Over training

[Jason Donaldson]

The secret is that strength training isn't real complicated, and you can fuck it up real bad and still get 95% of the way there. And if that extra bit of fucking around contributes enough placebo effect to keep you training for longer than a year, then hell it was probably worth it.

This is the unfortunate downside to the novice effect - it allows strength progress now while robbing people of understanding in the long run.

Stress and recovery remain king. Griff, you have been training long enough to know what constitutes an appropriate dose of either. Just titrate those two variables sensibly. Just don't get lost in the trap of thinking that your goal is to "work" yourself. The goal is to produce strength. If you're feeling beat up, you will get strong doing less. If you're feeling stuck, you will need more to get strong. Like I said, it isn't real complicated.

If I may refine your idiom a bit, Maybach, I'd say ADAPTATION is king, and stress and recovery are the king's servants. And as the proverb goes, the earth trembles and cannot bear when a servant reigns...

Griff, et al. - think carefully on the term Maybach uses here. I'm pretty sure Rip chose it quite deliberately:

titration: noun. a method or process of determining the concentration of a dissolved substance in terms of the smallest amount of reagent of known concentration required to bring about a given effect in reaction with a known volume of the test solution. (per Merriam-Webster, emphasis added)

Hence the principle of starting with the basics and incrementally, slowly tweaking parameters to get the desired effect.

[Chiaki Nitya]

To the OP, something I learned the hard way, and which you are learning now, is that recoverable volumes at a certain percentage of 1RM do not track linearly. In other words, the stresses from a 75% 5x5 at a 1RM of 300 are much, much less than the stresses from a 75% 5x5 at a 1RM of 700, even though on paper they are the same relative volume.

There's a reason you don't see 1,000lbs squatters doing 5x5bwith 750lbs.

I have tried (more than once, embarrassingly) to get from a 650lbs squat to a 700lbs squat by structuring my training the way I did when I went from a 450lbs squat to a 500lbs squat, and failed miserably. I eventually learned what Mark or any other experienced coach will tell you, that the stronger you get, the less relative training stress you'll be able to recover from and adapt to.

[Griffin727]

I think you should do Griff's programming.

If he likes being sore and beat down sure lol.

Good point

I agree, more isn't always better. This is shown in many things in life from drinking water to training.

[Mark Rippetoe]

If he likes being sore and beat down sure lol.

Good point

I agree, more isn't always better. This is shown in many things in life from drinking water to training.

Learn to quote what you're replying to.