TacticalBarbell.com

Appreciate the chance to post a log on the forum to gain some accountability and feedback. I’m a 59 year old former Army soldier, 6’2”, 245. I work an office job now. My body is very beat up, I’m in very poor condition, and my body fat is getting close to 30%. I’ve got the TB books, including Ageless Athlete, and I’ve run the program previously with good success, injury free. I had a serious health issue a couple of years ago that has stabilized, but I let it impact my training too much. I started two days ago with the SE-first Base Building, and I’ll plan to post weekly logs.

Mo-E
Tu-SE
We-E
Th-Recovery
Fr-SE
Sa-E
Su-Off

E-My aerobic fitness is terrible. In fact, I think every run/ruck I’ve done the last 30+ years has been anaerobic, even the slower ones. To make matters worse, I drank the Kool aid at the beginning of the CrossFit craze that you could build all the aerobic capacity you needed by training anaerobically. That definitely didn’t work for me. So I need to rebuild my aerobic base using low heart rate training. I know a lot of people use the MAF method, but I’m going to do something slightly different. It’s the system of John “Hadd” Walsh, which was a series of posts on the Let’s Run forum many years ago. It still involves a lot of LHR training, but it’s based on max heart rate, not a 180 formula. You initially try to stay under 70-75% MHR while you build your mileage. I’m one of those people whose max heart rate fits in the 220-age formula, as mine is right about 160. So 70% for me is 112 and 75% is 120. I’ll use 110-120 as my workout range. This is a little more generous with beats per minute than MAF, but trust me, I will still be doing a lot of walking. I will initially do all my E training on a treadmill to have some uniformity of pace.

SE Cluster:
KB Swing
Pushup
Reverse Crunch
Goblet Squat
TRX Row
SE-I plan to do Alpha at 3 X 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 for the 5 weeks of SE in BB.

Recovery: I’ll be doing an Original Strength circuit of head raises, rolling, and crawling, along with some foam rolling and stretching. When you get to my age, mobility is the attribute that takes the biggest hit, by far. At least it has been that way for me.

Nutrition: I am very carb sensitive. Almost all my fat is in my belly. I’m almost through Maffetone’s 14 day carb test, where you basically don’t eat any carbs except green vegetables, not even fruit. The weight is falling off me. Day 2 was bad for cravings, and Day 3 was my “carb flu” day where I felt lousy with no energy. But since then I’ve felt better each day. When I started I was 253. I know some is water loss, but my waist is definitely shrinking. Next week I’ll slowly add a serving of fruit or two per day back in, and see how I tolerate it. I’ll have to severely reduce starchy carbs for the long haul to maximize my health.

Welcome and good luck!

Thanks Bark, appreciate it.

Mon 25 May E 30 min

Tue 26 May. SE 3x10

Wed 27 May. E 30 min

Thu 28 May Recovery 20 min OS resets

Fri 29 May. SE 3x10

Sat 30 May E 30 min

Sun 31 May. Off

E: Just as expected, the E sessions involved a lot of walking. I was only able to jog slowly (4.2 mph on the treadmill) about 4 times per session, for about 90 seconds at most, to keep my heart rate in check. But this is actually encouraging because it confirms that this is what I need.

SE: The Alpha sessions were fine, no problem completing them. However, after re-reading the guidance on SE, I think I’m switching to Tango. I’ll do the same number of total reps, but I’ll gauge my rest periods by the talk test vs. time, and try to work fairly continuously with shorter sets and rest periods. Feeling good.

Mon 1 June E 30 min

Tue 2 June SE 42 reps each

Wed 3 June E 30 min

Thu 4 June Off (work crisis)

Fri 5 June 42 reps each

Sat 6 June E 30 min

Sun 7 June Off

E: I was able to jog 5 times per 30 minute session this week, up from 4 last week. Still lots of walking to keep heart rate in check, and still only jogging at 4.2 mph on the treadmill, which is about as slow as I can go and call it jogging. I think my HR recovery between jogging bouts was quicker.

