LIFE GRADES ON ATTENDANCE

College was good TO me, but was not good FOR me.  I went to an all boy catholic high school, with a very regimented schedule.  I was a 4 year student athlete, starting with football my freshman year before transitioning to wrestling in my sophomore year onward, and when I wasn’t in season, I was in the marching band, and after I got home from school, we would quickly scarf down dinner and get to Tae Kwon Do practice.  This meant that my day was pretty much mapped out from morning to bed time, and I had minimal distractions from the fairer sex to contend with.  I then enrolled in a university with a 70:30 female to male ratio with NO wrestling team nor a band that wanted anything to do with me.  Suffice to say: my schedule was suddenly freed up, and I had many distractions from academia.  One of my classes, in particular, I had cracked the code on: I only needed to go every OTHER class.  Why?  Because our professor would always spend the FIRST half of class going over what he covered in the LAST class, and then would introduce new material in the second half, which, if you’re doing the calculations, means I had TWO opportunities to learn that new material.  However, the only reason this plan worked was because, unlike high school, this professor did NOT grade on attendance.  As long as I was able to demonstrate mastery of the material come the time of the test, my grade would reflect that.  Life, however, is not as gracious as that professor: irregular attendance will ultimately result in a failing grade.  Because folks, high school was honestly trying to teach you a lesson more valuable than the academic material we learned in undergrad: life grades on attendance.

Thankfully for me, THIS isn't true

 

Much like Woody Allen’s quote that “80% of success is showing up” and Dan John echoing a similar sentiment, irregular attendance in the pursuit of our goals is going to result in a failure to achieve them.  Because unlike academics: we have NO option to “cram before the exam”.  This meme is ever present in our culture, with one of my favorite movies of all time, Rodney Dangerfield’s “Back to School”, giving an outstanding montage of academic cramming before a major comprehensive exam. I know I’ve been guilty of employing the same as well, the notion of filling the brain to the brim of all manner of fact and figure relating to a subject, showing up, purging it all onto a piece of paper, and promptly forgetting everything for the rest of your life.  The outcome of attempting to cram for physical transformation is going to have the same ephemeral result.  We observe this frequently in training facilities: those folks who failed to attend throughout the majority of the year now DESPERATELY trying to cram before the exam of some sort of beach vacation or spring break or homecoming or whathaveyou, slamming 4 hour training sessions on diets of lettuce and water in a futile attempt to be ripped and jacked in a matter of weeks.  At best, they’ll lose about 4lbs, the majority of it being water, while bearing the looks of someone tweaked out of their mind on stimulants, dry, wiry, haggard and scrawny.  But it gets worse…

 

Not only is attempting to cram ineffective: it actively sabotages you.  In one of the cruelest ironies of physical transformation, the harder we try, the worse we get, like some sort of Chinese finger trap.  Oh sure, hard training IS important in order to achieve physical transformation, but it needs to be hard ENOUGH, and once we cross the threshold of “enough”, we immediately start UNDOING out progress.  As per Dan John’s quadrants, when we enter the realm of “train hard-diet hard”, we enter a realm that is ultimately unsustainable: we are existing on borrowed time.  And when we borrow, we ALWAYS pay interest.  As we continue to push our bodies beyond their ability to recover, we incur a debt that will be paid off once we inevitably crash, resulting in a rebound that quite often leaves us WORSE than when we started.  The crash diet we followed in order to try to lean out quickly had us drop significantly more lean mass than had we simply attended diligently, and when the cravings eventually overcome out willpower (which they will), the weight we put BACK on will NOT be mostly lean mass, meaning that we will end up WORSE than how we started: with more fat mass and less lean mass.  To say nothing of how whatever “strength” we accumulated through our ridiculous peaking program will rapidly deplete and our shattered and broken body will need to be rebuilt before we can train reasonably again, taking away training time that could have been better spent on the path to something more sustainable.

Sunvabitch, MtG figured this out so long ago...

 

The meme of the “lazy genius” is so appreciated in our culture because it re-affirms something that we WISH was true: that we can just coast through life without effort and STILL pass the test.  We deride those who actually dutifully attend class, do the homework, work on the project throughout the year rather than saving it all for the last minute as “try-hards”, nerds, and other such derogatory terms, primarily because we want to deny the reality that life grades on attendance…but it is quite simply true.  Large, all out efforts engage in irregular frequency will never beat out consistency over a long stretch.  And the thing is, those large all out efforts MUST be engaged in irregular frequency.  Simply by nature of the demands placed upon us, they’re unsustainable by definition, so attempts to pursue them are destined to fail.  This does not mean that they cannot be pursued every once in a while, when one is in need of some manner of shake up, but to attempt to live in such a manner is an attempt to be truant through the process of physical transformation, and life will be quite cruel in their employment of truancy officers. 

