Greetings once again folks. I’ve finished up 15 weeks of Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol, consisting of 3 cycles of General Mass and 2 cycles of specificity, and wanted to share my experience and lessons learned here.
I like to start with the end on these and work backwards, saving you the effort of scrolling.
Also, just a heads up, I'll be on the cruise I talk about in this write-up come next week, so expect a slight delay in that blog update.
THE RESULTS
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| Tactical Mass |
* In 15 weeks, I put on 5.6 kg, going from 79.1 to 84.7, and
the only reason I’m using kilos is because my bathroom scale defaults to that
and I can’t figure out how to make it to pounds. But for a quick conversion, that’s 174lbs to
186: a 12lb gain in 15 weeks, averaging about .8lbs per week. That’s right in the sweet spot of what we’re
told is “optimal gain”, and I did that with no tracking at all.
* As far as lifts go, the most telling is my squat. When I started the program, I estimated my
1rm and had my first workout go with a 4x8x285lb squat, which I alternated with
axle strict pressing out of the rack, waiting at LEAST a minute between
exercises. By the time I finished those
squat, I was in so much pain I felt like I was going to have to quit the
program, and when a co-worker saw me later that day, they asked if I had a
herniated disc. I was NOT moving
healthy, which can be seen in the squat, where I moved VERY slowly up and down.
* On week 15, as part of specificity, I squatted 290 for 5x8
with strict 1 minute rests. So, I had
over half as much rest time, using 5 more pounds and 1 more set, and then
immediately follow it with more squats via lever belt squat. And when it was done, there was no pain in my
back or hips.
* So really, I got bigger, I got stronger, and I got better
conditioned. That’s a success.
* I’ve recorded every single workout along the way, so if you’re interested in observing, you can check it out
THE TRAINING
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| What kind of training? |
* I’ve done 2 check-ins along the way that further detail my
specific training approach. You can read
them here
* But for quick summary: my 15 weeks of training included 3
cycles of Grey Man and 2 cycles of Specificity Bravo. I did not employ a bridge week during that
time, and that’s purely because of my schedule: I have a Cruise (as in, mobile
buffet on the water kind, not drugs) coming up at the end of this week, and was
going to count it was my bridge week, and taking one before that would have
meant not being able to fully complete one cycle of training at some point. All that said, I feel like a bridge would have
been very appropriate before going from Grey Man to Specificity, and quite
possibly even earlier: after the second cycle of Grey Man. I intend to take bridge weeks more frequently
in the future, as 4 months of training without a break is a bit much.
THE NUTRITION
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| Yeah, this was pretty standard |
* This was where I demonstrated the most deviation from the
Tactical Barbell protocol, and, in turn, it’s probably the most
unique/interesting part of the whole experiment. K. Black makes a recommendation based around
counting/tracking calories and macronutrients, emphasizing the significance of
ensuring one gets in an adequate amount of total calories in general, along
with the important of protein for muscle building and carbs for energy and the
support of muscle building. He is very
staunch on the importance of tracking and of carbs in particular.
* So, of course, I did absolutely no tracking whatsoever, of
calories or macros, and the only ate carbs once a week. Along with that, I whittled myself down to
one solid meal in the evening on weekdays and 2 on weekends (breakfast and
dinner), effectively eliminating lunch from my life. This was about as high speed/low drag as
nutrition could possibly become.
* I effectively brought back Jamie Lewis’ “Apex Predator
Diet”. I made use of a protein
supplement (Metabolic Drive by BioTest) to achieve a protein sparing modified
fast on weekdays, getting up at 0400 to train at around 0430, and then having 2
servings of Metabolic Drive at 0630, 0930, 1230 and 2030 (pre-bed), along with
one serving sometime in the middle of the night as a shake I’d keep in my
bathroom in an Ice Shaker. At around
1730-1800, I’d have my one solid meal a day. Much like what Jamie wrote, I did
my best to make this a “meat on the bone” meal.
