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Just finished a 6 week Operator cycle with Bench, Squat, and Deadlift. Here are my results.

Before:
Squat 265
Bench 205
Deadlift 305

After:
Squat 255x5 Estimated Max: 285
Deadlift 305x5 Estimated Max: 340
Bench 175x5 Estimated Max: 195

On test day I ended up benching after I had squatted and deadlifted due to their only being one bench in the gym and it was constantly in use and I got tired of standing around waiting.
I am assuming that is why I under performed on bench on test day. It felt strong the whole cycle and I hit all my sets with relative ease so I’m just going to continue with forced progression in all my lifts including bench.

I would lift on M,W,F and perform HIC on T, and TH. On Saturdays I would perform some LSS work, either running on the treadmill or hiking (when the weather improved). I didn’t really track any of my HIC but I did frequently perform Indoor Power Intervals on the treadmill due to the cold weather and snow and ice on the roads.

I’m currently taking a delod week and figuring out my next move training wise. I’m leaning towards another cycle of Operator + Black. I have access to a track again so I will be doing mostly 600m Resets and Speed Endurance Ladders from TBII. I may switch these up from time to time with some other track work or some hill work because I’ve got access to some pretty nasty hills where I’m stationed that sound perfect for some of the hill sessions in TBII. My Saturdays will be 1-2 hour hikes with a 35-40lb ruck.

A quote that I have written in my training log seemed very appropriate for Operator, “Make peace with the boredom of mastery.” I can’t take credit for the quote and I can’t remember where I found it but I wanted to share it with you all.

Thanks for reading. I will try and keep up with this online log as much as I can. I’m used to mostly keeping a written log but I like the idea of having access to a group of like-minded people when it comes to training.
Let me know if you have any input!

I forgot to add that midway through the cycle I had to complete a PFT and despite not doing much long distance running I still ran my 3 mile in 19:42 and maxed out pull-ups and crunches.

Cheers mate! Good luck with your TB journey.

MjWard wrote:Just finished a 6 week Operator cycle with Bench, Squat, and Deadlift. Here are my results.

Before:
Squat 265
Bench 205
Deadlift 305

After:
Squat 255x5 Estimated Max: 285
Deadlift 305x5 Estimated Max: 340
Bench 175x5 Estimated Max: 195

Great results and welcome to the board! You're likely right in that your bench suffered due to the order of operations. Would be interesting to see you take a day or two off and just retest that. I find the 90%rm sessions are an excellent way to gauge progress. Usually if I'm strong and crisp on those, that translates into an increase or PR.
Out of curiosity, what deadlift schedule did you go with?

DocOctagon wrote:

MjWard wrote:Just finished a 6 week Operator cycle with Bench, Squat, and Deadlift. Here are my results.

Before:
Squat 265
Bench 205
Deadlift 305

After:
Squat 255x5 Estimated Max: 285
Deadlift 305x5 Estimated Max: 340
Bench 175x5 Estimated Max: 195

Great results and welcome to the board! You're likely right in that your bench suffered due to the order of operations. Would be interesting to see you take a day or two off and just retest that. I find the 90%rm sessions are an excellent way to gauge progress. Usually if I'm strong and crisp on those, that translates into an increase or PR.
Out of curiosity, what deadlift schedule did you go with?

Thank you! Yeah, I’ve been thinking about retesting Bench in a couple of days. I would deadlift every session. I would do atleast one working set and depending on how that set felt I would do more or leave it at that one set.

Decided to go in today and retest my bench max while I was fresh and hit 185x5 this puts my estimated max at 210.

Operator + Black Pro Cycle
Bench/Squat/Deadlift Cluster

Training Maxes
Squat 255
Deadlift 315
Bench 195

HIC
I will rotate between these HIC sessions on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s
600m Resets
Speed-Endurance Ladders
Connaught 10-1
BOO I
BOO II
Apex Hills
Bloody Lungs I
Bloody Lungs II

Saturday’s E work will be a ruck with 50lbs

As you can see I decided to go with another cycle of Operator with Black Pro. My platoon has started doing mandatory PT everyday. I go to the gym early so that I can lift before platoon PT. We usually end up doing some random HITT style workout so I may or may not do my own HIC work on the scheduled HIC days later in the day depending on how that went.