 

And, in truth, we can even observe these lessons IN the realm of academia.  I will shamefully admit that it took until my senior year of undergrad to realize the benefit of gradually working on the end of term paper over the course of the year, rather than saving it all until the night before it was due.  I had convinced myself that the latter approach was the superior one, primarily because I wanted to delude myself into believing this to affirm my own procrastination and laziness, but I operated under the premise that writing it all at once would mean all the information was fresh in my mind and the narrative of the paper would be comprehensively written in one sitting, maintaining continuity.  However, when I took the time to work on the paper gradually, I was able to pace myself and give each section I worked on my absolute and total focus, and when I had reached a point where my work quality was deteriorating due to fatigue, I’d simply put the paper away for the day and come back to it when I was ready for more.  When the day before the paper was due arrived, I was already complete with my work AND had already had the time to review it thoroughly, make revisions, and include new material I had discovered along the way, whereas, previously, all that “post work” had to be forfeited due to scheduling issues.  I also observed that I had earned the ire of many of my classmates, who wondered why I wasn’t staying up all night using the on-campus restaurant’s wifi (this was mid 2000s, so wifi was still limited) and mainlining energy drinks trying to condense an entire academic semester into 10 hours of work.  Because we WANT to believe in the lazy genius…but it doesn’t work.  Because life grades on attendance.

Although I suppose there ARE other ways to get the paper done...

 

And that paper is an allegory for our own results in physical transformation.  You will earn the ire of those who are irregularly attending when you’ve been dutifully attending for decades, because they THINK they’re putting in more effort simply because, during the brief periods that they DO attend, it’s quite intense…to the point of sabotage.  The final product they develop is ultimately inferior to the one developed gradually over time.  For much like how we shut down the paper when the quality starts to decline, we shut down the training and nutrition when high quality is no longer being produced, meaning we are ONLY the product of high quality inputs, resulting in high quality outputs.  Because life is grading us on attendance.  Even if we KNOW the material, even if we can demonstrate mastery of it, even if we can pass the test, if we haven’t shown up to every class along the way, we’re going to get a failing grade.

YOU ALREADY HAVE THE TOOLS

 

A phrase taught to me by one of my mentors was “learned helplessness”, which effectively describes a phenomenon wherein a group of people, fully capable of solving their own problems with resources already available to them, find themselves in a state where they feel powerless to proceed.  They have, ultimately, learned how to shoot down their own approaches before they have a chance to succeed and, unless hand-held and stepped through the problem solving process, believe themselves to be powerless to being the masters of their own fate.  This is a situation that I frequently observe among trainees in the realm of physical transformation: this self-fulfilling prophecy that they lack the skills, tools and resources to be able to overcome whatever obstacles they face on their quest for transformation.  What I hope to be able to establish here is that we all already possess all the tools we need in order to achieve success: we may simply need to go about applying them in unconventional manners in order to obtain the results we seek.  Much like how one may find themselves screwing in screws with a butterknife because their screwdriver is MIA, or how they leave up their Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween decorations because they realize they can also double as Christmas Decorations (and if it’s Jack and Sally, you can leave them up through Valentine’s Day too!), or how Wendy’s figured out that it can make chili by taking unsold burger patties and letting them stew for a day, sometimes all it takes is a little creativity in order for us to effectively utilize the tools we ALREADY have in order to solve what appear to be “new” problems.  Allow me to demonstrate.

Hopefully with fewer mistakes

 

One of the earliest barriers to entry in the realm of physical transformation is, quite literally, the barrier to entry: the actual entering of the gym itself.  This is primarily because new trainees often find themselves intimidated at the prospect of physically entering the gym and being among a group of people that are advanced in the ways of physical transformation.  People that are bigger, stronger, leaner, fitter, and ultimately far more comfortable in the training environment are off-putting and intimidating to the new, soft trainee standing there in their Walmart mesh training shorts and bright white New Balance sneakers looking up “how to” lat pulldown videos on youtube.  Often, trainees want to train BEFORE they train: aiming to actually get in shape and comfortable with lifting weights BEFORE they actually join a gym, so that they can “be ready” to join a gym.

 

But folks, we already HAVE the skillset to overcome this anxiety.  I imagine the vast majority of my readers have received SOME manner of formal education (but I do allow for the possibility that some of you were raised by wolves and learned how to read through the help of missionaries, so good on you).  Think about the process of attending a school: when you show up, you are, quite literally, the STUPIDEST person there, SORROUNDED by people that are much smarter than you, because they’ve been going to that school for longer than you have.  You are completely out of your element, the lowest on the totem pole, starting from zero.  How did you overcome the anxiety of this situation?  What coping strategies did you employ?  Would that same strategy not work here, in the gym, under the same circumstance?  All these people that are fitter than you are no different than all those upperclassmen from before: they’re simply people that have been attending for longer than you have.  No one is a superhuman, no one was born that way.  SURE, there are some genetic outliers that had things come more NATURALLY to them, in much the same way that some folks are simply more intelligent than others, but in general: life grades on attendance, and so far yours is minimal.  Rack up a solid streak of no absences and you’ll be in a good way.  As Hank Hill said about Bobby “My boy here might not be the best test taker, but he’s got near perfect attendance”.

