strap carry: the best worst idea

Today post press focused armor building formula day i ended with waiter walks. 

First set I used a kettlebell. The pressure against my wrist was the limiting factor.

Second set i used a dumbbell. The dumbbell rotated too much and I bailed to prevent getting beefcaked.

Third set, I fucked up real good. I attached a trx knockoff strap to a kettlebell and took it for a walk. What. Have. I. Done???

This addresses the pressure and safety issues of sets 1 and 2, but adds crazy instability the entire set. My shoulder was STRUGGLING to keep the weight still. This was amazing and im glad I found it. Also I hate it. 

light > rest, and about walking away

This weekend something amazing happened. I went to a blade rave and danced full intensity for 5 hrs. DONT WALK AWAY THAT ISNT THE COOL PART. The cool part is barring some tightness in my right (injured) leg, I walked away Scott free. When I've had to temper myself or expect injuries for the price of having fun for the last....decade...this is some mother fucking progress my dude.

The first 2 days back, I still trained. This brings us to the main topic of today- light days beat rest days and walking away is a learned skill I wish I had forever ago.

Day1 

Working off of no sleep and no food. Right leg still feeling tight.

My usual mobility day of sled and rope did not feel great. Instead of resting, I did 4 quick rounds of rope flow up and down my lawn. Probably not more than 10min total. Got some decent core contractions. Then, foam rolling tight lights. Walk away. Ill tell ya, light being a gradient isn't something I would have entertained even last year and now it is a core fucking value. 

Day2

Armor building formula ABC kettlebell work and backoff upper  bodybuilding. Right knee feeling better but still tight. Because my issues seem to be more rooted in volume than weight, I actually went up to the next poundage (20kg). It still feels very easy, but i quit after 2 sets at that weight.

And then

Walk

Away

I lost nothing and gained so much. My body is ready for the next weight up. Im not injured and dont have to take more time off. 

Extra: The mother fucking magic

Up until my week off on the cruise this month, I had been doing my ABC kettlebell work for a month. During the time on the cruise, all I did was 10min of rope flow + pushup EMOMs followed back light leg and hips mobility. When I came back, my kettlebell work was stronger not weaker. I credit the consistent motion over rest, and the fact that im not brow beating myself into fatigue like times past. I see value in the times where im not struggling to make progress. 

abf balanced approach

This mornings workout was an upper 20% day. Felt strong and locked the fuck in. Lessons from today will ECHO through the remainder of this training cycle and the END OF TIME. I AM THE MIGHTY THOR FJFJENDNFNRJRJFNSNS.

how we do, AM workouts 

1)ABC, 1xcarry, 3-5x rounds of calisthenics and rdls, 1xarms

2)Mobility and rope

3)Press, same as ABC

4)Mobility and rope

ABC

- work up to top weight. Get.1-5 rounds adding 1 round per workout.

- back off to medium weight. 2 sets at double ABC reps (4/2/6).

- back off to light weight. 1 set at triple reps (6/3/9).

Press

- aim for rep goals at top weight. No specific reps per set but stop 1-2 before failure. Increase reps goal every workout by 5-10.

- back off to medium weight and perform 2 sets.

- back off to light weight and person 1 set.

- every set ends with goblet squats.

Carry can be whatever implement. Just take it for a walk.

Calisthenics 

- Press (archer pu, pseudo pu, ring pu, ring dip, rto pushup)

- Pull (all ring rows)

- rdl (landmine, kb, whatever)

Mobility

- focus on hips and Hamstrings.

- include light pump work for all body parts.

- coassack training.

PM

- rope flow

you dont need to game the system

Despite what im about to write, I've truly enjoyed running keto in the past. But when i ran it I kept looking to it as the thing that would get me lean and mean. And...maybe it could have too. But the takeaway here is i didnt have to. My largest fault has always been doing way too much shit. High volume and conditioning is 100% something possible...IF you work up to it. If instead you decide you are going to do 300 pushups a day while learning to juggle knives you are likely proper fucked.

Here's the deal. Unless you are training for a purpose, you don't need a training or eating strategy. 

Summarizing the keys

- eat whole foods.

- consistent effort trumps intermittent intensity.

- add volume and weight SLOWLY. 

The most common infraction im guilty of is adding. More. Shit. In. And it isn't like there is no place for MORE. But does more fit into your program? 

Low frequency and high intensity seems to work well with more. If you are training 2x/week then going to failure is probably a great idea. Conversely if you are training 3-5x a week? Maybe and maybe not. Adding more at some point is just more.

abf: minor tweaks

Abc

- one kettlebell 

- when lower back or Hamstrings tap out, switch to 3x15 calisthenics movements

- ring arm work

Press

- one kettlebell

- every round ended by 3-5 goblet squats (can use heavier bell)

Keg carry days  or sets intermittently sprinkled in.

