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Thread: When to maintain?

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by davidbo View Post
    Getting big for sure.
    Big is good, right?

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    Big is good, right?
    I'll go out on a limb here and risk general condemnation and say that like most things, some moderation is probably appropriate unless one's main intent in life is competing in strength sports. It's certainly a matter of personal preference and desire. Maximizing strength for your current bodyweight when you are satisfied with general size is not necessarily a bad thing, although obviously it will limit one's ability to maximize that strength.

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    Big is good, right?
    Strong is good and the stronger the better. Big on the other hand is relative in that there are several variables to it. We also know big plays a significant role in strength.

    Let’s say a person is 200 lbs and 23% body fat and can squat 350. After training for a year this person is now 225 lbs at 29% body fat and squats 400. There was 25 pounds weight gain and some percentage of muscle to fat let’s say 40 / 60.

    Is this bigger (stronger but also fatter) person better off from a general health perspective and how does age play into it? Certainly you could stop the weight gain at 225 and focus on recomp (reduce body fat and maintain strength) and end up stronger, bigger, and leaner and I assume this would be the best outcome of all.

    My worry is that at my age carrying the extra fat for a year or two with the intention of recomping at some point my not be smart. Maybe it’s best to gain 5 lbs at a time and then recomp and repeat?

    I haven’t gone down this road yet so I’m just asking.

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  6. #16
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    Maybe you should visit Jordan's nutrition forum.

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by davidbo View Post
    Strong is good and the stronger the better. Big on the other hand is relative in that there are several variables to it. We also know big plays a significant role in strength.

    Let’s say a person is 200 lbs and 23% body fat and can squat 350. After training for a year this person is now 225 lbs at 29% body fat and squats 400. There was 25 pounds weight gain and some percentage of muscle to fat let’s say 40 / 60.

    Is this bigger (stronger but also fatter) person better off from a general health perspective and how does age play into it? Certainly you could stop the weight gain at 225 and focus on recomp (reduce body fat and maintain strength) and end up stronger, bigger, and leaner and I assume this would be the best outcome of all.

    My worry is that at my age carrying the extra fat for a year or two with the intention of recomping at some point my not be smart. Maybe it’s best to gain 5 lbs at a time and then recomp and repeat?

    I haven’t gone down this road yet so I’m just asking.
    I'm 58 and I have gone down that road. Long story short... I lost 105 lbs in the last 2 years. Got off all meds (BP, statins). That's a bigger change than your example of 29% versus 23%, but the question for you is which scenario would provide you a better quality of life all things considered - a 400 lb squat at 29% BF or a 350 squat at 23%BF?

    My experience is that given your example, I would choose the lighter squat with a less obese BF.

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Larry T View Post
    I'm 58 and I have gone down that road. Long story short... I lost 105 lbs in the last 2 years. Got off all meds (BP, statins). That's a bigger change than your example of 29% versus 23%, but the question for you is which scenario would provide you a better quality of life all things considered - a 400 lb squat at 29% BF or a 350 squat at 23%BF?

    My experience is that given your example, I would choose the lighter squat with a less obese BF.
    Thanks for the input Larry. Good job on the weight loss and improved health.

    I'm inclined to sit tight at my current weight and see how it goes with a couple months of recomp. Then maybe after that I'll go on another 6 month stretch of going for more gainzzz.

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by davidbo View Post
    Strong is good and the stronger the better. Big on the other hand is relative in that there are several variables to it. We also know big plays a significant role in strength.

    Let’s say a person is 200 lbs and 23% body fat and can squat 350. After training for a year this person is now 225 lbs at 29% body fat and squats 400. There was 25 pounds weight gain and some percentage of muscle to fat let’s say 40 / 60.

    Is this bigger (stronger but also fatter) person better off from a general health perspective and how does age play into it? Certainly you could stop the weight gain at 225 and focus on recomp (reduce body fat and maintain strength) and end up stronger, bigger, and leaner and I assume this would be the best outcome of all.

    My worry is that at my age carrying the extra fat for a year or two with the intention of recomping at some point my not be smart. Maybe it’s best to gain 5 lbs at a time and then recomp and repeat?

    I haven’t gone down this road yet so I’m just asking.
    From a pure empiricist, I don't think we have definitive answers to this question. To be fair, though, we don't have definitive answers on cholesterol either as the most recent "guideline" tectonic shift reflects. I'm not convinced that a linear causative relationship with 4 weight total and life expectancy exists, nor would it be the only variable. There are plenty of pockets of longevity where strength is not king yet yield plenty of octogenarians and centurions who are still functional to the end.

    I do think Rip has a point as it relates to 21st century American demographics, especially the baby boomers. To be able to not fall, get off the toilet, etc play a HUGE role in quality of life. And certainly it applies to pudgy 30-40 year olds who spent the last decade or two more concerned about other stuff than taking care of themselves, myself included. But to go to the other extreme, do competitive power lifters as a population live longer than other demographics? I don't know the answer to that. I know football players have a shortened life span but maybe that's from repeated blunt force trauma to the head and other organs. At some point, it is no longer about health but about the competition. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that coming from one who did suffer repeated concussions as a QB.

    I just think that if we're going to discuss health benefits, we need to be more precise about what population benefits, what is the dose response, if any, and what is the shape of that curve. I also don't think we will ever have that data in a satisfactory way. So from a medical standpoint, find yourself a solid family doc. Blood pressure is probably the single best predictor of death. Resting heart rate tends to be one that is conserved across multiple species. So if you keep progressing and you're BP is solid, your ticker is doing well, and you're not approaching diabetes, NAFLD, etc, keep lifting. If you're so fortunate as to still have good insurance, get a preventative treadmill stress test to see if any coronary arterial disease is present, while you still can as The Affordable Care will soon take care of that. If as the weight creeps up and these things do start to rise, perhaps it is time to reevaluate not just your progression, but your diet and programming as well.

  10. #20
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    starting strength coach development program
    How does this body weight gain/strength gain ratio question relate to competitive lifting, be it Olympic, Power or whatever? If your strength goes up at the cost of putting the you competitor in a higher weight class, what have you gained, unless you're perhaps competitive at the highest weight class?

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