Plus he's got nutrition locked DOWN!

 

Note that I’m not saying WHAT that specific strategy is…because I genuinely don’t know how YOU overcame that.  I just know that, somehow, most of us did.  Very few of us showed up to day 1 of Kindergarten, completely melted down and got locked in a psych ward until we turned 18 (and those that did most likely aren’t reading a blog about physical transformation written weekly by a lunatic).  Or, for those of us that got an undergrad degree, show up on campus the first day, observe PhD students, and decided to just go quit and become tattoo artists instead.  And same with those of you that have every played some sort of organized sport (possibly as part of a team OF the very school we’re discussing): you showed up to practice on day 1, not knowing how to do anything, surrounded by people that were better than you, but somehow managed to keep attending and get better.  For me, it was the sheer enthusiasm of the prospect of self-improvement that compelled me forward: how awesome that I’m going to get to learn and do new things!  How awesome that I’m going to become better each and every day!  If that wasn’t what helped you succeed, just think about what you DID do to get there…and do that.

 

I find a similar situation occurs when it comes to nutritional compliance.  First, a discussion on language, because we talk about “cheat meals” or “cheat days”, in reference to “cheating on our diet”.  So here’s the thing: when we cheat in sports or a game, we refer to that to mean “breaking the rules to gain an advantage”.  When one cheats on their diet, they break the “rules” of the diet, but gain no advantage: they actually set themselves BACK.  They regress.  It’s more like cheating and getting CAUGHT: you get penalized.  So, instead, we must understand that a dietary “cheat” is more to be understood in the same manner as cheating in a relationship: it’s a violation of the sanctity of the bounds of the relationship.  It’s unfaithfulness.  One is not remaining faithful to the bounds of their way of eating.

I am SO proud of myself for thinking of this image to tie that whole paragraph together

 

So, in THAT regard, let’s dig deeper there and talk about skillset.  Now, here, I AM being presumptuous of my readers, but I am hoping that many of you have had some manner of long term relationship with another human wherein there was an understanding of faithfulness shared between you.  It doesn’t have to be marriage, or even anything named, but simply an understanding.  Within this relationship, HOW did you manage to “endure” the temptations out there to cheat?  All the other beautiful people that exist in the world, all the other people that you could share a bond with, all the other people that you could have this similar relationship with, what strategies did you employ to SOMEHOW manage to remain faithful in spite of it all?

 

Can we not employ that exact same strategy when it comes to nutritional faithfulness?  Does that sound whacky?  Then maybe you’ve had some poor relationships, either with people or with food.  Think about it: if you have to “white-knuckle” your relationship (with food OR with a person), you KNOW it’s not going to last.  We’ve all seen OR been part of those relationships that are hanging on by a thread that EVERYONE else knows aren’t going to last, where it almost seems like an endurance race of spite between the two entities to see who is going to crack first.  In such an instance, cheating isn’t cheating: it’s an escape hatch.  It’s a way to get OUT.  The only REAL issue with cheating here is that it demonstrates a lack of maturity: an unwillingness to confront the REAL problem and to resolve it by officially terminating the relationship.  Instead, cheating is just seeking MOMENTS of escape before returning back to the failed relationship.

For anyone else, this is a cheat meal.  For Joey, this is remaining faithful.

 

In turn, we discover that the skillset for nutritional compliance is no different from the skillset for relationship compliance: picking the right partner.  Ultimately, we need a compatible relationship: we need to have a relationship with someone/something that we actually RESONATE with on a deep enough level that the prospect of cheating is undesirable, NOT because of the consequences of cheating (ala cheating in a game) but because the relationship itself is so rewarding that we gain NO advantage FROM cheating.  If you’ve ever been in a good human relationship, you understand the positive feeling associated with having another person in your life that is a joy to be with, who makes you better by nature of simply being with you, who evens out your odds and brings you balance as a person, such that your mind exists in a harmonious state wherein the notion of cheating never even enters your thoughtspace.  Much like those who fail diets speak of “food noise”, you have no “cheat noise” when you are in a GOOD relationship: it simply isn’t on your mind.  How we eat needs to model such a relationship: it needs to be an approach that is so infinitely sustainable and natural that we do not exist in a constant anxiety ridden state worried about “going off path” or living in a state of consistent FOMO and regret from restriction.  And much like how not everyday of a human relationship is sunshine and puppies, not every meal of a good way of eating is going to be the best food we’ve ever had in our lives, but it SHOULD be an approach wherein we exist with such inherent contentment that we feel no temptation TO cheat.  The successful strategy for relationship compliance isn’t some sort of psychological trick or biohack to prevent us from being hungry (looking at you GLP-1 agonist): it’s to have a relationship that is so right for who we are that we have no desire TO cheat.

