Gents,
I have read PPST, particularly the intro section to intermediate training, and also the white paper on “The Bridge” to understand the basic reason why workout to workout strength gains eventually stall in ALL human beings. Does the inability to add weight to the bar every workout stem principally from
- insufficient stimulation; 3 sets of 5 is too low stress to disrupt homeostasis or
- insufficient recovery; 3 sets of 5 is sufficient to disrupt homeostasis but is too much stress to recover from in 48 hours?
3: Other sinister factor(s)?
In PPST the answer is an ambiguous and annoying “yes” to 1 and 2 which seems paradoxical. Some magic happens in the body where stimulus and recovery are simultaneously insufficient; The answer I got directly from Mr Faavs is “It’s complicated”
In the PDF for “The Bridge” Jordan/Austin state about SSLP
"Eventually, at a certain intensity the degree of stress applied exceeds the lifters’ “48-hour recovery capacity”
So reason 2 appears to be the accepted primary reason for lack of progress workout to workout in a “late stage novice”.
I realize not all lifters are equal however, given this happens to everyone (except for Ed Coan) there would seem to be a prevailing primary physiological limiter.
Since I customize my programs, (not a fan of TM) the distinction is significant for me. Correcting for insufficient stimulation can be very different than correcting for insufficient recovery.
If the cause for failure to progress is insufficient stimulus, a remedy might be “do more work”. Another remedy might be change exercise slightly to mitigate Repeated Bouts Effect.
If the extra work requires you need to also rest an additional day then so be it. Lift again Thursday instead of Wed.
If, however, failure to progress is due to insufficient recovery then the remedy, in theory, would seem to be quite different; Rest longer. between workouts, improve work capacity,. Increase sleep or calories. It presumably would NOT be do more work!
I’m assuming two things in this hypothetical 1) the lifter is well behaved .(e.g. eating, sleeping, stress, training) and 2) The lifter has already de-loaded a couple of times to dissipate “accumulated” fatigue over the previous many weeks of uninterrupted progress.
It would also be nice to understand the mechanistic reasons for either failure mode as well. What caused insufficient stimulus? (repeated bouts effect, reduced muscle fiber nucleation?). What physiological system(s) were insufficiently recovered? (unresolved muscle damage leading to inhibition of high threshold motor unit recruitment by CNS? Acetylcholine depletion? Low T/C ratio?) but hey I’m happy just to get to first base on this.
Any insight appreciated.
rgds
Pepe the greatly confused one…