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The Obstacle is the Way (was S&S and PTTP)

Today’s practice

3 mile ruck in am

Bike to and from gym

3 rds of 5 prying goblet squats, 3/3 kb halos & 3/3 crab reaches (16kg kb used)

5-3-2 deadlift with 375 - 5 minutes active rest with rope turns, 1-arm hangs, fast & loose and 10 second loaded kneeling bridge (50 seconds rest after loaded stretches)

3 rds of 5/5 stepups onto 24” box, rope hangs and rear shoulder rolls

2 rds of 5/5 pistols to 12” box with rope hangs between rds

90/90, QL and stick dislocates at home
 
Today’s practice

3 mile ruck in am, then press reset

Bike to and from gym

In 4 rds - 100 squats, 50 rocking push-ups & 21 pull-ups

5-3-2 deadlift with 385 - 5 minutes active rest with rope turns, 1-arm hangs, fast & loose and 10 second loaded kneeling bridge (50 seconds rest after loaded stretches)

Handstand practice

Today was rough. Just feeling it along my whole posterior chain - from traps to calves. Not much pop, but got through it.
 
Today - my practice hit the wall.

I had done my Press Reset & 3 mile 20# ruck. Worked 3.5 hours and biked to the gym.

Warmup was 3 rds of 5 pry goblet squats, 3/3 halos and 3/3 crab reaches. It has been very hot here and I didn’t have much pop. I loaded the dl bar with 395 for 5 - and said forget it after 3 reps.

My 2-week PTTP blocs began on June 13 with 5-3-2 deadlifts at 315 lbs. I was using a structured wave of 4 steps forward and 3 back and for the most part did 5 sessions per week - every weekday. Today was my 23rd practice session - 7 more than a typical ‘productive’ cycle of 8 to 16 sessions. My heaviest successful session was done twice last week - 385 for 5-3-2.

Using the formula I’ve use successfully for powerlifting meets this means a second attempt of 465. Opener would therefore be 425 and if 465 went well I’d try 490 for a 3rd. So I had done 505 3 years back - I think this worked well for a first cycle of PTTP. Given the summer and heat, etc.

So. What next? Obviously a 2 week bloc of S&S. I did 100 swings and 6 getups today after my dl 5’s fail. Then things get murky. I have ear surgery on September 7 so nothing strenuous for a month after. Do 2 weeks of SuperJoints and then 2 weeks of S&S lite. That takes me to October and then I plan on a vacation. So 2 more weeks of body weight work and possibly conditioning. My next dl cycle will likely not be till the end of October.

I’ll shoot for 16 workouts in 2 2-week blocs sandwiched with S&S. I should end with a shot at 400 for 5. I’m going to do 4 dl workouts per week instead of 5 and I’m using 15 lb jumps instead of 10.
 
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Tuesday practice

3 rds of 5 pry goblet squats, 3/3 halos, 3/3 crab reaches

10 rds emom of 1-arm kb swings - 4 with 40kg and 6 with 36kg

5 rds of 1/1 getup with 16kg - alternate 5/4/3/2/1 chin-ups

L-sits holds, bridge holds& twist holds

4 mile hike home

I had a CT scan today, so my routine was disrupted a bit. But a good day of practice!
 
Todays practice

3 mile 20# ruck
Long SuperJoints session
Physiotherapy assessment for shoulder
5 rds of getup practice - focus on form and posting/leg slide on right arm
5/4/3/2/2 strict chin-ups

Plus some physio exercises - similar to SuperJoints so I won’t explain.
 
Hey @Hobbes: Very interesting log!

I am very interested in the block training idea, but haven't committed to it yet. Currently I am running ROP 2.0 and want to focus on my pressing strength. But maybe I could alternate it with a Swings/TGU or LCCJ block (S&S or Kettlebells StrongFirst)...

There is another version of block training in 4-6 week blocks, where you keep a third or so of volume of the side dish. (Like 2-4 sets of swings and TGUs as a warmup to PTTP and vice versa.) But I like the simplicity of pure 2 week blocks.

