OBSERVATIONS FROM EVAN PARKER’S “SUPERSHRED ME” McCARNIVORE DIET

I fell hard for some Instagram clickbait, so much so that I actually made an account so I could view the whole story (found here: https://www.instagram.com/supershredme/).  Evan Parker is a new/soon to be influencer that lost 11lbs in 30 days and significantly reduced his bodyfat eating nothing but McDonalds, in an attempt to achieve the opposite of Morgan Spurlock’s efforts in “Supersize Me”.  Specifically, Evan employed what he referred to as the “McCarnivore Diet”: a “relaxed carnivore” diet wherein he ate primarily quarter pounder patties, cheese, bacon, round eggs, sausage patties, pickles and (at the start) ice cream and small servings of bread.  Evan’s bodyweight went from 183lbs to 172, so this was not the case of a 400lb person losing some water weight, and his after photos demonstrate the presence of muscle tone, indicating that this was not an untrained individual benefitting from the novel response of training.

Ignore the subcaptions: this is an amateur before and after job done by myself

As much of a publicity stunt as this can easily be chalked up to, in watching all 30 days of this eating, I found that there were some significant takeaways from what he did that could be employed in many other attempts at nutritional intervention.  To include:

 

HE MADE IT SUSTAINABLE

I mean, the precedent is there

Evan was very adamant that this was a “relaxed carnivore” approach, and he employed this approach for multiple reasons.  Biologically, he wanted to ensure that his transition from a traditional western American diet to a carnivore approach was not so significant a shock to his system that he experienced withdraw effects, aka “the keto flu”.  Using the nutrition information provided by McDonalds, he was able to determine the intake he would need for 50g of carbs per day during the initial wave of the diet, which he then worked down to 25g, before going effectively 0g in the final 2 weeks.  And this ALSO permitted him the ability to still have “treats” like an ice cream cone and the muffins from the breakfast sandwiches, which afforded some psychological sustainability as well.

 

But along with that, he made it FINANCIALLY sustainable as well by leveraging deals afforded to him via the app, completing surveys, and employing the “ala carte” ordering options in order to create a budget that boiled down to effectively $6 per meal at 1-2 meals per day.  Living in Hawaii, Evan noted that the cost of a McDonald’s quarter pounder patty ala carte was effectively cheaper than buying 1/4lb of beef at the store.  Evan found an approach that could be repeated indefinitely without significant financial strain, AND it even came with the bonus of requiring no cooking/cleaning, so it was the ultimate in “high speed/low drag” operations.

 

And finally, despite the fact that fast food is already hyperpalatable and engineered specifically for maximum enjoyment, he made it sustainable by being able to find foods that fit within his parameters yet still afforded him variety.  This was not the “quarter pounder patty diet for 30 days”, and, instead, if you watch all 30 days, you’ll see Evan get quite creative with the limited menu afforded to him.  At one point he declares that he’s going to do JUST beef patties for the remainder of the challenge, and then quickly abandons course in order to allow cheese and bacon, which gave him what he needed to be able to make it to the end.  And Evan constantly commented about how much he enjoyed eating the food he was eating.  Compliance was easy to achieve.  I feel this speaks to another aspect that allowed him to succeed:

 

GUIDELINES AND STRUCTURE, NOT RULES

Imagine being able to get "Fight Club ripped" without Fight Club rules...

All successful diets employ some manner of restriction.  Time restriction (we only eating during certain windows), energy restriction (we only eat a certain amount of food total) or nutrient restriction (we DON’T eat 1 or 2 of the 3 macronutrients).  Evan’s approach employed all 3, but in a manner that did not FEEL like restriction.

 

Evan always kept the goal the goal here, to take from Dan John, and he operated under a series of guidelines that were intended to help him reach that goal.  These weren’t rules and laws created by a deity that he was supposed to feel guilt for if he broke them: these were simply guidelines there to keep him on track and give him a vector.  This was the “McCarnivore diet”, so if pickles showed up on occasion, it wasn’t the biggest deal. 

 

That said, the structure of the diet ALSO created some “bumpers” that helped keep Evan on track.  Though one of the pros of eating McDonalds for every meal is that you don’t have to shop for food, cook or clean, one of the cons is that you don’t have ANY food unless you go to McDonalds.  This created a necessary “barrier to entry” for Evan as it related to eating.  There was no opportunity to mindlessly snack, no sneaking off in the night to raid the fridge: if he wanted to eat, he had to go out and get it.  It’s honestly very “hunter/gatherer” meets Wall-E.  But what this ended up doing was putting Evan in a position where he only ate 1-2 meals a day, because logistically, based around his personal schedule, it was what he could facilitate.  This, in turn, necessitated another form of nutrition strategy, such that…

 

THE FOOD SELECTION ENSURED SUCCESS

Again: the precedent is there...

The reason Evan COULD sustain a 1-2 meal a day approach is BECAUSE of the foods he chose to eat with his McCarnivore diet.  Evan started with around 2400 calories per day, bumped down to around 2200, and eventually settled at around 1750.  This isn’t many calories for an active male at around 180lbs bodyweight.  However, Evan’s foods (especially at the end) were primarily fat and protein.  This meant he was achieving effectively zero blood sugar spike from his food, which also meant no crash, which meant no “energy crisis” response from the body compelling him to seek more food to eat in order to get his blood sugar stabilized.  It remained stable and consistent throughout the day, so he never needed to eat in order to correct his blood sugar: just to get enough nutrients.

