Originally Posted by
CommanderFun
There's a lot that could contribute. First of all, SS is not a bodybuilding program. That would help to begin with. The lifts chosen are chosen partially for their ability to be progressed in the long term. You can bring your squat up 3 times a week for a long time. You can't do the same with say, dumbbell lateral raises. The program also isn't rigidly set, it shifts to compensate as time goes on. Light squat day in the middle, reduced deadlift frequency, and so on. Another thing I've also been thinking a lot about is minimum effective dose vs maximum tolerable dose of stress. SS shoots for introducing the minimum effective dose and increasing the stress only as the minimum effective dose increases. You start very conservatively in weight, and when you start, those conservative weights are enough stress to push the adaptation, even though you are probably considerably lower than the maximum tolerable dose. The thing with the maximum tolerable dose is, despite the conventional wisdom, I don't think it leads to some kind of "extra" adaptation. But it DOES require more recovery. This is something I have personally observed in my own training. So if you are hitting maximum tolerable stress in your workouts, you won't be able to sustain 3 jumps a week in weight, because you're exceeding 48 hour recovery ability.