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▲ 9 r/tacticalbarbell

Green Protocol (the book) Capacity review

Training History: 
Two years ago I got into crossfit and enjoyed that for about 18 months before I started to feel burnt out from the constant high intensity work. I was happy with crossfit, but found that I could only go to 3-4 classes a week before I would start to feel super banged up. I also had a wake up call where I joined a buddy on a big mountain run and got absolutely crushed- my endurance was trash. I had been lulled along thinking I was fit because my 20 minute WODs were improving, but found I couldn't walk uphill for more than an hour before I would start to bonk. Recognizing the shortfall in my training I started trying to add in endurance training to my crossfitting. This is when crossfit really stopped making sense for me. 

The complete randomness of the programming would screw up my programming and frustrated me to the point of cancelling my membership. Some days I would show up hoping for a HIT workout and instead get hit with a Heavy deadlift workout, or worse a squat clean session focused on technique and mobility. Other times a HIIT workout would leave me unable to do my threshold run the next day. Just chaos!

I concluded that crossfit stops making sense as soon as you have any kind of specific training goal. For me that goal had shifted to endurance, so I needed to find a more efficient way to get my strength training in other than CrossFit. 

I got pretty lazy for the next 6 months (burnout), and didn’t really follow any training plan until I found the tactical barbell programs. 

Green protocol seemed to fit my goals perfectly so I picked up the book and started reading.  

The Plan: 

I started with capacity and built a spreadsheet for my individualized plan so that I could shift deload weeks around to match our planned vacations. I like this approach because it allows me to input my actual known travel schedule and find ways to work around that. 

My Compliance: 

I fed my plan into Claude, as well as my actual logs from strava and my iphone notes app and asked it to give me a compliance grade, it gave me a B+.
And that’s a fair assessment- I’m kinda a piece of shit. I somewhat regularly drink too much with my buddies and skip workouts because of the headache the next day.

Mistakes I made: 

Not getting accurate 1RM’s to start, and scaling up too quickly

Instead of doing a quick testing week to establish accurate 1RM’s I looked at my crossfit app (after 6 months of not really training), and just multiplied those 1RM’s by .7 to set my 1RM.

To my surprise these ended up being mostly too easy. I had maintained more strength than I expected. They felt so easy that once I was a few weeks in I felt the need to adjust them. Since I wasn’t having any soreness at all I thought it would be alright to jump up nearly 20% on all the lifts and try that. That ended up hammering me, and made me so sore I had to skip several run days due to DOMS. 

Trying to run the program in a caloric deficit

A few weeks into the program I decided I wanted to lose a little fat and decided to start counting calories and trying to run a slight deficit. Within 5 days I started feeling sick and worn out. I just couldn’t recover well even with a slight deficit. I abandoned the diet, reverting back to my standard diet and immediately started feeling better and making gains again. 

Things I did correctly: 
Not taking it too seriously

I have a family and a stressful job. I’m not a professional and probably never will be again. Not taking the program too seriously and allowing myself to recover when I feel like I needed to has made me feel like this is a training methodology I'll be able to stick to long term. I can squeeze in these short workouts anywhere in the week I have space, and I found the lifting intensity to be very manageable. I’m SHOCKED to discover that I can make serious gains without doing workouts that make me feel like throwing up or leave me shaking with bambi legs. This program is so much easier than other things I’ve done, and yet it seems to also be the most effective program I’ve ever done!

Learning to enjoy the process

In one of the books he mentions doing strength workouts with the mentality that you are ‘practicing your strength’.  That mindset really helped me frame these workouts, I’m so accustomed to the ‘no pain no gain’ mentality that this felt like a breath of fresh air. I don’t have to crush myself to get results anymore. 

Additional planning within the framework

One thing I saw as a shortcoming in the Capacity program is that there is no discussion of how to go about increasing your mileage or training time within the bounds laid out in the template. 

For example weeks 1-3 have you running 120-210 minutes per week. Then on week 5 you jump up to 210-300 minutes per week. At a 10 minute per mile pace that would have you potentially jumping from 12 miles per week up to 21 miles per week without any kind of ramp up!

