Every time I pursue strength alone I get beat up and end up switching back to a bodybuilding routine.
I’ve never done much with weightlifting though. I don’t think it’d go to well. I’d end up dislocating my shoulder. My joints are lax. Need proof? I had surgery in 04 to tighten up my shoulder after multiple subluxations and then my knee in 07 for two subluxations during the first part of basketball season. The second incident was a non-contact injury.
I have the opposite issue. I am far from loose and springy naturally. I am not sure if it’d be an issue for you, you can always just drop the bar behind you. Maybe strengthen the stabilizers really hard.
Do your elbows hyper extend?
They haven’t yet. I’d like to keep it that way!
Woke at 195.4 lbs, looking decent.
Mark, quick question.
Because you are using Beyond, you basically have all your training based on auto-regulation.
So how do you plan what you will do each day ? What’s your goal for the end of each cycle ? I’m talking about the “strength” cycles.
With the standard 531 you get rep PRs with different weights that are set by your TM. So your goals are based on these weights. Then you can use different templates like Spinal Tap or 5x5/3/1 for the main work or BBS, SSL for the supplemental depending on the “phase” you’re in. But you don’t do that.
Do you have phases where you try to get more reps at your TM, other phases where you focus on Jokers only etc ? Basically when are you “building” and then “testing” and how do you do each ?
Maybe a better way to ask is, how do you make a Leader and Anchor, from Beyond ?
To get stronger. What I’ve done so far is set a rep target with my TM and once I hit that do some joker sets.
I avoid testing. I’m pretty much building the whole time. The way I look at it, if I’m hitting my TM for the same number of reps over several cycles, I’m getting stronger. I don’t need to test unless I’m coming into a meet.
I don’t. I’m honestly not a fan of the leader/anchor approach. I don’t see a point to it. What’s wrong with consistently getting better and making changes as and when needed?
Today’s training
90 degree back raise to GHR for a bunch until I felt my hamstrings and lower back pump up a bit
10 cm block pulls, stiff bar, straps
10x132 lbs
8x220 lbs
6x308 lbs, straps on
3x8x396 lbs, belt on, 6, 6-7, 7-8 RPE
Up to 418 lbs next week
SSB squat 350 set, beltless
5xbar
5x154 lbs
20x242 lbs, 2x15x242 lbs in under 15 minutes
Next week I’ll go up to 264 lbs
Band side bends supersetted with 45 degree back raises
Bends 3x25 against double choked medium (green) band
Raises 2x25 against medium band double choked on each pin set up to really focus on lower back
Set up the raises as follows:
pins on furthest pin
pads on fourth hole
knee pad on one hole visible
Did some shoulder work while stretching again.
Overall took around an hour and a half including some faffing around setting up
I wanna see!!! lol
Wouldn’t be worth it. I’ve got a plan for the coming year that I feel good about.
Ah I see. But if you ever do, still…Crush him lol
Unless he does what he really needs and moves upr to the 198s and 220s that’s not going to happen. He’s my height and around 10 lbs lighter. His squat finally looks like it’s starting to come along but it remains to be seen if he can replicate that on the platform. I’d love to see him go past 1320 lbs on the weekend, but I think at best he might go 1250 lbs.
Well for his sake, I think those are fairly good numbers. But then again I think anyone powerlifting has good numbers because theyre trying. Right? ehh, I could be wrong.
Those would be OK. His best so far is well below that. I look at what I see at smaller meets and base my standards on that. From what I’ve seen, squatting with wraps a decent total at 181 lbs is over 1265 lbs, at 198 lbs over 1365 lbs and at 220 lbs over 1465 lbs. That should give you a podium at a local meet and qualify you for nationals. Wouldn’t get you near the podium for nationals.
I just read Mark’s reply. I don’t think he mentioned it, but he is on a 531 approach found in the beyond book, named “Beyond 531 - Traning maximally”. It requries you know your body and training. Mark does that.
I tried “training Maximally” as Mark does/did until now, where it’s BB time. That was too taxing for me. I think I did 2 maybe 3 cycles and it buried me totally.
The leader/Anchor stuff I tried it, it sounded very wise, so I tried it for 2 rounds of leader/anchor, and every time I got to the anchor cycle, I was just not ready to go for rep maxes. But when Jim talks and explains it sounds just right. Sometimes I will try again.
Right now i’m on quite OG 531, that suits me. the 28 week of training as it is in the Beyond. After these 28 weeks, i hope I have learned a lot. Then i’ll try Training maximally again.
Love to read Mark’s Log it’s inspiring. Read a year back or more. I think theres a lot to learn.
If you read a year of what Mark wrote, you need a job!! 
I have been following Mark for about a year or so
That was for Hypem that asked Mark about his training
Browse through the log, dig in whenever Mark talks about his next cycles.
I’m blushing and laughing at the same time.
Yeah, with Training Maximally I found I had to forget 5/3/1 and just figure it out. I think Jim hints at this, but IMO what makes or breaks Training Maximally is the backoff sets and assistance. Without those it’s not even a system, it’s just an idea that goes hey, why not work up to some arbitrary load that you increase every three weeks and then see how you feel and go forward based on that.
My next project is going to be really, really old school western periodisation (I think that’s what it’s called): pick a meet, pick third attempts for each lift and work backwards starting out with high reps and tapering off over an extended period. I’ve pretty much set it out already from January onwards. I’ll post it up when I’ve ironed out any kinks.
I feel that and respect it man. I don’t see the honour in moving down in weight. I get it if it’s for a world record I suppose. But for the most part, wolves don’t concern themselves with sheep. Rock on brother
Thank you for your answer.
I wanted to see whether you did adapt to a Leader/Anchor style, because even in Forever, Beyond is not mentioned often and if it is, it’s as an Anchor.
Although when I plan my programs of leader/anchor, I still consider some anchors as a “building” time. I’ve been planning 2 times 2 Leaders and 1 Anchor, and the last anchor is the “testing” one for me.
@mortdk Thanks! I read the part about Beyond in the book before asking the question. I figured it’d be faster to ask Mark directly, his thoughts could have changed since what he wrote as well.
I’m not surprised it buried you! It is a hard system as you are going pretty heavy compared to any other 531 program (you are limited by your TM in most leaders). I think this is to prevent people from overreaching all the time… Jim does say it is for advanced lifters.
