Benanything's Training Log

2/11/15

Did some tire flips. Did 1 walk of farmers. Messed around a bit, figured might as well just do my 1+ set for my presses today(instead of tomorrow). Did 60kgs x 2 followed by 2 singles.

60kgs x 2

My Thoughts, Reflections, Personal Feedback:
Will be skipping the squat session for this week. Doing the bench session sometime later this week. Next week is deload. After that, I’ll run 531 with a far more conservative set of maxes, keeping in account fatigue and recovery and time management and a bunch of other shit. Oh and school. Don’t forget school.

[/quote] Will be skipping the squat session for this week. Doing the bench session sometime later this week. Next week is deload. After that, I’ll run 531 with a far more conservative set of maxes, keeping in account fatigue and recovery and time management and a bunch of other shit. Oh and school. Don’t forget school.
[/quote]

That sounds like a very good call, and a plan that will deliver results.

@MarkKO

Agreed. Thanks for sticking around Mark, its pretty encouraging and it means quite a fair bit to me.

[quote]Benanything wrote:
@MarkKO

Agreed. Thanks for sticking around Mark, its pretty encouraging and it means quite a fair bit to me.[/quote]

That’s what we’re here for my friend.

[quote]MarkKO wrote:

[quote]Benanything wrote:
@MarkKO

Agreed. Thanks for sticking around Mark, its pretty encouraging and it means quite a fair bit to me.[/quote]

That’s what we’re here for my friend. [/quote]

Yes, definitely want to see you do well.

[quote]Benanything wrote:
just looked through one of my first forum posts on T-Nation, pretty darn disappointed at myself. It’s been a year and my deadlift is pretty much still the same.

IMO, I think you would do well to start the 5/3/1 BBB 3-Month Challenge with an 85-90% training max and just get in volume with the main lifts. When was the last time you consistently put in a lot of volume with the main lifts? When was the last time you made volume the goal for progression instead of a single max rep set? It seems like you’ve been pushing low rep work for quite awhile now and a bit more balance would help since not as much progress is being made.

Edit: I just remembered that you made the change last month to a bit more volume work, lol. You’ll see progress in time. With the heavy sets, try to limit how often you need to grind to get that last rep because it can get very taxing. Grinding to hit a PR is fine but grinding most sessions can take its toll.

@lift206

Second time replying to this, T Nation forums tend to fuck up at times or maybe its just me. But anyways, I’ve got something better(?) in mind. I’ll be doing the 27 week variation of 531 BBB as per written in the Beyond 531 book, no changes, none what so ever. Sticking to the book, to quote Jim, “Do you want to be entertained or get big and strong?”. I do want to get big and strong and I’ve realized that I’ve spent far too long fucking around and not making the gains I’ve could’ve been making. This ends here. Gainsville, here I come.

[quote]Benanything wrote:
@lift206

Second time replying to this, T Nation forums tend to fuck up at times or maybe its just me. But anyways, I’ve got something better(?) in mind. I’ll be doing the 27 week variation of 531 BBB as per written in the Beyond 531 book, no changes, none what so ever. Sticking to the book, to quote Jim, “Do you want to be entertained or get big and strong?”. I do want to get big and strong and I’ve realized that I’ve spent far too long fucking around and not making the gains I’ve could’ve been making. This ends here. Gainsville, here I come.[/quote]

This. 27 weeks will fly by and at the end of it you’ll be in a very different position. Strength and size gains aside, you’ll have practiced the big lifts so much you’ll be vastly better at doing them.

@MarkKO

Here’s hoping, haha.

[quote]Benanything wrote:
@lift206

Second time replying to this, T Nation forums tend to fuck up at times or maybe its just me. But anyways, I’ve got something better(?) in mind. I’ll be doing the 27 week variation of 531 BBB as per written in the Beyond 531 book, no changes, none what so ever. Sticking to the book, to quote Jim, “Do you want to be entertained or get big and strong?”. I do want to get big and strong and I’ve realized that I’ve spent far too long fucking around and not making the gains I’ve could’ve been making. This ends here. Gainsville, here I come.[/quote]

That’s awesome. I think you’ll make great progress. Like Wendler said, don’t live and die by the one-rep max. That applies to a rep-max set as well - although they are very good checkpoints for progress. If you hit volume PRs, if certain weights feel easier than before, if you reduce recovery time, etc., those are all forms of progress. Take notice of all areas of improvement. Sometimes feeling great after a workout is a good thing. You want to do well over the course of an entire training cycle and not just a few sessions.

A suggestion that may help is to write down a few training principles you think are important before starting the 27 weeks and come back to them often so you don’t stray away from them. An example for me after I had a shitty meet at the end of last year were: 1) Use bar speed to help me listen to my body, 2) Focus on bar control, 3) Core shall not fail. Looking back on those principles often helped me stick to the path so that I wouldn’t chase numbers, get ahead of myself, or make the same mistakes. It has helped a lot.