SE: I mentioned last week I was switching up the SE format. I don't have any need to do sets of 60, 70, 80 push-ups or other body weight exercises any more. And i really want to limit lactic acid buildup. So I'm doing shorter sets but more of them. Instead of 15 reps x 3 sets, I did 6 reps x 7 sets. I took only 15-20 seconds rest between exercises and the same between sets/circuits. I'm basically trying to implement a version of Pavel's alactic work effort with aerobic recovery style training. Still doing lots of reps, but with minimal lactic acid. Still feeling good.

Mon 8 June E 30 min

Tue 9 June SE 56 total reps

Wed 10 June E 30 min

Thu 11 June Recovery OS resets, stretching

Fri 12 June SE 56 total reps

Sat 13 June E 30 min

Sun 14 June Off

E: continued slow improvement. Running at a steady treadmill pace and recovery walking at a consistent pace I’m covering more ground each time, with more running (jogging) intervals. HR recovery during walk periods seems quicker.

SE: did 7 reps x 8 circuits for my SE. Really enjoying avoiding excessive glycolysis this way. It’s a great endurance workout and I’m covered in sweat at the end, but my body isn’t trashed and I’m ready to go the next day.

Good luck with the Basebuilding program.

Your target HR is actually really close to the Maffetone recommendations as well (180-59 = 121 max).

Give yourself some time, the results will come slowly but surely. 1 great thing about MAF type running, esp since u cap it at 30min for now, is that your risk of injury should be really low.

More sets of less reps will lead to slightly different adaptations, but in your case you are still getting stronger/more conditioned in any case so if it works for you, I say go for it!

Thanks, godjira. Your log is one that I read from time to time and find interesting. I hope the time away from BJJ helps your shoulder heal as much as possible.

I hear what you are saying about the MAF 180-age number, but I am also on medication, which is supposed to require you to subtract another 10 beats from your number. So my result would then be 111, which I believe is just too conservative. I am going to start increasing the duration of my E sessions to see if more volume helps me progress a little quicker. As you point out, the danger of injury is pretty low since it's such conservative training.

I also agree with you that I'll have a different adaptation with my SE than if I had followed the higher reps, fewer circuits model from the book. But I'm very happy with my decision so far. I've done an awful lot of metcon and high rep body weight type circuit training in the past, and even when I was very fit, I always thought those type of sessions took more out of me than they gave me. In fact, when I do SE next time around, I'm thinking about just doing Simple & Sinister for my SE days.

Base Building Week 4

I dropped my recovery day this week to buy an extra day next week for max strength testing. Seemed like a simple way to fit it in since next week is my last SE week of BB.

Sun 14 June Off

Mon 15 June E 40 min

Tue 16 June SE 72 total reps

Wed 17 June E 30 min

Thu 18 June SE 72 total reps

Fri 19 June E 30 min

Sat 20 June Off

E: adding 10 min per week to my total E run/walk time. Still slow, steady progress covering more ground in the same time, but still lots of walking.

SE: 8 reps x 9 circuits. Definitely feel like I’m getting fitter doing these. Good week.

Base Building Week 5

Sun 21 June SE 90 total reps

Mon 22 June E 40 min

Tue 23 June SE 90 total reps

Wed 24 June E 30 min

Thu 25 June MS

Fri 26 June E 40 min

Sat 27 June Off

SE: 10 reps x 9 circuits. Not a lot of fun, really had to grind through these two workouts. But even though I’m not sorry to leave them behind, I think they did a good job increasing my base level of fitness.

E: added 10 more minutes. Still progressing, although slowly, i. e. more ground covered per session. I need to wear my Garmin watch more often overnight to see if my resting HR is coming down.

MS: I was tempted to jump right into Fighter, but I decided to run a linear progression first, since it’s been over 6 months since I’ve lifted consistently. I’ll do Greyskull LP, which is a variant of Starting Strength. So I didn’t really test today, I just finished setting up all my new stuff from Rogue and did some easy warmups. Next week I’ll start bench, squat and DL at 135, press at 80, and just run out the progression.