Anyway, I hope your surgery goes well and you will get back without much problems in late Setptember!
 
Hey @Hobbes: Very interesting log!

I am very interested in the block training idea, but haven't committed to it yet. Currently I am running ROP 2.0 and want to focus on my pressing strength. But maybe I could alternate it with a Swings/TGU or LCCJ block (S&S or Kettlebells StrongFirst)...

There is another version of block training in 4-6 week blocks, where you keep a third or so of volume of the side dish. (Like 2-4 sets of swings and TGUs as a warmup to PTTP and vice versa.) But I like the simplicity of pure 2 week blocks.

Anyway, I hope your surgery goes well and you will get back without much problems in late Setptember!
I’m going by the study (Issurin & Lustig, 2004) quoted by Pavel in Return of the Kettlebell. The training residual effect of max strength training is 30 day +/- 5. So I take this to mean I can pick up where I left off in strength after ignoring it for up to a month. The training residual effect of strength endurance is 15 days +/- 5. So for quick lifts done as conditioning - 2 weeks.

Of course there is carry over from S&S (quick lifts for strength endurance) to PTTP (grinds for max strength). Less so I’m the other direction. So I’m going by the residual effect and a comment from Pavel that an effective bloc of strength training is 8 to 16 workouts. With the two base programs I use I think 2 weeks is ideal. Or, as you suggest, 4-6 weeks if you deliberately train to maintain the residual effect. Or train grinds twice per week and quick lifts twice per week. Which Pavel suggests as an alternative in several books and articles.

Milo December 2009 edition has an ETK+ program by Pavel that does 2 per week like this. Cool program - I’m not sure if this is what you mean by ROP 2.0, but it is cool.

ROP of course has both quick lifts for conditioning and grinds for max strength. Plus hypertrophy. Plus variety days - everything is covered. And auto-regulated as well.

Is ROP 2.0 a 2 days grinds, 2 days per week conditioning? Or is it 3 days of both as per the original ROP?

Whichever - the 2 week blocs of LCCJ would seem to have a similar synergy to pressing as S&S and PTTP have for hinge/pull. You could insert them whenever you want a break and lose nothing on your max press, I suspect.
 
I should mention - the low rep chin-ups I’m currently doing. I’m probably capable of 12 or so chin-ups if I don’t go to a passive hang in the bottom. I feel the passive hang in my shoulder so I’m taking it very easy on these and treating them as much of a hang for ROM as strength training.

As far as surgery - the obstacle is the way. I’ll have a month to focus on joint health (mega SuperJoints!!) and rucking. I always try and see these obstacles as opportunity knocking. I’ll try and drop a few pounds and really work on shoulder health.
 
I’m going by the study (Issurin & Lustig, 2004) quoted by Pavel in Return of the Kettlebell. The training residual effect of max strength training is 30 day +/- 5. So I take this to mean I can pick up where I left off in strength after ignoring it for up to a month. The training residual effect of strength endurance is 15 days +/- 5. So for quick lifts done as conditioning - 2 weeks.

Of course there is carry over from S&S (quick lifts for strength endurance) to PTTP (grinds for max strength). Less so I’m the other direction. So I’m going by the residual effect and a comment from Pavel that an effective bloc of strength training is 8 to 16 workouts. With the two base programs I use I think 2 weeks is ideal. Or, as you suggest, 4-6 weeks if you deliberately train to maintain the residual effect. Or train grinds twice per week and quick lifts twice per week. Which Pavel suggests as an alternative in several books and articles.

Milo December 2009 edition has an ETK+ program by Pavel that does 2 per week like this. Cool program - I’m not sure if this is what you mean by ROP 2.0, but it is cool.

ROP of course has both quick lifts for conditioning and grinds for max strength. Plus hypertrophy. Plus variety days - everything is covered. And auto-regulated as well.

Is ROP 2.0 a 2 days grinds, 2 days per week conditioning? Or is it 3 days of both as per the original ROP?

