TACTICAL BARBELL LOG - Training to break PRs on Annual SWAT Physicals

[tangozero]

Day 2 - Conditioning:

10 burpees + 2 mins heavy bag strikes + 60 seconds rest
x 7 rds

[tangozero]

Day 3 - strength:

Bench - 240
Squats - 330
Wt'd pull-ups - 70lbs

[TakeEverything]

Are you going to light-deload or scale back before you Max? And, are you going to max just your barbell lifts, or do a run, etc...?

Curious to see how your numbers will compare now to your qualification tests.

[tangozero]

Are you going to light-deload or scale back before you Max? And, are you going to max just your barbell lifts, or do a run, etc...?

Curious to see how your numbers will compare now to your qualification tests.

I'll finish up my last TB session tomorrow, maybe one more conditioning day, and then I'll take a solid 3 days off and re-test. I don't worry too much about being 'on' for test days anymore, as long as I'm getting stronger overall, over time.

The way I see it, I rarely get to train in a fully rested, optimal state anyway. So if my numbers take a hit on test day because of a little fatigue, I see it as a form of auto-regulation - kinda like a natural 'training max' effect.

[tangozero]

Conditioning:

2 minutes jogging + 1 min kettlebell swings x 20 mins (approx.)

Used the treadmill today. Set it at a slower pace, hopped off every two minutes and completed a minute of swings. 2 handed with the 32kg bell.
Deceptively simple, but very effective. Heart was beating like a drum.

[TakeEverything]

Good points.

Will you only be testing your barbell lifts? Or add in some PFT style exercises?

[tangozero]

Good points.

Will you only be testing your barbell lifts? Or add in some PFT style exercises?

Nope, just the barbell lifts and pull-ups. I don't worry about the rest until closer to re-certs/qualification.

[tangozero]

Last strength session of the week:

Bench - 240
Squats - 330
Wt'd pull-ups - 70lbs

[tangozero]

Conditioning:

Kept it simple today - 45 min steady state run

[tangozero]

Going to take a few days off and then retest. Looking forward to the results, my 90% week was feeling pretty good - lifts under control and could feel a few more reps in the bank. For me that's usually indicative of RM increases.

[tangozero]

Retested RMs a few days ago, good results, will update when I have a little more time. Will be starting up another TB phase - undecided on cluster/template. In the mood to try something different.

[tangozero]

Been super busy at work, training's taken a bit of a back seat for the last week but things are starting to get back to normal.
Tested for new PRs last week. Generally I usually do a couple warm up sets, and then test with 90%rm for as many reps as possible. I calculate my new 1rm based on the results. This time around I worked up to actual singles with the help of a training partner.

This is how it went this time around:

Bench 327.5 (worked up to a single)
Before 320 / After 327.5
Not bad, the strength gains are coming at a slower pace as they usually do when I get to relatively heavier loads.

Squats 447.5 (love the 2.5lb plates! worked up to a single)
Before 440/ After 447.5
Could only do one rep with good form. Had some strength left to maybe push out one more rep but would've been very sloppy and possibly dangerous with the bad form. Truthfully I am pleasantly surprised with this result. I've been doing a LOT of cardio and track work so wasn't expecting an increase at all.

Wt'd pull-ups 100lbs
Not much improvement here this time around.

Overall I was very happy with the results, this is the strongest I've been and my conditioning is at an acceptable level.

I missed out on a lot of training last week due to a busy week at work, no big deal it was time to de-load anyway.

I want to change things up so for the next TB phase, so I think I'll be changing up my cluster, or template, or maybe both. Haven't decided yet but will figure it out soon enough and post up!

Tango0

[TakeEverything]

Nice work. 7.5 pounds on both squats and bench in a short period of time, especially with high weight as it is anyways, is always deserves an applause... You're 190-195 pounds too right?

Ohh... And btw... Mirin' the weighted pullups hard lol.

[tangozero]

Nice work. 7.5 pounds on both squats and bench in a short period of time, especially with high weight as it is anyways, is always deserves an applause... You're 190-195 pounds too right?

Ohh... And btw... Mirin' the weighted pullups hard lol.

About 185 rite now give or take. Thanks, I might be reaching a plateau with the pull-ups though. I think I'll be switching up my cluster for the next phase, maybe give the pull-ups a break and do deads or something.