 

Which, on that note, he posted his daily protein intake, and was consistently achieving around 140+g of protein.  For a 180lb trainee engaging in resistance training (15 minutes a day, according to his Instagram), he was hitting Stan Efferding’s recommendation of .8g per pound of bodyweight, and per Dr Ted Naiman’s hunger hypothesis, his protein forward diet was allowing him to obviate hunger by successfully consuming enough of the nutrient.  Additionally, by being in a (most likely) ketogenic state, Evan’s body was primarily relying on bodyfat and ketones for fuel, the latter of which is an ABUNDANT fuel source and neither of which tend to promote a hunger/blood sugar response.  Whatever carbs his body needed were being converted from protein through a process known as gluconeogenesis.

 

Had Evan attempted a similar approach of nothing but McDonalds, but set his calorie limits the same and only allowed himself French fries and ice cream, I posit that he simply would NOT have achieved the same outcome.

 

VARIABLES

There's always something

 

It should be appreciated that Evan was apparently working as a kayaking instructor and went out of his way to walk 10k steps per day on busy work days and 15k steps per day on non-busy days.  He was also engaging in 15 minutes of resistance training 4-6 times per week.  These are all excellent practices in general, and I feel this is more a feature rather than a bug when we consider that he was eating 1750 calories per day and NOT feeling hungry during the process.

 

And, of course, everyone is going to want to say “bloodwork bloodwork bloodwork”.  Is this diet healthy?  Who knows.  Is it healthier than how the majority of Americans are eating?  I’ll say yes.  Is weight loss one of the fastest ways to achieve positive health outcomes?  Also yes.

 

IN SUMMARY

This was an entirely different (yet also "successful") McDonalds diet

 

The “McCarnivore Diet” works because it’s sustainable, psychologically, physiologically, financially and logistically.  It works because it has a structure and guidelines designed to promote COMPLIANCE, NOT a set of rules intended to promote GUILT.  It celebrates success: it doesn’t punish failure.  And the foods that comprise the diet are built to perpetuate sustained compliance, rather than simply setting a guideline of calories/macros and being agnostic to the impact that specific foods have biologically and metabolically.  Despite it being “The McCarnivore Diet”, there is nuance to it that has to be appreciated. 

 

 

TACTICAL BARBELL III (OPERATIONAL ATHLETE) REVIEW

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT (BLUF)

Apparently TB follows Zelda rules, where the third one may actually be the best ever

·       Buy this book.  I read someone refer to this as “What 5/3/1 Forever should have been”, and that’s a great summary.  And 5/3/1 Forever is one of my favorite books on training, because it quite literally gives you all the training tools you need for the rest of your life, but THIS book does so in a way that is laser focused, clear, concise, and “Army-proof”.  If you screw up what is written in THIS book, it’s clearly a “you” issue.  And much like I wrote about 5/3/1 Forever, I can not BELIEVE the price of this book and how it’s NOT $100.  You are practically stealing when you get this.

 

WHERE I’M COMING FROM

I have a lot of military influence to inspire me

·       I’m 40 years old.  I’ve been exercising for 26 years.  I’ve competed in martial arts, grappling, powerlifting and strongman, and I’ve run races of various distances.  I’ve read a LOT of books on physical transformation/training, and reviewed many of them as well.  This book is on my Mount Rushmore of training books and in the race for the #1 spot.  

 

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT THIS BOOK?

He strikes me more as a Vince Gironda kinda guy

·       This is an “all-in-one” manual on how to accomplish any general training goal while ALSO providing one the tools necessary to be able to tailor toward specific goals (assuming they have the requisite background knowledge/experience to identify what their specific demands are).

·       Because of that, this book takes the time to pick from the “greatest hits” of Books 1 and 2 to be able to give you everything you need in order to get bigger, stronger, and more physically capable WITHOUT being overwhelmed by choices.  And it also means you don’t need to navigate between multiple books in order to construct a plan.  As a former fast food junkie, the analogy is that this is a McDonald’s Express like you’d find in an airport, rather than a full menu McDonalds.  You can get a Big Mac or a Double Quarter Pounder, but there’s no filet-o-fish.

·       This is also a VERY easy read.  Only a few instances where I got tripped up on an acronym or had to double back to confirm something.

 

WHAT’S NEW/WHAT EXCITED ME?

It's not just more of the same...although this DOES excite me

 

·       I absolutely love the creation of the “work capacity” block of training.  This was an idea that I was kicking around with my own mutation of Tactical Barbell that was given wings/permission by the author.  It’s no secret that I’m a fan of absolutely stupid workouts that leave me completely trashed and take more than they give, and my original genius plan was to run a 3 week Operator/Black block where I used these workouts as my HICs.  Basically just get it out of my system and then get back to productive training.  This book, instead, made those workouts the FEATURE of a training block, with an option to focus on power or strength endurance during the non-HIC workouts, still in a 3 week duration.