Once I understood the goals of the plan, I set a rule for myself that I wouldn’t increase mileage by more than 10% in any week, and tried to stick to that throughout the summer even if it meant deviating from the template a bit. By pushing for 10% mileage increases per week I still felt like I got what I needed out of the program, and never developed injuries.

Plyometrics

A few weeks into the program I started incorporating some easy plyometrics into my strength training warm ups consisting of 5-10 minutes of jumping rope. This made some immediate improvements to my running, my legs felt springier and overall made the running feel easier. 10/10 recommend adding jump rope to your warm ups. 

Results: 
Added a full inch to my biceps and chest measurements!

A fellow parent at school who didn’t see me all summer commented that they could tell I put on a lot of muscle over the summer! 

6 mile run time: 57:40 -> 54:40

Back squat: ~200 -> 265 lbs

Body weight Pull ups: 8 -> 16 reps

Dead lift: ? -> 265 lbs

Bench press: 155 -> 205lbs 

Body weight: 185 -> 190 lbs

I’m really happy with my results. I’m just as strong if not stronger than I was while cross fitting, but the day to day workouts are way more tolerable and my endurance is much better. Could I knock out a high intensity Cindy type workout right now? Yes- but maybe not as quickly as I could while cross fitting.  But I’m pretty confident if I switched to the breacher template for a few weeks I could actually perform better at these WODs then I ever did while cross fitting since I’d be starting with more strength and endurance base than I ever had. 

I am pretty disappointed with my run time change. I may try the time trial again later this week to see if that was just due to fatigue from last week's unplanned trail runs. I really thought I might be able to hold an 8 min/ mile pace throughout but that felt pretty far out of reach. The effort felt weird since I haven’t even tried to run fast for the last almost 3 months! Maybe that’s to be expected with this type of program. I am curious if anyone else has experienced lackluster run time improvement during capacity.

Other notes:

I almost skipped capacity. The benchmark seemed easy and I passed the benchmark during my initial assessment without even pushing hard. I’m glad I didn’t! I think jumping into velocity would have gotten me injured since I was only running about 12 miles per week at that time. The first week of velocity has you clocking about 22 miles! That’s nothing to sneeze at and justifies a slow ramp up. 

HEAT- holy smokes this summer was hot. My runs regularly turned into complete suffer tests due to the heat. My LSS runs were almost certainly at too high of an intensity due to the heat. I almost always just kept running as slow as I could even if I knew my heart rate was probably too high.

What I’m going to do moving forward:
I’m planning on rolling this straight into the velocity program. I have a specific trail run I want to train for and put up a decent time on, and I still want to improve my 6 mile time to be less than 48 minutes. 

I live in a very mountainous area so I’m considering adding some elements of Scott Johnston's Training for the Uphill Athlete into my training. He recommends tracking both mileage and vertical gain on a weekly basis which I think would help me prepare for my specific goal well. He also has some recommended muscular endurance protocols for mountain runners that I may try to incorporate into my training eventually. Still tbd on that. 

Planned fighter cluster: 
BSS, OHP, WPU + 1 working set of deadlift per week 

I’m considering adding the ab triad from TB3 in as part of a burn down session on weight training days. 

During this strength block I want to be a bit more intentional about forcing progression on a 3/6 week basis as needed. I think this will make it easier for me to start with conservative training maxes but still develop strength well throughout the 17 week long block.

I’m considering alternating OHP with normal bench press because I’m generally bad at bench press and don’t want to lose the gains I’ve made so far. Anyone experimented with this?

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u/misspelledword2 — 22 hours ago
▲ 8 r/tacticalbarbell

That tracker was pretty cool and it's a shame the mods deleted it

https://preview.redd.it/0nh7wazchckh1.png?width=560&format=png&auto=webp&s=8af3a5d327da5e32cd896722e7ff7bca00d4d097

I've also created an app that populates my calendar with progressions, logs my weight, estimates goals and their completion date, and force progresses my lifts for future blocks etc...

