Strength "memory"?

[Gene61]

Hey Rip,

I broke my hip in September falling off my mountain bike. (67 years old and have been lifting since I was 61.) The orthopedic surgeon who put 3 screws into my hip wouldn't let me lift over 100 lbs until January. Probably too conservative, but I have more patience in my oldster years and knew I would have plenty of time for recovery. I've been doing LP since January, adding 5 lbs to the squat every workout (2x per week) and 5lbs to the press and bench every week (10lbs and then 5 lbs to the DL every week). I wondered where LP would end, hoping I might make some progress compared to where I left off in September before my accident. Interestingly, my LP came to an end over the last few weeks on each lift at exactly my previous 5 rep x 3 set PRs on each lift.

Of course I know what my PRs were and maybe the psychological wall of those PRs impacted my performance, but I was really hoping that with that major reset and LP ramp I would be able to surpass my previous PRs and keep LP going a bit farther. Nope, I missed reps right where I left off and have now moved into intermediate programming for all the lifts. Its almost like my muscles remembered where they left off 6 months ago.

My guess is that I wasn't off long enough for substantial deconstruction of the muscles (I maintained a diet surplus to aid healing) and the deconditioning was mainly to the chemical pathways and neurological recruitment performance. Now I'm back to the limits of the structural strength capacity which I had previously built, and at my age with my genetic makeup, building new structure is not going to sustain an LP pace beyond the level I had previously developed.

Any thoughts? Anyway I thought the little n-1 experiment was interesting.

In any case, the lifting I have done since I started 6 years ago made all the difference in my initial recovery from surgery to crutches to cane to walking. The doc was amazed. Great to have the reserve of strength to deal with the injuries life throws up! Thanks for your wonder program!

Gene

[Mark Rippetoe]

How did you break your hip? Landed on your side? On a rock?

[Gene61]

The damn clip on my right pedal locked up and when I came to the top of a long hill I stopped, couldn’t get my foot out of the clip, and fell over directly onto the hip. Cracked it right across the neck close to the head of the femur! After the fall I still couldn’t get my shoe out of the clip and had to break it off. Had to ride the bike (fortunately down hill) for a bit over a mile to get back to the road and my truck. Drove home with my left foot and called my wife from the driveway to bring out my crutches as I couldn’t walk. The crutches were handy from a motorcycle accident from two years ago. Guess I should stay away from two wheeled conveyances!

[Crom]

I am also 67. I am no expert, but my observation is that anything you have achieved before can be regained after a relatively short period, which includes musical instrument skills, endurance feats, and strength. But it is always gawdawful hard to improve after you hit the plateau. My explanation is simple: genetics is a real thing... and everyone can hit pretty close to their genetic potential relatively quickly, but then you are close to your potential, so then you have to get really dedicated a shrewd to progress further. Not that there is a limit; but it does get harder and harder.

[Gene61]

Interesting observation, Crom. Thanks.