·       Base building has been redeveloped.  Now it’s a 4 week block vs an 8 week block.  My Tactical Barbell dirty secret is I’ve never done Base Building, primarily because that 8 week block was just a bridge too far for me, and after 2+ decades of exercising I felt like my base was built.  But I can absolutely open myself up to the idea of a 4 week hiatus from hard lifting to be able to develop other physical qualities.  That looks especially appealing in the summer months.

·       The “activation” portion of the book is a complete cradle to grave 25 week training protocol with everything spelled out.  I don’t have any intention to run it myself, but I love that there is something in the book to say “just do this” for anyone struggling to come up with an idea.

·       New conditioning protocols.  Black and Green have been re-tooled, and there is an introduction for “Blue” as well.  Without giving away too much, this just continues to open up more and more options to make TB modular to any training demand.  And much like I’ve written about 5/3/1, the introduction of NEW material doesn’t obviate the old material.  This doesn’t make TB1 and 2 “not work”: it affords more tools in the toolbox.

·       Expanded options for previous lifting protocols.  As above: more tools in the toolbox. 

 

INSPIRED IDEAS FROM THE BOOK  

It's not QUITE this bad, but...

·       That Work Capacity block of training is honestly just perfect for my own Strongman preparation training block idea I’ve created through Operator Pro.  My current approach is a 6 week block of Pro using the hypertrophy ranges for the secondary work (10, 8, 6) and then a 6 week block with the strength ranges (all 5s).  That’s 12 weeks leading into a comp.  From there, one could spend the final 3 weeks doing ONLY events and power or strength endurance work depending on what needs bringing up, and just put aside the basic barbell strength work.  And if a 15 week training block is too long, 3 weeks can get cut from one of the preceding blocks to make up for it.  Factor in a bridge week as appropriate.

·       Speaking of Operator Pro, I feel like this particular template opens itself up to be run in a Conjugate manner (which, for the real lifting nerds out there, I’m sure my understanding of conjugate isn’t “real conjugate”, but it’s what I understand from Westside Barbell), similar to the Cube Method.  Since the training blocks are 3 weeks long, that’s the max duration for a max effort movement rotation.  The 2-3rm daily max is effectively a max effort movement.  Each day, 1 of the 3 is featured primary movements gets a 2-3rm set.  After that, the remaining 2 movements are trained in a submax manner.  This opens up the opportunity to train them in either a repetition effort manner OR a dynamic effort manner: use the hypertrophy range for the former and the strength range for the latter.  So, as an example, we have a day where we set a squat 2-3rm (max effort), then bench press for 5x10 (repetition effort) and deadlift for 5x5 (dynamic effort: make sure to perform each rep explosively).  Next workout, we bench for a 2-3rm, deadlift for 5x10 and squat for 5x5.  Then, after 3 weeks, we change the primary lift of the day to a new variation (front squat instead of back squat, for example).  We COULD swap out the secondary lifts too, or keep them in place for technique work.  And, if we wanted to get REALLY conjugate, we could swap the primary lift more frequently than at the end of the 3 week cycle.         

 

WHAT ISN’T THERE?

Makes sense to me

 

·       The book doesn’t tell you HOW to perform the movements (as in, there are no instructions on what a good squat looks like, running technique, etc).  In classic parlance, it doesn’t tell you “how to suck the egg”.

·       This book doesn’t contain the explanations for the how behind they why with the methodology as it relates to strength.  TB1 explained the value of frequent sub-maximal practice in order to develop strength, and why we DON’T need to slaughter ourselves in the weight room to grow.  However, this book does do a good job of re-explaining the value of the aerobic capacity for anaerobic work, similar to TB2.

 

WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED?

We're lacking ambition here

·       I feel like a trainee could buy this book and not buy books 1 and 2 and be alright, but I feel like Mass Protocol still contains enough unique information/approaches to it that it’s worth having in addition to this book.  Along with that, TBIII makes specific references TO Mass Protocol without “giving up the goods”, so it will give you more tools in your toolbox.  You most definitely COULD achieve hypertrophy goals using just what is available in this book, but Mass Protocol will expand that AND help get you into the “mass building mindset”.  It also contains different nutritional and conditioning protocols that are specific for the mass building function.

·       There’s a fair argument to pick up “Ageless Athlete” if you are an aging athlete.  It’s a VERY different book (which makes sense, with it being a different author), and it provides some excellent training strategies and psychology to help vector your way toward success.  That said, I’m 40 years old and still trying to train like I’m not…

 

IN SUMMARY

·       Buy this book.  Buy multiple copies, in case you lose one.

 

BACK TO BULLETPOINTS

* I’ve been saying for years that, if I could only do 2 movements with a goal of being as awesome as possible, I’d pick the log viper press and the high handle prowler push.  The question that remained was “how to train those movements” as it related to the goal, and based on my recent experiment with Tactical Barbell’s Operator Pro, I think THAT is the answer, if not, at least, AN answer.  The log viper press would be trained as THE lifting cluster for Operator, while the prowler would be trained as Black conditioning.  I’d use the layout like I did for the strongman program: 3-6 weeks with the hypertrophy range, and 3-6 weeks with strength range, while still having that weekly 2-3rm test.  Prowler workouts would co-opt sprint and hill workouts from TBII.  I genuinely want to try this idea out sometime, but if anyone out there in internetland wants to be the test monkey on this, let me know how it goes.  If this WAS a desert island scenario, one COULD do something other than the high handle push with the prowler, like backwards drags to really blow up the quads or low handle push to drill having the hips lower, but if it was some sort of weird dystopian situation where you’re just handcuffed to 2 movements, I think this would really just take care of everything.

