MarkKO's Training Log

I was bored so I got Paul Carter’s Base Building on Kindle.

I’m impressed. Very, very impressed. This is something that I will most likely end up running in the future. From my first reading I find it very well thought out and not a program but a system - just like 5/3/1. The principles are very similar, although in practice I suspect auto regulation plays a much greater role in Base Building. I’m surprised more people aren’t using it, or at least that I haven’t come across many. In some ways I think it may be superior to 5/3/1.

Paul Carter certainly provides various options on how to implement the system and does one thing Jim Wendler seems not to, which is set out a specific peaking plan. The system is also built around what is effectively a leader/anchor approach - not in so many words, but that seems to me to be what Paul Carter is getting at. Joker sets (in all but name) appear too.

It is somewhat less cut and dried than 5/3/1 though. Just from the first reading it looks like you need to have at the very least a decent understanding of your own response to training, especially in respect of knowing when to back down. In that sense it’s closer to Training Maximally or Advanced 5/3/1. Not something for a beginner, certainly. Not something I think I’m ready for yet although by next year maybe.

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Quoting as I went and was going to bring up cutting buuuut…

It has everything to do with it, IMO. In a calorie surplus I could do volume for months (well before the “supps”). I was working with a lot less weight (so less CNS etc) but even now I am on that cut and normal volume is taxing.

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Ok, whew…I thought that would be a little excessive!

I agree, recovery goes down the drain when in a calorie deficit. It takes a lot less to leave me feeling beat up when working in a deficit.

I too enjoyed this read. Not sure I’ll ever run the program, but there were lots of points/tips and great takeaways from the read that I often think about in my training.

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Hey there. I thought I’d come and check out your training since I’ve found myself liking a number of your recent posts. I’m surprised to see you’ve only been training for 2 1/2 years.

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Well shit, does that mean I’ve been training longer than you(I’m roughly 3 years in)? Dang, my results sure ain’t showing it haha!

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Welcome @ouroboro_s

I used to take that medication for five straight years and while meds get a bad rep from sometimes when it comes down to health in general, that particular medication is honestly very good when prescribed correct dosages. However in high school I knew some kids were getting prescribed waaaaaaaaay too high of a dosage and they weren’t eating, had insomnia, suicidal thoughts, or just weren’t letting the medication do its job.

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Psh. Shoot I wish. Us millennials are so fucking weird involving almost every aspect of life. The American millennials have like a 50/50 split down the middle. Half of us doing good in life, making friends, learning new things, making mistakes/becoming wiser, being hella intelligent, and…then the other half are either mass murderers, suicidal, drug users, don’t do shit, drop out of college, moving in the wrong direction, immature AF, etc. Then either half of us learn how to obtain medical/dental/vision insurance and half of us will go the next 30 yrs playing rushing roulette with our health. Plus we are a bunch of whining pussies. I’ve never seen a generation be THIS fucking whiny about EVERYTHING. I know I’m still younger than a flower bud, but even listening to tons of older generations, etc. we are soooooo whiny

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Same boat man. During the really rough years of my eating disorder it was a damn shame to think back on how much food I used to shove into my gob.

There was one instant where I woke up at 6:30 on the dot in the morning and managed to chew through 15,000 calories worth of food by 10pm that same day.

And when I get sick or even severely upset or sad I instantly lose weight, and it’s never a small number it’s like 10 lbs pounds worth of fluid and another five of body fat. But if I continue to lessen calories around the 4-6 mark my body immediately begins to shred through muscle. There was one point in time in my life where I started taking heavy dosages of medication and was working a shit ton and within two months my body managed to dump 15lbs worth of lean tissue. And it took me so long to get that back. Up until 18 starting from 9-10 yrs old, I constantly bounced back and forth from losing something just shy of 50-60lbs and throwing it all back on. For YEARS. I’ll be 22 this year and I had to constantly bust my ass for the past Five years recovering and, eating well, and throwing on lean tissue. And I’m glad I didn’t wreak my body’s ability to be resilient. I do have a few kinks here and there but they are beyond minor, but back when I used to have to be hospitalized frequently I met a lot of young women who never really recover from eating issues like that, and I’ve noticed once they keep a BMI of anything under 18%, when they hit that 25 year old age marker their bodies immediately begin to break down. And for the ones who have bulimia or binge eating issues the same follows, but at that point in time they are very blessed if high BP, diabetes, or lymphoma don’t catch up with them.

