Physiological effect of 5-lb vs. 2.5-lb weight increases?

[skypig]

Here's a hypothetical: let's say we have 2 lifters, Lifter A and Lifter B. Both lifters have IDENTICAL caloric intake, sleep, environment, etc. Both lifters follow an NLP-style training regimen and get their squats from 135 lbs to 315 lbs. The difference, however, is that Trainer A uses 5-lb jumps, while Trainer B uses 2.5-lb jumps.

Besides the obvious fact that Lifter B will take twice as long to get his squat to 315 lbs as Lifter A, will there be any difference in the physiological adaptation their bodies have experienced, at the time that they're squatting 315 lbs? Will Lifter A's muscle mass/body composition/physiology/etc. be any different than Lifter B's? In other words, is there something "physiologically special" about using 5-lb jumps in the NLP (or any linear-type progression), besides the fact that it enables faster strength gains than if you were to use smaller-lb increments?

Thanks!

-skypig

[Mark Rippetoe]

5-pound jumps waste less time. What is the point of these hypothetical questions?

[skypig]

Understood, thanks!

[mpalios]

5-pound jumps waste less time. What is the point of these hypothetical questions?

I'd like to ask a follow up question on this. Is it possible/probable that when one gets to 5lb jumps on a weekly basis, that the 2.5lb jumps could happen every workout for a longer period of time, and therefore end up in the same, or stronger, position at the end of a year, or 18 months? This is for squat, and to a lesser extent, DL. I haven't read the practical programming book (I don't own it), so if it's in there, just say so.

[KShedd]

I'd like to ask a follow up question on this. Is it possible/probable that when one gets to 5lb jumps on a weekly basis, that the 2.5lb jumps could happen every workout for a longer period of time, and therefore end up in the same, or stronger, position at the end of a year, or 18 months? This is for squat, and to a lesser extent, DL. I haven't read the practical programming book (I don't own it), so if it's in there, just say so.

No, if you are going up 2.5 per workout when you are capable of going up 5, you are just wasting time. At the weights the OP presents, most male lifters are able to go up 5# per workout. Ergo going up 2.5#s is a waste of time

[Matt James]

I'd like to ask a follow up question on this. Is it possible/probable that when one gets to 5lb jumps on a weekly basis, that the 2.5lb jumps could happen every workout for a longer period of time, and therefore end up in the same, or stronger, position at the end of a year, or 18 months? This is for squat, and to a lesser extent, DL. I haven't read the practical programming book (I don't own it), so if it's in there, just say so.

Not really, no. What happens is the 3x5 novice workout no longer creates enough stress to drive progress. But an adequate level of stress requires longer than 48 hours to recover from. Quoting from Practical Programming: "Some variation of the work must be introduced to accommodate the intermediate trainee's need for both more work and sufficient recovery from that work." So if you squat 375x5x3 on Monday, you may not be able to recover in time to squat 377.5x5x3 on Wednesday-- but even if you allow for recovery and go to squat 377.5x5x3 on Thursday or Friday, you're going to find that Monday's workout wasn't stressful enough to allow you to do that.

Practical Programming should be on your reading list. It explains this in a lot more detail than I can.