HOWEVER, I ALSO did my best to make these meals absolutely gigantic
feasts, with the intent being that THIS was going to be the food that was going
to cause the growth of the program. The
protein was just there to ensure that I didn’t go catabolic post training:
keeping a positive nitrogen balance while not trigger a blood sugar spike and
not taxing my digestion. The meal was
the driver of weight gain. I also made
it a point to try to get ruminant animal meat (beef, bison, venison, lamb, etc)
as often as possible for these meals, trying to minimize my intake of
monogastric animals, given I was going to be eating a LOT of meat.
* And along with meat on the bone, I always endeavored to
have eggs (ideally pastured) featured in the meal as well, starting with 3 per
meal, then 4, and eventually settled on no fewer than 5 per meal, but always
willing to go in excess. 2 other regular
features were a quarter cup of grassfed sour cream, and pork cracklin. Those were just convenient foods to get in
more proteins and fats, but if I had enough meat and eggs, I’d omit them. In the context of Apex Predator, these were
the standard days of the protocol, with no days with midday meals. Jamie also wanted calorie waving through the
week, but that never happened intentionally for me, but it DID happen
organically: my schedule was busy enough that, some days, I just couldn’t
cook/eat enough food at the evening meal, and just had to feast as much as I
could and move on.
* Some sample meals include:
A whole rack of beef back ribs with 5 pastured eggs
Ribs, wings and eggs with cottage cheese and cracklin
and surf and turf and turf
with steak, sardines, eggs, cottage cheese and crackling.
* On weekends, I didn’t train in the morning, and would instead sleep in and my wife (who should be nominated for sainthood) would make me breakfast
* My weekend breakfast has a pretty standard format: 2 omelets, made with 3 pastured eggs, grassfed ghee, some sort of grassfed cheese, and then whatever meat is leftover from the week. I’ll top these with grassfed sour cream. Alongside this, I’d typically have some beef bacon, a grassfed beef hot dog, a quarter cup of grassfed cottage cheese and pork cracklin. I’d then fast for the remainder of the day (not a protein sparing modified fast, but traditional fasting) and then have an evening meal similar to what I’d eat on weekdays. I’d also include the 2030 serving of protein, along with the middle of the night serving. In the context of Apex Predator, these days served as the “high calorie keto days”. Typically, Jamie wanted only 1 of these per week, and still 5-6 protein shakes, so I was deviating a little bit here as well.
* Once a week, typically Monday evenings, I’d have a meal
with carbs. In the context of Apex
Predator, this would be the “Rampage Meal”, but I no longer care to binge eat
on these foods. Instead, it would be a
“family meal”, where we’d all sit down and just enjoy some classic “comfort
food” style dish. It was almost always some manner of pasta, either as a
casserole dish (Midwest style stuff) or some spaghetti with bison sauce or a
rigatoni dish, usually paired with some sort of bread, and the highlight was
always the cookies my wife would bake.
For those cookies, I took to applying a layer of honey onto them as well
to really jack up the carb intake, and typically enjoy them with a mug of
fairlife skim milk. Everything was
always homemade with simple quality ingredients (grassfed butter and pastured
eggs in the cookies, pasta that was just “wheat, eggs, water”, pasta sauce with
no added sugar/artificial ingredients, stuff like that). In turn, unlike in the
past, when I’d feast on fast food and pizza, after these “Rampage Meals”, I’d
have no GI discomfort, didn’t start sweating profusely, didn’t enter a carb
coma, etc. I’d eat till I was content,
get in a walk, and be ready for my serving of Metabolic Drive by the evening. And typically, 2 days after that meal, I’d
look leaner than I had before: my body seemed to respond well, replenish
glycogen, and tighten up. Which, in
truth, aside from the family connection, that’s about the only thing that
compelled me to do it. I honestly PREFER
eating just meat and eggs: there is no sacrifice there. But on the few times where I’ve had to skip
the family meal due to logistics, I’ve noted that my physique washes out and I
just look flat.
