TB for a Meathead

[Barkadion]

Hi guys,

KB posted great comment under "After 40" club about customizing TB for someone who is interested in putting on some beef. I think it makes sense to keep a thread dedicated to the topic.

I am copying/pasting KB's points below and I do hope we can share/discuss personal experiences, ideas, and customization to the guideline.


General TB guide for putting on some beef

• 1. Use a 3 or 4 day template (Op or Zulu)
  2. Bump up to at least 4 work sets per exercise. This one's important.
  3. Run Black Protocol (1 E every other week/maximum duration - 30 minutes). So 2 HICs every week. 1 E every other week (optional).
  4. Ensure that your food intake matches your weight gain goal.
  5. Choose HICs that are advantageous/complementary to your goal of maximizing muscle and power. Use GCs, sprints, things that contain dips, swings, pull-ups etc.
  6. Use Creatine Monohydrate. Very under-rated these days.

[Barkadion]

Great idea. I'd like to add one I think is appropriate:

Use the "Meat & Potatoe" exercises in your cluster. Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift.

Doesn't it make it Zulu only?

[Barkadion]

Great idea. I'd like to add one I think is appropriate:

Use the "Meat & Potatoe" exercises in your cluster. Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift.

Doesn't it make it Zulu only?

Huh? What do you mean?

I have read it as Squat, Bench, Press, DL for some reason. Misread it. Sorry.

[DocOctagon]

If I had to design a meathead oriented program it would be something like this:

Start off with Operator to build up core levels of strength and resilience.
Cluster: Back Squat/Bench Press/Deadlift + Pull-ups
Deadlift: 3 x week, 1 x work set only
Training Max in Effect
Run for 9-12 weeks

Move on to Zulu for Continuation:
Bench/Squat + Accessories
Deadlift/Press + Accessories
Accessories would be trained in higher rep/lower weight range with an aim to develop aesthetics & balance.
Deadlift: 1 or 2 x week, multiple work sets (1-3)

No more than 2 HIC or 2 LISS sessions per week.

[Kinetic]

Here's something I'm curious about. If one's reason for training was just strength, muscle mass and aesthetics, what's the current thinking on the type of cardio you should be doing?

I see the recommendation being 2 HIC max, but what about LSS does it have a place for simple fat loss and aesthetics? Back in the day when I use to read the old muscle mags it seemed like the old-school bodybuilders were all doing low intensity treadmill workouts, 40-60 minutes.

[TBPenguin]

Hi guys,

KB posted great comment under "After 40" club about customizing TB for someone who is interested in putting on some beef. I think it makes sense to keep a thread dedicated to the topic.

I am copying/pasting KB's points below and I do hope we can share/discuss personal experiences, ideas, and customization to the guideline.


General TB guide for putting on some beef

• 1. Use a 3 or 4 day template (Op or Zulu)
  2. Bump up to at least 4 work sets per exercise. This one's important.
  3. Run Black Protocol (1 E every other week/maximum duration - 30 minutes). So 2 HICs every week. 1 E every other week (optional).
  4. Ensure that your food intake matches your weight gain goal.
  5. Choose HICs that are advantageous/complementary to your goal of maximizing muscle and power. Use GCs, sprints, things that contain dips, swings, pull-ups etc.
  6. Use Creatine Monohydrate. Very under-rated these days.

Something that may not mean anything, but maybe gets back to scaling things for the over 40 club. The books suggested that Gladiator (5 sets, 3x a week) could usually only be run for a couple of blocks. The books also suggested that Mass (4 sets, 3x a week) was difficult to run for long, conditioning had to be kept in check. Those comments were general, not aimed at the After 40 Club members. On the reddit board TupeloDanger wrote that doing either of those for long was a bit much for him, and said he was over 40. Putting these together, it seems that if an over 40 guy ran Operator as described here, it may not last long, since Operator with 4 or 5 sets is pretty close to the old Mass and Gladiator. So maybe plan on just doing it for a block? Or maybe the lower frequency of Zulu would make it more feasible? Just wondering, I have no answers.

[Barkadion]

Hi guys,

KB posted great comment under "After 40" club about customizing TB for someone who is interested in putting on some beef. I think it makes sense to keep a thread dedicated to the topic.

I am copying/pasting KB's points below and I do hope we can share/discuss personal experiences, ideas, and customization to the guideline.