I would have loved to share it's code for anyone else to copy and/or modify for their own use but I used claude to help me build it.

It would be nice if this rule could not be so black and white since every software developed now uses AI to help them code. There are a multitude of tools that people will inevitably make with the barrier to entry being so low.

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u/Subject_Narwhal_5348 — 1 day ago
▲ 33 r/tacticalbarbell

Program Review: Tactical Barbell Operator Pro (modified for strongman) Phase II

PROGRAM CHECK IN: TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO FOR STRONGMAN PHASE II

INTRO

  • In my last adventure found here, I explained how I set up Operator Pro to help prep for an upcoming strongman competition. I’m now in the final week of the program, and wanted to share my experience and lessons learned through the process. And, of course, if you want to view the entire training phase, I’ve uploaded every video here

RESULTS UP FRONT

  • In the 11 weeks total I’ve followed this approach (I’m currently in my 12th week), I lost a total of 5.2kg (just about 11.5lbs). During the first 6 weeks of the program, I improved on all of my key lifts. During the final 6 weeks, I maintained on the front squat and log press while noting improvements in the deadlift (hitting 9x425+chains at the end of the cycle) and loading lifts while bodyweight continued to drop, which is another form of progression. My conditioning metrics followed a similar trajectory, with improvements on my FOBBIT/prowler performance in the first 6 weeks and maintenance in the final. I’ve reached a level of leanness that puts me in a very comfortable spot to start gaining in the summer, while also achieving performance goals.

THE STRUCTURE

  • As I wrote in my previous check in, I was able to use the guidelines of Operator Pro to turn it into a multiphased training strategy for competition prep. Pro allows for “hypertrophy” ranges for the secondary exercises (10s, 8s and 6s) along with “strength” ranges (5s). For the first phase, I employed the hypertrophy ranges, and for the second phase I used the strength ranges. By doing so, as I transitioned into Pro out of Specificity, I was able to use lighter weights on new exercises as I redeveloped the motor skills for the exercises, AND I was able to continue to work to preserve lean tissue in a phase where food was restricted. In the second phase, prioritization of lean tissue was reduced as the focus was shifted more toward performance, and the low reps allowed me to groove more “perfect” practice on the lifts I’d execute in competition while also meaning that I’d be accumulating less fatigue due to reduced volume. Emphasis was on explosive/strong reps and to limit grinding. This also meant a greater emphasis could be placed on performance in general as part of my conditioning work, as I would not be splitting recovery demands on hypertrophy lifts.

  • Aside from the change in reps for the secondary exercises, I made no change from the previous set-up, aside from the loading exercise (to be discussed shortly). This meant a cluster of SSB front squats, log clean and either ROM progression deadlifts or loading implements to a platform. Per Op/Pro, I’d have one day where I set a 2-3rm for the front squats and one for the log clean, and then I’d pull deadlifts on the middle day using my own ROM progression protocol. I keep the sets the same, with the deadlift day using 3 sets for the secondary exercises and otherwise using 5 sets. I also continued to implement my daily dips and chins, ending the final week with 3 sets of 18 and 1 set of 17 spread across the day. I DO feel these daily bodyweight exercises went a long way in preserving upper body mass, as typically getting this light tends to have my arms and shoulders looking small, but that was not the case this time.

  • For the loading exercise, I had to execute an audible that ended up being a blessing in disguise. In phase I, I was relying purely on the Stone of Steel as my loading implement, increasing the weight each week. Eventually, conditions became so sweltering in my garage that, even with a grip shirt and receiver gloves, the stone was too slippery to safely load. I’ve already torn one bicep: I don’t need a matching set. So I switched to the Power Keg, which is much easier to wrangle, which is a blessing and a curse when I’m trying to train to lift natural stones, as it meant I was able to develop the basic strength for loading stuff but not the “chaos strength” that comes with trying to load awkward objects that don’t want to move.

