Power to the People programming summary

[Jeffrey]

Why only deadlift once per week?

Because deadlifting heavy multiple times a week would put me in the hospital. If you want to deadlift every day, you need to do dynamic/speed deadlifts most or all of the days if you're moving appreciable weight.

What's up with 8 cal/lb/day? That seems like almost nothing.

It sucks. Don't try this at home kids.

Are you loosing a lot of weight?

No. I don't even want to talk about it because no one will believe how diligent I have been, lol. I track everything with Fitday and I added an hour of walking/day and I've had no weight loss. That said, I am able to fit into my old pants now and like Dan John says "Clothes don't lie." I can't drop my cals any lower, so what I'm doing now HAS to work.

[Campbell]

It scares me not to squat. Are u sure this would work and not wreck your parallel squat?

When i went back to squatting and benching i did drop back a bit since i hadnt done them in about a month. I just took about 15% off of my max and did a linear progression for a few weeks to work back up to it.

I put on about 3kg in the 3 weeks (i guess it was the normal 60/40 split of lbm and fat).

[Campbell]

Because deadlifting heavy multiple times a week would put me in the hospital. If you want to deadlift every day, you need to do dynamic/speed deadlifts most or all of the days if you're moving appreciable weight.

I used to think this as well but this program worked really well for me so i no longer believe it is true.

If you are deadlifting 700lb it might be different but the heaviest set i did during the program was only 5x165kg (~370 or so) and my 1RM (tested at the end of the program) is 200kg (440lb).

[mstrofbass]

I used to think this as well but this program worked really well for me so i no longer believe it is true.

It's going to be different when all you're doing is deadlifting. I think the higher intensity (albeit minor) most people do on something like SS coupled with extensive squatting is going to make it harder to recover from than just deadlifting, even with the shear amount of volume included in the bear routine.

[MazdaMatt]

That's not one of the progression plans in the book but there are so many in the book that it seems doing whatever you want is almost fine.

I don't have hte book. As I said before, i just read the interwebz. This just seemed like a good idea.

I did not see a prohibition of the press in the book. The book says the pressing move is just a cherry on top of the deadlift to get the muscles the deadlift does not work enough. The deadlift is 80% important and the press is just the other 20%. So doing the press does not seem like it would be a disaster.

I don't have the book, i read this suggestion on the Dragondoor forum (posted by a mod there, I think)when cruizing the interwebz.

If you are resting 90s-2min in the back off sets then doesn't that mean you might end up being able to do more sets than you should because of the extra rest and that is making the workouts more brutal than they should be?

I don't have the book, but... I suppose it increases my work capacity and stresses my recovery more, but i reduced the rest I'd have to drop the weight and I just don't want to :-) To clarify, though, I believe the book calls for 60-90s REST and I'm talking about 2min max "start interval", which is just a hair more than 90s rest, really.

No belts, shoes, or straps allowed in the program. ;-)

I don't have the book so I'm cool with INDTP :-)
Fuck straps.
Shoes are critical, IMO.
Belt I just liked.

[drewcarroll2]

No. I don't even want to talk about it because no one will believe how diligent I have been, lol. I track everything with Fitday and I added an hour of walking/day and I've had no weight loss. That said, I am able to fit into my old pants now and like Dan John says "Clothes don't lie." I can't drop my cals any lower, so what I'm doing now HAS to work.

Jeffrey,
Do you feel that you are really fat or something? Or are you getting ready for a bodybuilding contest or something? I am just curious as to why you would do this. It sounds like it is working for you if your clothes fit!

[spiderman]

No. I don't even want to talk about it because no one will believe how diligent I have been, lol. I track everything with Fitday and I added an hour of walking/day and I've had no weight loss. That said, I am able to fit into my old pants now and like Dan John says "Clothes don't lie." I can't drop my cals any lower, so what I'm doing now HAS to work.

I think drewcarroll2 is right. You are converting fat to muscle. That is good recomposition.

[Jeffrey]

Because deadlifting heavy multiple times a week would put me in the hospital. If you want to deadlift every day, you need to do dynamic/speed deadlifts most or all of the days if you're moving appreciable weight.

I used to think this as well but this program worked really well for me so i no longer believe it is true.

We're talking about different programs. Squatting and Deadlifting 1x5 every day with 7RM on the 5x5x5 program is too much. Deadlifting on the bear is only 3x a week at relatively low intensity and w/o squatting.

I think deadlifting every day on 5x5x5 could be okay if you drop intensity way down... if your 5RM is 405, then maybe do 3 speed singles with 315 with shortish rest breaks. Alternatively, you could just do 2x3 power cleans every day. This isn't orthodox 5x5x5, but the principles of high frequency training are still implemented in a reasonable way.

[Jeffrey]

Jeffrey,
Do you feel that you are really fat or something?

I am 6'0 or 6'1 ~270 w/ 44" waist. I don't know about "really fat", but probably something in 230 range is an ideal weight for me.

[drewcarroll2]

I am 6'0 or 6'1 ~270 w/ 44" waist. I don't know about "really fat", but probably something in 230 range is an ideal weight for me.

Sorry if I missed it or if you don't want to say, but would you mind imparting your routine as well as your numbers ie: Squat, bench, press, dl and age? I'm really intrigued by this 8 cals/pound thing you are doing. Are you just walking? I don't remember what you said you were doing for "cardio/conditioning". When you say old pants, what size where you before? Over what time frame has this composition change occured? If I may offer a bit of advice for motivation. Take pics at the begining of each month, you will be surprised at how much you have changed when they are compared side by side.

Edit: Isn't it thought, or is the case, that high frequency training is best used to help a body composition change anyway? I don't have a lot of experience with this stuff but it was my understanding that shorter breaks and more volume would lead to a "conditioning" type of effect, ie: loss of more body fat, increased stamina, etc. Where the standard heavy as fuck with 4-whatever minutes rest was more along the lines of just turning into a cock strong mofo. Is this accurate?