Linear progression theory question.

[Barry Charles]

Under linear progression a trainee overloads, recovers, and increase load next time slightly stronger. Got it. More advanced trainees adjust several variables over many training and recovery periods in order to make progress. Got it.

What happens when one of the basic lifts stops responding to linear progression technique but the others still are responding?

A good example would be a 50yr old who is fairly experienced in bench press and press but solidly novice in squat and dead and making great linear progress. My guess is that these lifts are so systemic that recovery for these is paramount.

In such an example, me, would you advise running the LP to completetion or start treating the lifts more individually as they stall?

For reference I'm level 4 on bp and OHP, but level 3 on dl and squat.

[Kent Berry]

OK, I'll bite. Have you read the book(s)? Hint: it's very unusual for LP to stall on all lifts simultanteously.

[Barry Charles]

OK, I'll bite. Have you read the book(s)? Hint: it's very unusual for LP to stall on all lifts simultanteously.

Yes, read the books. i couldn't find exactly what I was looking for (not to say its not there, but I didn't find it). I understand that most people will stall the lifts at different times. For me, at 50, i'm ok with this as I have been benching and pressing for a long time but still making great progress in DL and SQ. In other words i'm in no rush and am happy with my progress.

My question was more towards the theory behind overload and recovery. Let me ask this way. Does performing sq and DL have such a large systemic effect, that for a novice to recover from sq and DL and make an incremental improvement , he should treat everything else as a novice, despite years of training everything else.

Conversely, i suppose, years of training (perhaps inefficiently but still many years) might have caused enough systemic adaptation that a simple linear approach is not optimal and a more complicate program is warranted for all of the lifts.

Finally, for completeness, maybe each lift should be considered by itself.

Again, in my case, i'm not talking about stalling a few weeks or months apart but a much bigger differential due to previous but faulty training.

[Luke S]

Basically, if you are trying to run a Linear Progression program you never did before, then do it on all the lifts. As some of the lifts can no longer progress linearly, you can change their program (stalled lifts only) to a more advanced one, such as Heavy/Light, Heavy/Light/Medium, Texas Method, etc. At least that's how I see it.

[Tiburon]

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