19 MONTHS OF TACTICAL BARBELL: LESSONS LEARNED

 

INTRO

I've definitely followed worse trinities before

On 16 Sep 2024, I started employing the Tactical Barbell system of training, and I haven’t looked back.  It answered all the questions I ever had about training and, honestly, gave me a bit of the feeling of Alexander when he wept because there were no more worlds left to conquer.  I really no longer had a need to ever train any other way again, because the system was so comprehensive yet modular that, whatever I needed it to be, it was, and whenever I needed to pivot, it was there to pivot with me.  I’ve already written multiple reviews on my experiences with individual programs within the system (Operator, Grey Man and Specificity Bravo) along with my experience after a year of making it all work, so now I just want to capture a snapshot of this moment, my thoughts, what I’ve learned, what I’ve changed, and how it all fits together.

GENERAL STRUCTURE

Sometimes it's hard to agree even on this part

What I have found works best for the Tactical Barbell system is what was laid out in Mass Protocol (which was the book the finally got me bought into the system in the first place): “Operator-Mass-Specificity”, or “OMS”.  This is periodization/phasic training in a very digestible form, similar to what Jim Wendler implemented with “Leaders and anchors” or Dan John’s “Bus bench-park bench” concept, but with Tactical Barbell it really grabbed me due to how prescriptive it is yet still with room to maneuver.  In my case, that room comes from my ability to select the movements I need for my exercise cluster along with my conditioning workouts, but on a broader level one can choose entirely different programs (Instead of Operator, Zulu.  Instead of Mass, Grey Man, like what I do.  Instead of Specificity Alpha, use Bravo), meaning there really is just an unlimited combination of approaches that can be implemented to alleviate even the most intense of training ADHD while still “sticking with the program”.  And again: that freedom with the conditioning work really opens up a LOT of avenues to get creative.

 

YEAR LONG STRUCTURE

 

Always good to have a plan

Now that I’ve had a chance to run Tactical Barbell for longer than a year, I’ve noticed a rhythm that I fall into that may be helpful for understanding Tactical Barbell in the “long term”.  One COULD simply run OMS indefinitely, going 3-6 weeks each phase, and be more than fine, but per Dan John’s “Armor Building Formula” being “Bodybuilding for REAL people”, I find that, often we humans have lives that can dictate what our training looks like.  So here’s a snapshot into mine.

 

·       My birthday is in late October, near Halloween.  After that is Thanksgiving.  After that is Christmas.  And it’s cold during this time where I live (middle America).  All of this means it’s an excellent time for feasting and not doing a whole lot of extra physical activity.  So I take these 3 months to focus on Mass Protocol, using Grey Man and Specificity Bravo.  I already know I’m going to be eating well and I’ll be able to recover, so it’s an excellent time to get bigger and stronger and put conditioning on the back burner.  With the OMS structure, if I DO decide to include a block of Operator in here, it will just be a 3 week block, basically to give me a break from the high reps and keep me from getting too sloppy.  Typically, we do a cruise vacation around New Years, so I make that my bridge week, but if I need one sometime before that during that block of training, I’ll take it.

·       Now it’s January.  January is an awesome month, because EVERYONE has a New Year’s resolution, so no one bats an eye if you are on a strict diet and doing a lot of exercise.  After 3 months of intense gaining, it makes it a perfect time to prioritize fitness and eating leaner.  For me, this means a 6 week block of Operator with a heavy conditioning focus while shifting the lifting cluster toward less heavier weights (I use a front squat, rather than a back squat, because it means I don’t move as much weight AND I can spare my back for more conditioning work).  Since I’m not moving as much weight in the gym, I don’t need as much food.  I’m not specifically trying to get lean (training is always my focus, not bodycomp), but by nature of focusing on conditioning and not feasting, I naturally lean out.  Often, there’s a strongman competition for me to compete in somewhere around here, so the week before that is when I’ll take a bridge week.  If that doesn’t happen, I’ll grab one before the next phase of training.

·       After those 6 weeks, I’m in Mid-Feb.  What I’ve discovered is that this is a great time to do more of a body re-comp/reverse diet sorta thing for 12 weeks.  I move from Operator back to Mass protocol, but I don’t eat like I was eating during the Oct-Dec block.  Again: it’s not a time of feasting and, in fact, it’s typically Lent during this time (not that I’m Catholic, but I attended their schools for 8 years), so some fasting can be appropriate (more on that when I discuss nutrition).  But what I’ve discovered during this most recent training block is that I can slowly/gradually up the food intake without putting on much bodyweight, effectively “rebuilding my metabolism” from the January push and give myself some caloric runway, which is good for the NEXT phase of training.  Typically, my kid will have Spring Break in where, which is where I’ll find a Bridge week.

