Friday, July 18, 2014

Base Building Excerpt - Training too light vs too heavy



When your training is so light that it doesn’t reflect how your body is forced to move under heavier loads, the fact is you’re not really practicing that “thing”. Even if you think you’re putting

“700 pounds of force into 300 pounds” It is just not the same. I don’t care what any guru or strength coach tells you about that. There has to be an appreciable amount of weight on the bar to both allow for proper force transfer into the bar in relation to how you actually move heavier weights.

In other words, when the weight is too light, your body will not actually mimic the technique you use when bar gets heavier. If the S.A.I.D. principle is violated, then there is no carry over. If you give a basketball player a lighter than usual basketball, or smaller than usual basketball, eventually he will adjust his motor skills to be able to shoot baskets with that ball.

It doesn’t help his shooting with the official sized ball. The same holds true if you give him a heavier ball. It doesn’t improve the mechanics he uses to shoot the official sized ball. He simply gets better at shooting the heavier/lighter ball. “But he will get stronger and thus have more power with the other ball.” This might or might not be true. The skill portion is negated, and then must be relearned. Any transfer of strength is also negated. Training TOO light is no different.

The “skill” practiced does not reflect that of the skill used to move heavier loads. The bar needs to be heavy enough that there is carry over into the big weights. This only happens if there is enough "likeness" to how you’re moving the weight in relation to those heavy weights. 

On the slip side, the bar doesn't need to constantly be so heavy that one finds themselves in the constant state of fatigue debt. There has to be a balance of “heavy enough” to impose demands to get stronger and light enough not to cause chronic fatigue in training.

This is not to say training should not be hard. It should be. Training with CAT is going to be very hard, and reducing the rest time between sets is also going to increase training difficulty. This is not about “not training hard” because sub-max intensities are used. It is about making those sub-max and intermediate intensity levels hard work through other means. Base building is not about avoiding hard work. It is not about “going light”. It is about “going optimal”.

Too light - no carryover

Too heavy too often - fatigue debt can become an issue (essentially overtraining)

10 comments:

  1. Paul your looking extra lean as of late and it seems like your hitting some great PR's as well! It does not seem possible, lol. What type of diet are you on? Or is it just the sustainable volume of BB?

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    1. I work with Mike Israetel of RP. He's really made a huge difference in terms of my diet. That and just Base Building. No shit, no tricks. I do what I write about.

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    2. Thank you so much for the grammar correction! It was extremely important, so no one got confused by my improper ussage. You are a real Americian hero and I hope that somebody can recognize it enough to shower you with the praise you deserve. I'm sure that you're(not your! Thank you so much) so generous that you'll continue to give out much more unsolicited and unwelcome correction. I should send you a squat video so you can judge depth or maybe let me know that my pauses were not long enough on bench! Thanks again and please continue to let people know how smart you are!

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  2. Paul, what would you say you end up with, on average, for an RPE during base building?

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    1. I don't know. That's too broad of a question to nail down really.

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  3. Dealing with this right now with Basebuilding with the Squat routine. I've only been doing if for a few weeks now and the work sets are 8x5x195 and it's ridiculous how light the weight feels. Rest between sets is like 30 seconds. Should I retest my max?

    The bench and the deadlift are both right in that sweetspot of being tough but doable. I am enjoying the workouts so far.

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    1. You don't need to test. Just up your EDM.

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    2. Paul, I dont compete. Can i stay in base building for as long as i want or do i need the mass and peak phases?

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