Off days are OFF for heavy work.

- high rep bands and mobility 

- mace swings

- sled drags

the fountain of youth is easy daily effort

Im seeing the fruits of my efforts bloom after a few weeks and it is niceeeee.

Besides mobility, the largest change I've made in my training in the last 6 months is cutting out difficult second daily workouts. Due to working from home, I need exercise to keep me sane. The 2x a day workouts were manageable in effect, but they made me tired as all hell, and did not under any circumstances give me any noticeable gains beyond what I would get training once a day. Endlessly quoting dan john, but sometimes more is Just more. Or...its 1hr or 10hrs. Everything in between is not making a difference. 

So, 1hr a day. This can still be 2 workouts, but the vast majority of work getting allocated to light tonic work is a boon I didnt know i needed. 

How we do

- 3-4x week, AM strength training. Simple and predictable. Slowly add load and volume over time. Using the armor building formula. If you are thinking of adding more, dont.

- 3-4x week, AM mobility. There should be some common movements based on what youre trying to improve.

- 7x week, PM daily work. This is the $$$. I did nothing but this on vacation and glad I did. This is easy to do, easy to recover from, and can still add hypertrophy and strength through accumulation.

The daily work is today's topic so ill elaborate. 

- 10min EMOM pushups.

- 10min EMOM swings and animal walks.

Rope flow done during rest periods. 

Pushups alter variations every set. Add 2 reps/set every 2-3 weeks. This gets really nasty without incurring a fatigue debt. 

For swings/walks

- start 2 sets swings and 8 sets walks.

- add a set of swings and remove a set of walks each day.

- start over with 2 sets of swings but add a rep per set.

- after you hit 10x10 swings, increase the weight and restart.

armor building - variations

To be clear, this is me making shit up. There is not a Dan John's program or suggestion to do this. Each variation keeps to the same tenet - 2 cleans, 1 press, 3 squats - but gets there in different ways.

How we do

- (1)(2)kb

- (1)kb but overhead squat

- (1)kb but bent press

- sandbag clean to squat to ring dips

- (2)(1)landmine clean to press and hack squat 

- (1)kb curl from squat, squat into halo

- (1)kb curl from squat, squat into thruster 

Other variation 

increase number of presses (note: especially for ring dips) and/or squats per set. 

results of daily activity, not daily training

Building momentum is what we are doing. My energy and sex drive are doing pretty stellar compared to when I poured my energy all into training. The downside? At least for the time being, my physique is not what id like. As I've alluded to in other posts, I am giving my all to avoid focusing on this short term valley so I can harvest long term benefits from what I've invested in.

What im doing

Training 3-4x a week. All ABC single kettlebell.

AM mobility 3-4x a week. The only 'lifting' in this session is mace/club/medicine ball lateral movements

PM 5-7x a week. This is my nucleus overload, rope flow, and animal walk training. Goal is to get some sun and active recovery.

armor building weeks 3 and 4

Not every day is stellar, but im seeing slow and steady progress. Considering my legs need the most work, I've cut the press only day out so im only running the ABC. Short term shoulder hypertrophy is suffering, but Considering how much pressing I am getting from daily pushups this is not a big concern.

Legs are finally growing again!!!! Even with light weight. My back is definitely the limiting factor, so will work on this with mobility coach.

Improvements are not necessary to weight (12kg --> 18kg working weight) but I get way more sets at the top range AND the weight is moving faster. My rest between sides and sets is also decreasing. Just overall great stuff. 

In my next post, I'm going to create a working list of ABC variations that could be fun in the future. I can see using this method for the foreseeable future, and using the cooked up variations at the end of each 8 week cycle.

tissue tolerance

Ive mentioned in previous blogs about how an early goal for me was to increase the amount of time before things hurt. This is still 100% the goal, but i want to take it further. If your shit ain't right, consider this before doing random shit. So says the guy who decided to do zercher squats and lunges yesterday and now has angry knees.

Progression

- static holds assisted.

- static holds unassisted.

- holds unassisted. Some motion.

- full movement. Multiple sets of low reps.

- Add sets.

- Add reps per set.

- Add weight or difficulty.

what is your turning point?

There is no one turning point for people for the most part (notable exception David Goggins). Its a spectrum of life changes made when we had no choice. These little forks in the road make us who we are.

For me, the latest was a narly back injury sustained from high rep deadlifting near my 40th bday. I've done high rep deadlifting in the past and loved it. The difference between then and now is then I was building on top of a solid foundation. Now, I was putting high fatigue on a lift i had barely trained in years and had sustained multiple injuries on from weaknesses in all supporting body parts. Big big difference.