This phase was pretty long, but inconsistent for a few weeks with missed workouts due to work + life. But I'm still pretty happy with the overall result.

[tangozero]

So I've decided to try something a little different. I'm going to switch to 'Fighter' template for 12 weeks and put more focus on conditioning for a while. Fighter is a twice a week lifting template from Tactical Barbell. It's supposed to be for guys that need to put more emphasis on conditioning and skills training like mixed martial artists or athletes. It can be used as an 'on-season' template, whereas Operator and Gladiator could be ideal for 'off-season' block training.

Cluster:

Muscle-ups
Deadlift
Overhead Press

I rarely train muscle-ups or OHP. I'm reasonably strong in deadlift but haven't trained them in a while. That being said I don't find it too difficult to keep my DL numbers high as long as I'm squatting regularly.
I'm very interested in getting better at muscle-ups, right now I can probably do about 2 with a bit of struggle. I have no idea where I'm at with OHP right now to be honest.

So for the next 12 weeks, I'll be targeting completely different areas and giving my body a break from the usual bench/squat/pull-up scheme. I'm very excited to try this - as I was starting to get bored doing the same exercises over and over. I have no doubt I'll return to the bench/squat/pull-up staple, but it'll be nice to change it up for a while.

I'll be testing my one rep max's later today or tomorrow morning. This is what my new weekly schedule will look like:


Day 1: TB Fighter - muscle-ups/deadlift/OHP
Day 2: Conditioning (short high intensity)
Day 3: Kettlebells (strength-endurance)
Day 4: TB Fighter - muscle-ups/deadlift/OHP
Day 5: Conditioning (short high intensity)
Day 6: Long Steady State (LSS)
Day 7: Rest

My muscle-up numbers will be pretty pathetic, so I'm looking forward to seeing improvement there. I've never used Fighter Template before. But I have used 531 twice/week template in the past. 531 doesn't seem to be enough frequency or volume in the main lifts for me - I can never seem to do more than maintain strength using it. Not sure if I'll have the same issue with Fighter, but time will tell. With Fighter I'll be hitting everything twice a week instead of once, so maybe that'll make a difference.

Tango0

[tangozero]

I've been on course (work related)for the past week, so I haven't been doing any of my regular training. Brought a 32kg kettlebell with me while away, kept my workouts brief and simple. One-arm push-ups, pull-ups, pistol squats and kb swings/snatches.

Will be back to my regular training schedule in a day or two!

[tangozero]

Finally got around to testing my maximums:

Deadlift: 340lbs
Haven't touched DL for a few months, so pleasantly surprised. Worked up to a single. Probably could've gone a little heavier but form was starting to break down.

OHP: 150lbs
I rarely train OHP, so it's pretty meh.

Muscle-ups: 3
Almost never do these, so I'm pretty weak here. But it's something I really want to improve upon - and I'm looking forward to developing these the most.

I'll be using Tactical Barbell's Fighter template, with the option to do 4 sets instead of 5. Twice a week of lifting. I'll run it for a standard 12 week block and then retest.
Two days a week dedicated to lifting, four days a week to conditioning. One day rest. I'll try and adhere to this schedule:

Day 1: Muscle-ups/Deadlift/OHP
Day 2: Conditioning (HIIT)
Day 3: Conditioning (Kettlebells or LSS)
Day 4: Muscle-ups/Deadlift/OHP
Day 5: Conditioning (Metcon style or bodyweight/burpees etc)
Day 6: Conditioning (Sprints or Hills)
Day 7: Rest

[tangozero]

Went for a light run tonight. 2 miles, easy pace. Tomorrow will be day 1/week 1 of my new training block.

[tangozero]

Started yesterday, Day 1/Wk 1:

75% 4 x 5

Muscle ups 4 sets x 2

Deadlifts 255

OHP 110

The last set of muscle ups felt pretty shaky. Deadlifts and OHP felt pretty good, tight, no issues completing all reps.

Today:
10 burpees
10 kettlebell swings
x 10

Looks like Tactical Barbell's come out with a 2nd edition

http://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Barbe...tional+athlete

Just bought it, I'll update after I finish reading. Looks like they have a new template, and they've made some changes to the old.