  • This led me to use MULTIPLE implements during the loading exercise. I couldn’t load the stone for 5 full sets, but I could get 1-2 out of it before it got too slippery, so I would swap between the stone and the keg between sets. I also recognized the value of the keg for developing strength and the stone for technique, so I left the stone unloaded and loaded up the keg heavy and used a “1 minute on/2 minutes off” approach to make it a goal to get in as many reps as possible with each implement. This tended to break down to 7 reps with the Stone and 3 reps with the keg. To finish it all off, after a total of 4 sets (stone-keg-stone-keg), I’d break out my Ironmind sandbag at a fixed weight of 200lbs and load it for max reps in a minute, for a total of 5 sets of loading.

  • I love this discovery, and want to use it moving forward. I noticed that 5 full sets of loading the same implement was beating the hell out of me, whereas switching it up within the workout has a similar effect to the conjugate approach of switching up the ME lift each week: I was still pushing my body hard, but specific parts of it weren’t getting mashed over and over again. I can employ a wide variety of resistances with the loadable nature of the implements I have, but also swap in fixed weight stuff as needed in order to expand variety. This definitely has some wings, and it’s why I’m always tinkering away.

X-FACTORS

  • As noted: I was leaning out during this process. This was driven by multiple factors, one being that the competition I was training for was a charity event without weight classes being done strictly for fun, so I had no compelling need to get heavier. Along with that, it’s summer, which is a time when I engage in more general activity, so getting leaner is pretty natural for me. Along with THAT, the fall tends to be the kick off for my gaining season, with a late October birthday leading into Thanksgiving leading into Christmas. It’s a great time for feasting, which is a great time for gaining, and per Dan John, Jon Heck, John McCallum and many other authors: getting lean is a great step to take before getting big. All that said, had I been eating to GAIN during this training block, I know I’d see even more progress.

  • Which, on that note, I’ve picked up a few non-training related injuries during this training block which impacted performance on a few days. I’ve noted in my experience that I tend to get more injured as I get leaner, which is most likely a result of inadequate nutrition to support healing/recovery and a reduction of necessary “fluff” around my connective tissues to provide support. The two most significant ones are an instance where I legit got out of bed too quickly and wrenched something in my back so badly that I thought I needed to get to the hospital, which ended up taking a week to resolve due to recurrence of nerve pain. The second one was an injury to my left knee from trying to run down the stairs to let one of my dogs out before it had “disaster poops” on the floor…while the OTHER dog decided to use that opportunity to nip at my toes. For 2 weeks after that, my knee would click/pop and slide out of place, but it seems to have some stability now. I’m currently still recovering from that, with my knee in a brace, but able to still squat and do lifting stuff. But, again: this is getting in the way of being able to effectively execute.

THE NUTRITION

  • I did an extensive write-up of my “Roulette Diet” approach that I’ve employed, but ultimately this was a combination of intermittent fasting with a carnivore diet that included a weekly meal with carbohydrates. Fasting was the lever implementing to control fat loss. If I wanted to lose more fat, I’d implement more/longer fasting days. If I needed to prioritize recovery, I’d increase my eating window.

CONCLUSION/WHAT’S NEXT

  • Operator Pro provides the most streamlined manner to adapt Tactical Barbell to strongman training/preparation. I didn’t have to violate the protocol or cheat to make it work, and the phasic structure is incredible simple to map out. This is the strongest I’ve been at this level of leanness in quite some time: typically weighing this little comes with a degree of stringiness that I’m not a fan of.

  • I compete at the end of Aug and have a cruise that starts the next week and continues into Mid-Sep. Upon my return, it may be time to do some TBIII Basebuilding, or perhaps a work capacity block (that looks fun), or just get a head start on mass building and really ride that through the fall. As always: chaos is the plan.

u/MythicalStrength — 1 day ago
▲ 8 r/tacticalbarbell

How do you track workouts

Hey everyone,

I’m currently trying to build my own Excel sheet to track my workouts while running a Grey Man block.

Tracking the main compound lifts is pretty straightforward since I can just enter the prescribed percentages, reps, and weights.

What I’m struggling with is how to properly track the rest of the program.

