I like this post, since it is pretty useful content, and, based on my limited knowledge, seems reasonable. However, there are many nearby recommendations in this space that would probably not be as reasonable, and many people would be unable to judge. I think it would be good to have some community norm around “recommendation” posts like this that filters for reasonable advice. I’m not entirely sure what the best thing to do is, but one idea would be to ask such posts to make concrete predictions, and have people follow up with their reports later of whether the predictions held.
For instance, in this case, RomeoStevens can probably make fairly concrete predictions of what sort of strength and other gains people will have conditioned on doing these lifts twice a week for a month (or two months perhaps). I think making those predictions explicitly would be useful, both for vetting the method and for calibrating against possible oversights (for instance, I’ve found that women are quite different from men when it comes to strength training, so perhaps this advice works really well for people sharing RomeoStevens’ gender but not for the opposite gender, or maybe it works really well for both genders).
For this post, I would guess the prediction is steady progress for at least 6 weeks (for males) before the given linear increase rule necessitates a reset. I suspect females need to progress more slowly to get ideal long-term gains, but I’m not sure.
From my experience as a female lifter who trains with other females, females do not need to progress more slowly to get long term gains. 5 lb increases per week on a deadlift and every other week on the other exercises is very, very reasonable (possibly too reasonable) in non-skill based moves like these. Even females should be able to experience a few months of lifting heavier each time if they follow the weight increase guidelines here.
However, smaller females (less than 110lbs) or those who have never really worked out might need to start with a lighter bar for rows and the incline bench press. Most gyms have mini-bars with weights permanently attached to the end, usually ranging from 10-80 lbs (how heavy they are should be listed on the side), so look around for those if you don’t think you can bench 45 lbs or you don’t have a spotter.
While I have never done a trap bar deadlift, I am going to assume its similar to a regular deadlift in terms of weight, but with less pressure on the back. So I would say that deadlifting just the bar (trap or not) shouldn’t be a problem even for smaller women.
My prediction is that non-very overweight people should make it to bodyweight trap bar deadlifts with maybe 1 or 2 stalls on the way before hitting a wall. Young underweight males who start eating more calories will make it significantly farther.
Bodyweight is around where people start to stall on squats in SS when they don’t have their diet on track. Most people can lift a little more with the trap bar than in squats.
Upper body is a bit harder to judge, some people struggle quite a bit, others make fairly steady progress (including some women).
I like this post, since it is pretty useful content, and, based on my limited knowledge, seems reasonable. However, there are many nearby recommendations in this space that would probably not be as reasonable, and many people would be unable to judge. I think it would be good to have some community norm around “recommendation” posts like this that filters for reasonable advice. I’m not entirely sure what the best thing to do is, but one idea would be to ask such posts to make concrete predictions, and have people follow up with their reports later of whether the predictions held.
For instance, in this case, RomeoStevens can probably make fairly concrete predictions of what sort of strength and other gains people will have conditioned on doing these lifts twice a week for a month (or two months perhaps). I think making those predictions explicitly would be useful, both for vetting the method and for calibrating against possible oversights (for instance, I’ve found that women are quite different from men when it comes to strength training, so perhaps this advice works really well for people sharing RomeoStevens’ gender but not for the opposite gender, or maybe it works really well for both genders).
For this post, I would guess the prediction is steady progress for at least 6 weeks (for males) before the given linear increase rule necessitates a reset. I suspect females need to progress more slowly to get ideal long-term gains, but I’m not sure.
From my experience as a female lifter who trains with other females, females do not need to progress more slowly to get long term gains. 5 lb increases per week on a deadlift and every other week on the other exercises is very, very reasonable (possibly too reasonable) in non-skill based moves like these. Even females should be able to experience a few months of lifting heavier each time if they follow the weight increase guidelines here.
However, smaller females (less than 110lbs) or those who have never really worked out might need to start with a lighter bar for rows and the incline bench press. Most gyms have mini-bars with weights permanently attached to the end, usually ranging from 10-80 lbs (how heavy they are should be listed on the side), so look around for those if you don’t think you can bench 45 lbs or you don’t have a spotter.
While I have never done a trap bar deadlift, I am going to assume its similar to a regular deadlift in terms of weight, but with less pressure on the back. So I would say that deadlifting just the bar (trap or not) shouldn’t be a problem even for smaller women.
My prediction is that non-very overweight people should make it to bodyweight trap bar deadlifts with maybe 1 or 2 stalls on the way before hitting a wall. Young underweight males who start eating more calories will make it significantly farther.
Bodyweight is around where people start to stall on squats in SS when they don’t have their diet on track. Most people can lift a little more with the trap bar than in squats.
Upper body is a bit harder to judge, some people struggle quite a bit, others make fairly steady progress (including some women).