 Operator cycles mentioned above carry me through the summer, at which point I’m back to Sep, leaned out as a result of the strongman comp prep, eyeing another Birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon.  So here we go again.

 

THE PLAN

 

Much like squatting with a bosu ball, you most likely saw this one coming

Now that we’ve drafted the storyboard, it comes time to get a little more granular and start planning out the actual training/phases.  Those that have read Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol are familiar with the periodization structure of OMS, but for those unaware: those 3 letters stand for “Operator-Mass-Specificity”, which are 3 different programs that exist in the Tactical Barbell universe.  Operator is strength and conditioning focused, Mass is (obviously) Mass focused, and Specificity would best be understood as “bodybuilding focused”.  Whereas Mass is about building mass in general, specificity focuses on higher rep ranges and more isolation/focus to bring up weak areas.  The idea is to move from one phase to the other and repeat as a means of basic periodization.  And that’s exactly how this plan will execute.

 

FALL PHASE (14 Sep – 2 Jan/16 Weeks)

* 2 cycles (6 weeks total) of Mass Protocol (Grey Man, in this case, my preferred Mass Protocol program, which I’ve reviewed in the past)

* Assessment: I use a low bar squat when I run Grey Man, and it can beat me up after too much time.  I’ve learned to value movement rotation, much like what Westside Barbell prescribes for Max Effort for the same reason.  So I’ll see how I feel at this point and, from there, make one of 2 decisions.

- Course of Action (COA) 1: Continue with 1 more cycle of Grey Man, 1  Bridge Week, 1 cycle of Specificity Bravo (currently at 13 weeks of training)

-COA 2: Implement bridge week to recover, then transition to Fat Zulu (from TB III) for 2 cycles, 1 bridge week (13 weeks of training). 

(COA1 assumes I feel fine and am able to continue pushing Grey Man, while COA2 uses Fat Zulu as an “escape plan” [reference previous posts] to let my body recover.  COA1 employs Specificity from Mass Protocol, while COA2 leans into the 4x a week approach of Fat Zulu to function in that regard)

* Irrespective of COA selected, end with Operator Pro (Green/TB III) using hypertrophy rep ranges with cluster based around the events for the Strongman competition.  3 weeks of training, for 16 weeks total.

 

NEW YEAR’S PHASE (4 Jan – 20 Mar/11 Weeks)

Looks like a pattern developing...

 

* 2 cycles of Operator Pro with strength ranges for the supplemental work, followed by 1 bridge week leading into the strongman competition (7 weeks total)

* Assessment: At this point, I’ll have been employing Operator Pro for 3 cycles specifically preparing for a strongman competition.  The comp is over: there’s no “need” to continue with Operator Pro, and the next milestone is the cruise.  I’ll need to assess what my needs are at this point, as I’ll have 4 weeks left to do something.

* COA 1: Continue with Operator Pro simply to maintain status quo and focus on moving heavy weights during a leaning out phase to maintain as much lean mass as possible.

* COA 2: Work Capacity/SE phase from TBIII in order to satisfy my inner psychotic need for self-destruction (being incredibly honest here) before a nice break on the cruise.

* COA 3: The 4 week base building plan from TBIII in order to, well, build my base, as it’s been a while since I’ve focused/prioritized low intensity long duration conditioning.

* Irrespective of COA selected, finishes with a 1 week bridge week due to the cruise.

 

SPRING PHASE (29 Mar – 29 May/9 weeks)  

Oh my goodness this is too ridiculous

 

* Coming right off a bridge week, 9 weeks is an excellent time to run 2 cycles of Grey Man or a similar Mass Protocol template and 1 cycle of Specificity.  I could play around and run different Mass Protocol programs, or take something from TB III/Green Protocol, but ultimately we know that this is going to be a period of gaining, and it’s tight enough to get in 3 consecutive 3 week training cycles.

 

SUMMER PHASE (31 May – TBD August/10-13 weeks)

Nailed it

 

* The date range on this is a little ambiguous, as the date for the strongman comp hasn’t been announced yet, so this plan will need to be further fleshed out.  Be we DO know it’s going to start with a bridge week, since we JUST finished 9 hard weeks of gaining.  It’s also going to have a bridge week before the comp, so we’re looking at realistically 8-11 weeks of training.  And since we’re prepping for a strongman comp, the plan is going to be Operator Pro.  It’s now a question of if we lead into it with the hypertrophy range work for the supplemental or cut straight to the strength work, and that will be determined by if the competition is in early August or late August.  More time means more training cycles.

 

REPEAT

 

THE NUTRITION

 

Yet surprisingly there's a fair bit of fasting ahead

I genuinely feel I’ve struck gold with “The Roulette Diet”, because it honestly makes this entire process so incredibly simple.  Ultimately, all I need to do is up my “2 meal day” frequency during the Mass Protocol phases and reduce it during the Operator phases.  Additionally, I’ve played around with altering the protein to fat ratio of my energy intake simply by transitioning from whole eggs to egg whites as priorities change.  I eat 10 egg whites at a time during my leanest phases, which, if I were to swap 1 egg white out for 1 whole egg, it means adding 40 additional calories to my intake (each whole egg contains 6g of fat and 6g of protein, while each white is 5g of protein and 0g of fat, so each swap means adding 6g of fat (x9 calories, for 36 calories) and 1g of protein (x4 calories, for 4 calories, 40 total).  So if I were to swap out all 10 whites for whole eggs, I’d add 400 calories to my total: right in that sweet spot between 300-500 calories…which would be cool, if I counted calories. 

 

But in either capacity, this is incredibly simple and streamlined and fits in perfectly with what I love about TB: fire and forget.

 

IN SUMMARY

 

Did I miss anything?

Tactical Barbell is so simple, effective and modular that, once you know what your milestones and limitations are for the year, you can map out a full year of training without much difficulty.  Keeping OMS as a framework and allotting for occasional bursts of Base Building or Work Capacity provides an easy to follow structure to operate off of.  And as always: chaos is the plan, don’t get upset if it all blows up once it comes in contact with the enemy.