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Originally Posted by
msingh
Ok i have a theory. It could be completely off but it's based on my own experience. It's exceedingly difficult to maintain linear progression on upperbody lifts. You can get a run of 2-3 weeks where you hit the weight every workout and then bar speed slows to a crawl, a stall lingers on the next workout. This is what happens to me anyway. It might not to you, or someone else. So the sort of real world training I do with my bench and press isnt technically linear progression anyway. It's more like linear-reset progression. And before you ask about microloading, yes.
In the real world while every SS workout will have you squatting, even one missed workout will set you back on your upper body lifts, whereas squat progression is relatively unaffacted. If you miss a bench workout on bench week (benching twice that week), you'll only have one workout that week, and you had one workout the previous week, one workout the following week. Not nearly enough work to cause progress. Even when you're dedicated and dont miss any workouts, you only have 6 bench workouts a month, compared to 12 for squats. Obviously you'll make quicker progress on squats than on bench from this fact alone.
Its easy to progress on squats in a week or two even if you miss a workout or two. It's really hard to make progress, real solid progress on upper body lifts if you miss any workouts. My experience YMMV.