Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

What's holding you back from making the biggest gains? What could you be doing better? Where could you be trying harder? What new habits could you enact to make things easier for you? Be honest with yourself, what would make a difference?

2021 155 lbs --> 2024 187 ibs

Longtime lurker on this sub. Been a "hard gainer" but realized (of course) diet and pacing myself was the most effective. Hoping to hit 200lbs someday!

https://preview.redd.it/dparhmtvb96e1.jpg?width=1576&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f30baede18cce3cb47531d4e2c133795679a22f

https://preview.redd.it/nrev8ltvb96e1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1fb6d0bc69c3668d7c71a59f314d123db58e5903

Approx 3200 calories per day. Stopped counting after 2 weeks of it once I got a sense of that amount.

Exercise has been everyday, simple PPL 3 sets close-ish to failure, and two accessory exercises 2 sets close-ish to failure. Lifes just been busy so keeping a simple workout routine without too much counting has been working out. Hoping to nerd out on cutting/etc in the future, but just gaining for now and maintaining some balance.

Ask food related questions here. Discuss recipes. Share eating hacks. DON'T DRINK OLIVE OIL!!!

Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

Have a question that is training or programming related? Ask it here! Want someone to help you revising or customising a program? Ask here! Want to show off a program you designed? Why are you designing your own programs? Read the bloody FAQ!.

Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

What have been your victories this week? Have you made good progress? Set a new lift PR? Enacted a new habit that is helping you greatly? Post it here!

Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

Hey folks, if you wanna see the first write up for this, check here

https://old.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/1gj3wve/program_review_tactical_barbell_mass_protocol/

**INTRO**

* My love affair with the Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol continues, and I don’t foresee any stopping in the near future. In fact, I’ve already planned out my training until my next strongman competition on 12 Apr, and it’s all Tactical Barbell, and even after that I genuinely don’t see any reason I would pivot (although, fair warning, I’ve been listening to a lot of Matt Wenning recently, and the idea of Wenning Warm Ups and conjugate is sounding cool, so who knows). And with that understanding, I figured it was appropriate to do another “check in” rather than a program review, because I’m not done yet, but I’m approaching the conclusion of the 12th week of running the Mass Protocol, and given that so many of my program reviews were on 6 week programs, writing at the 12 week point seems fitting.

**WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW**

* If you recall from my previous check-in, the Mass Protocol contains a base building section, which transitions into a general mass section, and then into a specificity section. I skipped the base building (at my own peril) as I felt I was in a good enough place for that before starting, and ran the general mass protocol of “Grey Man” for 3 cycles (9 weeks). From there, I made the transition to the specificity programs, selecting Specificity Bravo (for reasons I will detail momentarily). Traditionally, one would do a bridge week between the programs here as a transition, but I opted not to PURELY due to scheduling: I have a cruise (like, buffet on a boat kind) coming up between Christmas and New Years that will time out PERFECTLY with me completing 2 3 week Specificity cycles at this point, which will serve as an EXCELLENT bridge week before I return home and start back into training/eventual strongman prep.

* With this being the 12th week, it means I am finishing my first cycle of Specificity Bravo and prepping to start my second one.

**FROM GENERAL TO SPECIFICITY: WHY I WENT FROM GREY MAN TO SPECIFICITY BRAVO**

* In full disclosure, my original plan WAS to do Specificity Alpha rather than Bravo. The former is similar in structure to the ever popular PHUL program (which I’ve never run myself, but am familiar with) it that it’s 4 days of lifting with 2 days dedicated to lower reps with higher weight (strength days) and 2 days dedicated to higher reps and moderate weights (hypertrophy days). Bravo, meanwhile, is pure hypertrophy days, still 4 days a week, with a A/B/A/B alternating approach, with the percentages ticking up each workout. For the sake of preserving the content of the book, I won’t go into further detail, but you see the difference: once had all hypertrophy days, one had a mix.

* Alpha appealed to me, HOWEVER, on the final week of 3 cycles of Grey Man, I found myself unable to complete a single trap bar pull at the prescribed weight, let alone a work set. My lower back was incredibly overtaxed, and in dire need of fatigue dissipation. I’ll address WHY I was experiencing that fatigue later, but to assuage your fears: it was not a fault of Grey Man/Tactical Barbell programming. I COULD have accomplished fatigue dissipation with a bridge week, but as I noted earlier: my schedule didn’t support that. I realized my other option was to select Bravo instead and let the time with the lighter weights give me some time to let that fatigue dissipate.

