r/tacticalbarbell • u/Historical-Scale-332 • 9d ago
Back at it. Mass Protocol.
I’m back to Mass Protocol. I’m 43m 5’10 160lbs. I got into Tactical barbell years ago when I was doing EMS. I did the BJJ, MMA training thing when I was in my 20s and ended up in EMS wanting strength training. I found TB and it made sense to me because I wanted a lot of functionality to my strength goals. I think Jim Wendler used the term “concurrent training” before I ever heard of “fusion” or other misc. terms.
Fast forward to now-ish. I’m working in acute behavioral health. It’s been a long summer. Fitness wise I messed around with Dan John’s workout ideas a bit. I got pretty far into “Armor Building”- the program had barbell variations that I tried. Ultimately I was around 170lbs without paying attention to food. Then I went on vacation and had back to back sickies. Stomach bug/ rhinovirus. It took away a lot of momentum.
I started back up with a lot of high frequency; working on high volume bodyweight stuff. Slim on the cardio- but walking and some longboard push - scoot - balance. The long bodyweight sessions (se) counted as a little cardio to me. My physique started to come back, but I am down to “victim weight”. Abs don’t show on a lock unit. I have convinced myself that this is close enough to good for base building in the Mass Protocol book.
I chose to do Mass template from Mass protocol & tested my maxes for incline bench, barbell back squats and deadlift. I had been working on pull ups. I decided to try and make pull ups work rather than barbell row. I may have to scale them. Yesterday (week 1 day 3) I got 4 sets 7 reps of clean bodyweight pull ups. (I worked up.. day 1 ~ 6, 7, 7, 6 pull ups. Day 2 ~ 7, 7, 7, 6 pull ups.)My plan is to force the pull ups. I have a weight vest adjustable by 2.5lb increment; up to 40 lbs. I plan on 4x6 with 5lbs next week. 4x3 with 10 lbs on third week and may amrap for 1rep max calculations on the pull ups. Then just restart the cycle with my same (incline) bench, squat and deadlift for the next cycle.
Thoughts, feedback, constructive criticism, positive encouragement?
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u/SatoriNoMore 8d ago
With a little consistency it’ll come back in no time and then some.
A little motivational reading if you like:
https://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/1hkwpxd/program_review_tactical_barbell_mass_protocol/