COMPLETE OVERHAUL PART 2: TRAINING

 THE TRAINING

I’ve written extensively on the idea of how training drives nutrition, and this was honestly no exception.  Despite the fact I opened with a discussion on how my nutrition radically changed, it’s worth appreciating that I changed my training FIRST and simply picked this dietary approach to match that training.  I knew I was going to employ a protocol that wasn’t oriented toward gaining size, and that this protocol was going to allow my hybrid diet to function.  Had I stayed with something like Super Squats, I’d have eaten the diet that supports that.  So all that said…

THE SITUATION

Yeah that about sums it up

* As I wrote in the previous section: my body was BROKEN after that final run of Super Squats.  I gave a LOT of myself to get that 20x405, and it was time to heal.  Along with that, looming over my head was my annual 10 mile race that the Mrs and I did.  I had about 6 weeks to go from 20x405 Super Squats shape to 10 mile running shape, and I had ZERO desire to do any running to prep for this.  

* I was VERY good at being big and strong at this point.  My static lifts were high.  My conditioning had fallen apart, primarily because my body was so damaged that, outside of the specific lifts of Super Squats, I couldn’t do much.  My elbows were so shot that chins and dips were non-viable, to say nothing of cleans, most kettlebell work: even burpees were a struggle, as getting on and off the floor was excruciating.  I was also accustomed to resting between sets at this point, having abandoned my typical super/giant set protocol in order to meet the demands of Super Squats.  

THE STRATEGY

When in doubt

* I opened up my copy of 5/3/1 Forever, having written previously about how 6 weeks of a 5/3/1 program would be a great counter to Super Squats.  My goal was to find something that had sets of 5 making up the majority of the work alongside a heavy emphasis on conditioning.  It was all about duality I’d written of previously: many sets of 5 vs one set of 20.  I ended up settling on Krypteia, specifically phase 1.  Jim wrote about how this was the phase used to prep trainees for the later phases of training, and a prep phase was exactly what I was looking for.  Something meant to whip me back into shape.  Other contenders included Fat Loss and Prep and 5x5 FSL, but I dug the inclusion of dips, chins, DB SLDLs and DB squats in Krypteia, along with the time limit restriction.  It seemed like everything I needed: shorter training time, intense compressed volume, low rep sets, chins, dips, and a chance to get some reps in on the lower body stuff.  I DID give some serious consideration to Dan John’s Easy Strength (after having devoured his Omnibook), so I could get in and out of the weightroom and focus more on running, but decided to save that for another time.

* Prior to starting, I deloaded.  This deload coincided with me starting my new diet, and I decided “high speed/low drag” was the theme, so I settled on a week of the following workout: 30 minutes a day, Mon-Fri, 1 round of burpee chins, then run around my block (turned out to be a little over 1/4 mile).  Max rounds in 30 minutes.  I started with bodyweight and sets of 8 on the burpee chins for day 1, and then put on a 10lb weight vest for sets of 7 on day 2.   I’d add 5lbs to the vest each day while taking away a rep from the burpee chins.  On the weekends, I played it by ear and got in whatever I could.  I kept my daily work where possible, but didn’t stress over it.  This definitely had a positive impact: the weighted vest was barely any real load on my body, which meant I had a week of time to let my body bounce back from the thrashing it had been suffering.  Super Squats had it so that every other day I was beating my body to hell, and I could tell it had discovered that pattern.  Giving it just 2 days of break itself was enough to feel it start to really heal up, and by the end of the week my elbow pain was gone.  I still ached in my hips and knee, but it was moving in the right direction.  And getting in that little bit of running helped my body remember how it felt to move through space again.

* Before I discuss Krypteia in depth, if you want, here I am running a full 3 week cycle.  If a picture is worth 1000 words, let this speak for itself.

First workout here, entire playlist below

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfcuGAffLlScb4E9ihdg-HPlNZPGveynX

* As far as “making it mine” went, the big thing I did was try to get each workout done as fast as possible.  Jim laid out the challenge to get it done in under 45 minutes, and I absolutely met that goal (the final deadlift workout came close, at 43 minutes), but had a few workouts that finished in the 20s.  This technically went against Jim’s guidance to not turn these workouts into conditioning workouts, but, again, I needed to undo the damage of Super Squats, and that included getting my conditioning back and getting back to “no break” training.

EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS LEARNED

This is too accurate

* As much as I’m the first to say “it’s assistance work: it doesn’t matter”, I was honestly the mandated assistance protocol of Krypteia that drew me in, and it was exactly what I needed.  Once again, my goal was basically to “undo” Super Squats, so I needed something that had me moving in a totally different direction.  Super Squats had me laser-focused on making 1 big lift get as big as possible: now the big lifts were stagnant and it was ONLY the assistance that was progressing.  And I made it a goal to make them move as hard as possible.  My dips, chins, DB SLDLs with a shrug and KB/DB goblet squats moved right along the whole time, and, in turn: my body healed.  I was able to focus on weaker areas and smaller muscles and not beat myself into the ground with stupidly heavy compounds.  The time limit forced me to keep things light and move quick, and I had to pick intelligent TMs.

* This also marked my first time pulling over 400lbs since I tore those muscles in the program before my final run of Super Squats.  I set a TM that was 20lbs lower than my squat, which is atypical for me, but it was necessary to stay within my limits.  I also used an axle 2 of the 3 weeks, because it forced me to slow down and not jerk the weight off of the floor.  I used a deadlift bar for the final week and it felt solid.  

* Meanwhile, for squats, I rotated between SSB squats on the 3s week, front squats for the 5s and buffalo bar for the 1s.  My body was so wrecked from using the same bar every day for Super Squats that I had to get far away from the Buffalo Bar for a while.  My TM was too high for the SSB to be able to hit the topset, but, otherwise, I made good choices.  Front squats work well for Krypteia because it’s just sets of 5.  Higher reps would be difficult.

* I’d run Krytpeia M-Tues-Thurs-Fri, and on Wed for 2 of the weeks I did a 5 mile run, to prep for the 10 mile race I had with the wife.  The first week, my schedule got compressed and I ran all 4 days in a row and got in some sort of conditioning on the other 3 days that week.

* I honestly really liked Krypteia, and had full intentions of actually seeing it all the way through…until Jamie Lewis released his updated “Feast, Famine and Ferocity Diet” e-book, which completely grabbed me and took me in yet another wild direction…

CHAOS IS THE PLAN…THE PLAN

Jamie must know this about me by now

* Before I discuss further, here’s the link for the book

https://plagueofstrength.com/the-feast-famine-and-ferocity-diet-is-now-updated-and-available-as-an-e-book/

* And here’s the video playlist of me running the program

First video, rest in link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VnicWt6NqU&list=PLfcuGAffLlSdfWeHmA6BsUctSrdGdaObB

* It boils down to this: Jamie sells something, I buy it.  I am such a fan of everything he puts out that, any chance I have to support him, I take it. Hell, I was running his Apex Predator Diet and it had effectively saved me from myself, so I owed him that much.   I’m also the same with Jim Wendler, Jon Andersen, Brian Alsruhe, etc.  Support those that are making a difference.  So when Jamie released this book, even though I already had a diet and training protocol I was following, I still bought it and read it with zero intention of following it.  Fun fact: that exact same thing happened the first time I read the Super Squats book: I was reading it purely for academic interest…and just like that situation, I finished up Jamie’s book and suddenly scrapped my current plan of Krypteia and had a new plan: the “Famine Workout”.

* Jamie structures the whole protocol where you open with “Famine” and progress to “Feast”.  I don’t want to spoil the book (seriously, buy it), but it’s premised around mankind naturally having “seasons” of activity and nutrition, and modeling that on a microlevel to drive individual progress.  There are lean times, where we’re doing lots of work, and there are fat times, where we feast and celebrate.  This mirrors exactly with stuff Dan John has written about, and coincides with my phasic approach to training and nutrition as well.  It was an excellent fit, and it mapped on to how I was currently eating…for the most part.

There was an adjustment to be sure

* Whereas Jamie’s Apex Predator diet has solid food meals built into it, as does the Velocity Diet, the “Famine” diet was purely protein shakes as a protein sparing modified fast.  I flat out wasn’t going to do that, for the “family man” reasons outlined previously…BUT I did have a few days while running the program that I was actually able to pull that off due to how my schedule shook out.  But the Apex Predator diet was working enough magic while running the program that I was still meeting the intent: I was leaning out while I was training.