 

And hey, let’s just keep this analogy going, because honestly this could be it’s own entire blog-post but I know that the ones that are just about nutrition tend to go over poorly.  But it’s true that we CAN sometimes intentionally enter into relationships that we KNOW aren’t going to work out for us.  On the human side of things, we refer to these as “flings”, or they could also be hook-ups or one-night-stands, but whatever we’re calling them, these are very much transactional/functional relationships where you’re effectively just extracting as much enjoyment as you can out of another person before you go your separate ways, knowing full well that whatever it is that you have is never going to go the distance.  We see these same things in the world of nutrition.  This is a bodybuilding prep diet, or a gallon of milk a day gaining diet: EXTREME nutritional approaches meant to accomplish a specific goal in a finite amount of time before moving on to the next new thing.  But in either case, we STILL need to employ the same strategy: we need to know when it’s time to call it off, move on, and not look back.  Because much like it’s painful to see one person in a relationship who never got the memo that it was just a fling and nothing serious, it’s VERY hard to observe the trainee who is STILL eating like it’s prep-mode months after the show has ended.  Or the dude who is PERMANANETLY in “gain mode”.  All of these approaches are going to have some short and long term damaging effects to one’s health: psychological or otherwise.  If we engage in these flings, we have to know them for what they are, and know when it’s time to call it quits. 

Because even the strongest men in history knew when to walk away from softshell crab

Holy cow this spiraled on me, and I actually feel like I can keep writing on it, so maybe that’s what I’ll do in the future, but I’ve already written twice as much as I usually do, so let me give you some short words of closing wisdom here.  Much like how the Greeks postulated all narratives are built upon a limited number of universal themes, the obstacles that we encounter in life aren’t nearly as unique as we would like to believe that they are.  Most likely, we have encountered SOMETHING similar before, much earlier in our lives, when we weren’t NEARLY as well equipped to deal with them as we are now, yet somehow we were able to triump THEN.  If we take those same skillsets and strategies and employ our even larger experience and knowledge base, we’re sure to come up with even more superior solutions.

LIKE A DOG WITH KIBBLE

Dogs are amazing.  I grew up with a Dalmation, a total sweetheart that my brother and I named “Zelda”, for obvious reasons for anyone that has read this blog and knows how big of a nerd I was growing up…and presently, as this trend continued with dogs named Kirby, Yoshi, Toadette and a soon to be welcomed into the family Luigi.  We, as a species, do not deserve dogs, and, in turn, we can learn a LOT from them.  They teach us unconditional love, they have a zest for life that is compelling, they know how to play hard, and they tend to be incredible judges of character, because, quite frankly, if my dog doesn’t like you, then I don’t like you either.  But one of the most admirable qualities of a domesticated dog is displayed when you feed them.  Now, before I tell this story, I’m going to warn my readers that I DO feed my dogs kibble, so I apologize if that triggers those of you that ONLY feed your dogs a raw diet of berries and figs that were massaged by virgins from Nepal before blessed by at least 4 different Popes: that’s just not my situation.  But, anyway, if you’ve never owned or fed a dog before, there’s something really incredible to observe whenever you feed them their bowl of kibble: the dog is ALWAYS excited for it.  We feed our dogs twice a day, and as soon as you say “breakfast” or “dinner”, their ears perk up, their eyes get big, they start drooling, and as you walk over to the foodbowl, they are ALL up in your business.  Our female pug, Yoshi, used to do a little prance on her way to the foodbowl, and it got to the point that, if it was even REMOTELY close to food time and you were walking ANYWHERE in the house, that dog would follow you the entire time,  prancing, as if to give you a subtle reminder that it may, in fact, be time to feed her.  Yet, there’s never anything NEW on the menu: it’s ALWAYS the same kibble.  It’s the same kibble it was yesterday, and it’s the same kibble it will be tomorrow…and the dog is SO excited about it.  It cannot WAIT to get that kibble: this is THE highlight of the day, as far as the dog is concerned.  Why can’t WE be like that?  Why can’t WE be like a dog with kibble?

I suppose some of us ARE like that...