* However, the more I looked into it, there was one other thing I really appreciated about transitioning from Grey Man to Bravo: I could use ALL the same exercises. When it comes to the specificity phase, you’re supposed to select a certain amount of movements to train depending on the protocol, with the strength cluster of Alpha being pretty rigid on the squat, bench press, weighted pull up and deadlift, and the hypertrophy cluster being in the 4-8 range of TOTAL movements. Bravo, being absent of the demand for a strength cluster, allots for 6-12 movements to be selected. If you recall from Grey Man, there are a total of 4 strength movements each day (2 trained on day A, 2 on day B) and 6 (max) supplemental cluster movements (3 on day A, 3 on day B). This results in a total of 10 movements…which meant, when it came time to design my hypertrophy clusters for Bravo, I could just select all 10 movements from Grey Man and call it good. Not only did this require no thinking/tinkering on my part, but it ALSO meant that whatever I did on Bravo was going to have direct and immediate carryover for whenever I transitioned back to Grey Man.

**HOW I STRUCTURED THE TRAINING**

* With Grey Man, my day A was Squat, Axle Strict Press (overhead), Incline DB bench, chins and Glute Ham Raises. My day B was Low handle trap bar lift, axle bench press, dips, lever belt squat and axle curls. Because Bravo trains 4x a week, there was no way to allow for a minimum full day of rest between days while staying within the 7 day structure of the cycle, which meant the same muscles could NOT be trained on Day A and B (according to the rules of the program). To make this happen, I effectively created an “anterior chain/posterior chain” split, or a full body push/pull split. My day A for Bravo was Squat, Lever Belt Squat, Axle Strict Press, Axle Bench Press, Incline DB Bench, and Dips. This left a Day B that was Trap Bar Pulls, Chins, Curls and GHRs…which WAS 10 total moves, but somewhat imbalanced between the two days. I contemplated removing flat bench from day A, as it felt redundant with all the other pressing on that day, but after running day A the first time as written and seeing how outstanding awesome it was, I settled on throwing in reverse hypers on Day B. I had been doing them on my non-lifting days when running Grey Man, so now they were legitimately established into the protocol.

* Because you’re allowed 1-2 minutes of rest between sets, and because the workouts repeat twice in the week but with higher percentages on the second workout, I tried as hard as possible to stick with strict 1 minute rests for the first two workouts of the week. This way, I had some leeway to creep into that 2 minute mark later in the week when the weights were heavier. If I took max rests at the start, I had nowhere to “hide” on those second workouts.

* Similarly, because the plan called for 4-5 sets, I stuck with 4 sets for this first cycle. It gave me the option to keep the weight the same and do 5 sets on the next cycle, or up the weight and stick with 4 sets.

**CONDITIONING**

* Conditioning during Specificity phases is a departure from general mass. Whereas I was going 1 hour of walking twice a week, alongside getting in much leisure walking, specificity calls for 1-2 high intensity sessions per week. These sessions do not exceed 20 minutes, and are focused on getting the heart rate high and then letting it return before starting the whole process again: interval training. I took to doing hill sprints once a week and then “Reset 20s” on my Bas Rutten Body Action System (basically a free standing heavy bag) once a week. The sprints were doing on Wed, between lifting workouts (trained on Mon/Tue/Thurs/Fri), while reset 20s were on weekends (typically Sundays). I still engaged in leisure walking as often as I could, not for the sake of the program, but because it’s one of my favorite physical activities to do and it was imposing no recovery demands on me.

* I enjoyed the higher intensity work as a departure from the low intensity stuff. The workouts were short and I could squeeze them in a bit easier on my schedule. It took a lot of self control to NOT try to push them harder/longer, but I’m trying REALLY hard to comply with the instructions and give this an honest approach.