When the press is named after this dude, you know it's going to do some good.  And Derek was a fan of pushing against a shut off treadmill in place of a prowler, if you need a DIY solution

 

* As I was tackling my prowler sprints this morning, it dawned on me that they probably ARE more analogous to hill workouts than straight up sprints.  Because the prowler is a constant concentric force that stops as soon as you quit moving, it’s very similar to pumping hard up a steep incline, compared to running hard/fast on a flat surface.  You can definitely still use sprint protocols, but as far as a 1 for 1 goes, I think calling it a hill workout makes a lot of sense.

 

* The sous vide is the future of meal prep…except it’s the past.  But goddamn do I wish I had discovered it earlier.  Aside from the fact that you can batch make a TON of food with it with minimal effort, these batches can also be refrigerated or frozen for later use, after which time you just thaw out and are good to go.  A quick sear is dandy, but not at all necessary, and considering bodybuilders are all about eating dry plain chicken breasts and rice, an unseared steak or chicken isn’t the worst thing ever.  The sous vide also avoids dealing with dormitory rules or roommates that don’t want to smell your cooking. 

 

* The above segues into one of my more recent laments in that I discovered all sorts of awesome cooking techniques and strategies AFTER the period of my life where I was trying to eat as much as possible to grow as much as possible.  The hedonist in me appreciates how I spent my early 20s mainlining fast food while my body could still handle it, but I think about how much further ahead I would have been living off brisket and ribs instead of Taco Bell and In n Out burger.

 

* Justin Harris said on Jon Heck’s podcast that it’s frustrating to most meatheads how LITTLE work it takes to make progress in the gym.  There is an old zen koan, where a monk asked a Zen master how long it would take to reach enlightenment, and the master replied “10 years”.  The monk replied “what if I try very hard” the master said “then 20 years”.  This is the dirty secret of physical transformation.  Yes, we DO need to train hard…but only SO hard, and only SO much.  Once we bypass that, we end up reversing our progress.  And I realize who I am as I say this, but I also am able to look back and recognize when I was doing the things that make me grow and when I was working against that goal.

Another instance of "listening to this dude is probably a good idea".  And Heck is no slouch either!

 

* Which isn’t to say that there is NO value to be had when we engage in those stupidly hard training protocols.  Super Squats, Deep Water, and all my forays into training insanity built a degree of mental/physical fortitude that simply can’t be replicated through any other means, and those skillsets can be carried forward into other endeavors.  We frequently observe the issue of trainees who DON’T know how to push hard enough to generate any sort of change, and tilting at these windmills helps us re-calibrate our understanding of what effort and strain REALLY feel like.  The trick, from there, now that we know HOW hot the fire can get, is to now learn how to control it, so that we don’t get burned by it.

 

* I continue to experiment nutritionally with eating fewer and fewer meals while still getting in adequate protein intake as a result of my carnivore leanings.  In turn, I continue to progress in the weightroom between training cycles.  I know Robert Sikes is able to progress with only 1-2 meals a day as well.  I think it goes to demonstrate how significant the “80%” is in regards to the 80% solution when it comes to physical transformation.  As much as it’s fun to talk about and chase optimization, when you have the basics covered, you can pretty much do whatever you want and you’ll progress toward your goal, whereas, when you DON’T have those basics covered, it doesn’t matter how dialed in the rest of your life is.  4-5 meals per day isn’t going to make a difference if those meals are pure processed junk and amino spiked protein junkfood. 

 

* Another one of those “wish I figured this out earlier” thing is the benefit of movement variation.  The gym bros were right about “muscle confusion” but not for the right reason.  Switching up the movement helps prevent overuse injuries and burnout, and the reality is you’re STILL going to get strong if you switch from squats to front squats for a few cycles.  The issue is, when you first start lifting, EVERY training cycle seems so significant, and the idea of spending 3-6 WEEKS training something different gives you this fear that you’re going to “lose all your gains”.  And that fear self-perpetuates, because you’re so BAD at the movement due to being so new that you DO “lose” a lot of strength from time away, so then you decide to cling onto just ONE movement FOREVER.  But you get enough time under your belt and you develop enough of a baseline that detraining doesn’t take much out of you AND the time away gives your connective tissue some time to heal and recover.  It builds upon itself and contributes to better overall progress.  Dante REALLY did a great job with this in DoggCrapp, and, of course, Louie Simmons with Westside, but SO many of us bought into this over-specialization approach in order to “master the movement”.

Also another dude that liked movement variation AND had some Westside experience

 

* Which, on the above, as is the cases in most elite athletes, those athletes who ARE able to just train the same movement indefinitely without issue demonstrate just what, exactly, it is about them that makes them elite.  They have the structures that THRIVE with these movements, such that they are natural and non-destructive to the body.  For those of us not so graced, we’re on borrowed time with each workout, and need to pay the piper at one point.  When you look at an elite weightlifter, you see someone LITERALLY built to be a weightlifter: long torsos, short limbs, all fast twitch.  Can you imagine if Mark Felix, Steve Goggins or Layne Norton tried to follow the Bulgarian method for weightlifting?  These are elite dudes, but their knees would fall off from high bar squatting/snatching 3x a day for weeks on end.