Believe me: I get it.  I grew up with the Animal Pak ads of the early 2000s, where Frank McGrath was always slumped over in a hoodie and a pair of workboots in a morose black and white photo, looking like a broken shell of a man while a loaded barbell mocked him inside the confines of what appeared to be the set of a snuff film with one dimly lit dangling light blub adjacent to a water heater and a radiator.  It was a striking visual that told us to “embrace the grind”…but perhaps we focused too much on that “grind” part and not enough on the “embrace”.  We thought we were so cool to SUFFER through the day to day grind of training, but it appears that we completely missed out on what it means to truly embrace something.  Instead of enduring the grind, instead of suffering through the grind, instead of surviving the grind, we should very well WELCOME the grind.  We should be EXCITED for the grind.  Like a dog with kibble, every time that grind shows up, we should be able to think to ourselves “oh boy: I get this AGAIN?!  How many times in a row am I going to be so lucky?!”  It should not be “I HAVE to train”: it should be “I GET to train”.

Just in case you thought I was being hyperbolic describing the ads

 

And like a dog with kibble, the analogy very easily transcends to our own experiences at the dinner table.  WHY are you sitting there, choking down dry chicken breasts and rice with broccoli with no flavor whatsoever?  Because it makes you hardcore to do so?  Because suffering is how we progress?  Here we are flawed in many ways.  For the one: we display a SIGNIFICANT degree of ungratefulness: to be afforded the LUXURY of such an abundance of nutrition that we feel as though we SUFFER when we eat a highly nutritious meal in the pursuit of vanity while others must go without, subsiding on scraps or, simply nothing.  We overstate our own significance here.  And if we could rightly orient our perspective, we could learn to approach this meal like a dog with kibble: so amazed that, somehow, we get to eat AGAIN at a time of our choosing with the food that nourishes us.  But thirdly, we display that we’ve set ourselves up for failure by intentionally pursuing a nutritional strategy that is, flat out, unsustainable.  Any approach that requires willpower to succeed is an approach that is simply not indefinitely sustainable, for willpower itself is a finite resource.  And perhaps this IS a phasic approach to nutrition you are employing, perhaps the intent IS to only do this for a little bit to achieve a goal, but then, as Dan John points out, we must ask the question of “now what?”  What is our plan to move OUT of this unsustainable approach into something that we CAN approach like a dog with kibble?  An approach wherein, each and every time we are presented with the opportunity to partake, we don’t approach with resentment or ennui but, instead, a legitimate excitement.

And yes, I realize that for years I’ve written about how suffering is a necessary part of the process of growing, but understand what is being said here.  This is not to say that, as we are enduring the suffering of the training we must be jubilant, excited and happy. This is a call for that excitement when the time comes to engage IN the suffering.  That we are excited that we GET to train, that we GET to eat, that we are, once again, afforded an opportunity to further our physical transformation and become closer to the ideal image we have of ourselves.  That if we are approaching these situations with dread, with reservations, with resentment, we are simply on an unsustainable path that will have consequences with the rebound inevitably strikes once the willpower is exhausted.  That if we have handcuffed ourselves to a nutritional dogma because it’s “the right one”, if it results in us dreading the experience of eating and never feeling “right”, we will inevitably crash hard as our body claws and scratches it’s way back to what it KNOWS is right for itself.  That if we marry ourselves to a training protocol that just never gels with our psychology, irrespective of how backed it is by science, it will never allow us to realize our true potential, as we will simply never give to it the amount of diligence it is due.  That, if we do not approach our training and nutrition in the same manner a dog approaches it’s kibble every single day, we will be unable to exist in the same naturally blissful state as our canine companions, who never worry about achieving the right macros or getting the correct amount of exercise per day and, instead, are simply out there living a far more authentic life than the majority of us.

See: it's ok to smile

 

We don’t deserve dogs, and they love us so much that they’ll teach us these lessons in spite of that.

1 YEAR OF TACTICAL BARBELL: THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES

INTRO

You could definitely pick far worse trinities to follow

Despite training for 25 years, I have had the attention span of an ADHD addled ferret on triple espresso when it comes to training methodologies, as I seem to only stick with one for a few months at a stretch before something shiny comes along and I jump ship and do something new.  Oh sure, I COMPLETE programs, but I rarely ever stick with an actual methodology proper long enough  to REALLY see what it’s all about.  I’ve done Super Squats, but never did the follow-on 5x5 program, followed by another cycle of the squats, as the book recommends.  I ran Easy Strength combined with Mass Made Simple, but never did another cycle of Easy Strength afterwards.  I’ve run several 5/3/1 programs, but once the specific program was done, I didn’t follow it up with an “appropriate” 5/3/1 program, nor properly repeat the program in the leader/anchor style Jim Wendler recommends.  I’ve run DoggCrapp for a 2 month run and a 3 month run respectively, just long enough for some blasts and never for the cruise.  And I certainly never repeated Deep Water over and over again per Jon Andersen’s recommendation.  But here I am, having accomplished a full year of using the Tactical Barbell system, and I foresee no signs of stopping.  Something about this system just hits differently, and I want to take the time to discuss what, exactly, that is, my experience with it, changes I’ve made, takeaways, and forecasts toward the future.

