Hello! A few questions, thoughts on my goals & plan of attack

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Good day ladies and gentlemen of the BBM team and interwebz community.

I will try to keep this concise and pertinent.

Stats/Training history;
31y/o Male
5’10" 260lb
~46" waist at umbilicus
~20" SVJ prior to excessive weight gain

Began highschool at 5’10" 195lb finished close to 250lb.

Football in the fall, rugby in the spring through highschool. Jacked around in the weight room throughout.

Rugby 6-9 months of the year most years ages 19-28. Jacked around in weight room during off seasons 1-3 months at a time some years. Weight fluctuated 195-245lb. Lots of binge drinking. Hit 195lb from 240lb through 60hr work weeks at labor intensive job+rugby and being 22y/o.

Haven’t played rugby in 2-3 years. Also moved from labor intensive jobs to xray tech 5 years ago and gained weight steadily to 270lb starting during x-ray school.

SSNLP done well November and December 2017, had been screwing around with it for a few months prior; missing workouts or weeks at a time leading up to December.

Work sets;
Squat: 175->305lb
Deads: 225->345lb
Press: 75->130lb
Bench: 125->210lb
(pressing movements suffered most from missed training)

Had to quit gym membership in January. Have not been training since. Have been practicing hitting macro totals/eating habits with MFP; maintenance with no training seems to be around 2500cal/day. I have consumed ALOT of BBM and SS articles/podcasts/forum responses/books in the last year.

Almost finished with garage gym build and will begin training again in earnest soon.

I plan to run SSLP for 8-12wks(depending on results), then to the bridge, then the GPP template. I want to ramp up conditioning/gpp throughout this process and eat at slight deficit.

Goals;

Need to get under 40" waist(genetic predisposition to mixed dyslipidemia/hypertension).
Going to play rugby again, don’t want to break.

Questions;

1.GPP starting 1x/week moving to 2x/week with LP. Is GPP per the Bridge a good choice with LP?

  1. Have also been thinking about trying to manipulate rest times during LP to start building work capacity. What’s the shortest rest periods you would recommend? Is this even a useful consideration?(I used 3-5 minute rests on previous LP run, usually closer to 3)

  2. I will be flipping a tire uphill for HIIT. I have a hill with various lengths/grades right across the street, should be able to find streches usable for 20-60 second efforts to the top as needed. I’m working under the impression flipping will be more concentric than eccentric and low impact. Plan to add a used treadmill for deadmills. Should I be looking for other conditioning modality options? LISS? I hate LISS.

  3. Good/acceptable/lacking plan for weight loss? Any pitfalls I’m not seeing? Strength training has been my most useful compliance tool for nutrition.

  4. Other thoughts on ramping up GPP over my LP run and first daliance with the Bridge or 7wk GPP if recommended before Bridge instead? I’ll reassess after those 3 “program blocks”.

  5. Anyway to get the past newsletters? I’ve read mentions of the pressing plugins from previous newsletter and would like to see what else I’ve missed.

2

  1. That’s fine, yes.

  2. Your prior 3-5 minute rest periods are fine, and I wouldn’t do a ton of manipulating here.

  3. I don’t think tire flipping is your best option here, as I expect it would interfere quite a bit with your deadlift training … but if it’s what you really want to do, who am I to tell you otherwise? We like things like sleds/prowlers and stationary bikes (like the AirDyne, Rogue Echo bike, etc), or rowers.

  4. This sounds fine, provided your nutritional plan is sound. I assume you’ve read the To Be A Beast article.

  5. I don’t have other thoughts on your GPP here.

  6. I’m actually not sure – I’m sure there’s an archive of these available somewhere, will have to check with Jordan.

3

Re: tire flips for HIIT; Not arguing the prowler wouldn’t be superior, I’ve pushed them and trashed myself in short order, I’ve felt their utility. I also realize these nit picky details will have little to no influence on training outcomes, this is more about thought process and analysis.

I apologize to be a bit long winded here, I’m kind of nerding out on trying to analyze these movements.

When I look at the movement of prowler pushes it seems the proweler uses isometric work on the trunk,(maybe more to abdominal musculature than the back), isometric hold with shoulder girdle and arms to transmit force with a relatively short ROM through hips, knees and ankles and mostly concentric or isometric loading

The tire has isometric work on the trunk but shifted more to the lower back musculature(deadlift like mechanics as you mentioned) as opposed to the abdominal musculature used during a prowler push and the arms and shoulders are used concentrically as opposed to isometrically. The hips and knees I think are similar ROM and also mostly concentric and isometric loading but followed by unloaded eccentric repositioning to flip again.