 

* I spend time on subreddits for gaining weight, and it’s fascinating seeing how those that struggle to gain weight have the exact same issues as those struggling to lose weight: just in reverse.  In both cases, it’s a complete lack of awareness of what it is that they are eating as it relates to their goals.  A struggling gainer will wonder why it is that they eat “ALL THE TIME” and don’t gain, and you peel back the onion and discover that IF they’re eating, it’s chicken breasts, rice and broccoli.  Someone struggling to lose weight “barely eats”, and it’s because they don’t count their 700 calorie Starbucks treat in the morning and think that, because their triple whopper is “just ONE burger”, it’s not much.  It’s fascinating the tricks our brains play on us to protect our own internal narratives and spare us from cognitive dissonance.  The process of change is disruptive and unenjoyable, and frequently requires some sort of “oh sh*t” moment for us to be able to break the cycle.

 

* Among many other stupid things I want to one day do, I’d really love to take on the “Gaston Diet” and see exactly the outcome.  For those unfamiliar with the Disney classic “Beauty and the Beast”, the main antagonist, Gaston, is a muscular man who proports to have eaten 4 dozen eggs every morning as a lad (to grow large), and that now that he’s grown he eats 5 dozen eggs.  Taking a breakdown of 70 calories per egg, with 5g of fat, 6g of protein and half a gram of carbs (your eggs may vary, this just makes the math simple), you’re looking at a lad’s diet of 3360 calories, 240g of fat, 288g of protein and 24g of carbs, and a full grown man’s diet of 4200 calories, 300g of fat, 360g of protein, and 30g of carbs.  A few things to consider is that this was just BREAKFAST, so presumably you’d eat even more throughout the day, but if we DID just try to survive off Gaston’s breakfast, for one: Vince Gironda would be happy for us (and ask that we keep the eggs raw), and we’d most likely be in a solid ketogenic state, as we’re getting about 65% of our calories from fat and the remainder from protein (and some trace carbs).  And, of course, with this being France, we’d be remiss if we didn’t include plenty of butter in our cuisine as well, and Gaston, as a hunter, most likely ate quite a bit of game meat. 

 

For those who demand that I cite my sources

* Which, on the above: still better than the standard American diet.  But also I can see the comments about it being prohibitively expensive, especially in eras where we are finding egg shortages due to bird flus.  Walmart DOES sell 60 eggs for $7.13 here in the states, of which I’m sure the eggs come from chickens raised in TERRIBLE conditions to achieve that price point, but it DOES make this whole adventure a bit more sustainable.  And if we pair this with my training plan listed above, I think we may have the next great big challenge for anyone in internetland to take on…

 

* Continuing on the trend of nerdom: I feel like the one big advantage I got from my time playing tabletop RPGs is that it taught me how to learn the rules of various different systems and how to keep them all straight/organized in my head.  I can shift between Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, World of Darkness and Shadowrun without muddying them up, despite the fact they all use pen, paper and dice to play.  This is similar to how I can mentally categorize and separate the rules of 5/3/1 from Tactical Barbell from Westside from Deep Water etc etc.  And it’s also why I’m so persnickety about language when it comes to discussing these systems, and don’t let people get away with calling assistance work in 5/3/1 “accessory”, because that’s a Westside thing and it’s different.  But, in turn, when people say that 5/3/1 Forever doesn’t make sense or they can’t figure out Tactical Barbell, I find it’s because they’re combining everything in their head rather than being able to make this separation.

 

* That said, one of the WORST qualities that comes from having that background above is the desire to “optimize” everything because pen and paper players tend to spend SIGNIFICANT more time BUILDING characters than actually playing them.  We’re SO good about reading EVERY single book out there regarding how to play the game and absolutely terrible at actually PLAYING the game.  Contrast this with people who grew up actually playing sports, and most likely DON’T know who the greatest athletic trainer of all time is, because they were too busy actually being athletes to get bogged down in that nerd sh-t.

 

* Influencers influence.  It’s what they do.  And they’re at least honest about that because that’s what they call themselves.  They aren’t informers, educators, mentors, scholars, etc.  So, in turn: quit getting upset at influencers for influencing!  You’re falling for pure kayfabe.  It’s like legitimately thinking that the Iron Sheik hated America and, in turn, hating him for it.  Influencers are going to say and do things to get clicks and traffic, because that’s how they survive and get paid.  This means they’re going to say things that upset you, because THAT gets far more clicks than agreeable content.  And if you sit there and ragewatch it just to get upset, all you’re doing is giving them exactly what they want.  It’s the Freddy Krueger rule: the only way to beat them is to ignore them.

We learned this lesson over 100 years ago...

 

* The most frustrating part about having a good message is it will never reach the people that need to hear it.  Those that need it won’t listen, and those that don’t need it will seek it out to re-affirm themselves.  It’s how echo chambers form.  Which, in turn, isn’t to say that what is being said in echo chambers is WRONG: it’s just unnecessary.