The turning point is not the fact that I got hurt. It is that I got hurt when my wife and I needed to paint our future kids room. The work ended up being 20/80 me to her because I could not stay upright and mobile for very long. My wife was happy to take on the work. That isn't what this is about. It is about not being able to participate in things I hold to be important because I decided to train like an asshole.

Unless it is your JOB to look pretty or break heads, the main goal of training (important note: for people outside of the adolescent age band) is to become more resilient. This doesn't mean that muscle and strength isn't in the picture. Quite the opposite. But if you are not becoming more insulated from normal injury (see: throwing your back out from sneezing, stupid shit) or not able to do normal human things then you may want to rethink your shit. Dont be a war story bro. Train forever.

dont snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Lot that this can apply to, but in this case it's training ADD. If something is working. Dont. Change. It. 

The most common symptoms for me is I think im missing out on muscular gains by not doing X movement. In reality, if week over week I can stack more weight and volume safety then the process is working.

There is no world where more weight and volume on the same movements done consistently does not pay off. Stay with something until the program is done or you stop making progress.

to heal: target above and below, hold ranges

Full disclosure, my right knee is still a work in progress. But compared to last year im fucking superman. What helps my back more or less applies here too:

- strengthening the muscles above and below the impacted area.

- exploring ranges of motion by holding positions.

Strengthening above and below is something you should be doing anyways. I.e. normal ass strength training. You should not have weak or perpetually tight muscles. 

For the knee

- Above: quads, hip flexor, glutes, hamstrings. 

- below: tibs, calves.

My big hangup was that I could not FEEL the muscles listed even when I did exercises that targeted them. The wrong muscles would get tight and hurt trying to protect my knee. The panacea ended up being isolation or Banded movements. It isn't enough to spark major hypertrophy, but it is enough to get you from suck to kind of ok. And kind of ok is a great starting point when you are coming back from an injury. 

Apply the same logic to the back:

- above: t spine, lats.

- below: glutes, hamstrings, quads, hip flexor, ql

Holding positions is a little more art than science. You are SLOWLY getting your body used to deep ranges of motion. Do not be hesitant to use assistance. Getting in and out of a position pain free consistently is a major win. None of the Instagram mobility freaks you see were able to juat do that. They had to practice for years. So do you.

armor building formula - weeks 1 and 2

Tldr its been great. I started with 12kg for all movements and have graduated to 16-20kg for most at this point. Borrowing from the armor building formula 2, there is no reason why an entire workout has to be 1 weight. Its whatever you can do at that time. Even if it means dropping weight mid workout.

Results 2 weeks in...

- general energy is way up. Especially after I stopped adding sets to failure of other movements after the main abf work was done. 

- shoulders are slightly rounder. This is a genuine surprise given the low weight im using.

- my mid back is always sore. Always.

- im ravenous haha. Minus some fasting attempts im hungry all the time. I do my best to feed that impulse with whole foods.

Alterations

- im using the single kettlebell version. The double feels a little too sketchy right now. But its a good version to graduate to.

- every 5 days, I throw in 2 sets of nordic curls to failure. It costs little and feels amazing.

- if I have the energy mid day, I've thrown in a second kettlebell workout that consists of big whole body movements. I jealously protect my lower back if this is on the menu.

Alternatively, I get a walk in with my dog to get some sun.

Off days

Mobility, always. This consists of 5-10min sled pulls, glute work with bands, and a series of hip openers. Again if energy persists during the day, ill walk the dog to get more sun. Im not against getting in some horizontal pressing work via pusbups done for EMOM rounds.

training arcs, not mesocycles

Ask yourself. What did Naruto do when training for a rasengan? Yhe answer is not, a bunch of random shit. He spammed shadow clones who all practiced the same movement to cheat the frequency and time of what would normally take years. What happened when he was done with this arc? Did he keep training the same movement in the same way? Hell no. He USED it while learning other new techniques - often spamming the same high frequency strategy.

I digress. This is not a parable for frequency as much as sticking to a program until you have earned the right to deviate.

Case and point, the armor building formula is a lot of kettlebell clean, press, and squat. My first few weeks, I added hypertrophy work for dips and rows and nordics. And it was fine. Things were fine. But there is a cost to going to failure mentally and physically and I paid the troll toll. Versus, dropping those movements and focusing on the main story arc, I've been able to push more weight and more volume every time I step in my garage. 

I get weird vibes of I can do this forever meaning this is fun and safe. Will I? Prob not. Dan john himself doesn't suggest that you do unless you work in deloads. The arcs that dan outlines more so bounce between his different programs.

- armor

- easy strength

- mass made simple

Etc

assisted step up rdl = money

Every once in a while you try out an exercise that looks like it will fit your needs, and it far far exceeds your expectations. Today, we have the assisted step up rdl.