The tire has a lift, push, step & reset cadence opposed to the push, push, push steady cadence of the prowler or bike for that matter. So I think the cadence is comparable to a rowers pull, reset, pull cadence with extra steps.

The tire is relatively light and short, easy to flip about 10 times before I “feel” any fatigue setting in on flat ground. Using the hill artificially makes the tire taller, increasing ROM through the movement but shortening how far I have to bend over to begin the flip reducing the eccentric stretch down to reposition.
I can use a more upright torso angle more similar to a squat with the tire up the hill.

  1. Does my analysis seem off base?

  2. I believe the angle of the hill will help to limit the similarities to the deadlift, but the use of the upper limbs may negatively affect my pressing, does this seem sound?

4

Au contraire, I think the outcomes in conditioning on prowler vs Tire Flips have the potential to be significant.

When I look at the movement of prowler pushes it seems the proweler uses isometric work on the trunk,(maybe more to abdominal musculature than the back), isometric hold with shoulder girdle and arms to transmit force with a relatively short ROM through hips, knees and ankles and mostly concentric or isometric loading

I disagree about the ROM in the lower limbs. The hip, knee, and ankle ROM is the same or greater than the tire flips and they rapidly cycle, which is an important distinction from a conditioning standpoint.

The tire has isometric work on the trunk but shifted more to the lower back musculature(deadlift like mechanics as you mentioned) as opposed to the abdominal musculature used during a prowler push and the arms and shoulders are used concentrically as opposed to isometrically. The hips and knees I think are similar ROM and also mostly concentric and isometric loading but followed by unloaded eccentric repositioning to flip again.

Sure, there is am increased range of motion at the elbows and wrists (and greater risk of biceps tendon rupture) and the same ROM in lower limbs (maybe less depending on the protocol) as a prowler. That said, neither of these are strength developing movements in this context so these are non-important considerations.

Rather, as general conditioning we are looking for modalities that are low risk, low skill, and will either allow for high volumes (for steady state) or high intensities (for HIIT). That’s it.

The tire has a lift, push, step & reset cadence opposed to the push, push, push steady cadence of the prowler or bike for that matter. So I think the cadence is comparable to a rowers pull, reset, pull cadence with extra steps.

I think that it’s a stretch to suggest that tire flips are more specific to rowing than prowlers. Neither are highly specific and further, if you consider the common overuse injuries in rowers, e.g. the low back, shoulders, and elbows/biceps then you’d probably start thinking that tire flips are suboptimal, which I would agree with.

The tire is relatively light and short, easy to flip about 10 times before I “feel” any fatigue setting in on flat ground. Using the hill artificially makes the tire taller, increasing ROM through the movement but shortening how far I have to bend over to begin the flip reducing the eccentric stretch down to reposition.
I can use a more upright torso angle more similar to a squat with the tire up the hill.

I’m not sure this means anything from a conditioning standpoint to be honest.

  1. Does my analysis seem off base?
  1. I believe the angle of the hill will help to limit the similarities to the deadlift, but the use of the upper limbs may negatively affect my pressing, does this seem sound?

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I think for conditioning you’d want to do something that is low risk, low skill, and whose improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness are high. Tire flips far worse on this in every category for non competitive tire flippers and so for that reason, it’s gonna be a no from me.

2 Likes
5

Fair enough. To the hardware store to find a way to drag said tire behind me.

Still interested in getting past newsletters if possible.

Appreciate the work all of you do, good stuff all around.

6

You might save money if you have a good, sturdy backpack. Load a 25lb plate in it and walk up hills.

7

Hypothetical Question:
Same person:

Dude A: Starts training at age 20 and gains a solid amount of muscle… at age 25 starts training appropriately (good form, diet, appropriate sets/reps, etc)

Dude B: Starts training serious at age 25 and does everything correct from the start (form, diet, etc.)

Will their results by age 30 be a wash? Would Dude A presumably gain more since he started with more muscle or would Dude B gain more since he was less adapted and started correctly.

8

There’s not enough information here to have a good answer and further, since it doesn’t change anything that you or I would do at present- it’s less interesting to me than other questions.