 

BACKGROUND

No radioactive spiders necessary for this origin story

This is already going to be a long read, so I’ll try to be brief.  I currently compete in strongman, and have done so since 2013.  Prior to that, I competed in 3 powerlifting meets from 2010-2012, and have a background in martial arts and wrestling (I’ve done 3 grappling tournaments on a whim recently, despite not having trained grappling since 2006).  I’ve also run 2 half marathons, and a handful of 10 miler, 10ks and 5ks. All this to say, I like being big, strong, and capable.  I’ve been lifting weights since I was 14 back in 1999, and have trained with a lot of different programs during that time (reference the intro).  I’ve also experienced a handful of injuries from my time in athletics, to include a shoulder with a torn labrum after 6 dislocations and multiple subluxations, a left knee that was surgically repaired after a ruptured ACL, torn meniscus and fractured patella, and a right knee with an undiagnosed but most likely torn meniscus.

 

When I started Tactical Barbell, I was dealing with those kinds of injuries.  I had just finished up a strongman competition which, despite winning, the training cycle for it had completely destroyed me.  My right hip was in so much agony that I had to literally pull myself DOWN to the barbell to get set up for deadlifts because I couldn’t voluntarily lower myself, and one of my co-workers asked me if I had herniated a disk based on how I was walking.  Through sheer willpower, I could force myself to complete workouts and compete, but my ability to just simply locomote day-to-day was absolutely shot and I was concerned that I was going to need to give up lifting for good in the near future.

 

DISCOVERING TACTICAL BARBELL

An introduction I was not ready for at the time

Interestingly enough, I had already read Tactical Barbell books 1 and 2 well before this moment.  But, at the time, they just didn’t resonate with me.  In truth, I was too obstinate: at the time, I was obsessed with training as hard as possible, both in lifting and conditioning, and not really concerned with the outcome of that training.  I was too focused on what I was accomplishing within the workout, vs what the workouts were accomplishing within the training cycle.  But after finishing up that terrible training cycle before that strongman competition I mentioned above, I found myself the scrawniest I had been in quite a while, as my attempts to make weight matched with a poor training approach had me shed a lot of muscle and strength.  As I was trying to come up with a way forward to regain some mass, the “Mass Protocol” e-book popped up as recommended reading for my kindle, and being a lover of all things related to gaining weight (see my previous posts on the subject), I dove in.  If you’ve read my review of that book, you know what a big fan of it I turned out to be, and that got me started on this path.

 

WHAT I’VE DONE

I mean...you gotta stick with the plan

I’ve already written extensive reviews of my training blocks within Tactical Barbell, and to prevent this from running even longer I won’t repeat those here, but for an overview of my timeline, I started off with the Mass Protocol, running Grey Man specifically, followed by Specificity Bravo.  I found that Grey Man slid perfectly into Bravo, as I could take all the same lifts I was doing and just arrange them into a push/pull split rather than a 3x a week full body approach.  This was from Mid September all the way through the New Year, at which point I embarked on a VERY long run of Operator until the start of August.  This was a result of me wanting to train for 2 different strongman competitions, along with a 10 mile race, within that window of time, which required me to keep my bodyweight down and my strength up.  Once that season ended, I got back on Mass Protocol Grey Man (with the modifications I wrote about in my most recent review) and will be following that up with Specificity Bravo.  From here, I intend to really give “OMS” a solid shot, as I’ve got nothing significant in my horizon to train for.

 

WHY I LIKE TACTICAL BARBELL IN GENERAL (WHY I’VE STUCK WITH IT FOR A YEAR)

Not having to do any of this is part of the reason

·       It tells you EXACTLY what to do.  At this point in my life, I (clearly) needed that, because when I let myself design my own training program, I ended up incredibly broken.  HOWEVER, this also required me to be in the right head space to be able to RECEIVE this instruction.  If you’re the type of dude that, as soon as they get a training program, immediately goes about changing it before giving it a try: this isn’t going to work.  However, if you're open to the instruction, this does a fantastic job of balancing stimulus with recovery.

·       But to continue riffing on the above, Tactical Barbell struck me as what I always wanted 5/3/1 to be.  In truth, you can see Jim’s influence in K. Black’s writing, but whereas Jim (rightfully) leaves a lot of room to the reader to make 5/3/1 work for them, Tactical Barbell provides much tighter bumpers that remove any ambiguity and gives clear marching orders.  Yet, at the same time, there IS room to play within the programming, as for one, K. Black will continue to re-iterate “this is what works for me and the people I train, but feel free to do what works for you”, but along with that, within the TB structure itself there is still some room for variance.  All the conditioning workouts in TBII are scalable, the workouts in TBI often include rep and set ranges to allow for some auto-regulation, and Mass Protocol allows for an either very streamlined approach or the opportunity to throw in some extra work and movements as needed.