·       So now it’s June.  Summer is here, the weather is warm, it’s good to get outside and be active, so I’m onto Operator.  Once again, I’m not planning on leaning out, but it’s inevitably going to happen as a result of getting outside more, being active, and improving my conditioning.  Along with that, there are lots of strongman competitions that happen in the summer, so I’ll typically find one to train for, which further vectors me toward Operator.  As of my writing this, I have one scheduled for 8 Aug, so it’s my “zero hour” to train for, giving me 9 weeks and a bridge week to prep.  For me, that’s 6 weeks of Operator and 3 weeks of Operator Pro to act as a peaking cycle.  But for a non-strongman competitor, this could also be an excellent opportunity to do Base Building from TB1 and spend the good weather getting some outdoor mileage. 

·       And now we’re looking at October’s feasting block again.  In between August and the end of Oct, I have some time to play around.  Basically, I can analyze where I’m currently at, decide what needs improving, and build on that.  This is effectively a “free block”.  I could just run a simple OMS (having just finished the “O”, I’d roll into Mass and then Specificity before cycling back to Operator) if I’m at a loss, or it could be a great time to tackle Base Building from either TB1 or Mass Protocol.  I’ve also had situations where I’ve had multiple strongman competitions in a row, and if that’s the case, I’ll just keep knocking them out until I get closer to the end of Oct to start the feasting block.

 

MY TWEAKS

Why would I trust experts when I can just do it myself?

I’ve detailed this more extensively in my other write-ups, but I wanted to recapture the hows and whys of the modifications I’ve made to have Tactical Barbell suit me.

·       For all Tactical Barbell workouts, instead of following the Rx plan for deadlifts, I do 1 set of pulls at reps above 5.  Specifically what I am doing is my ROM progression protocol that I’ve used for over a decade, where I start with 6 rubber patio pavers under the plates to create a partial pull, and each week remove a paver, eventually working my way to the floor.  I skip the “1 mat” week, which makes this a 6 week cycle, and allows it to slot in perfectly with the TB 3-6 week training cycles.  I use a higher rep range on this, starting at 12-15, adding weight each cycle until I’m around 6-8, then re-starting it back at the 12-15 (ideally with higher weight than last time).  This is something that I’ve worked with over the years that just plain works for me, whereas trying to pull from the floor every week is always a disaster.  I’ve written about this idea in the past, but essentially, my body is built for conventional deadlifting (long arms, short torso, I lockout nearly at my knees), which means I can move a LOT of weight on it (relatively), which ALSO means I put a LOT of stress on my system when I deadlift, and trying to pull from the floor with heavy weights frequently just burns me out, while this approach seems to spare me and continues to foster growth each cycle.

·       I don’t include weighted chins in any cluster for any program.  The same thing that makes me a good deadlifter makes chins a challenging lift, as I have a stupidly long ROM on it, and I never seem to get anything out of programming them like a traditional lift.  For a while, I relied on just getting in sub-max sets of chins throughout the workout, but these past few cycles what I’ve stuck with is just setting a daily chin up goal and getting it down in a “grease the groove” style by knocking them out throughout the day.  Right now, I’ve settled on 3 sets daily, and up the reps by one per WEEK.  This week, I’m doing 18-17-17, having done 3x17 the previous week, and once that’s done, I’ll go to 18-18-17.  The slow increase spares my elbows.

·       When I run Grey Man, I run it A/B/A indefinitely, rather than A/B/A, B/A/B.  The B workout is my deadlift workout.  This makes it so that I only ever deadlift once per week (for the reasons outlined above).  I pair the press with the squat on workout A, and the flat bench with the deadlift on workout B, primarily because the press is more valuable to me as a strongman than the bench.  But I also use the Grey Man supplemental clusters to make it that I’m still benching in some manner 3x per week, the same with squatting.

·       When I run Specificity, I STILL only deadlift once per week.  When I repeat that workout later in the week, I swap the deadlift with unweighted chins, and add reps each workout.

·       When I run Operator, the goal is to improve my strongman lifts, which includes a LOT of lower back taxing stuff (atlas stones, sandbags, logs, farmers carries, yokes, etc).  In turn, I use a front squat in my cluster rather than a traditional squat.  People mistake this into thinking that the front squat has “more carryover” to strongman, but it’s more that saving my lower back in the weightroom allows me to expend it more in the conditioning/events training.  If I tried to do it all at once, I’d overtax myself.