 

 

CHAOS IS THE PLAN: TAKING THE POWER BACK

I co-opted “Chaos is the Plan” about 4 years ago, and during such time I’ve had many folks ask me “how, exactly, CAN chaos be the plan?”  Which, in turn, was the whole point of the exercise: it’s a paradox.  But the premise behind it is simple: it’s about taking control, specifically in situations that SEEM uncontrollable.  In a similar manner as Camus having us embrace the absurd, when we say “chaos is the plan”, we acknowledge that we have no control over what happens to us but we DO have control in how we exist within this environment, similar to what Aurelius wrote in “meditations”.  Despite having no control of the environment itself, we are far from powerless: we must simply take the power BACK.  And interestingly enough, this can often be accomplished by being the one that inflicts the hardship upon ourselves, before life has an opportunity to do so to us.  In a manner similar to “you can’t fire me: I quit”, we can take the power back by saying “it is not you, life, that makes me suffer, for I inflict the suffering upon myself in spite of you!”  But “suffering” is honestly a bit dramatic as it relates to the realm of physical transformation: ultimately, it is luxury and leisure that we can afford to have the free time and facilities necessary to even pursue these endeavors.  So all that having been said, allow me to provide you some examples from my own experience, wherein, with chaos as the plan, I take the power back.

This is also where all of my medical knowledge comes from

 

The first such example I have is how I train first thing in the morning.  This is a habit I picked up once I became a father, having previously experimented with some early morning training but ultimately preferring to train in the afternoons/evenings.  The reasons for that preference are obvious: I got to sleep more and I performed better in training because my muscles and joints were warmer, looser and more limber, and I have more meals in me to fuel the training.  What advantage does training first thing in the morning have?  It means that the training gets DONE.  It is literally THE first thing I accomplish in a given weekday.  Aside from taking care of basic body functions, I wake up, put on clothes, and I get my training done.  And BECAUSE of that: no person or thing can TAKE my training away from me.  No last minute emergency meeting at work that happens during my gym time can cancel my training, no unforeseen family emergency in the middle of the day, no traffic accident that compromises my schedule: the chaos that is life has NO say in my training.  I get up at 0400, I feel sorry for myself that I do so, and then I go and train because it means that, once it’s done, my training is over and nothing can take it from me that day.

 

In a similar manner discussing training, within a training session itself, there is always the potential for chaos.  An emergency CAN happen in the middle of a training session: the world CAN decide to wake up before you and get in your way.  An injury can occur at the start of the session which shuts the session down OR, at the very least, forces you to change what was originally intended.  Which is why we can take the power back by taking our greatest priority and doing it FIRST in the training.  Which seems incredibly obvious…but how often do we actually DO this?  Specifically, I refer to trainees who say “I need to train my abs more, but I put it at the end of the session, and then I just skip them”.  Or the same with trainees who lament their lack of conditioning while having ALSO skipped their end of workout conditioning session for the past 17 years.  Chaos is winning: take the power back!  You’ll never skip the FIRST thing in your workout, so take what it is that NEEDS doing and do it first: irrespective of how much “sense” it makes to do so.  It may be “sub-optimal” to train biceps before back, but if your biceps are lagging and every time you train back first you have no juice left for biceps, the answer presents itself.  Training your conditioning before heavy squats may make your squats less heavy…but it will also FINALLY fix your conditioning.  And after enough training cycles of putting what matters FIRST, you may have finally transformed yourself in a way that you CAN go back to prioritizing back and heavy squats, because NOW you are better than you were.

So, ya know, maybe more biceps and less forearms this training cycle

 

Nutritionally,  I have found that FASTING (intermittently, specifically, as outlined in “Red Meat and Black Coffee”, having 1 meal per day in the evening) is one of the ultimate ways to take the power back from chaos.  Fasting is fascinating in that regard, as it is the act of NOT eating, which, in turn, is no act at all, but in DOING so chaos happens on OUR terms.  In a similar manner that chaos cannot take my training from me when I do it first thing in the morning, chaos cannot compromise my nutrition if I’m NOT eating.  In a conventional, 3 meal a day scenario, the most easily compromised meal is the midday meal (lunch), as quite often work will have some sort of surprise emergency or meeting that lands on that time, or co-workers will invite one out to lunch, or someone will bring treats and goodies into the work center, or, for those of you that AREN’T office drones, some other element of the chaos of life will present itself (you cut off your thumb roughnecking on the oil rig…I don’t know what you do for a living, forgive me).  And if we’re traveling, lunch can be a completely unknown variable: it’s whatever is being served on the airplane/at the airport/on the road/in the hotel/etc etc.  Our midday meal is at the whims and whimsy of chaos…unless we’re simply NOT eating.  If we’re fasting until the end of the day, or only eating in the morning and the evening, the chaos of life cannot have a say in our nutrition: we CHOOSE to not eat during this time. 

 

And after enough time operating under this paradigm, you begin to realize how much a midday meal is honestly enslaving, while fasting is liberating.  So many folks LIVE for that midday meal and, in turn, when it is TAKEN from them, they experience significant emotional turmoil.  Think of the people you know that get “hangry” if they don’t get lunch on time, people that experience “low blood sugar”, people that raid vending machines looking for quick fixes and plop down $35 at an airport eating fried grease prepared by inept and unmotivated drones (why is it that the least capable people seem to operate airport restaurants?) just so that they can have SOMETHING for lunch…whereas you can just let that midday time pass by, knowing your next meal is only a few hours away.  And if THAT meal doesn’t happen?  Then we’ll sleep, wake up, and eat THEN instead.  We eat on OUR terms: chaos doesn’t get to have a say.