Whichever - the 2 week blocs of LCCJ would seem to have a similar synergy to pressing as S&S and PTTP have for hinge/pull. You could insert them whenever you want a break and lose nothing on your max press, I suspect.
Thanks a lot! Very interesting. I am a beta-tester for an experimental version of ROP (ROP 2.0), which is 3x per week for both C&P and ballistics. Sometimes, I only do two of each and on seperate days (similar to ETK+ and Total Package). There is no light day, just alternating heavy and medium and therefore the schedule is more flexible IMO.
 
Todays practice

Bike 3.9 miles to and from the gym.

3 rds of 5 prying goblet squats & 3/3 halos with a 16kg kb

10 rds of 10 emom 1-h kb swings - 60 at 36 kg and 40 at 40kg

10 16kg getups alternating arms with 5/4/3/3/2 chin-ups sandwiched in

Movement practice
3 rds of 3/3 or 6 in: box stepups, side kick thrus & push planks
3 rds of 3/3 or 6 in: side to side push-ups, spinal rocks & crab reaches

My movement practice is a smorgasbord of MovNat, TacFit, Animal Flow, Coach Paul Wade’s teaching, Ido Portal, etc. I have a background in karate and working with freestyle wrestlers so I work that in sometimes as well. It is just fun and fits into the structure of what I call my ‘Tao’ - my way. I use the Tao to ensure, as Dan John so succinctly put it, (I paraphrase possibly) “the goal remains the goal.”

I’ll do Paul Wade’s trifecta later on.
 
Today’s practice

“On the last session of each week push harder and occasionally all out and test yourself.” Pavel T.

Superjoints
Bike 3.9 miles to and from gym
3 rds with 16kg bell of 5 pry goblet squats, 3/3 kb halos, 5/5 kb snatches
14 rds e45o45 of 10 kb swings
10 rds with 36kg, 4 rds with 40kg
5 rds of 1/1 16kg getups & 5/4/4/3/2 strict chin-ups from passive dead hang
10 minutes of crawls - Spider-Man, crab & lateral apes

Typically I do 10 rds of 10 swings emom. Today I upped the volume to 140 and density to 10 every 45 seconds, as per Pavel’s advice. Good day - felt good the way a S&S should!!
 
Todays practice

3 rds of 5 prying goblet squats & 3/3 halos with a 16kg kb

10 rds of 10 emom 1-h kb swings - 60 at 36 kg and 40 at 40kg

10 16kg getups alternating arms with 5/5/4/3/2 chin-ups sandwiched in

Movement practice
20 minutes of spiderman crawls, forward and backward crab walks, lateral apes and rear shoulder rolls
 
Todays practice

Superjoints

Bike to and from gym

3 rds of 5 prying goblet squats & 3/3 halos with a 16kg kb

10 rds of 10 emom 2-h kb swings - 60 at 36 kg and 40 at 40kg

10 16kg getups alternating arms with 6/5/4/3/2 chin-ups sandwiched in

Movement practice
I used something very similar to Q&tD protocol 033 for 3 series of 5/2 tuck jumps & 5/2 power pushups. Basically working power in an A&A format.
Then I did protocol 044 for 3 series of 5/4 snatches with a 16kg bell. This is simply to get my right shoulder healthy. I’ve done this protocol with a 32kg bell prior to injuring my shoulder, so the weight isn’t trying. It feels good to get the movement down and ‘catch’ and stabilize the bell overhead. My physio has me working on motor patterns - they are really screwed up due to pain. So doing this snatch felt really good.
 
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Physio today and work interferes - so barebones practice

3 rds of 5 pry goblet squats & 3/3 halos
10 rds of 10 emom 1-hand swings - 60 with 36kg & 40 with 40kg
10 16kg kb getups alternating hands with 6/5/4/3/2 strict chin-ups sandwiched in

Total time spent in gym was 35 minutes or so. I’ll do some movement practice later on, but I’m pretty happy that my getups with pull-ups are taking less time than my getups alone used to take.
 