·       Just as an aside, on top of all the Tactical Barbell training and scheduled conditioning, I also train Martial Arts 3x per week and I join my family in running Dan John’s “Armor Building Formula” 3x per week as well.  However, to make that all work, it’s worth noting that the martial arts are “traditional martial arts” rather than MMA/BJJ/etc, with classes lasting 60-90 minutes vs 2 hours, and since I’m joining my family with ABF, I’m using their loads vs ones appropriate for me, so the workouts are more a tonic recovery workout vs an additional stressor.  I also try to get in a walk at lunchtime when I can…since I’m not eating lunch. 

 

NUTRITION

I genuinely don't know what this is but it exists, so here

I’ve done a bunch of different nutritional protocols through my run of Tactical Barbell, but most of them are pretty much more of the same to an outside observer, as I still each practically zero carbs outside of 1 meal a week.  That said, I’m really jazzed up about my “Red Meat and Black Coffee” protocol I wrote about earlier, and I feel like it’s “the one…for real this time” as it relates to a protocol that fits well with the modularity of Tactical Barbell, so let me give a brief re-summary of how it slots into the program.

·       On days where I lift, I eat 2 meals: one post training, and an evening meal.

·       On days where I do conditioning, I eat one meal: an evening meal.

·       Between/before meals, I permit myself black coffee.  No bulletproof or other keto magic: just plain black coffee. 

·       On rest days, it’s flexible.  Sometimes 1 meal, sometimes 2.

·       For all but 1 meal, I only eat animal products, and primarily fats and proteins.  Dairy is used in very limited quantities: primarily meat and eggs.

·       For 1 meal per week, I include carbs/plant sources.  This isn’t a binge/cheat meal: it’s a social meal.  It’s more about enjoying the company and the experience, rather than mainlining carbs into my face.  With it being a social meal, for me, this happens in the evening on a rest day.

·       I don’t consider this a meal, but before bed every night I eat 170g of full fat Greek yogurt with 1 scoop of protein powder mixed in.  This is something of a “protein failsafe”, especially for those single meal days.  And since I train first thing in the morning, it’s nice to have something in my system before I go to bed and get up to train.

What I like about this is the simplicity.  I don’t measure/track my calories or macros.  Instead, I evaluate outcomes.  I look at how my performance is doing, and how my clothes/weightbelt fit, and can adjust as needed.  And with so few meals to eat AND such limited food selection, it’s pretty easy to manipulate if you aren’t getting the outcome you’re looking for.  So with that basic framework, here’s how it modulates based on training phase.

·       During Operator, I don’t need as much food to recover, because the weight training isn’t as intense, and since I’m keeping carbs stupidly low, I don’t need to replenish glycogen from hard training sessions as I’m running off of ketones.  This means I can eat fewer meals on rest days, or eat smaller meals during the training week.  They don’t even need to be particularly smaller: I saw success slowly transitioning from 16oz of meat at breakfast to 12oz, while still keeping eggs at 3 whole/5 white.

·       And, of course, in feasting phase, the reverse is true.  I can eat 2 meals a day on the rest days, or allow myself to eat bigger meals at those opportunities.  I still keep a minimum of 2 days a week with 1 meal per day, as I find this allows me to maintain insulin sensitivity and keep up a healthy appetite while also not getting too sloppy during the gaining phase.

·       During the re-comp/reverse diet phase I mentioned previously, it’s a middle ground.  I will slowly increase the amount of food I eat at my regular meals, but I’m not feasting like I would from Oct-Dec.  This is what “maintenance” looks like.  I walk away from each meal satiated, whereas in the feasting phase there was definitely more “enjoyment” had during the meal.

And now just a bit of nuance.

·       This “works” BECAUSE of eating only fats/proteins during the majority of the meals.  Becoming fat adapted/ketogenic makes it very easy to subsist off so few meals with long times between meals.  There is no “white knuckling” hunger with this, no starving.

·       Along with that, because the only food I’m eating is fat and protein, there’s a good chance I’m still hitting whatever protein requirements I need.  Ketones are protein sparing, but I’m getting 50g of protein in egg whites alone each day.  If I tried this with a mixed diet, it’d be much harder to hit those goals.

·       This way of eating requires the capacity to eat large quantities in a single sitting.  I’ve never struggled with that, and most likely had some form of binge eating disorder as a child.  If you have a small appetite, this may not work.

·       The coffee is NOT a replacement for poor sleep.  In truth, I’m fairly certain I’m a “rapid caffeine metabolizer” or simply a non-responder, as I can drink a cup of coffee and go right to sleep.  For me, it’s a bridge between meals, because something warm is soothing and the small cortisol spike from the coffee will blunt any appetite.  It’s not at all required: simply permitted.

 

 IN SUMMARY

Eat like, train like

Through 26 years of training, I feel like I've settled on a home as far as training and nutrition goes.  Tactical Barbell provides the skeleton that I need and is malleable to meet my current needs, demands and goals.