#meathead posting

much of the programming that doesn't fall into these themes is pretty basic. most things work for people new to strength training, so if you can string some sentences together and avoid going off on any unhinged screeds, you can probably pull the bare bones of a linear progression program that avoids the potholes above.

in looking more recently for a program that would let me: a) maintain & build strength b) be in and out of the gym in <<an hour c) either leave room for or also incorporate building cardio/conditioning, i was repeatedly pointed to '''tactical barbell'''. i resisted, because, frankly it looks and sounds extremely fucking stupid and offputting, and i continued to make decent strength gains and bad cardio gains.

for the last month+, i've been out of the gym after some kind of respiratory illness*, and spent a good chunk of that time thinking about programming to try out when i got back, including, finally, taking a look at '''tactical barbell''', among others.

this brings us to present day, where i'm embarking with the '''operator''' (sigh) program, 3 days a week, paired with something c25k shaped and rock climbing a few times a week.

i'm using back squat, barbell bench, and lat pulldown as my 'cluster'. i'm a little iffy on LPD there - the equivalent in the book would be weighted pullups, of which i can do Zero…but it's six weeks, if i would've been better off with a pullup progression or deadlifts, well, live, learn, keep it moving.

i'll probably throw in 3x15 curls [for aesthetics] and lateral raises [for my paper mache-ass shoulders, which seem less prone to exploding in my sleep when i give them some attention] at the end if i have time, because what are you, my dad?

i picked some training maxes based on where I was at before I got sick, and the first session went Pretty OK. it took about 35 minutes total, things were mildly challenging, which tracked with my first day back, but generally fine. i climbed + jogged yesterday doing 2 minutes running / 2 minutes walking x 5, which was also fine.

i'll probably read the follow up conditioning book this week, and maybe tweak the cardio/conditioning part of this plan based on it.

*i was tested for several things, all of which came back negative. at this point it appears that best case it will remain a mystery forever

---

my overall goals for this cycle are:

Baseline: be at least as strong as when i got sick. Be able to jog for 15+ minutes straight. Lift and jog 3x/week, climb 1x/week.

Stretch: be meaningfully stronger than when I got sick on all three lifts in the cluster. Be able to jog for 30+ minutes straight. Lift and jog 3x/week, climb 2x/week.

---

notes/preliminary review of Tactical Barbell: Definitive Strength Training for the Operational Athlete (sigh):

the good:

generally coherently written [the bar is low]

not huge quantities of explicit racism/misogyny/homophobia/etc [the bar is so so so low]

it's brief. it took me ~2 hours to read, including taking notes & setting up a spreadsheet. from that, i think i have a good handle on the program i'm planning to use, and a decent overview of the other options

it is, in many ways, very funny to read a serious and detailed roleplay style description of how a cop might use google dot com in order to find a 1rm calculator

the bad:

this is a book aimed at, in many ways, making certain types of people - among them, cops, first responders, soldiers, combat sport enthusiasts - more effective, and implicitly in some cases, more effectively violent. the rest of this bullet point is left as an exercise for the reader.

some mid opinions about nutrition and supplements - mostly not egregious, but certainly extraneous. similarly, some flawed reasoning in the explanation of the approach to training.

how many low rez images of tactical athletes would you like to see? i hope it's a lot

the ?: