The purpose of Medium days in HLM?
Andy -
First - I am really looking forward to your upcoming book with Dr. Sullivan. If you put that on Kickstarter I would definitely be an early backer. Please, take my money!
I am doing the no- Olympic-lifts HLM routine from Practical Programming that is targeted at older lifters, or those training for physique. For squats, my week looks like:
Sat (Heavy) 5x5
Monday (Light) 3x5 @80% (this is also 1x5 deadlift day)
Wed (Medium) 3x5 @90%
My understanding from SS and PP is that all of my adaptation is being driven by the heavy day, and that the light day is meant to drive active recovery.
So, I don't understand what medium day is for. Since, as you recently wrote "old dudes are VOLUME SENSITIVE and INTENSITY DEPENDENT", is medium day adding volume that is neither driving adaptation nor assisting recovery?
At 49, could I potentially do better by just alternating heavy and light (so, keeping a Sat-Mon-Wed schedule would mean lifting heavy twice every other week, and lifting light twice in the alternating weeks).
Thanks for your time.