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I've been a TB devotee for at least 5 years now, and I've just finished a couple of cycles of GM for the first time. They were exactly what the doctor ordered. Not that I gained a lot of mass as I wasn't eating for it, but I just felt great the whole time. Now I'm running a 3-6 week Zulu-ish cycle. I like the idea of OMS, but I'm not too keen on running a specificity phase. Mainly what I like about OMS is the idea of alternating strength and mass cycles. However, I felt so good on GM and I've also heard Dan John say that once you get past 35yo it's best to focus more on hypertrophy (rather than pure strength) so I'm thinking that I might run GM:Zulu in more of a 2:1 fashion as opposed to keeping hypertrophy and strength cycles even.

Anyone else favoring the mass templates over pure strength templates? If so, how are you organizing your cycles?

(Of course, I realize that hypertrophy cycles can build strength and strength cycles can build hypertrophy - that there is carryover between both.)

I am intending to do some sort of OMS inspired blocks from Oct onwards:

6-9 weeks: Mass A (KB Press, Front Squat, Deadlift, Weighted Chinup)
6-9 weeks: Fighter but using 5/3/1 scheme (Bench, Squat, Sumo DL, weighted PU)
6-9 weeks: Endurance (similar to basebuilding for Mass but with longer runs, and variation in speed).

In your case, I think it is key to decide what it is you NEED. The ratio of mass vs strength blocks - I think 1 for 1 honestly might work better just from a freshness perspective.

mikhou wrote:I've been a TB devotee for at least 5 years now, and I've just finished a couple of cycles of GM for the first time. They were exactly what the doctor ordered. Not that I gained a lot of mass as I wasn't eating for it, but I just felt great the whole time. Now I'm running a 3-6 week Zulu-ish cycle. I like the idea of OMS, but I'm not too keen on running a specificity phase.

mikhou, odd thought here. How much of this could be attributed to the difference in the conditioning loads? Because the lifting in GM is definitely more stressful than that of O I/A (look at the %s, the reps).

TBPenguin wrote:mikhou, odd thought here. How much of this could be attributed to the difference in the conditioning loads? Because the lifting in GM is definitely more stressful than that of O I/A (look at the %s, the reps).

Interestingly enough I used conditioning sessions from TB2, not Mass. As I said, I wasn't eating for mass gain. I just wanted to play with some higher rep lifting...and I liked it.

That is interesting. Given all the times in the book KB says that you don't need to do Specificity, it seems like your plan should work. As mentioned elsewhere, having just done 2 blocks of MT, I am probably going to do a block of Z, so without thinking ti out ahead that seems to be MMZ. It will be interesting to see how our bodies respond.

TBPenguin wrote:That is interesting. Given all the times in the book KB says that you don't need to do Specificity, it seems like your plan should work. As mentioned elsewhere, having just done 2 blocks of MT, I am probably going to do a block of Z, so without thinking ti out ahead that seems to be MMZ. It will be interesting to see how our bodies respond.

So I've mentioned before doing a Zulu-ish template. I'll confess that I don't run anything exactly like TB, but that's the beauty of TB. It's more a set of principles that you then adapt to your needs, life, and schedule. For everything that I run, for awhile now I've been running 8 day weeks that include 3 strength days, 3 conditioning days (and one of those is a Fun Run that includes some strength work), and 2 rest days. I run it for 3 weeks and then take an easy week ala Ageless Athlete. I also like the percentages best in Op I/A so even on a Zulu schedule (hitting everything 2x/wk over an 8-day period), I use those sets, reps, and percentages. So....just for clarity when I say GM/GM/Z, that means 2 4-week GM cycles (including an easy week) and 1 4-week Zulu cycle (including an easy week) with forced TM progression between each one. So far it's working out beautifully.

mikhou, we differ slightly in the details for Z, but I am 100% with you on the 3/1 blocks. I could probably do two Z blocks back to back without a bridge week, but the one time I tried it with a mass template it didn't work so well. Thanks for sharing.