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@BOTSLAYER and @littlesleeper you’re right, of course. I’m guessing I’ve just managed to balance my deficit and training just well enough to recover.

Yesterday I figured I must have some kind of cold because I ended up passing out on the couch and then just lay in bed feeling cold and generally shit. Better now.

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Ended up being packed off to nap again yesterday because apparently I looked really sick. Same deal, just lay there. Body appreciated it. It freaked me out a little bit, because I would have sworn I didn’t feel that bad. I thought it might’ve been a reaction to the SSRIs and then I thought:

  • that wouldn’t make me look sick now, would it;
  • I trained on Thursday and Friday thinking I had hayfever when it really was this cold, so I took no precautions like backing off on anything;
  • as this deficit has progressed I’ve become accustomed to feeling fairly tired/drained/weak on a semi regular basis

Anyway, slept well although I took a while to fall asleep and I feel reasonable this morning. I already decided not to train today. I’ll train tomorrow and Thursday, and since it’s deload intensity and volume will both be way down.

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Feeling kind of fuzzy and sort of distant, but not sick. That I am going to attribute to the SSRIs, as I think my plasma concentrations should be peaking. It isn’t unpleasant but I’ll be keeping an eye on it.

Whatever else, I’m now very sure I’ll train tomorrow just to see how I go. I can’t deny that there’s a part of me terrified the SSRIs will stop me training, which makes very little sense.

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Did you recently start using SSRIs?

Yes, a week ago today.

I understand that you are probably in a situation where “don’t worry” sounds absurd but that is what I would tell you from my own experience on the effects of SSRIs on training.
Like I said, this is based on my own personal experience, the medicine I am personally taken and I don’t know your situation nor am I a doctor.

First of all from what I understand SSRIs work with a specific blood concentration that is usually reached after about three weeks. That means the medicine should have minimal to no effect at this point.
Second, there is no negative effect of SSRIs on training beside possible lack of energy/ tiredness that potentially goes away after some time (I have not really experienced this, maybe when I started with them for a little bit) and weight gain. The weight gain thing is only true for a group of people. I have not noticed that I gain significantly more weight after starting SSRIs.

Of course different people experience different side effects with medicine but SSRIs seem to have very mild side effects and

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@Koestrizer thank you. It is a big help to hear this.

It makes sense, and honestly it’s just an irritating part of my personality that I worry about nonsensical things. Most likely I feel off because I’m sick right now, and I’m just jumping to conclusions as to why I feel that.

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I absolutely feel you on that. Which is probably part of the reason why we ended up taking such drugs :wink:
In general I have nothing bad to say about these meds. I am taking them for a little over 2 years now and I will probably continue for many years to come. I would always advise seeing a therapist though.
Anti depressants are a help but not a solution. - That is something my doctor told me and he is right.

Glad that I could help you man. Let me know if you have other related questions. I wish you all the best going forward!

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You could be right about that :slight_smile:

My doc and I are of the same opinion. Right now they’re a help, but only until my brain chemistry sorts itself out.

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I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, but I think next leader/anchor I’ll go with be BBB/PR sets and jokers. Depending on various things that’ll be what leads up to 2018 nationals if I qualify.

Currently this is how things are looking:

To 09 July:
Leader cycle three 5s Pro + FSL (currently finishing cycle two)
Two anchor cycles, PR sets and jokers, FSL
Six weeks peaking

Mid July to 22 October
Training Maximally

That’s where things are actually planned to, and by the end of October I should have a fair idea of whether or not I qualified for nationals in 2018. I’m going to need to decide if I work on qualifying at 198 or 181 lbs though. I’m currently at 198 lbs give or take a pound, and I’d hazard a guess that I’ve got another six to 10 lbs left to go. This is going to matter more for October, because I’m pretty sure July will be too early to qualify for 2018. Given that I’ll be working on staying at my end-of-cut weight for a year or so to establish my set point whatever I weigh in October is what I will be planning on weighing in mid 2018 (nationals at usually mid year).

