TacticalBarbell.com

Sorry for the long post! TLDR at bottom. For the past 6 months I have been running OP I/A with black protocol. My training and diet have not been perfect the past 6 months but Ive been consistent. I'm working full time as a firefighter 24/48 and going to school full time and putting in 80-100 hours a week between work and school. For a couple months I did not do conditioning as I should have been, I was very overwhelmed and burnt outwith work and school. However during winter break I finally had school off and decided to really get back into my HIC and diet and im feeling great.

What's crazy to me is for all my lifts the heaviest I trained Deadlifts were 335 before trying my new 1rm, 235 for squats, and 180 for bench. All which were my workout today which I hit all those then decided, screw it I haven't 1RM since 6 months ago, I'm going to have some fun today.

TLDR: working full time as a firefighter and going to school full time and running Operator I/A, diet and conditioning weren't perfect but hit new PRs today.

Starting 1RM
DL 330
Squat 230
Bench 180

Todays workout
DL 405
Squat 315
Bench 225

cws1992 wrote:Sorry for the long post! TLDR at bottom. For the past 6 months I have been running OP I/A with black protocol. My training and diet have not been perfect the past 6 months but Ive been consistent. I'm working full time as a firefighter 24/48 and going to school full time and putting in 80-100 hours a week between work and school. For a couple months I did not do conditioning as I should have been, I was very overwhelmed and burnt outwith work and school. However during winter break I finally had school off and decided to really get back into my HIC and diet and im feeling great.

What's crazy to me is for all my lifts the heaviest I trained Deadlifts were 335 before trying my new 1rm, 235 for squats, and 180 for bench. All which were my workout today which I hit all those then decided, screw it I haven't 1RM since 6 months ago, I'm going to have some fun today.

TLDR: working full time as a firefighter and going to school full time and running Operator I/A, diet and conditioning weren't perfect but hit new PRs today.

Starting 1RM
DL 330
Squat 230
Bench 180

Todays workout
DL 405
Squat 315
Bench 225

Awesome job! Thanks for posting - this kind of report makes my day.

A suggestion going forward; you might want to consider forcing progression (adding 5/10lbs to your original training maximums) instead of using your new numbers. If the jumps are too big in between retests you might find your new working weights a little too heavy. Then again it depends on the individual and pace of progression - but food for thought.

K.B. wrote:

cws1992 wrote:Sorry for the long post! TLDR at bottom. For the past 6 months I have been running OP I/A with black protocol. My training and diet have not been perfect the past 6 months but Ive been consistent. I'm working full time as a firefighter 24/48 and going to school full time and putting in 80-100 hours a week between work and school. For a couple months I did not do conditioning as I should have been, I was very overwhelmed and burnt outwith work and school. However during winter break I finally had school off and decided to really get back into my HIC and diet and im feeling great.

What's crazy to me is for all my lifts the heaviest I trained Deadlifts were 335 before trying my new 1rm, 235 for squats, and 180 for bench. All which were my workout today which I hit all those then decided, screw it I haven't 1RM since 6 months ago, I'm going to have some fun today.

TLDR: working full time as a firefighter and going to school full time and running Operator I/A, diet and conditioning weren't perfect but hit new PRs today.

Starting 1RM
DL 330
Squat 230
Bench 180

Todays workout
DL 405
Squat 315
Bench 225

Awesome job! Thanks for posting - this kind of report makes my day.

A suggestion going forward; you might want to consider forcing progression (adding 5/10lbs to your original training maximums) instead of using your new numbers. If the jumps are too big in between retests you might find your new working weights a little too heavy. Then again it depends on the individual and pace of progression - but food for thought.

I actually plan on keeping force progression I've been using it since my first training block, It's been working and I'm in this for the long haul, no point in rushing it. I just wanted to 1RM today because i was feeling great and wanted to see my progress.

I did actually have a question for you KB regarding my sets and reps. For the last few blocks I've kept my Squats at 3 sets maximum, and my DL which I do every 3rd day at 2 sets. As for bench Ive always gone atleast 5 sets. My squats and DL always feel much easier compared to bench. Im not sure if its the frequency that has caused this. Do you think I should scale back my sets for Bench my next couple blocks? I have been using my training max since day 1 as well and I always make sure I have proper form. My bench just really seems to lack and overall harder compared to squats and DL.

Congrats brother!!!

I don't know if you realize this but you're only 55lbs away from the 1000 club...

Can you tell us a little about your set-up.... how did you schedule your deadlifts? Did you find yourself taking mostly 1 or 2 days in between strength sessions? Also just curious what conditioning sessions you went with.

Again, bang-up job!

BlackPyjamas wrote:Congrats brother!!!

I don't know if you realize this but you're only 55lbs away from the 1000 club...

Can you tell us a little about your set-up.... how did you schedule your deadlifts? Did you find yourself taking mostly 1 or 2 days in between strength sessions? Also just curious what conditioning sessions you went with.

Again, bang-up job!

I forgot to mention my cluster also includes weighted chin ups but I didn't do 1rm for those.
I always kept 2 days between strength training sessions. As for Deadlifts, I did them every 3rd strength day. I would do 2 working sets of deadlift, then 1 working set of squats that same day. KB mentions this method in Operator Article.

As far as conditioning, LOTS of kettlebells, burpees, sledgehammer swings, etc. I really like devils trinity and Buffalo laps. Also starting to incorporate sandbags into my HIC training. And I'll do 1-2 E sessions every 2 weeks.

The great thing about Tactical Barbell is once you understand the philosophy behind HIC you can create your own which I'll do occasionally.

cws1992 wrote:

K.B. wrote:

cws1992 wrote:Sorry for the long post! TLDR at bottom. For the past 6 months I have been running OP I/A with black protocol. My training and diet have not been perfect the past 6 months but Ive been consistent. I'm working full time as a firefighter 24/48 and going to school full time and putting in 80-100 hours a week between work and school. For a couple months I did not do conditioning as I should have been, I was very overwhelmed and burnt outwith work and school. However during winter break I finally had school off and decided to really get back into my HIC and diet and im feeling great.

What's crazy to me is for all my lifts the heaviest I trained Deadlifts were 335 before trying my new 1rm, 235 for squats, and 180 for bench. All which were my workout today which I hit all those then decided, screw it I haven't 1RM since 6 months ago, I'm going to have some fun today.

TLDR: working full time as a firefighter and going to school full time and running Operator I/A, diet and conditioning weren't perfect but hit new PRs today.

Starting 1RM
DL 330
Squat 230
Bench 180

Todays workout
DL 405
Squat 315
Bench 225

Awesome job! Thanks for posting - this kind of report makes my day.

A suggestion going forward; you might want to consider forcing progression (adding 5/10lbs to your original training maximums) instead of using your new numbers. If the jumps are too big in between retests you might find your new working weights a little too heavy. Then again it depends on the individual and pace of progression - but food for thought.

I actually plan on keeping force progression I've been using it since my first training block, It's been working and I'm in this for the long haul, no point in rushing it. I just wanted to 1RM today because i was feeling great and wanted to see my progress.

I did actually have a question for you KB regarding my sets and reps. For the last few blocks I've kept my Squats at 3 sets maximum, and my DL which I do every 3rd day at 2 sets. As for bench Ive always gone atleast 5 sets. My squats and DL always feel much easier compared to bench. Im not sure if its the frequency that has caused this. Do you think I should scale back my sets for Bench my next couple blocks? I have been using my training max since day 1 as well and I always make sure I have proper form. My bench just really seems to lack and overall harder compared to squats and DL.

Try scaling back to 4 sets for a block and see what happens. Also stick with the same TM/loads for BP for a block or two - don't progress your max. You might need more time to grow into the weight, not uncommon for BP or OHP.

cws1992 wrote:

BlackPyjamas wrote:Congrats brother!!!

I don't know if you realize this but you're only 55lbs away from the 1000 club...

Can you tell us a little about your set-up.... how did you schedule your deadlifts? Did you find yourself taking mostly 1 or 2 days in between strength sessions? Also just curious what conditioning sessions you went with.

Again, bang-up job!

I forgot to mention my cluster also includes weighted chin ups but I didn't do 1rm for those.
I always kept 2 days between strength training sessions. As for Deadlifts, I did them every 3rd strength day. I would do 2 working sets of deadlift, then 1 working set of squats that same day. KB mentions this method in Operator Article.

As far as conditioning, LOTS of kettlebells, burpees, sledgehammer swings, etc. I really like devils trinity and Buffalo laps. Also starting to incorporate sandbags into my HIC training. And I'll do 1-2 E sessions every 2 weeks.

The great thing about Tactical Barbell is once you understand the philosophy behind HIC you can create your own which I'll do occasionally.

Thanks...I was wondering if you had chins or pull-ups in there. I'm with you on the Buffalo Laps, recently started using them a little more regularly.

Outstanding job. Those are some extremely round numbers, which makes me think you could probably do even more.

Great results mate:) Those are some good numbers.

cws1992 wrote:Sorry for the long post! TLDR at bottom. For the past 6 months I have been running OP I/A with black protocol. My training and diet have not been perfect the past 6 months but Ive been consistent. I'm working full time as a firefighter 24/48 and going to school full time and putting in 80-100 hours a week between work and school. For a couple months I did not do conditioning as I should have been, I was very overwhelmed and burnt outwith work and school. However during winter break I finally had school off and decided to really get back into my HIC and diet and im feeling great.

What's crazy to me is for all my lifts the heaviest I trained Deadlifts were 335 before trying my new 1rm, 235 for squats, and 180 for bench. All which were my workout today which I hit all those then decided, screw it I haven't 1RM since 6 months ago, I'm going to have some fun today.

TLDR: working full time as a firefighter and going to school full time and running Operator I/A, diet and conditioning weren't perfect but hit new PRs today.

Starting 1RM
DL 330
Squat 230
Bench 180

Todays workout
DL 405
Squat 315
Bench 225

Those are impressive strength gains, great job!