General TB guide for putting on some beef

• 1. Use a 3 or 4 day template (Op or Zulu)
  2. Bump up to at least 4 work sets per exercise. This one's important.
  3. Run Black Protocol (1 E every other week/maximum duration - 30 minutes). So 2 HICs every week. 1 E every other week (optional).
  4. Ensure that your food intake matches your weight gain goal.
  5. Choose HICs that are advantageous/complementary to your goal of maximizing muscle and power. Use GCs, sprints, things that contain dips, swings, pull-ups etc.
  6. Use Creatine Monohydrate. Very under-rated these days.

Something that may not mean anything, but maybe gets back to scaling things for the over 40 club. The books suggested that Gladiator (5 sets, 3x a week) could usually only be run for a couple of blocks. The books also suggested that Mass (4 sets, 3x a week) was difficult to run for long, conditioning had to be kept in check. Those comments were general, not aimed at the After 40 Club members. On the reddit board TupeloDanger wrote that doing either of those for long was a bit much for him, and said he was over 40. Putting these together, it seems that if an over 40 guy ran Operator as described here, it may not last long, since Operator with 4 or 5 sets is pretty close to the old Mass and Gladiator. So maybe plan on just doing it for a block? Or maybe the lower frequency of Zulu would make it more feasible? Just wondering, I have no answers.

I am not saying that I know the answer, but here is my thought.

Main consern is recovery. So, you have two options.

1. Go for I/A version by introducing extra days off either by programming it as written in the book or playing by auto regulation.

2. Going with 3 weeks block/1 week off as KB suggested in the "After 40 club" thread.

Both options should work.

[Balaclava]

Something that may not mean anything, but maybe gets back to scaling things for the over 40 club. The books suggested that Gladiator (5 sets, 3x a week) could usually only be run for a couple of blocks. The books also suggested that Mass (4 sets, 3x a week) was difficult to run for long, conditioning had to be kept in check. Those comments were general, not aimed at the After 40 Club members. On the reddit board TupeloDanger wrote that doing either of those for long was a bit much for him, and said he was over 40. Putting these together, it seems that if an over 40 guy ran Operator as described here, it may not last long, since Operator with 4 or 5 sets is pretty close to the old Mass and Gladiator. So maybe plan on just doing it for a block? Or maybe the lower frequency of Zulu would make it more feasible? Just wondering, I have no answers.

My thoughts on this:

Mass template was meant to be used with a Heavy exercise cluster. That's 4 major lifts which is pretty hardcore and probably only sustainable short term (for the 40+ crowd anyway).
Using Operator with BP/SQ/WPU + DL (4 sets) is a totally different animal. Don't forget you can practically eliminate any hard conditioning by choosing the right HICs. This shouldn't be hard to sustain, especially if you use a training max.

Gladiator's suggested cluster was deadlift and press I think, which I can see being hard to sustain for more than a few weeks. With any other exercise besides the DL, it would be fine for average trainees doing 5x5. I mean it's two exercises 5x5. It's the same or less volume than current existing "5 x 5" linear programs and it's easier because of the undulating (?) TB style of periodization. Throw in the training max as a cherry on top plus the reduced cardio and you're good to go.

Work capacity varies (for all ages) but I personally don't see Operator with a 3 ex cluster (+deadlift) for 4 sets being unmanageable by any means. Not even close if you compare it to Texas or other similar templates.

[DocOctagon]

@ Balaclava, beat me to it!

@TB Penguin, running Op with a 3 exercise session is nothing like Mass template (meant to be used with a heavy cluster). Here's two examples of what that could look like:

Example 1
Day 1/3/5 BP/SQ + DL x 1 set = 9 sets total

Or

Example 2
Day 1 BP/SQ/WPU = 12 sets total. WPUs aren't that taxing. Easily managed.
Day 2 Same as Day 1
Day 3 SQ/BP/Dl x 1-3 work sets = 9-11 sets

Now compare that to the old Mass template where you're hitting an average of 16 sets a session. Major difference. You could even bump up to 5 sets on key exercises (bench press anyone?) and still be well within the parameters of most traditional programs focused on mass and strength.

I believe the reason that Mass was dropped was because it wasn't very compatible with the conditioning side of things, which is TB's wheelhouse.

[TangoZero]

My n=1 experience here, I'm pushing 40 and I have no issues doing 4-5 sets with Operator (3 ex. cluster). I do a lot of conditioning on the side. I know this isn't an over 40 thread, but take from it what you will. My personal experience is the 4+ set thing is accurate in terms of inducing hypertrophy vs bare-bones Op with 3 sets. Again, this is coming from someone that does more than just two days of conditioning.