·       I love how the whole thing is a SYSTEM.  Once again, I’ll contrast with 5/3/1, wherein Jim does a fantastic job outlining the conditioning requirements of his programs (3 hard conditioning workouts, 5 easy ones, for example) and he provides examples of what conditioning workouts exist, but beyond that, the trainee determines their fate.  With TB, you have specific conditioning protocols (Green or Black) which slot into your training protocols based off the goals of the training block.  Shorter, high intensity efforts are black, longer lower intensity efforts are green.  From there, we go to the collection of prebuilt conditioning workouts and select the ones that fit our schedule and equipment allowance and are all set.  It’s all plug and play and requires minimal thinking or planning.  The same is true of the lifting: ones the weights are figured out, plug in the percentage and go.  There are no PR sets to content with: progress is measured simply by sustained compliance.

·       The system aspect continues when you read through the Mass Protocol book and are given VERY CLEAR instructions on how to program block training.  Again: this DOES exist in other training systems (5/3/1, Westside, Deep Water, the works of Dan John, etc): K. Black just manages to break out the crayons and make it all dummy proof.  His “O-M-S” protocol (for “Operator-Mass-Specificity”) provides you with a very simple way to periodize your training, with a focus on maximal strength development, general hypertrophy training, and then a lighter weight/high rep follow-on phase.  And since the conditioning requirements change with each phase of training, the periodization continues in that manner as well, irrespective of what you’ve selected as your Operator conditioning protocol, because Mass REQUIRES the green protocol while specificity requires Black, so no matter what you get variety.  Additionally, there’s a bit of genius in the loading structure of this approach, as loads will be their heaviest on Operator, then get lighter during Mass, and even lighter during Specificity.  It prevents the trainee from grinding themselves into dust in any one particular modality, and by the time they come back round, it’s a breath of fresh air.

·       It’s incredibly adaptable.  I’ve used it to prepare for 2 different strongman competitions, a grappling competition, and a 10 mile race, along with simply getting lean for a cruise and putting on size, and within the framework is everything I need to succeed.  This DOES require some creativity in interpreting instructions or a willingness to allow yourself to go off the reservation at times, but sticking with the principles outlined allows it to all fit well.

 

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TACTICAL BARBELL I’S OPERATOR SPECIFICALLY

It's like the ultimate team up

·       This program was an excellent choice when my goals involved athletic performance and reducing bodyweight to meet weight class requirements.  Per my final bullet in the above paragraph, it was easy to plug in strongman lifts as my main lifts during the lifting workouts, and include strongman events or distance training for the conditioning portions.  And then, along with that, since the lifting was all about practicing and keeping things sub-maximal, I could run this program while my food intake was reduced without any concern for recovery. 

·       You really “own the weight”, ala Jim Wendler, with Operator.  You have 3 opportunities per week to lift the same weights on the same lifts, and by the time you get to the third workout, you’re cruising.  I really enjoyed how gradual the progression scheme worked, as a result.  Progressing weight week to week rather than day to day felt far more sustainable, especially, once again, in a state of reduced food.  It’s the opposite of that “oh sh*t” experience you get from programs like Building the Monolith or Deep Water, where you feel a sense of doom for the next workout.

·       It honestly feels like magic how, if you have the right maxes selected, each training cycle you hit the lifts exactly as laid out.  No guesswork.

·       As a home gym owner, it was nice that I could leave my gym set up the same way all week, vs having to change the configuration from workout to workout.

·       Even with the strict rules of the program, there’s ways to play around and introduce novelty.  I took to making the days that I deadlifted to be the days I did as few working sets of other movements as possible (3 instead of 4 or 5), and have contemplated runs where I play around with the sets the whole week, starting with 4, dropping to 3 in the middle workout, finishing with 5, in a “medium-light-heavy” approach.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TACTICAL BARBELL II

At least NOW I won't be tired if I run

·       The creation of “conditioning protocols” just answers so many questions, clears up so much ambiguity, and creates the ultimate “plug and play” approach to conditioning.  Even if I wasn’t running a Tactical Barbell strength program, I can easily see myself just stealing from TBII or Mass Protocol’s conditioning protocol ideas.  I actually was kicking around that idea with Mass Made Simple, combining it with the Mass Protocol conditioning recommendations to fulfill Dan’s “recharge” workouts.

·       The vault of workouts just further reinforces shutting off your brain and getting work done.  The fact that each workout can be scaled to 3 different levels provides a LOT of options, and from there one can easily figure out “the pattern” of these workouts and find a way to fit in their own (as I did with strongman stuff).

