jsteinhardt comments on The Four-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss - any LWers tried it? - Less Wrong

21 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 08 June 2011 10:18PM

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Comment author: jsteinhardt 08 July 2011 07:16:52PM *  0 points [-]

Er by 'the guy' I was referring to Mark Rippetoe, although I realized that I misinterpreted what he said.

For young males that weigh between 150-200 lbs., deadlifts can move up 15-20 lbs. per workout, squats 10-15 lbs., with continued steady progress for 3-4 weeks before slowing down to half that rate. Bench presses, presses, and cleans can move up 5-10 lbs. per workout, with progress on these exercises slowing down to 2.5-5 lbs. per workout after only 2-3 weeks. Young women make progress on the squat and the deadlift at about the same rate, adjusted for bodyweight, but much slower on the press, the bench press, cleans, and assistance exercises. – Mark Rippetoe, Practical Programming, Pg. 122

I guess I missed the part about 2-3 weeks. It seemed like he was roughly claiming that you would increase your benching weight by e.g. 7.5 pounds a week (for a sustained period of time), which seems like a ridiculous speed to make gains at.

Comment author: uglycow 10 July 2011 12:30:05PM *  0 points [-]

I think in this context he's talking about the 'beginner response' where strength gains are largely due to increased neuromuscular efficiency in UNTRAINED athletes.

I believe he says, without reading my own copy to make sure:
1) 5-10 lbs per 3-4 weeks in the presses is the normal rate of progression for novices for the first several months of training--until they have an intermediate level of strength.

2) weights will then increase in smaller increments, such as 1lb

3) then more complex programming is used

If you've been training for two years you have probably already used up your super-fast awesome beginner strength gains.

Comment author: jsteinhardt 10 July 2011 04:13:42PM 0 points [-]

I see. That is unfortunate I suppose, but makes more sense. So I guess the question for me is (I think?) whether I should drop in weight for a while to really focus on proper lifting form. Reading through his descriptions, I seem to already have happened on close to correct form just through experimentation, but I am missing a few things like the glute squeeze during bench press. I think I'll probably spend a month or so nailing down the right form for everything and then read through Mark's book to figure out what my long-term program should look like.

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