**WHAT WAS UP WITH MY LOWER BACK?**

* I’d like to be brief here, but this check in is already getting out of hand. Prior to even starting Tactical Barbell, my body was wrecked as a result of prepping for my most recent strongman competition, which I detailed in my last write up. Biggest issue I was dealing with was some intense hip pain, which would, in turn, force me to squat VERY slowly, which ended up loading up my lower back quite a bit. I found a solution in the form of reverse hypers, HOWEVER, like many tragic stories, eventually the cure became the poison, and I was doing reverse hypers too often with too much load. Along with this, when I first began eating carnivore back in Mar of 2023, I completely changed my squat form, going from low bar, belted, moderate stance width powerlifting legal depth to VERY high bar, no belt, close stance, rock bottom squats. I did this because I was going to be losing weight, and I didn’t want to see my numbers on the squat fall, so I decided to use an entirely new style of squat so I could actually progress on that WHILE weight dropped. However, this style of squat TOTALLY doesn’t suit my body, with a short torso and long legs, and I would end up loading up my lower back quite a bit to maintain form WHICH, without a belt, just compounded things. There were a few other factors at play as well, but ultimately I was just slamming my lower back with too much stimulus and never giving it time to recover.

* So what I did during Specificity Bravo was bring back the belt in limited dosages. Since workouts repeat in a week while percentages increase, I would do the first week’s workout WITHOUT a belt, and the second week’s workout WITH a belt. This gave me a chance to still groove beltless work and get whatever benefits are associated with that, while also allowing me to belt up and reduce lower back fatigue on the heavier workouts, right before my 2 day break on the weekend. I also reduced the weight I was using on my reverse hyper warm-ups, and went from training the reverse hyper 7x a week to 4-5x. One other change I made was, instead of using the ab wheel after every workout (more on that in a bit), alternated between ab wheel and hanging leg raise every other training day. Switching up the stimulus seemed to go a long way.

**WHERE I DEVIATED**

* Minimally. I am really trying to give this program a fair shake. I included ab and rear delt training on every lifting day (ab wheel/hanging leg raise and band pull aparts), and I entertained the idea of using the prowler vs doing sprinting, but so far I’ve stuck with the recommendations. I do train martial arts 3x a week, and I engage in as much leisure walking as I can, but that’s about it as far as the training does.

* As for the nutrition…

**THE NUTRITION**

* I am still sticking with the protocol I was using the last time I wrote about this: protein sparing modified fast on weekdays, leading up to one big meal in the evening. On weekends, I eat two meals: a breakfast in the morning and an evening meal. When I eat, its carnivore. I’m eating this way because it’s been my favorite way to eat. I love feasting, and I don’t care about eating frequently.

**RESULTS**

* In total, I’ve been following Mass Protocol for 12 weeks, and as of the start of the 12th week I’m up 9lbs, having started at 79.1kg and weighing in at 83.2kg. I apologize for mixing pounds and kilos, but my bathroom scale is stuck in kilos for some reason. And again: I have gained this weight WITHOUT macro or calorie counting, on a VERY low carb diet, with one big meal a day on weekdays. Pretty much eating the wrongest way possible.

* Along with that, I’m absolutely getting stronger. When I first started Mass Protocol, I did 4x8x285 on the squat as part of a superset with 4x8 sets of axle strict press. After the set of squats, I’d rest 1 minute before starting the press, and then I’d rest 1 minute from the press to start the next set of squats. So I was getting well over 2 minutes of rest between sets, and by the end of those 4 sets, I legit thought I would have to quit lifting, as I was in so much pain and so exhausted. On the start of the first workout of the third week of Specificity Bravo (12 weeks total on Tactical Barbell), I did 4x8x285 with 1 minute strict rests between sets with MUCH faster squats and rapidly transitioned to 4 sets of belt squats with the same rest periods. My pressing strength continues to climb as well.

* Suffice to say: I’m a fan of this program, and excited to continue running it through April.

What's holding you back from making the biggest gains? What could you be doing better? Where could you be trying harder? What new habits could you enact to make things easier for you? Be honest with yourself, what would make a difference?

Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

Ask food related questions here. Discuss recipes. Share eating hacks. DON'T DRINK OLIVE OIL!!!

Have a question that is training or programming related? Ask it here! Want someone to help you revising or customising a program? Ask here! Want to show off a program you designed? Why are you designing your own programs? Read the bloody FAQ!.

Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

Discuss what's motivating you to get make gains here. What started you off? What keeps you going? What do you use to make sure you don't quit?

I'm on medication that make my appetite -1200 + lots of bouts of nausea. in addition to migraines. this has made me quite small in weight for my height.

so I've been tasked to cram as many calories as I can to every meal. dirty bulking fast food all a go. the instructions from the doctor eat as much as possible with as many calories as possible. and not to worry about healthiness rn.