Tango0

[tangozero]

March 29 - Conditioning:
Steady State run - 5 miles

Today - Strength:

75% 4 x 5

Muscle ups 4 sets x 2

Deadlifts 255

OHP 110

Muscle-ups still feeling tough. No probs with the DLs and OHP. Loving the changes in TB's 2nd edition. Will review later when I have time.

[tangozero]

Conditioning. Did a little work at the track:

6 x 400m
5 x 50m

[tangozero]

Strength - 75% 4 x 5:

Muscle ups 4 sets x 2

Deadlifts 255

OHP 110

Muscle ups felt a bit better this time around, but not that much better. Everything else was solid.

[tangozero]

Conditioning/ Day 5:

5 pull-ups
10 medicine ball slams
15 burpees
20 jumping jax

x 20 minutes

This little conditioning workout's from Ross Enamait's material. I was dying before I hit the halfway mark. The burpees take a lot out of you. The idea is to work continuously for 20 minutes or 10 rounds I think. I usually go for time.

[tangozero]

Day 1. Strength.

Muscle-ups 4 x 2 (rounded down)
DL 270lbs 3 x 5
OHP 120lbs 4 x 5

45 minute trail run after. Weather was great, couldn't resist. Plus I have to work off a lot of Easter chocolate.

[tangozero]

Day 3. Conditioning:

5 kb snatches /right
5 kb snatches/left
5 kb swings/right
5 kb swings/left
10 burpees
60 seconds rest
x 5 rounds

Got the above from Ross Enamait. I substituted the kettlebells for dumbbells.

[tangozero]

Day 4. Strength.

Muscle-ups 4 x 2 (rounded down)
DL 270lbs 3 x 5
OHP 120lbs 4 x 5

[tangozero]

Day 6. Conditioning

Hill Sprints:

Run up hill - 5 burpees - walk back down
x 10

Brutal! Legs felt like jelly after I was done, and I had a hard time jogging back to my car after the workout. Going to feel this tomorrow for sure.

[tangozero]

Rest today, but had some energy so decided to do a little (very little) swimming. Okay, so I did a lap or two and then spent the rest of my time in the hot tub.

[tangozero]

Couple changes coming up in my training.

I'm not really liking Fighter template, I preferred Operator. But then I'm not a big fan of twice/week templates in general. Nothing got me as strong and ripped as quickly as Operator template did . I guess hitting all your lifts 3 times a week will do that. Fighter seems to be taking a little longer, but I can definitely see the benefit if you can't lift all the time.

Recently I picked up Tactical Barbell's 2nd Edition, and it looks SOLID. They made a few tweaks to some of the templates, and unveiled their brand new "Zulu" template. I have to admit, Zulu looks great and seems to be the perfect fit for a tactical athlete. I've been itching to try it which is half the reason I'm dropping Fighter if I'm honest.

How it works is you pick 4-7 major lifts/exercises and then they get done on a 4 day schedule. Like this:

Mon: Bench/Squat
Tues: Deadlift/OHP
Weds:
Thurs: Bench/Squat
Fri: DL/OHP
Sat:
Sun:

And you use the TB waved periodization model. So each lifting session is REALLY SHORT (only 2-3 lifts). If you're a tactical athlete you can already see the benefit in this. You can fill up the remaining time with whatever you want. Accessory work after the lifts, or cardio or whatever. I haven't tried it yet, but the book suggests each session takes about 15-25 minutes, which seems about right with 2 lifts @ 3-5 sets.

So I'm super excited to give this a try. I'll be starting up Day 1/Week 1 tomorrow with this cluster:

Bench/Squat/Weighted Pull-ups/OHP/Deadlifts

I may drop the deadlifts later because I like incorporating lots of kettlebell work, and they tend to hit the same muscles/posterior chain. So I'll play it by ear and see how it goes before making any decisions right now.


T0

[tangozero]

Work interfered for the past week or so, very busy with extended shifts as a result of a couple call-outs. Then I had to do a bunch of routine training re-certs which ate up the rest of my time...time to win the lottery so I can focus on training!

Things are settling down now and coming back to normal, so I should be back on top of things as far as logging and workouts are concerned.

The past week was basically a wash, missed most of my workouts, and diet was ****, so I'm wiping the slate clean and getting back to business this week.

T-0