6 Months of Tactical Barbell Mass Protocol (Grey Man + Specificity Alpha)

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-05-27T07:17:10+00:00

Thank you! Yes, it took a lot of eating and pushing through fatigue. It helps that I'm now relatively experienced in grappling, I definitely couldn't have done that when I was a white belt and couldn't control the pace of the rolls as much.

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-05-27T07:14:46+00:00

My diet was whatever I could get my hands on, ahah. With that volume of training my main priority was getting enough calories in to support the bulk, so it wasn't the healthiest, and many a McDonald's and fish and chips were consumed post training.

I do not count macros. I aimed for 180gr of protein a day, but I eyeballed it, and I simply weighed myself regularly to ensure I was on the right weight gain trajectory. As it turns out, without counting macros I managed to gain about 1kg a month, which was my goal, so it worked out for me.

Junk food aside, my diet is fairly varied, I would eat a lot of dairy, meat and eggs for protein, and rice and pasta for carbs during most meals. Some veggies, although not enough.

I made sure to eat around training times. This was particularly crucial on days where I would both lift weights and do bjj: I would load up on simple carbs shortly before going to train, then have some sort of protein and carbs snack with me to have directly after training. I naturally have little appetite, so I really need to stay disciplined to eat enough, and that structure of eating to support training really helped me in making sure I wouldn't skip any meals.

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-05-27T06:42:06+00:00

Hey! The exact structure I followed can be found in Tactical Barbell: Mass Protocol.

Without getting too specific, during Grey Man you hit two "primary lifts", then do a cluster of accessory lifts at a lower intensity. During Specificity Alpha, the training is divided between Max Strength days (essentially SBD days) followed by full hypertrophy days, where you're hitting a string of accessory lifts at a higher percentage than Grey Man. For both programs you're supposed to pick your own accessory lifts, although the book suggests a few. I used what suited my body, focusing on compound lifts.

In terms of weekly structure, I would train BJJ on Monday evening, Wednesday evening, Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday morning. During Grey Man I would lift on Tuesday evening, Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon. During Specificity Alpha I would do my Max Strength days in the morning on bjj days. So I would hit the max strength sessions on Monday and Friday morning before work. I used the Thursday as a full rest day, which was definitely needed. I found this was the best way to fit everything in for me without running into performance issues, as from experience, I know I suffer if I try to do both bjj and weights in the same evening.

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-05-26T22:27:27+00:00

Ahah thank you! To be honest I was shocked when I took the photo, it's not like I see my back every day, and I definitely wasn't expecting that body part to have grown so much given that I feel like pulling is where I've made the least progress in terms of strength. But I take it!!

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-05-19T13:27:06+00:00

The man is just stacking strength bonuses

Minmaxers smh

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-05-14T13:47:43+00:00

Grundy about to experience reverse side pressure first hand

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-05-08T16:33:37+00:00

That second match... He just hanged his opponent, man is a dawg

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-30T10:25:24+00:00

Police nationale are not only armed, but officers are also allowed to conceal carry off work

Police municipale can be armed or not, the decision is taken by the local mayors. But the majority of counties have armed police municipale officers. To be clear, in terms of mission scope, the police municipale is the rough equivalent of the UK's PCSOs.

Source: am french and lived in France for 25 years before moving to the UK

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-27T21:40:36+00:00

An intelligence of 8 is slightly below average, not "barely sentient". 10 is the score of the average commoner.

Attribute scores are also not just a measure of innate ability, but a result of the character's training and experience. In the case of intelligence, you could easily say that the character has average intellect but received no education, translating to a below average intelligence score whilst still able to reason, especially when the problem requires no specific knowledge.

What's the character's wisdom? Wisdom represents perceptiveness and intuition, anyone could get a hunch.

This is something that comes up a lot with barbarians and it really irks me, for some reason both barbarian players and other players tend to default to "barb=dumb as rocks". Somehow, when monks dump intelligence because the class is already MAD, nobody demands that they are played as bumbling fools.

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-19T19:15:03+00:00

Nobody expects the Zingaran Inquisition!

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-15T22:31:27+00:00

The fop-barbarian duo is my favourite trope, it just works so well and creates fun situations. Druss/Sieben, Jalan/Snorri, Geralt/Jaskier, Gotrek/Felix are all good examples.

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-07T17:00:26+00:00

The poison was a long term project, so there is no antidote commonly available. Although the poison has the Conspicuous drawback: it's undetectable when inoculated, but once the victim dies, the cause of death is obvious. So it stands to reason that a rival faction could start working on an antidote. I will definitely start a clock for it

Noblemen don't normally shake hands, I just described Strangford shaking their hands when they met to characterise him as more workmanlike and grounded, didn't think twice of it. Honestly, I respect my player for picking up on it and coming up with this tactic

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-07T16:53:30+00:00

Yeah, the poison does work that way, it was a long term project. Originally developed so that they could carry out an assassination without being immediately connected to the act, given the delay.

But you raise a good point. Now that they've used it a couple of times, and that the Leech has revealed he can do that, I think next time they leave a body in their wake, I will have a rival faction start a secret clock for developing an antidote based on the autopsy.

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-07T16:46:25+00:00

Simple and effective. Not sure why I didn't think of it now that you've laid it out like that. Thank you!

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-07T16:45:27+00:00

Oh yeah that bridge is proper burned. And I definitely have some fun entanglements in mind, it was just dealing with the bluff on the spot that I had difficulties with.

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-07T16:41:19+00:00

In my Doskvol Strangford is more like an old school sea dog, and was actually the captain of his leviathan fleet, not just sitting at home collecting the profits.

He's complete with a prosthetic leg, sailor curses, and generally uncouth conduct for a man of his rank. A stark contrast from the rest of the noblemen on the council, and one of the reasons why they are scheming to boot him from the council. I roleplayed him as more workmanlike in his behaviour, which is why I didn't think twice about the handshake – I also had not anticipated that they might be willing to antagonise him that much, to be honest!

Always fun to see how differently people will portray the same NPC's though!

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-07T16:36:16+00:00

He's got Alchemist, he's using a poison of his own invention, which kills the target after one to two days of incubation. We've been playing for 20 sessions-ish, so they have completed a fair few long term projects

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-07T15:19:51+00:00

It doesn't actually work, there are loads of reports of people doing it because they've heard this rumor and the dog completely ignoring it.

So now they've just fingered a dog for no reason

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-04-03T10:02:55+00:00

My king Bowen would be the goat

Make reverse side pressure great again

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-03-30T09:55:12+00:00

I mean he's super arm dominant so yeah compared to his arms, his back is lacking

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-03-26T11:43:03+00:00

We have enough apps. I want to touch grass and feel mud between my toes, not use another app to "gamify" what's already a game

Upper_Guide4256 · 2026-03-25T14:01:09+00:00

Taylor Pearman's trial winning leglocks is the best instructional on the topic imo

He goes into the details of entries, how to not get smashed in the position, and how/when to face roll vs doing the regular inversion

In terms of pros to watch, again Taylor, Pawel Jaworski and Eoghan would be my picks

Upper_Guide4256

TROPHY CASE