Dodgin’ Dadbods: Fortitude Training

Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Oof. That was pretty tough. I didn’t do enough transition work - so mid swim, mid bike, mid run were all okay but the beginning of each was miserable as I was woefully unprepared to stop a swim and start a bike. First triathlon in 2 years though and it went fine. I didn’t check any of my times - I finished middle of the pack in my category and had a good time.

They offered papa Johns afterwards, and I declined and am now waiting on a double cheeseburger from a burger place with locally sourced meat, crispy tortilla strips, jalapeños, guacamole and chipotle mayo on top, with a wheat bun.

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Your definition of Good Time does not align with mine, but congrats anyway.

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It’s hard to explain - it’s not exactly a good time in the middle of it all, but it’s a great atmosphere the whole time, and my kids got to cheer on their parents.

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Started Fortitude Training today!

@davemccright feel free to give any insight along the way, @voxel as well, I think you’ve run Stevenson’s stuff.

I’m gonna be running the sample template that ramps up volume in the basic program for 3 weeks and then stays at tier 2 of the turbo program for 2 weeks before the ‘cruise’ section.

Day 1:

SSB Squats

Soreness from the triathlon hit today, of course, so ramped up to 240x8 on SSB squats just as a starting point. All squats are done with heels on a 2x4, slow negative and hamstrings touching calves at the bottom, the most ass-to-grass physically possible.

Leg extension 170x10

Leg Curl 110x11

Adductors 110 triple rest pause 9-5-3

Calves 120 2x15

Pump sets were

50# dbs 1x25 superset with Lat pulldowns “10” x25

Lateral raises reverse 21’s with 15s superset with ab crunch machine 125x25

Bicep curl machine 67.5x15 superset with OH rope extensions "6"x15

Great first workout. Just feeling things out, may ramp up some weight significantly but am trying for some long progression here and anticipating the extra volume on the horizon, so no need to go crazy.

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Excited to see this. Fortitude Training is a program that’s interested me after @davemccright started doing it, but other training priorities make it a non-starter right now. This should be fun to watch.

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Appreciate the tag.

How did you like zig-zagging exercises?

How did you like the stretches? I noticed you didn’t log them.

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on muscle rounds. I love those.

Have you selected your A, B, C exercises yet?

I’m on tier 1 - the low volume doesn’t have zig zagging exercises, yet. Next week that’ll start.

I just had one question about that - on his “cheat sheet” he mentions flexibility stretches going with loading sets, extreme stretches going with pump sets, and “overload” stretches going with muscle rounds - he only talks earlier in the book, unless I missed it, about occlusion stretches - are overload and occlusion stretches the same? If not, what goes with muscle rounds?

I forgot to do the flexibility stretches on my loading sets this first time, and did them with the pump sets. Good observation.

Yeah, I’m excited to try them.

Nope, I’m thinking it over. For thighs I was thinking SSB squats → leg press → hack squats (on a pendulum-style hack squat, standing backwards in the machine, which is much more posterior dominant).

Sorry, goes to show how attentive I was! Tried to fit in my replies among other things and details escape me.

I wanted to highlight that when I read “on” my loading sets here, my interpretation of what you are communicating is “inbetween” and my understanding of FT is that it is supposed to be done after completing the loading sets.

It’s been a while since I read the book. Or are you referring to the flight manual “Virgin Voyage”? Could you refer me to a page number? The applicable cheat sheet I found that aligns with what you are writing would be on page 96 and 97. Those are certainly suitable defaults. More nuance is provided on page 41.

I believe so.

I haven’t followed your log closely in a while so I don’t have the context to intuit your rationale. Do you choose the posterior dominant hack squat because that is a weakness of yours? Or to give the anterior a bit of a “rest” on one week?

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Yup, this is the cheat sheet.

Just a poor word choice on my part. I’m doing them after the sets.

Just to rotate the dominance - my SSB squats are very quad dominant, leg press is at a moderate foot height and width, so it’s fairly even across the board, and then the posterior dominant ones are to round it off - quad heavy, quad/ham even, ham heavy.

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Fortitude Training:

Week 1, Day 2

Loading Sets: All sets with a ~3 sec negative

Cable Row (to hips, for lats)
“12” x10

Wide Grip Pullups (rhomboids)
BW x11

Incline Bench
185x12

Seated freemotion cable shoulder press, back off of pad
“10” x15

Flexibility stretches - hanging lat stretch, standing chest press leaning on a machine, and shoulders one arm at a time using a machine to push my arm behind me, stretching my front/side delts

Pump Sets: Steady cadence and no lockouts on leg press, steady cadence and lockouts on leg extensions and slow cadence and lockouts on standing calf raises

Leg Press 290x25

Leg Extensions 110x25 (on tier 1, i’m just supposed to do whatever is weaker - quad or ham - and quads have always been weaker)

Standing calf raises 120x15

Extreme stretches: bodyweight quad extension stretch (deadman’s, leaning back holding onto a machine for support but letting quads hold most of the weight in the stretched position), sat into an active calf stretch after my last rep of standing calf raises

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Also: I get to eat like a fuckin champ again.

6 eggs, slow cooked beans with sautéed tomatoes, and flank steak with chimichurri post workout.

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So when do we get to see a flappinit cookbook?

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Ha! That’d be a fun thing to do! Honestly, maybe I’ll write up a little e-book of some tasty, interesting meal ideas. I probably have a dozen recipes in this log alone.

Speaking of cool recipes, my wife sent me to the store to get dinner and told me to just wing it, and I came back with some super fancy marinara sauce, a package of bratwurst, a pound of ground bison, 1.5 lbs of chuck, onions, shallots, and spaghetti made from chickpeas (13g of protein and 6g fiber per serving!). Epic high protein meat sauce dinner. Gonna be delicious, will post pictures afterwards.

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Damn, that sounds amazing.

I love chickpeas. They’re neutral enough to go with almost anything, and are so calorie and nutrient dense that they become an easy addition to almost anything. I really dig them in Greek salads.

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Simmering right now. Made the chuck into meatballs, used the bison as mince and sliced the sausages up after searing them. While sautéing the onions and shallots I threw in a package of cherry tomatoes and cooked them until they burst, using their juice for extra sauce. It’s just outrageous right now - have to stop tasting them. I’m hoping the chickpea pasta is decent.

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I’m looking forward to that ebook.

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Holy anabolic meat sauce, Batman…

That’s definitely going in the cookbook.

The meatballs kept their shape but came apart with a touch from a fork. The sauce was thick and tasty. The chickpea pasta was good, though next time I’ll cook it more al dente - it seems as though it’ll break down after a while. The package said 8-10 minutes and I went 8, but 7 seems more appropriate. Still delicious and no complaints, especially given the improved nutritious profile.

Amazing.

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The chickpea pasta, by the way - 3.5 oz has 23g protein and 8g fiber.

It doesn’t only taste good - I can confirm that after eating a huge bowl of it with a ton of meat sauce on top, I feel satisfied and not bursting at the seams like I usually do after eating pasta.

It’s still got some carbs for sure, but if the dish requires pasta it seems right up @T3hPwnisher’s alley.

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Big fan of it. We make a lasagna style casserole with it

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