What's your favourite Canadian bulking take out?

Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

What have been your victories this week? Have you made good progress? Set a new lift PR? Enacted a new habit that is helping you greatly? Post it here!

Hey everyone,

I’m new to bulking and could use some advice/clarification. Here’s my situation: • Stats: 6’1 | 127lbs | 20y/o | Male (naturally very skinny). • Routine: I’ve been bulking for just a few weeks, eating perfect protein and caloric meals, and working out consistently: 30-40 minutes per session, 3 days on, 1 day off (PPL split). I definitely feel the burn during workouts. • Concern: Despite eating where I need to be calorie/protein-wise, I’m noticing more belly fat than growth in my arms, legs, or chest. My belly seems to stand out more, and I’m unsure if this is normal at the start of bulking or if I’m just not used to feeling “full” all the time.

Some additional context: • I feel like I have bad posture, which might make my belly more noticeable. • This is my first time bulking, so I don’t know if it’s normal to see belly fat develop before muscle growth becomes more prominent. • I’m worried I’ll end up with a bigger tummy while everything else (arms, legs, chest) stays underdeveloped.

Should I ignore the belly fat for now and let my body adjust, or is there something I should be doing differently? I’d really appreciate any insights, especially if you’ve been in a similar situation!

Thanks in advance!

Progress pic: https://i.imgur.com/NwEdcha.jpeg

For workouts, I'm doing a 4 day upper/lower split. I have PR'd all my lifts during this period. Sometimes on rest days, I'll do some crunches to hit the abs. I'm also walking 60 minutes a day for 5-6 days a week.

For nutrition, I started at 2900 calories, but quickly realized that was not enough. I slowly bumped up until I was steadily gaining weight and finally topped out at about 3500 calories a day over the course of the first few months. I then pulled back a little to 3400 and just stayed there for the remainder of the bulk. Macro breakdown is roughly 440g carbs, 200g protein, and 90g fat. But it can vary slightly from day to day. Sometimes higher fat and lower carbs. I intentionally do not eat any grains at all.

Typical day of eating:

I wake up and immediately have a small breakfast. Usually bone broth and some cheese.

An hour later I eat my pre-workout workout meal. 8oz of lean beef, and about 500 calories worth of fruit (typically frozen bananas, cherries, pineapple, or mango). Yes, that's a very large serving of fruit. Like 1-2 pounds. My Costco frozen fruit hauls are epic each week.

Usually 1000 calories are consumed by this point.

Lunch looks the same as my pre-workout meal. Another 8oz of beef and another 500 calories of fruit.

I generally go for a long walk after lunch.

I always have a 3pm snack. Typically higher fat at this point. 50-60g of cheese, dates with butter, maybe a couple apples, maybe some pork rinds, maybe avocado. About 500 calories worth.

Dinner is 6pm. Another 8oz of beef, a nice hunk of cheese, and some sauteed onions, carrots, and sweet potato. Sometimes some strawberries with it.

Late night snack at about 9pm. A big bowl of ricotta cheese with frozen blueberries. Sometimes another big hunk of cheese as well.

Hitting 3400 -3500 calories without eating grains requires a lot of fruit and cheese everyday. But I'm enjoying it all tremendously.

Lipids look solid. HDL:64, LDL:122, Tri: 46, Glucose: 79. LDL is slightly above range, but my HDL is great (highly protective), and my triglycerides and glucose are both low. All other markers are in range.

Welcome to the basic questions and discussions thread! This is a place to ask any questions that you may have -- moronic or otherwise and talk about how your going. Please keep these questions and discussions reasonably on-topic: things noted in the 'what not to post' section of the sidebar will be removed, and the moderation team may issue temporary user bans.Anyone may post a question, and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. If your question is more specific to you, we recommend providing details. The more we know about your situation, the better answer we will be able to provide. Sometimes questions get submitted late enough in the day that they don't get much traction, so if your question didn't get answered in a previous thread, feel free to post it again.As always, please check the FAQ before posting. The FAQ is considered a comprehensive guide on how to gain lean mass and has more than enough information to get any beginner started today. Ask away!

What's holding you back from making the biggest gains? What could you be doing better? Where could you be trying harder? What new habits could you enact to make things easier for you? Be honest with yourself, what would make a difference?