Why isn't LP recommended for a rank novice anymore?

First off, apologies ahead of time if you’ve covered this in another medium. I follow your content pretty closely, and I’ve gathered that LP is no longer a go-to recommendation for a rank newbie with absolutely no lifting experience, but I’m not really sure I’ve come across any sort of concrete explanation as to why. Like I feel like I grok the downside of LP for the novice-transitioning-to-intermediate lifter (the repeated bout effect leading to lower stimulus despite increasing intensity leading to an overall lower training adaptation). But let’s say I have a friend with zero experience who wants me to coach him for a bit and I want to turn him on to the fancy new Beginner Template, what’s a good argument for the beginner template over any of the other relatively well-tested LP programs out there?

If I could make a few guesses:

  1. Judging RPE is a skill that is useful to begin training on day 1 so that you can have a more efficient intermediate phase
  2. GPP is useful at all stages of your lifting adventure
  3. Progressive overload on LP is actually too slow in the very very early stages, using an autoregulation scheme can help a particularly talented beginner more quickly reach adaptive intensities
  4. (this is kind of a reach) Running rank beginners through an autoregulated program is something that is fairly novel and gathering research on it is useful

I understand that this is kind of a moot question given just how wide the spectrum of training is, it’s more of a philosophical question that I’ve been turning around in my head lately.

I’d recommend listening to our beginner podcast where we discuss a lot of this :slight_smile:

very interested, do you have a direct link to it? there is too much info on your website: Resources | Barbell Medicine

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=barbell+medicine+podcast