Edit: I just looked at the 27-week program and it looks great. I don’t think you’ll regret doing it.

[quote]Benanything wrote:
@MarkKO

Here’s hoping, haha.[/quote]

It’ll work.

I was semi-dubious about how effective increased volume at lighter loads could be (I never said I was smart) until I got desperate enough to try it for my bench.

It works. You just have to put I’m the reps and work hard on making everything about the lift optimal for you.

@lift206

I’ll look into doing that by the end of the week or something.

@MarkKO

Well, I guess you’ll have the chance to say “I told you so” in roughly 30-ish weeks, haha.

How strong are you? Really?

Well, just a thought that has been on my mind as of late. No doubt, part of it came as inspiration from this other thread, How Long Before You Looked Like You Lift? - Bigger Stronger Leaner - Forums - T Nation .

But anyways, the thought would is, basically, I used to think if you’re moving more weight, you’re getting stronger, that would make sense right? More weight moved = more strength. Well, that was the case up until I actually started thinking about it hard. Regardless of whatever “strength” sport it is, there’ll always be an element of technique/leverages/etc involved. Example being Eddie Berglund on Instagram: "3 reps att 157,5 in bench #dcore #tyngre" and etc. Not to take anything away from people who’re utilizing such advantages as and when they can. They want to win, I get it, I would do the same. Doing whatever it takes to win, that’s great. But yeah, people seem to forget that a major part of strength sports is actually getting stronger. Maybe this is why “5/3/1: How to Build Pure Strength” just seem to be rather appealing to me. Getting stronger, it ain’t for everyone. I know its for me, I might not be strong now, but in time, I shall. Hopefully.

[quote]Benanything wrote:
How strong are you? Really?

Well, just a thought that has been on my mind as of late. No doubt, part of it came as inspiration from this other thread, How Long Before You Looked Like You Lift? - Bigger Stronger Leaner - Forums - T Nation

But anyways, the thought would is, basically, I used to think if you’re moving more weight, you’re getting stronger, that would make sense right? More weight moved = more strength. Well, that was the case up until I actually started thinking about it hard. Regardless of whatever “strength” sport it is, there’ll always be an element of technique/leverages/etc involved. Example being Eddie Berglund on Instagram: "3 reps att 157,5 in bench #dcore #tyngre" and etc. Not to take anything away from people who’re utilizing such advantages as and when they can. They want to win, I get it, I would do the same. Doing whatever it takes to win, that’s great. But yeah, people seem to forget that a major part of strength sports is actually getting stronger. Maybe this is why “5/3/1: How to Build Pure Strength” just seem to be rather appealing to me. Getting stronger, it ain’t for everyone. I know its for me, I might not be strong now, but in time, I shall. Hopefully.[/quote]

IMO, strength and technique (for strength) are one in the same. Strength builds technique and technique builds strength. I’m not sure why these ideas are sometimes separated. Strengthening individual muscles increases the potential for utilization in a complex movement (although this isn’t guaranteed). Technique builds the strength of whatever muscles are recruited.

Muscle recruitment and leverages are both important for a specific exercise/movement. It basically comes down to what produces the highest level of performance. The average population won’t benefit from extreme leverages. Rarely will there be freaks that have ridiculous strength while using extreme leverages so this shouldn’t be seen as the norm.

It just takes time to learn how important the muscles are for lifting big weights because the muscles move the weight. Learning to utilize as many muscle groups as possible is like hiring more and more workers. You just have to train them properly and teach them to work effectively together. Relying only on a select few can limit long term growth.

You’ll continue to get stronger so don’t doubt yourself. Just make sure that all muscles groups are doing what you intend them to do and putting in work.

As a strong dude who has been beaten by plenty of people that were “weaker” than me, I would counter argue that the purpose of strength sports is to win.

I got caught in the trap that all I needed to do was be strong, and my performance was terrible in strongman. Once I got my mind right and focused my training to suit strongman, things got much better.

That being said, strength is still always awesome to have, and you can overcome a lack of technique with a surplus of strength…but you can also overcome a lack of strength with a surplus of technique.

[quote]Benanything wrote:
Getting stronger, it ain’t for everyone. I know its for me, I might not be strong now, but in time, I shall. Hopefully.[/quote]

So, why do you want to be strong?

And, I guess, how will you know when you’re strong? Is there a point where you’ll consider yourself “strong enough”?

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
As a strong dude who has been beaten by plenty of people that were “weaker” than me, I would counter argue that the purpose of strength sports is to win.

I got caught in the trap that all I needed to do was be strong, and my performance was terrible in strongman. Once I got my mind right and focused my training to suit strongman, things got much better.