* The training itself was such a RADICAL departure of everything I was doing that it was absolutely what I needed.  And Jamie has always been on my wavelength as far as training/nutrition goes.  There’s minimal use of percentages, no calorie counting, and options for lifting 3-4 times a week or 5-6 times a week.  Jamie also has his own version of daily work programmed into it, which I’m a fan of.  Otherwise, you open each day with heavy work and chase it with high reps, which is what I’ve learned works for me in periods of reduced calories.  I’m good for 1-2 big sets, and then after that it’s just pump work.  Always good to get that validation.  

* One of his training days is something called “Dealer’s Choice”, where you train whatever you want for up to 90 minutes, which is honestly one of the smartest things I’ve ever seen in a program.  THINK about how many times people screw up a good program because they want to keep adding and tweaking it, self-included?  I caught myself thinking “I’ll get in my lateral raises on this day, poundstone curls on this day, shrugs on this day”, and then when I got to “Dealer’s Choice” I said “Oh: I’ll just put them all in on THAT day”.  It’s just the perfecting holding bin for bad ideas, and you can just get them all out of your system on that one day and then get on with your life.  I can absolutely see myself carrying that into other training programs.

You know what, knock yourself out...maybe literally

* Part of Jamie’s daily work is a mandatory 2-3 mile walk outside.  He’s very clear that this isn’t a workout: it’s living.  I really dig it.  And forcing myself outside for a walk everyday has been awesome.  However, since I train at o’dark stupid, I don’t always get the “vitamin D” benefit.

* As of my writing this, I have finished out two weeks of the program, and between week 1 and 2, on my squat workout, I went from 4 triples of 405 on the SSB to 3x4 and 1x3, and then went from a 33 rep deathset of 205lbs to 43 reps.  That was nuts.  My dealer’s choice day also saw some great growth.  I am also EXHAUSTED, but I can still turn up amazing performances in the gym.  This second week coincided with me working a solid week of 12 hour shifts at work and sleeping 5 hours a night, so I’m really living the “famine” lifestyle here.

* For the first week, I ran the program VERY close to what was prescribed.  I would superset the ab work with some other work for the sake of time, because these workouts would take a long time.  After running it as written for the first week, I felt like I had gotten enough of a feel for the intent of the program, and allowed myself to start shortening rest times and playing around with super/giantsets in order to make things a little more time efficient.  Thankfully, Jamie is more than ok with experimentation, so it all fits. 

The precedent is there to be jacked AND experimental

* That said, I had to re-arrange the order of the days so that I ran all the lifting back to back and moved the days off to the weekend, as that fit my work schedule better.  Also, on the first week, instead of doing 30 minutes of push ups, squats, etc etc, I ran 10 miles…because it was the week of that 10 mile run I was talking about.  I counted 2 of those as my walk, and called the rest 8 miles of cardio.

* My current plan for Chaos is to run this program for at least 3 weeks, as that fits my dietary schedule.  Once that’s done, I’m looking at taking on the Feast Routine, and will carry forward some lessons learned for diet.  And with that, why don’t we start discussing some theories and ideas?  That’ll be the next post.

SUMMARY

* In order to heal/recover from Super Squats, I had to undo Super Squats.  I’ve written about this regarding duality and periodization.  Since Super Squats was 1 big set of a lot of reps, I looked for a program that was many sets of few reps.  Super Squats had me squatting 3x a week, so I needed a program that was 1x a week.  Super Squats was heavy on core lifts, so I needed something with a heavy focus on assistance.  I also had a 10 mile run to prep for, so I needed something that was focused on getting me fit. 5/3/1 Krypteia fit the bill, and suited my nutritional overhaul as well.

* Alongside the programming, I also changed up what implements I was using for squatting and deadlifting.  Super Squats was laser focused, so I needed to be all over the place.  Balance.

* I had no issue with 5/3/1 Krypteia and I think it’s a solid protocol, but upon reading Jamie Lewis’ “Feast, Famine and Ferocity Diet” e-book, I pivoted, and that’s where I’m currently at, with plans for the future.