Member
"You won't have that"
Coach,
I just wanted to note that the way you expressed the "you won't have that" feeling to the first questioner in the Ask Rip #46 video was a great display of truth, sincerity and passion. I can't believe it would not have an effect on the questioner. It was a joy to watch.
-RJP
TMPHBITEU
Ask Rip #46
✓ Member
The Kirk Karwoski 1000 lb x2 video referenced:
Member
There's a question I've pondered in the past that I haven't bothered to ask because it wasn't relevant to me yet, but that episode made me think about it again so I figured I'd ask it here.
It seems to me that the primary focus is on increasing strength, and that's appropriate because that's what most people need. But the reality is that very few people will continue to train for increases the rest of their life. Very few who do The Program will end up in the elite high-poundage club (I don't know what that is exactly, but let's just say squatting over 500 for sake of discussion). So my question is... if we are talking about a "normal" person (as opposed to somebody pursuing this stuff as a sport or hobby), what would a good successful program look like stretched out over the rest of their life? I know you said a lot is controlled by injury, but let's talk about everything outside of that.
In other words, let's say that I have no interest in anything beyond getting reasonably strong. For sake of discussion just to pick an easy target I'll define that as putting 4 plates on the bar, or a squat work set weight of 405 lbs. Let's say I'm happy with that achievement and I don't want to push past that. At the same time I want to maintain that level of strength indefinitely as long as possible for the rest of my life, but I want to spend my time doing other things outside the weight room. First, is that a reasonable expectation? Is it possible to just reach a certain level and then maintain it, or will it always be a series of ups and downs and the struggle will always be gaining back losses and therefore always be focused on increasing strength?
If it is a feasible goal, what does that maintenance look like? What is the minimum amount of training necessary to maintain that strength? 2 workouts/week? 1 workout/week? 3 work sets? 1 work set? Etc.
(I apologize in advance if this is discussed in one of the books--I've only read Starting Strength so far)
TMPHBITEU
Most people are not going to be interested in coming in the gym every Monday to squat 405 x 5 x 5 for the next 20 years. Your life dictates your priorities, and therefore your training approach.
Member
From stalking Andy and reading everything he puts out plus the other things I've read I'd say that the only way this happens is in the context of a sort of, intentional or not, sort of periodization that has the following phases:Originally Posted by mike135
1-Losing gainzz relatively quickly from doing jack shit
2-Losing gains more slowly from doing something, but not really trying to progress
3-Actually maintaining by trying to progress, but fucking it up with poor programming or too much life stress (I became an expert in this over the last year)
4-Making actual gainzz by putting your nose to the grinstone for a period of time
This video got me to watch "Prometheus". I now anxiously await the inevitable boost to my squat numbers that will surely follow taking such action.
Member
If once a week is all it took to maintain 405, that's a very reasonable price to pay for health and quality of life.
Member
Ok, I think I understand your point, and don't necessarily disagree with it... but could you just treat it as a hypothetical for sake of discussion? What would be the minimum training required to maintain a level of strength that otherwise would disappear living a typical mostly-sedentary lifestyle?
TMPHBITEU
The level of training that produced the adaptation before you decided to stop trying to go on up.
Starting Strength Coach
I have a few older guys who are basically on maintenance and have been for years. Lets say we put them on "maintenance" at 315x5. What usually happens is that they come in for multiples weeks/months in a row, work up to the same amount of weight and its moderately difficult but not "hard" and they are happy with that. Several times a year they will get sick, travel for business, go on vacation, etc. They will come back and hit say 285x5 after their layoff. Then we will spend the next several weeks working back up to 315x5. If they get a long enough run of time without interruption then 315x5 will get easy and we'll go ahead and bump their weight up a bit to a new "maintenance" level.
This isn't everyone. This is not for serious lifters. But this is the reality for a lot of your average older personal training clients who are "strong enough" and not interested in pushing the redline all the time. For many this approach is not acceptable
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