This plan will not survive contact with the enemy

 

Chaos is the plan, because life is chaos but WE are not powerless in light of that.   

PROGRAM CHECK-IN: TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO FOR STRONGMAN

 

INTRO

Yup: time to buy another book

As I’m approaching my second full year of running Tactical Barbell programming without interruption and, while more and more material is being released about the system, I am playing around more and more and finding ways to make the system fit my goals and needs.  The original Operator in TB1 has proven itself plenty effective for strongman competition prep in the past, but I had to take certain liberties with it to make it “work”, while a recent experiment with Operator Pro out of the Green Protocol is proving to obviate that need.  I’m currently 5 weeks deep into a 12 week approach (13 if we count the bridge week) and wanted to share what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and what I plan to do in the future, to show how to make this protocol fit strongman.

 

THE DEMANDS

No big deal: just be good at everything

I am currently training for a strongman competition that is fairly unique, which is what compelled me to compete in the first place.  It’s unsanctioned, so no real pressure to perform, but it’s combining elements of strongman, highland games and Viking stonelifting but featuring a log clean and press for max weight, elevated axle deadlift for reps, harnessed tractor pull, caber toss, and “Dritvik Viking Stones to platform”.

 

THE PROGRAM (OVERVIEW)

Yeah actually I guess...

 

To meet these demands, I selected “Operator Pro” from Tactical Barbell Green Protocol.  It features 3 days per week of lifting weights, with the remaining training days available for conditioning (or, in my case, events).  One selects a cluster of lifts, and trains each lift in that cluster each training day.  What is particularly unique about Operator Pro is that ONE lift of the cluster is trained for a 2-3 rep maximum for that training day, while the other lifts are trained at lower percentages for reps.  So, if one had a cluster of Squat, bench and deadlift, Squat would be trained for a 2-3rm while bench and dead would be for 3-5 sets of reps on Monday, then wed would be Bench 2-3rm with squat and deadlift for reps, etc.

 

What is of particular note here is the rep work though.  The percentages are low, ranging from 65%-75% and originally prescribed for 5x5.  HOWEVER, there was an option included “for hypertrophy”, which used a system of sets of 10 on week 1, 8s on week 2, and 6s on week 3.  Seeing that gave me a real lightbulb moment, which I will explain later.   

 

HOW I LAID IT OUT

 

It's simple really

The two primary lifts of the cluster are the safety squat bar squat and the log clean and press away.  On the rep days, it’s a strict press, on the 2-3rm day, it’s a push press.  The other lifts in the cluster are the Stone of Steel loaded to a platform on lifting days 1 and 3 and the Texas Deadlift Bar ROM progression mat pull on day 2.  I also have axle curls programmed for my deadlift day.

 

On Day 1, the front squat is my 2-3rm lift, while log and stones are trained for 5 sets.  On day 2, the deadlift is my primary lift (following ROM progression protocol, which is different from what TB lays out), while squats and log are trained for 3 sets.  On day 3, the log is my 2-3rm lift, while squats and stones are trained for 5 sets (squats for higher reps than stones).

 

Which, speaking of reps, THIS is where Operator Pro shines: for the first 6 weeks of the training cycle, I used the hypertrophy reps for the secondary exercises (so sets of 10 for week 1, 8s for week 2, 6s for week 3).  My intent for the final 6 weeks is to go to the standard Op Pro approach and just do sets of 5.  The exceptions to this approach are for the deadlift (trained using ROM progression protocol) and the stones, which I do for the hypertrophy sets on workout 1 while doing for 5x5 on workout 3.  I find trying to do high reps of stones twice a week tears up my SI joint.  In turn, for workout 3, I use the weights that I will use for the next week’s hypertrophy workout, in order to get my body accustomed to it ahead of time.

 

Between lifting days 1 and 2, I do Fobbits on a rower, performing a martial arts kata (technically a hyung) between rounds, and between lifting days 2 and 3 I do prowler sprints (4-5 sets, long rests).  On the weekends, I walk.

 

Daily, I perform 4 sets of chins and dips, increasing the rep total by 1 per week (not 1 per set: 1 rep total).  I also train martial arts 3x per week, typically on Tues, Weds and Thurs, but this is traditional martial arts rather than combat sports, so not incredibly intense.

 

WHY I LAID IT OUT THE WAY I DID

 

Most likely

The most significant “strongman prep” element of this is the phasic structure of the programming.  I get to spend the first 6 weeks of the program using lighter weights for the rep work and rebuilding technique and the specific muscles necessary to get better at events.  At the same time, I still get a weekly opportunity to regularly practice moving heavy weights as well. Every 3 weeks, I can adjust the training maxes to make them heavier, which means that, as I move into the final 6 weeks of the program, my weights will have increased but I’ll then be using lower reps, focusing on grooving perfect technique without experiencing significant fatigue.