LESSONS LEARNED, TAKEAWAYS, AND SPECULATION
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| Some lessons DON'T need to be learned the hard way |
* This was, ultimately, a re-introduction to me about the
relationship between stimulus and recovery, remembering that it’s about doing
enough to trigger adaptation and not so much that you blunt your ability to
recover and grow. I’ve been slamming
myself for a long time, making the method the goal, and this time I vectored
myself to be more concerned with the actual outcome of the training and got to
see that pay off.
* Which, on the above, shows the value of having a
program. It provides the bumpers that
keep you on task. However, along with
that, it was MY job to actually FOLLOW the program. Thankfully, whenever I follow a program for
the first time, I’m pretty good about complying with it, because I want to
learn from the experience, but my recent re-runs of some programs had me doing
some silly stuff. But here, I was
willing to trust the process and see what would happen if I did exactly what it
said…as far as training goes.
* This program afforded me an opportunity to heal from the
damage I did to myself in my WAY too long strongman competition prep. Events beat me up, and having my contest
canceled and signing up for one 2 months in the future meant training events
for 2 months too long. I came into
Tactical Barbell incredibly broken, and the intelligent management of volume
allowed me to continue to train while I recovered until I got to the point
where I could really start pushing myself again.
* On that note, the structure of moving from General Mass to
Specificity is a great play. Just about
the time General Mass was starting to beat me up, I moved onto Specificity,
which allowed me to use some lighter weight due to the higher reps. I kept the movements the same throughout both
of those, but opting to change out movements would be another way to spare my
body.
* There are a few ways to progress on these programs. Along with the forced progression of upping
the maxes, since the sets prescribed are a range, I like to start with the
fewest amount of sets and use more sets of follow on cycles. This means I can keep the weight the same
from cycle to cycle and still progress, which allows me to maximize time at a
training max.
* Using the reverse hyper as a programmed movement wasn’t a
smart call. I’ll keep it in the program,
but consider it falling in line with the ab/rear delt work that K. Black allows
the trainee to add into the program. No
need to program it: just get it done.
* My chins still never really got much better, but given my
bodyweight was constantly increasing, I imagine that’s the reason. I do think, next time I run this, I’m going
to permit myself to treat chins like I did with 5/3/1, and just get in a bunch
of sub-max sets in between everything else.
* I want to include the prowler in place of sprints for some
conditioning in the future. I feel like
it will fit well.
* More lessons learned on fatigue management included my
strategic inclusion of the belt when I started doing Specificity. By allowing myself to use the belt on the
heavier workouts of the week, I could spare some fatigue in my lower back,
which allowed me to train more/harder throughout the cycle in general. Much like how I stopped blowing my brains out
in the conditioning so I could have the energy to train harder when it came
time to train, allowing myself to use the belt was allowing me to train more IN
GENERAL, which was allowing me to get stronger in the sessions without the
belt.
* 4x a week of lifting still feels like too much for me at
this point in my life. I think, moving
forward, Specificity phases are just going to be 1 cycle, to shake things up
and allow me to use lighter weights for a bit.
Should time out well to go from General Mass to Specificity to Operator:
the whole “medium-light-heavy” approach to loading.
* Which, on THAT note, I’m going to give myself permission
to screw around with the order of the weeks for future TB runs to implement a
“medium-light-heavy”, similar to Jim Wendler’s 3/5/1 approach. I know from running General Mass and
Specificity that, as each week went by and the reps reduced, the workouts felt
“easier”, despite being heavier, and I think having that light week before the
heavy week would help prime me to really put in maximal effort for that final
push.
* I never needed to implement any of the intensity modifiers
allowed in the programs (AMRAPs, additional sets, etc) and still saw fantastic
growth, but it means there’s just one more tool available.
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