Hey. Am reading through PPFST and considering stress as applied through intensity.
your extremely helpful programming podcasts seemed to suggest that the amount of stress applied can only be measured by relative intensity and not by absolute intensity to any degree. My question is why a novice can squat a 5x3 at 80% and do it again within 48hrs. But an advanced athlete’s performance dip is so much greater squatting a 5x3 at 80% that he could not squat that same weight for a 5x3 at 80% till possibly the end of the week.
Trying to understand what variable makes it such that I can have these four seemingly contradictory observations.
-stress as measured by intensity is purely relative to the individuals 1RM
-an advanced athlete is more resistant too, and will recover faster from, volume than
-a novice who has the lowest recovery rate of his lifting career.
-a novice can repeat (x) stress within 48 hrs despite (x) stress being equal in relative intensity with an advanced athlete who cannot repeat (x) stress within 48 hrs despite the advanced athlete being more resistant to (x) stress.
thanks for the awesome content, I figure I’m probably missing something here that is an easy and obvious answer.
Scottish,
Thanks for joining us and I hope you’re well.
Answers to your questions
My question is why a novice can squat a 5x3 at 80% and do it again within 48hrs. But an advanced athlete’s performance dip is so much greater squatting a 5x3 at 80% that he could not squat that same weight for a 5x3 at 80% till possibly the end of the week.
I don’t think I would agree with that statement. Then again, I didn’t write that book.
-stress as measured by intensity is purely relative to the individuals 1RM
It most certainly is not, though for a given volume on a given exercise- heavier is probably more stressful.
an advanced athlete is more resistant too, and will recover faster from, volume than
-a novice who has the lowest recovery rate of his lifting career.
It’s probably better to think of the advanced athlete being more trained and therefore being able to tolerate much more stress without a big drop or big improvement in his/her performance. That’s one of the reasons they need more stress.
-a novice can repeat (x) stress within 48 hrs despite (x) stress being equal in relative intensity with an advanced athlete who cannot repeat (x) stress within 48 hrs despite the advanced athlete being more resistant to (x) stress
I don’t know what you’re saying here, but I wouldn’t agree with this either.
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Hey sorry I submitted the same thing a couple times, didn’ t realise it wouldn’t show up till you replied, again sorry about that. Thanks for the reply.