Practical Programming for Minimum Effective Doses

[Robin UK]

Dear Rip,

Season’s greetings to you and everyone at Starting Strength.

Revisiting some of your excellent interviews with Stan Efferding and articles on Minimal Effective Dose, my mind has wandered to this:

Minimal Effective Dose = “enough”, therefore it’s suboptimality compared to other protocols is not relevant if indeed Minimal Effective Dose is the desired regimen. Mark Chaillet - the Bumble Bee they said could not fly - broke world records, won world powerlifting championships and “built a Norse God like physique” (Gallagher) training one single all out rep on the bench, squat and deadlift his entire career once / week. Given all things being equal at this elite level of competition re. genetics, nutrition, pharmacology etc and conceding that he might have done even better on other protocols;

In your opinion, would Mark Chaillet’s single rep protocol be a fruitful one to follow in terms of a Minimal Effective Dose approach to strength training over an entire lifetime from novice to advanced / masters, irrespective of the trainee’s choice to take steroids or not?

If so, why? If not, why not?

Best,

Robin

[Mark Rippetoe]

MED applies in this case to people who cannot recover from the optimum dose. Old guys, people with MS, etc. Mark Chaillet's situation in the 80s is not yours today.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Dear Rip,

Season’s greetings to you and everyone at Starting Strength.

Revisiting some of your excellent interviews with Stan Efferding and articles on Minimal Effective Dose, my mind has wandered to this:

Minimal Effective Dose = “enough”, therefore it’s suboptimality compared to other protocols is not relevant if indeed Minimal Effective Dose is the desired regimen. Mark Chaillet - the Bumble Bee they said could not fly - broke world records, won world powerlifting championships and “built a Norse God like physique” (Gallagher) training one single all out rep on the bench, squat and deadlift his entire career once / week. Given all things being equal at this elite level of competition re. genetics, nutrition, pharmacology etc and conceding that he might have done even better on other protocols;

In your opinion, would Mark Chaillet’s single rep protocol be a fruitful one to follow in terms of a Minimal Effective Dose approach to strength training over an entire lifetime from novice to advanced / masters, irrespective of the trainee’s choice to take steroids or not?

If so, why? If not, why not?

Best,

Robin

The above sounds an awfully like something Mike Mentzer came up with. Maybe it worked for Chaillet, but it seems unlikely to work for most people.

[Mark Rippetoe]

It works just fine on a bunch of Test and Dianabol.