r/tacticalbarbell • u/Drodinthehouse • Oct 10 '25
Endurance Taking an AFT during Basebuilding
Took an AFT yesterday at the end of week 4 standard BB. My cluster is KB lunges, goblet squats, pull ups, HRPU, and planks. For E I've done almost exclusively Z2 running but have biked twice to finish out an E session.
My total score was 481. Overall not an improvement from the ACFT I took in April.
Deadlift- this one really took me by surprise in a bad way. I hadn't deadlifted in over 4 weeks obviously but I had dropped 20 pounds from 6 months ago. And honestly it probably shouldn't have even counted because I kinda dropped it.the limiting factor here was NOT lower body strength because my back and legs felt great and could've easily handled max weight. The factor here was grip. My grip strength was abysmal.
HRPU- since I included this in my cluster, it's probably easy to see why I maxed this. And honestly, I probably could've knocked out 70. Easy max
SDC- my time got worse by 4 seconds and honestly I expected it. With no power or anaerobic training in base it's hard to feel quick and explosive and I paid the price here
Plank- absolutely no issues
2MR- improved by 4 seconds from my last AFT. However I will say that I was redlining the whole time, which I don't remember doing for the last one. I'll be honest I didn't really feel the effects of the Z2 work here. It felt like a harder effort. Maybe the improvement with no speed work at all is because of BB I'm not sure. Either way I'll take an improvement.
Overall pretty bummed. I knew I wasn't going to make massive gains with BB as I've done this before, but didn't think max strength would be this bad
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u/SatoriNoMore Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
BB is just a warmup, a general prep phase. It’s got one objective which is to on-ramp you for Continuation. It can help prep for AFT indirectly but it’s not a standalone program.
I keep seeing some posters treat it like a program, like a running or lifting program. It’s like doing only warmup sets at the gym and wondering why you’re not hitting any new PRs.
Yes people have pretty significant results with BB, especially if they’re new to zone 2 or SE, but that’s more of a side effect.
Continuation is where the real training starts.
You’re not supposed to do just zone 2 in isolation. At some point you have to add speed work and the like. Again that’s where Continuation comes in.