Dips vs Bench and Dual Factor

[phillipo]

Hi Coach,
Been awhile since I've posted but still enjoy keeping tabs on the forums.
Just a couple of quick Q's for you:

1. My weighted dips with body weight plus plates allow me to push about 40 pounds more than my bench press. Is this the result of a personal imbalance, dips utilizing greater musculature or just a mechanical advantage that I am missing somewhere?

2. In Dual Factor theory what are the relative benefits of allowing fatigue to accumulate over the course of a 6 week training cycle then backing off for a couple weeks vs just spacing out the workouts by an extra day or so to prevent fatigue accumulation?

Thanks in advance coach,
Phil

[Mark Rippetoe]

1. It's probably anthropometry. Do you have short arms?

2. Have I ever written anything that would indicate that I use the term "dual factor" in any of my programming?

[rpbrown]

2. Have I ever written anything that would indicate that I use the term "dual factor" in any of my programming?

I think he's referring to the "two-factor" model shown several times in PPST2.

[Mark Rippetoe]

He may be, but note that it is not used in any subsequent programming discussion.

[phillipo]

Thanks coach,
I actually have quite long arms with a wingspan of 75 inches, and no worries on the two factor stuff. I was just curious because I have just been playing around with allowing 72 hours between training sessions as opposed to 48 hours and have found it has better allowed me to maintain linear progression and prevent feeling run down. I was wondering though if accumulating fatigue by using more frequent training sessions may have had some positive long-term training aspect when you recover during back off weeks.
Thanks again,
Phil

[Mark Rippetoe]

That is an advanced strategy used to engineer the taper for a competition. Its mechanism is part of the HFM from PPST2. Starr taught me to go in a little overtrained two weeks out from the meet, and then the unloading supercompensates and produces the peak. But you can see why this doesn't work in the absence of a target peak date, right?

[phillipo]

Ok I can see that,
Thanks for your response coach, informative as always.
Phil