How do you properly track isolation work?
And how do you track the running/conditioning part? Distance, time, pace, heart rate, etc.?

I’m not very good with Excel, so I’m kind of overthinking how to structure everything.

The spreadsheet from LiftingVault gave me some ideas, and I copied/adapted the entry sheet with the percentage calculations. But it mainly gives you the prescribed weights for the main lifts and doesn’t really include a good way to track running or accessory work.

I’d appreciate any suggestions, examples, or spreadsheet ideas from people who track both lifting and running in the same sheet.

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u/Rxbsi — 1 day ago
▲ 3 r/tacticalbarbell

Cluster (A/B/A)(B/A/B) with Operator

Currently in my peak week and figuring out what cluster to pick for next block. Been doing 5x5 BP, 5x5 SQU, 5x5 WPU, 1x5 DL.

Was wondering if anyone's experimented with running two clusters concurrently in an (A/B/A) (B/A/B) fortnightly pattern? Will still be doing 5x5 for all working sets so I'll be averaging out 7.5 working sets per exercise per week.

Currently thinking of the following:

A - Back squat, bench press, weighted pull-ups.

B - Front squat, overhead press, trap bar deadlift.

Am I better off doing the exact same cluster 3x/week and swapping every 6 weeks as prescribed in TBIII?

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u/AussieBrucey — 1 day ago
▲ 18 r/tacticalbarbell

Demo: self-built TB workout tracker

I've built a workout tracker to track and plan my TB training, and I'm really happy with it so far. I use it every day and keep improving the design/features whenever I run into something or get a new idea.

Thought I'd share it on this sub to see what you think. See the attached video for a demo (with voice over).

Quick rundown of what it does:

  • Dashboard with goals and workout data
  • Training block planning tool
  • HIC library with training records per workout
  • Injury log

Still very much a work in progress, but I use it constantly and I'm loving it. Very interested to hear your feedback, feature ideas, or any other questions/comments.

youtu.be
u/letsgolambo — 2 days ago
▲ 8 r/tacticalbarbell

Continued TB3 Activation Program

I’m pretty new to TB and I’m currently about halfway through the TB3 25 week Activation program and I’m loving it.

I really enjoy how it switches between phases, rep and set ranges, and keeps things interesting while you progress.

I know it’s basically meant to be used as an introduction program for TB training, but what would be the actual downsides of repeating the Activation cycle as a regular and continued program instead of moving to the traditional TB block set ups? (Obviously still upping the weights as I progress).

Cheers all.

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u/GeneralHawg — 2 days ago
▲ 3 r/tacticalbarbell

Has anyone run Capacity with Op/PRO using the increased hypertrophy version?

Hi all, title says it all. I am considering my options for what I will do during the winter. I really enjoy improving my running right now using Fighter/Polarized Black after having done Base Building. However, this winter, I want to increase mass a little, but I am not sure if I want to go full Mass Protocol. I also plan to do some trail races next spring and summer, so Velocity sounds great at one point. Which means I should do Capacity first.

With all that said, has anyone run Capacity while using the increased hypertrophy version of Operator Pro? The version where reps are increased on secondary. It seems like running that with Capacity might be overkill but maybe by doing the minimal amount of running proposed with Capacity it’s manageable. So, has anyone done it? What are your thoughts about it?

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u/IronHike — 2 days ago
▲ 6 r/tacticalbarbell

Fighter BKK question

Since the 3rd day of fighter Bangkok is WC/SE/P, does that take the place of HIC with polarized conditioning? Thinking of running it with Blue or Black, and can’t tell if I’m supposed to add an HIC on or let that 3rd day be it.