Looking at it like that, I think that unless I’m sitting around 187 or below come end of June I should compete at 198 lbs. That will at least give me a little leeway to add some muscle over the year (it won’t be much given I’ll be eating at maintenance, but I certainly won’t get smaller) without worrying that come nationals I’d need to cut a significant amount of weight.

That was a decent tangent. Back to training.

Let’s assume I have (ballpark figure) November 2017 through to July 2018 to train for nationals. That is around nine months, so nine cycles. Assuming the current leader/anchor/peaking setup I’m currently using works well, that takes care of about six months: three cycles leader, two cycles anchor, four to six weeks peaking.

That leaves me two months to play with: November and December 2017. I was thinking I could go two ways: take a couple of months to add mass (but that seems a waste of time given I won’t be in a caloric surplus and besides, the leader phase is what I want to use that for); or I could try the 5/3/1 Full Body, Full Boring template for a couple of cycles.

Now, Training Maximally prior to this means I’ll have done a LOT of the main lifts, and might want or need a break. It occurs to me that I could probably benefit from a couple of slightly less intense cycles, and I could manage that with the full body template using lower TMs and the following:

Monday
Comp squat
Bench press/pull aparts
SGDL

Tuesday
Front squat
Press/pull aparts
DL

Thursday
Comp squat
Bench press/pull aparts
SGDL

Friday - back/bodybuilding
Pull-ups 25 total reps (assuming my elbows are behaving)
Kroc rows
Single leg 50 total reps/leg
Hinge/back raises 100 total reps
Curls supersetted with calf raises

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Oh, and I realised what rubs me the wrong way about the IPF. It isn’t the dickishness of the organisers (well, not completely); nor the lifters’ attitude towards other lifters (seems to be they feel PED use is a problem, but I respect that opinion although I don’t agree); but that fact that most IPF lifters simply aren’t lifting as much as lifters in other feds far as I can tell (outliers/elite lifters not included). Why bother if you don’t move as much as you possibly can?

What brought it home to me was a mate at the gym, who I just found out signed up to the Australian IPF affiliate. He asked me why I lift in GPC when in his words, I’d be so competitive in PA. Seriously!? Why the holy fucking hell would I want to lift in a fed where I’m competitive at my current level!? For fuck’s sake, how shit does the level of competition have to be that I’d be competitive now? Why would I waste my time there?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in under three years, but there is no way in hell that level should be competitive beyond maybe getting a podium finish at a small meet. Give me another three years, and then I’ll be competitive.

EDIT

I went and checked Powerlifting Australia vs GPC Australia national records. For equivalent weight classes (give or take a kilo because IPF is slightly different) GPC records have anywhere between 40 and 80+ kg on PA records. That’s from the 148 through to the 275s. That’s the TOP lifters in each fed, not the run of the mill people. Then I looked at random results from open comps in the 204 lbs classes. In all bar one I’d have had a podium, and I’d even have had a podium in the class above in one. Then I checked their gradings/qualifying totals. Currently, I could qualify for Oceania/Commonwealth titles now (required total at 204 is 1243 lbs) because that’s a total I KNOW I can hit walking out, in sleeves, on a stiff bar. Hell, I could probably qualify for the 231s (1330 lbs).

Yes, I know GPC allows wraps, uses specialty bars, has a 24 hour weigh in etc. But, those open results I looked at had guys in the 204s hitting shit I can do on a stiff bar, in sleeves, walking my squats out and I ain’t no competitive 198/204 yet. Not to mention the qualifying totals I saw…

My question is, if someone is a top dog in PA and sees the GPC records, why aren’t they wondering how they’d stack up under those conditions that supposedly make everything so much easier? Surely they’d blitz the competition if they were lifting under the same conditions, wouldn’t they?

I don’t even know why this annoys me to be honest. I guess I simply don’t understand the mindset. I want to lift where the strongest people lift. I might not be competitive, but at least I know every ranking spot I climb really means something. How can you value holding a record that in another fed would only just qualify you for nationals? Who cares that the conditions are apparently easier? How could you not want to show how much better you are?

Maybe they just like being big fish in a small pond.

Come to think of it, I know why these standards annoy me (on top of what I said before the edit): they’re too fucking low for a fed that touts itself as the peak, holier than thou, only true PL fed.

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