Superjoints only today - after 2.5 hrs in the dentist chair I’m not really up to a workout.
 
Great day of practice today. Whether the day off or the Advil/Tylenol cocktail I was taking for my mouth or my shoulder is simply improving - very little pain doing my getups. I considered going up a 20kg bell, but as today was my last day of S&S 2-week bloc number 4 I decided to stick to 16 and finish feeling really good.

20lb ruck 3.5 miles to gym.

3 rds of 5 pry goblet squats & 3/3 halos with 16 kg bell

Today was flip the crazy switch day.

10 rds of 10 (100 total) every 30 seconds - 1-hand kb swing.
40 with 40kg bell, 60 with 36kg bell

10 getups alternating hands with 16kg bell - 6/5/4/3/3 chin-ups sandwiched in.

10 minutes of crab, Spider-Man and lateral apes.
 
Today’s practice

3 rds of 5 pry goblet squats & 3/3 halos with 16kg kb

5-3-2 deadlift with 345 - 5 minutes active rest with rope turns, fpp chin-ups and 10 second loaded kneeling bridge (50 seconds rest after loaded stretches)

2 rds of 5/5 kb side press with 16kg

I did 6/5/4/4/3 chin-ups - just interspersed between deadlift and press sets.

I’ll do SuperJoints and trifecta through the day. I had to drop off a son-in-law at the airport so I drove to and from gym.

As is typical after two week layoff the deadlift felt easy. Really easy. I’m thinking of straight linear progression since I only get 7 practice sessions in prior to surgery next Wednesday. So I’ll add 10 lbs and see how it goes.
 
Today’s practice

Press reset in am

Bike to and from gym.

3 rds of 5 pry goblet squats & 3/3 halos with 16kg kb

2 rds of 5 deadlifts with 315. Rope turns, hangs and 10 second loaded kneeling bridge (50 seconds rest after loaded stretches) before and after sets.

2 rds of 5/5 kb side press with 16kg and 5 chin-ups with bodyweight + 25lbs.

15 minutes of movement skills - crawls and shoulder rolls.

I elected to quit the planned linear or even wave progression and go with Dan John’s ‘simple strength’ progression from his book ‘Intervention’. With just 7 days to go before surgery I didn’t really want to push hard. Really - it’s ‘park bench’ time and I felt the PTTP waved progression was more of a ‘bus bench’ thing.

So it’s still PTTP and S&S, but the next 1/2 year or so will be working around recovery and doing park bench workouts.
 
There is another aspect to this. Boris Sheiko, the Russian powerlifting coach, believes the average intensity of a bloc is best being just under 70% of your 1rm. He measured all lifts over 50% to calculate this.

If I’d done the bloc as I planned my average intensity would have been 79%. Too high for anyone, much less a 64 year old.

What I did today was roughly 65%. Tomorrow is 5-3-2 - it’ll be higher. For the 2 I may go to 80%, for example. But I suspect overall using Simple Strength set/rep plan my 2 week average intensity will be close to Sheiko’s recommended %.

I’ve considered using Simple Strength progression for PTTP or some time. Given my age, goals and level of adaptation it makes sense. For S&S I’ve considered using Pavel’s wave recommendation in ‘from Simple to Sinister’. I’m also thinking of moving the getup to PTTP - in Return of the Kettlebell Pavel outlined some benefits to doing so only grinds or ballistics during the 2-week respective blocs.

For some reason I can’t help myself when it comes to tinkering. Everything I’m doing stems from Pavel’s teachings. But is it still PTTP and S&S?

Of course, I’d qualify as the grizzled old coach.
 
Oddball day today as I rucked to the gym, then had an abbreviated workout as I had to walk home - my wife had to use the car.

So over 2 hours of walking.

3.9 mile 20lb ruck to gym

2 rds of 5 pry goblets squats and kb halos with a 16kg bell.

5-3-2 deadlift with 316-365-385 respectively. Rope turns as active rest between sets.

2 rds of 5 chin-ups (bw+25) & 5/5 side presses with 16kg kb.

Walk home.
 
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