Steps up a weak point for me because of quad and knee tendon strength in certain ranges of motion, but unlike normal step ups this is almost entirely a glute and hamstring exercise. Kind of like a pistol on a platform, the step is allowing for more tension in the targeted area without the added complexity of balancing or positioning the opposite leg.

How to do

1)Get on top of a step/bench next to a power rack (or otherwise stationary object you can hold on to). Grab on to the structure with the hand opposite of the leg worked.

2)Hinge forward with a single leg. Let the other leg drop straight down. Continue until you cannot hinge through the stretch any more.

3)come back up and repeat. Switch legs. Go nuts.

Why this rules

Its a back safe machine like way to burn out your legs after something more dynamic or strength oriented has tapped out. I love that shit. By itself, this would be an easy hinge. Paired with other movements it is a golden way to build muscle. 

S tier movement (note under the conditions listed above).

Eugene Tao and barbells. the edge lord has a point

A few years ago, Eugene Tao released a video with a deliberately inflammatory title: i stopped using barbells and you should too.

CLUTCH. PEARLS.

The actual argument within is much more moderate. If he can replace a barbell movement for himself or his clients, he does. I've also found this to be thr case, but it isn't a baby and bathwater situation. Its user specific. A kettlebell clean is not 'better' than a barbell clean. Apples and oranges. Both movements have value and offer something unique.

How this came up for me was with the barbell floor press. For weeks, my right shoulder hasn't been feeling super batman. I adjusted by taking my grip in (i.e. close grip floor press) which bought me another week before that too felt wonky. So what now? The weight isn't heavy yet. My muscles have the capacity but the joint does not. I flipped the script and switched to a ring pushup. Sane overall movement pattern with a larger range of motion and larger freedom of movement. Immediate relief. My shoulder is still a little inflamed from the work I tried to do, but that is easily fixable with some rest and light movement.

So what is the lesson here? The same lesson as always - movement dogmatism isn't a good call unless your sport demands it. For most of gen pop, this means nothing is required. If barbell movements feel good, have at it. If they dont, there are a legion of options.

spam activation

The big sexy that keeps coming into vogue is spammed reps for growth. Almost a decade ago, it was alex leonidus talking about nucleus overload - i.e. taking a single body part and spamming daily reps for a period of time (30 days +). Concept being that the repeated signal creates new satellite cells in the area making it easier to grow when heavier weight training is applied. The frequent example used is ex athletes like soccer players/swimmers growing their legs/shoulders respectively after they retire and train those body parts.

This is all good stuff, but what about if you are recovering from an injury? What of growth is desired not because of athletics or looks but survival? Same concept, different approach.

Instead of performing muscle building movements your body cant handle yet, perform movements that activate the targeted area. Do it daily.

Examples using myself, my back (herniations) and knee (god knows what) have been issues for years. My best friends are to activate the muscles around both body parts.

- Glutes.

- Hams.

- Quads.

- Abs.

This doesn't NOT take more than 10min a day. For the time investment this pays dividends.

Example warmup, 1-2 sets each

Glute bridges

Light cable row

Band leg extensions 

Band shoulder press

Jefferson curl progressions

Calf raise to tib raise 

Thoracic pushups

Glute walks

when you cant feel it, hold it

Since my daily work resembles mobility and strength, it is imperative I actually FEEL the target muscles working. I.e. this is not a 3 rep max squat where I need to move as much weight as far as possible. Im building control, stability, strength, and muscle - in that order. This morning I wanted to bail from two movements i couldn't feel and suspected my legs locking up from the effort before I ran across a great idea. If you cant work it, hold it. 

Isometrics are awesome because you can force contractions at any range of motion. Instead of adding speed and movement when a muscle isn't firing, hold still and force it to fire. This is like laying the foundation for future movement.

expanding the point where volume hurts

Discomfort at different volumes is not an on or off switch. It is a spectrum. Rather, the joint prep and mobility work i do on the reg allows me into positions and strength movements i couldn't have sneered at 6 months ago. BUT! My weaker areas - back, right knee - have a tolerance threshold to volume after which im just doing damage.

The goal here isn't to avoid those positions. Exact opposite. Get in volume while there is tolerance, then stop or perform regressed movements (better!) when shit gets uncomfortable. Workout to workout, try to expand the threshold where those positions arent working.

Example

A few weeks ago, my right knee tapped out of goblet squats around 3 sets. The tightness and discomfort was at the top half of the movement, so I switched to unweighted duck walks and continued the workout. Problem fucking solved.

Fast forward to today, I was able to knock out 6 sets of b stance kettlebell thrusters with 0 discomfort. Conversely, i lasted 2 follow up sets with Bulgarian split squats before my right knee decided it was done. No problem. I did sets with my left leg only.