·       The idea of mixing the hardest week of lifting with the lightest week of conditioning is just more genius from K. Black as far as basic periodization and structure goes.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT MASS PROTOCOL GREY MAN

He's not wrong

·       After squatting with a bar on my body 3x a week with Operator, cutting it down to 3x every 2 weeks (if employing the A/B/A, B/A/B style) or twice a week (If employing A/B/A repeating) is refreshing.  And because of my supplemental movement selection, I’m still SQUATTING 3x a week: just one of those days is a belt squat rather than a barbell squat.

·       The varying rep ranges each week are much more mentally sustainable.  It creates a novelty effect, and makes each week something to look forward to in it’s own right.  The week with the highest reps is the lightest week, which is a break from heavy lifting, but the heaviest week has the fewest reps and tends to go by the fastest.

·       Mass gaining phases are always the most rewarding phase of training, because you’re in a state of building and can very clearly observe progress.  Even though this isn’t a strength phase of training, I get quite strong when I do this, as I’m eating to support growing and feel incredible in each training session.  With Operator, when food was low, there were times that the training sessions were a drag.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT MASS PROTOCOL SPECIFICITY BRAVO

Frank's got the right idea

·       This is a great time to really give the body a break with some lighter loads, because even Grey Man can get heavy toward the end of the run.  This is a great primer for a follow-on Operator run, AND, if you keep the rest periods tight at 1 minute, there’s even a bit of a conditioning element to it.

·       The high intensity conditioning, even though reduced in duration, is a refreshing break after so much time spent during low intensity work on Grey Man.

·       This program follows on perfectly with Grey Man, as you just take the same movements you were doing before, slot them into push/pulls, and you’ve got a “new” program.

 

THINGS I’VE DONE DIFFERENTLY

So I may have taken a few liberties...

I’ve covered this stuff in individual write-ups, so I won’t try to speak too much to it, but I’ve made a few adjustments and tweaks along way that I can cover quickly here.

·       Per K. Black’s allotment, I always include ab/core training at the end of the lifting workouts.  It’s either ab wheel, hanging leg raise or GHR sit-ups, and usually just dependent on what equipment/floor space is available.  I also include the reverse hyper as core training, and will train that 1-2x per week, also at the end of the workout, usually superset with some ab work.

·       I also like to include band pull aparts whenever possible.  After dislocating my right shoulder 6 times, I take all the rear delt work I can.

·       I never got much out of the heavy weighted chins, so I switched back to the 5/3/1 tactic of just doing a set of sub-max chins between my other exercises.  With Operator, I do it once the set ends and then start my 2 minute timer.  With Grey Man, for the main work I start my 2 minute rest timer and do the chins as part of the rest period, and then will do it between exercises for the supplemental and assistance work.  For Specificity, it’s just between exercises.  I also include it between sets of warm-up sets, just to get in more volume.

·       I swapped out conventional deadlift sets/programming at about the 8 month mark and went back to ROM progression cycles and have found that it just fits me better.  Thankfully, it’s very easy to slot in to Tactical Barbell.

·       My most recent run of Grey Man had me go A/B/A-repeat vs A/B/A, B/A/B-repeat, and this worked out well with the above bullet of ROM progression deads.  It’s very similar to 5/3/1 Building the Monolith in that regard. 

·       I haven’t done this yet, but I’ve contemplated running Grey Man in a similar manner as 3/5/1 from Jim Wendler, starting the cycle with the middle week, going to the first week, finishing with the third week, in a “Medium-light-heavy” approach.  I’m sure it would work, but I just haven’t had the need to do it yet.

·       And, of course, I never follow the nutritional instructions, but K. Black always says you’re free to try whatever you want.

 

THE FUTURE

The future looks intense!

I turn 40 in October, and I genuinely regret having taken this long to discover this approach, which is a sentiment I remember seeing a LOT on Jim’s 5/3/1 Forum on t-nation and thinking “yeah, sure”, but it’s true.  I feel like, had I found this at 30, I’d be in an even better place than I am now, but at least take solace in the fact that I still have quite a few more productive years ahead of me, especially so armed with the “Ageless Athlete” Tactical Barbell Book, which I didn’t even go into here, but is yet another incredible asset in the library.

 

For now, I intend to continue on O-M-S for the foreseeable future: training to gain and eating to supporting it for 9 week stretches with Mass and Specificity, then taking 4 weeks to “dry out” with a bridge week followed by a 3 week Operator block.  This is, of course, all assuming no competitions to prepare for.  If something comes along my way, I’ll most likely give myself 2-3 cycles of Operator to prepare for it before getting back on target. 

 

But, of course, chaos is the plan, and I fully account of occasional one-offs back to my greatest hits of Deep Water, Super Squats or Mass Made Simple whenever I want to chase a wild hare, but Tactical Barbell is so perfectly modular that I don’t really see an issue here.  Those programs are all 6 week blocks that I could easily slot in somewhere along the way, call it a Mass block, hit up a bridge week and get back to the program.  As it stands, I’m good with calling Tactical Barbell my core system and moving from there.