For background, I’m a (nearly masters) LW strongman competitor, who likes doing stuff other than strongman. Day 3 would be an events-like day, rotating to keep practice - lots of farmers, stones, medleys etc. So really, SE, WC and P all mixed together.

just came off BB, Going to run grey man to fill out the 181 class then move into fighter BKK

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u/Wooden-Hearing7559 — 2 days ago
▲ 37 r/tacticalbarbell

[Review] TB3: Base

Intro

Having run a ton of programs by now - including all-time classics like 5/3/1 BBB+BtM, Jonnie Canditos 6 Week Strength Program, Super Squats, as well as Mass Template and recently Dan Johns Armor Building Formula, the release of TB3 marked a great timing for me to fully immerse myself in the Tactical Barbell philosophy by running Activation. As first part of it, we have Base, which is basically a cut down Base Building phase we know off TB2: Conditioning. The original BB was quite hard, especially for people who were completely new to running and SE training. I ran the old BB once with the strength first variation but I had to lay it off after week 4 because I got sick. Somehow, I lost myself in other programs after that. The new Base of TB3 is way more in line with people who did lift in their history but have little experience with SE training.

Stats

I didn't test any maxes before (in fact, last time I did was about a year back) but I did track my weight. I started on July 21st 2026 and ended my last run today on August 17th.

I am almost certain I was eating more than before I started the program as I came back from a cut but somehow managed to go from 72.4kg to 71.8kg.

Training

I went for the default cluster of Push Ups, Squats, Inverted Rows and Ab Triad as a finisher. To be more specific:

  • I used push up grips
  • I used a 16kg Kettlebell for squats
  • I used TRX bands for inverted rows
  • I adjusted ab triad to 5x leg raise, 5x knee raise, 5x leg raise

The reason I changed the ab triad was mainly because my pull up bar is right at the wall and once I start having to use momentum, my head would bang against the wall (which happened to me the first SE session - ouch).

Also, notice that I never did the full ROM for the cluster exercises. I tried to stay in line of the ab triad thinking - keep slight tension across the full rep range. In hindsight, this might have done things easier.

Nutrition

Honestly, I ate and when I got bored, I ate again. I did not comply to KB's nutrition guidelines though. I just ate as many proteins as possible and other than that, both my wife and I like cooking. So we mostly ate fresh food with whole ingredients. That is to say, I also ate a Pizza here or a Kebab there, so it's not like I had perfect nutrition. I just don't eat it too often. I also did add a protein shake every now and then.

Results

I am quite the beginner runner so bare with me here.

My first run on July 22nd I ran 30 minutes at an average pace of 7'25"/km and an average HR of 130 bpm.
On my last run on August 17th, I ran for 60 minutes at the same pace but my average HR was at 124 bpm for the whole hour. I count this as a win.

The SE sessions felt relatively easy overall. The toughest and last workout got my heart rate up quite a bit but at no point did I feel like I couldn't go on. I took the liberty to record the session.

I also took a picture before and after of my upper body. I feel like I shed off a bit of fat without actually trying. My guess is the caloric demand just shot up because I suddenly did 100k steps per week instead of half of that.

Going on

I'll test my 1RM (2-3RM) in the coming days and see that I continue with Armour. For me, this was definitely a very nice change of pace and I had a lot of fun!

If I forgot to mention anything, feel free to ask!

Also, big shoutout to the small community on Discord running Activation. It's nice to have other people to talk with, ask questions and see how everyone is doing.

u/HansWorst7 — 3 days ago
▲ 5 r/tacticalbarbell

Does TBIII add new core finishers/exercises?

I remember in 1 that abs were never touched upon and that it was lightly touched upon in 2, with the main one being Planks and Static Back Extension. It was four different pages for both grip and core together, and because I wanted a short finisher for both, I added dead hangs to the mix. Has there been any improvement on that aspect?

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u/Determined-Fighter — 2 days ago
▲ 22 r/tacticalbarbell

Experience with Garmin Watches

Hey fellow Tactical Barbell people! My old Apple Watch is increasingly going haywire and unreliable for running. Thinking of switching to the Garmin Watch I linked below. I wanted to get everyone's feedback on Garmin watches before I made the investment. Thanks!

Instinct® 3 – 45 mm, AMOLED

u/escapetolight — 4 days ago
▲ 5 r/tacticalbarbell

OG ZULU vs TBIII ZULU

I've noticed that the new ZULU template in TBIII omits the supplemental progression but keeps the supplemental exercises. In the OG Zulu you would do Supp A and Supp B at 65% > 70% > 75% for 8-10 reps while the two main lifts followed the operator progression.