That being said, strength is still always awesome to have, and you can overcome a lack of technique with a surplus of strength…but you can also overcome a lack of strength with a surplus of technique.[/quote]

You make a good point. I was just going to edit my post and point out that I over simplified technique in the first post. I think there is technique for building strength and technique for displaying current maximum performance. Many people including me start off not understanding this difference.

For max performance, you can only work with what you currently have. For building, I do believe that people should take advantage of all resources (muscle groups) available to them. IMO, minimizing the difference between technique for building vs performing means that all of the training carries over well to competition and minimal effort in training is wasted. I have had entire cycles of squatting that didn’t carryover to a 1RM because my technique for building was very poor - it was very frustrating learning that more didn’t equate to better and so much time and effort was wasted.

I think that what you refer to as technique is what I refer to as technique for building, what we believe to be the best way to do something. And what you refer to as strength is what I refer to as technique for max performance, doing the best with what you currently have in regards to strength of individual muscles, coordination, conditioning, timing, etc. You just do a much better job at keeping the explanations concise and simple, haha. Definitely good discussion nonetheless.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
As a strong dude who has been beaten by plenty of people that were “weaker” than me, I would counter argue that the purpose of strength sports is to win.

I got caught in the trap that all I needed to do was be strong, and my performance was terrible in strongman. Once I got my mind right and focused my training to suit strongman, things got much better.

That being said, strength is still always awesome to have, and you can overcome a lack of technique with a surplus of strength…but you can also overcome a lack of strength with a surplus of technique.[/quote]

This. When I was doing kettlebell sport, I often found I that I could beat some guys in my weight class because was stronger and more stubborn but others way weaker than I or in lower weight classes would beat me because their technique was better.

Ultimately, I think some sports require more technique relative to strength and vice versa and that determines how you train for them.

I mean, look at powerlifting: you need to be really strong, but just on the squat, bench press and deadlift. I’m guessing strongman is much different because you have to be strong on LOTS of events and the events will often be different from one meet to another.

Dang, I wasn’t expecting that many replies on my training log haha, I expected it to slip by unnoticed. But anyways, I really did enjoy reading all the replies and such.

[quote]LoRez wrote:

So, why do you want to be strong?

And, I guess, how will you know when you’re strong? Is there a point where you’ll consider yourself “strong enough”?[/quote]

As for my view on it, being good in strongman/powerlifting doesn’t exactly mean strong.

This might sound like a far bit of bullshit(it is) but I honestly feel that at every period of time whereby my training has been going well, so does the rest of my personal life. They’re kinda tied together of sorts. I’ve come to a conclusion(totally made it up as I went along) that training builds character. The last time I recall my trainings going exceptionally well was back when I did 531 for the first time, I think I did them for 5-6 cycles. EVERYTHING went well, I was studying/lifting/working/dealing with family problems and everything just went hand in hand and I excelled in every aspect. Hell, my grades were the highest during that semester.

Sorry to digress but back on point. Being strong isn’t just about having muscles/lifting heavy weights, not to me at least. Keep in mind that I’m feeling somewhat philosophical right now. Being strong is about being able to take what life throws at you. It’s about being useful. It’s about being someone of value to society, helping others, etc etc. Granted, I do enjoy the other more superficial benefits, looking better/being stronger physically. Lifting changed my life and I honestly do believe that lifting can still help me improve my life for the better. I believe that to improve, there has to be adversity of all forms. In this modern day and age, adversity in the physical form, they aren’t exactly common (in my life at least).

It takes a “special” individual to deliberately chase something hard, at least that’s what I think, what the hell do I know, I’m 17 turning 18 haha.

When will I know if I’m strong? I don’t think I’ll ever consider myself strong enough, not physically not mentally not holistically, its a lifetime pursuit. I’m always striving to be better. Can’t exactly remember if this is a quote or just something I came up with but “I believe that in life you’re like a shark - you have to keep moving ; otherwise, you’ll die.” One of my biggest fear is being content, I just feel like the day I’m content, I’ll have no reason to get out of bed in the morning, life would seem rather dull and perhaps, meaningless.

For the record, I wouldn’t say I’m training to be a powerlifter/strongman. I would just say that I’m someone who views training as a way to build character and I do have to admit that I enjoy the other benefits(being stronger/looking better). Powerlifting/strongman (if I do compete), they’re just outlets for me to express myself so I know how I would stack up against others.

EDIT: I seem to be jumping all over the place, mind kinda just being a bit jumpy today, sorry if its a pain in the ass to read and thanks for reading.

6/11/15

Wasn’t exactly planning on going to the gym, only went cause buddy wanted to train. Did minimal warm ups, mainly consisting of singles/doubles.

Competition Bench 80kgs x1
Squat 140kgs x1, got it on my 2nd attempt. Can’t seem to push my knees out during the squats, might be something to do with the hip flexors.
Press 60kgs x2
Push Press 70kgs x2

Having my official deload next week. Can’t wait to start on the 27 week BBB program.