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by adammarples 633 days ago
It's pretty linear at first, especially like this person who has been doing it a few months. You should be able to add 2.5kg to your major lifts every week if you're recovering well, and that's recommended by the starting strength program. It definitely starts to become logarithmic after while though.
1 comments

This is bad advice, because it’s ambiguous.

> You should be able to add 2.5kg to your major lifts every week

When you couple progression with a time frame but fail to address the time frame of the workouts it is more dangerous than helpful.

This would be bad advice for anyone who only trains once a week or twice a month.

> if you're recovering well

I’ve been strength training for 20 years and even I’m unsure what this means. Do I recover “well”?

When it comes to education avoiding ambiguity is essential.

If someone doesn't mention a detail, assume they meant "whatever is standard". All beginner strength training programs recommend 3x per week, do they not?

>> if you're recovering well

>

> I’ve been strength training for 20 years and even I’m unsure what this means.

Recovery in strength training means eating, sleeping and resting worked muscles for at least a day (i.e., don't work the same muscle on consecutive days). I think it's safe to assume they meant "if you're eating and sleeping well, and resting muscles appropriately".

> "whatever is standard"

Okay, but only if we agree on what is “standard”?

My standard routine is every other day. (And that’s just my regularity, I’ve yet to even mention what lifts I do)

Is that what both you and the op meant for your “standard”?

Just read this thread. I’ve seen other people in this thread say “once a week” and “three to four time a week”, and “for 30 minutes”, and on and on.

Let go of this assumption that anything is “standard” and simply explicitly state your own advice. It is more helpful.

> Recovery in strength training means eating, sleeping and resting worked muscles for at least a day

In truth when op said “recovering well” I thought they meant the autonomic side of things.

Your interpretation of it being solely about my active efforts to recover being the definition of “recovering well” was completely lost on me; further making my point that the op was ambiguous.

But all good advice on aiding recovery! I’d add, stay hydrated!

In context of Starting Strength Program aka boilplater 3x5 compound lifting novice program where "recovering well" is basically eating surplus calories (GOMAD joke), and being able to hit session linear progression, aka +5lbs 2-3x per week. If you can't hit that then you're not "recovering well". Yes that means adding 30-60lbs per month for most males, and the program is meant to be ran for a few months with caloric surplus until you stall - no longer able to progress session to session, in which case you have milked all your beginner gains and then can move onto an intermediate program of week to week progression, then month to month. It's... basically the standard template for novice lifting, relativelty systemic with pretty clear definitions of progress and recovery (in the book/manual) to the point where people get chasitized for "not doing the program" if they deviate too much. I find it very prescriptive, but it's initially designed for atheletic / football programs where you dump a bunch of teens and have then run it on autopilot while eating everything in sight to get as much gains as possible with very little individualization. I'm not sure what gets recommended these days, but training has come a long way with all the new apps and templates, but I think most people still just recommend 3x5 or a 5x5 since it's KISS.