 

Which, on the topic of fatigue: it’s why I use the SSB front squat.  It’s not because front squats are more “strongman transferable”: it’s because they don’t fatigue the lower back as much as a back loaded squat will.  Given I’m doing log pressing and stone loading/deadlifts whenever I lift, my lower back is already getting plenty hammered.  The front squat allows me to still train A squat without compounding fatigue, and I use the SSB because my ability to maintain a rack position is pretty poor.

 

The stone/deadlift pairing is pretty simple to explain away.  Stone loading and deadlifting recruit a LOT of the same muscles, to the point that I was at a Kaz seminar where he postulated that modern strongman use wider stance deadlifts for conventional because they spend so much time loading stones, so they’re stronger with their feet further apart.  In turn, even for NON-strongman competitors, I think there’s a LOT of value in employing some sort of implement load in place of a deadlift in programming.  There is no eccentric whatsoever to deal with, so it won’t beat up the trainee quite as much, which I feel is what allows me to train 3x a week compared to deadlifting, which I would keep at just 1x a week as well.  Difficulties exist in adjusting the loads if you don’t have a loadable implement, but the Stone of Steel and Power Keg CAN bypass that.  One could also do an old fashioned stone trainer by using a loading pin and some bumper plates to achieve a similar effect.

 

On THAT topic: the deadlift is the reason I use 3 sets of the secondary work on the second lifting day.  The deadlift just takes SO MUCH out of me that trying to stack more work on top aside from the bare minimum is a poor strategy.  But this has a pretty neat downstream effect.  My weekly structure shakes out that, for the press, I start the week with 5 sets, then cut down to 3, then finish with a 2-3rm single set: like a mini-taper.  For the front squats, I end up setting a 2-3rm, then progress to 3 sets, then up to 5: like a small accumulation block.  The stones end up being for 5 sets on high reps on the day where I’m only front squatting for a single set, which is allowing me to make up some volume on the back end, whereas the day I’m doing the highest volume of front squats, the stone volume is kept moderate by keeping the reps at 5.  Each training day is unique and gives me something to look forward to, and it all builds upon itself.

 

I’m strict pressing the log on the rep work, because it’s helping me build up the muscle I need to be strong and stable in the log, whereas I’m push pressing the heavy work so that I re-learn the skill of moving heavy weight with the implement.

 

I use the ROM progression deadlift because it works.  I’ve tried messing with success and it goes poorly.  I also train the deadlift LAST on the deadlift focused day, rather than first, because once I’m done with that lift I’m pretty much exhausted.  The only thing left in me is curls and small assistance work.

 

I’m doing nothing to train for the caber toss.  I’ve never done one before, and it’s just a bucketlist item for me.  I’m going to show up to the competition and have fun.

 

The prowler sprints are there to improve my ability on the tractor pull.  I SHOULD be doing these with a harness and a rope, but since I train so stupidly early in the dark, I don’t want to deal with trying to hitch up to my truck.  I’m noticing significant improvement in my conditioning and ability just doing high handle prowler sprints on a LONG track with 5 minutes of rest between sets.

 

The Fobbits on the rower are effectively recovery work, but also continue to contribute to my conditioning and cardiovascular capabilities.  I’m sticking with the martial arts because I have a tournament coming up in July, am getting close to black belt testing, and we run a summerlong “hyung competition” that I am part of, so it all works out. 

 

Even though I used programmed percentages for axle curls, I consider them assistance work rather than primary or secondary.  I just use the percentages for force me to actually train hard on them, as otherwise I’ll blow them off.  Those get trained once a week, after deadlifts, for 3 sets.  I otherwise prioritize ab work for assistance, followed by rear delts, and then lateral delts.  If I STILL have more time after training all that, I’m just going to go for a walk.  Most days, the only assistance I do after the heavy lifting is 2-3 sets of ab work.

 

 

THE NUTRITION

Yes, this actually WAS one of my meals...

 

I’m still going strong with “Red Meat and Black Coffee”.  The most significant change is, I’m prioritizing getting leaner, as its summer, activity is higher and my fall gaining block will be here soon enough.  To accomplish this goal, rather than eating less at meals, I’m eating fewer meals, having increased my One-Meal-A-Day days from 2 to 3-4 per week.  As of week 5, I’m not experiencing any negatives with this approach as far as energy levels and performance go, and observing downward trends on the scale and reduced waist circumference as measured by how my clothes and weight belt fit.  Once again: this “works” because the one meal I eat is very high in protein.  A small, mixed diet meal may not prove as successful.

 

IN SUMMARY

High praise indeed

Operator Pro removed the need for me to modify Operator to “make it work” for strongman and, instead, provides all the tools necessary to make (what appears to be) an effective strongman training protocol.  I’m observing increases in my front squat, press, deadlift and stone training even while bodyweight is slowly dropping and conditioning is improving (log went from 3x200 to 3x210 and 2x215, front squat from 2x315 to 2x320, deadlift ROM progression proceeding as normal and went from one set of 10 and then 4 sets of 5 with 135 on the stones to a full 5x10x135, while also reducing my prowler times from 54 seconds to 38 seconds).  Transitioning from hypertrophy reps to strength reps builds in a phasic structure of training, while the “primary/secondary” structure paired with waving the sets per workout creates it’s own “Daily Undulating Periodization” structure within the workout itself.  And the intensity and volume is balanced enough to provide me all the training opportunities I need to continue to progress toward my goals without overextending.