Does the new Zulu template expect the athlete to do the supplemental exercises at the main lift progression?

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u/Subject_Narwhal_5348 — 3 days ago
▲ 4 r/tacticalbarbell

Rest Between Deadlift Reps

Tl;dr: I do one working set of Sumo Deadlifts per week as per my TB program. I do Sumo because I found my groove with them some time ago after really hurting my back doing Conventionals (and the fear that came after).

Now, I am getting back into Conventionals, using all the cues from a well-known Strength coach.

However, when going heavy, I can't repeat reps with ease. For example: today I did 1x3@85% and had to stand up, walk backwards, and back to the bar to completely reset, between each rep. It would have been about 10-15 seconds between reps. Staying in the down position of the Dead between reps makes it feel like I am losing technique on the subsequent rep.

Is the "reset" between reps detrimental? Should I be able to rep out the whole set without breaks or reset?

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u/Midlife_Crisis_87 — 3 days ago
▲ 10 r/tacticalbarbell

TB3 and Hyrox.

I plan on doing a Hyrox event around 2/11/27 (about 25 weeks away). I’ve read through TB3 and I’m currently on week 2 of base building. How would you guys plan up using a TB3? I did a Hyrox in 2025 with zero training geared towards it and definitely felt it.

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u/Ole_boy89 — 4 days ago
▲ 7 r/tacticalbarbell

Pull-ups (bodyweight - when weighted?)

Hi all,

I'm quite new to the TB universe and would like to get some input on the following.

In TB1 it says that you should stick to bodyweight pullups if you can't do 10 strict pull-ups. I'm quite on the edge of this: I can do like 8 strict + 2 grindy pull-ups in one set. However, in sets 2 and 3 I can only do significantly fewer pull-ups. More like 7 and 6.

On the other hand I can do some additional weight and still manage to do the 5 reps required in the TB world (in my case: Fighter Template)

Therefore I am asking how I should incorporate pull-ups for now?

Should I stick to bodyweight for now? Which amount of pull-ups should I aim for and when would be the point to switch to weighted?

Would love to hear some thoughts on this. Thanks in advance!

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u/Left-Type-6909 — 4 days ago
▲ 7 r/tacticalbarbell

Base Building SE rep numbers for unilateral exercises

In the old (TB2) Base Building, it said to divide the reps between both sides when doing unilateral exercises. For example 'the single arm floor press, if the circuit calls for 30 reps - you'll do 15 per arm.'
Is that still the way to go in the new (TB OA) Basebuilding, that has basically only half of the rep numbers compared to the old one?
First week calling for sets of 10 would mean 5 reps per side. And even the sets of 25 in the fourth week would amount to only 12/13 reps per side, which does sound a little low to me.

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u/tastytacobean — 4 days ago
▲ 4 r/tacticalbarbell

16 August 2026 WEEKLY TRAINING THREAD

  • Use this thread to post simple questions that don't deserve their own thread, get opinions from other TBers, or as a place for discussion between our civilian members and LEOs/Military/First Responders, fitness-related or otherwise.
  • Please search before posting to see if your question has been answered before.
  • LEO/Military/First Responders: Be mindful of opsec/tradecraft, any posts deemed too revealing will be removed.
  • Resources include the FAQ, TB testimonials, and specific training using TB.
  • See KB's post that discusses TB III: OPERATIONAL ATHLETE.
  • See the Kit Shop for TB book hard copies, apparel, and more.
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u/AutoModerator — 4 days ago
▲ 32 r/tacticalbarbell

TB3 Kindle Version

I know this has been asked before but is there any update anywhere for when the Kindle version will be released? Seems like it should've released ~5 weeks after the print release but no updates since then. It's really expensive to get TB3 from Amazon down to NZ so getting it on Kindle would be awesome.

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u/Eagle_Wick — 5 days ago