Nassim Taleb asks.....

[Robin UK]

I note that Taleb forwarded “Barbell Medicine” and know he’s a huge fan of Starting Strength. I’m a huge fan and avid reader of both you and Taleb.

He’s just asked this on his Twitter feed:

“How long, after a *true* 5RM or 1RM deadlift (meaning you can't redo it right away), does it take to recover at 100% and redo it? 20 minutes? 4 hours? 3 days?”

From a Minimal Effective Dose perspective, I’d be interested to know the answer to that Rip both in his case AND for a Novice, Intermediate and Advanced lifer - assuming they were only doing deadlifts, no other exercises and paying appropriate attention to pertinent SRA factors - what do you think the parameters would be for recovery time for a 1RM and 5RM Deadlift?

(Obviously depends where Taleb is on the training continuum, age, genes and generally Doing The Program BUT on the latter, I assume he isn’t - I’m guessing he’s only doing deadlifts and no other exercises to maintain his strength on a minimal effective dose of Deadlifts right on the tail during lockdown - and not in his Vibram 5 fingers).

Best,

Robin

[Mark Rippetoe]

We make the point in PPST3 that complete recovery back to homeostatic baseline is not either required or desirable for most trainees. I don't think he's read that book.

[Robin UK]

Not reading and re-reading PPST3 = high risk.

[Batbat]

Not reading and re-reading PPST3 = high risk.

From PPST3:

The novice trainee will not experience overreaching on a properly constructed novice program, since recovery to supercompensation occurs within the 48-72-hour period... The intermediate trainee can recover in the time allotted for a weekly training period, since intermediate-level trainees characteristically respond to short-term cumulative training loads. The advanced trainee, after a long cumulative disruption of homeostasis, might require four or more weeks to recover and supercompensate...

Obviously the implication is that for intermediate and advanced lifters, you would train while still recovering from a previous difficult workout. Hence what Rip said.

[mitchless]

He’s just asked this on his Twitter feed:

“How long, after a *true* 5RM or 1RM deadlift (meaning you can't redo it right away), does it take to recover at 100% and redo it? 20 minutes? 4 hours? 3 days?”

While the question (as Rip pointed out) does not really inform one's training, I find it interesting nonetheless. The answer, however, is incredibly complicated by a number of factors (off the top of my head):
- advancement of the lifter
- age of the lifter
- sex of the lifter
- non-sex genetic configuration of the lifter
- amount of food consumed
- amount of sleep in the intervening days
- performance enhancing drugs/hormones consumed
- stress outside of the gym in the lifter's life

Perhaps someday someone will come up with a way to program taking this into account, but I doubt it will be much more useful than the principals in PPST3. Even for the genetic freaks in competitive strength sports I suspect it would have only a minor impact.

[TommyGun]

Taleb trains a little differently based on his writings and postings. Appears to be exclusive to the deadlift with a focus on near maximal singles.

By the way Talenb says the pandemic is not a Black Swan. Was easily foreseen, and was covered in a lot of his early writings.

I am a Taleb fan. Read his books multiple times. Never heard of the guy until people mentioned him on the forum and some of Rips tweets showing the two of them out on the town. Interesting thinker, a maverick. Likes to piss people off. Sound like anyone we know?

[Tiburon]

By the way Talenb says the pandemic is not a Black Swan. Was easily foreseen, and was covered in a lot of his early writings.

The Big Pandemic will be much much worse than this. Only a matter of time. Who has read Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill?