Heavy Matters

Absolute load - the actual weight on the bar, not just percentage or proximity to failure, is vitally important when it comes to programming and adaptation.

We’ve known this for a long time, yet most still ignore it.

Classic Block Periodization schemes from ages ago already had things like 5x5 at 60-65% to start an accumulation phase.

But why does this work? A trained male lifter can typically do a big, compound lift for a set of ~15 reps with a load like that. That’s 10 RIR! Doesn’t seem to make sense, and flies in the face of a lot of what’s said today about training - that you need to train close to failure to achieve results. And in many cases, this is true.

But Block Periodization has been working for high level lifters for decades. How do we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory observations?

Enter absolute load.

The assumption embedded within Block programs - even if a lot of people don’t know it - is that this is an advanced lifter doing the program. Someone who’s already put some time in under the bar and is strong, lifting heavy absolute loads. For such a person, 60-65% for 5x5 can be an adaptive stimulus even though it’s so far away from failure that he could do ten more reps if he had to. For someone not yet strong, this doesn’t work.

Take two lifters. One is 27 years old, has been lifting for 8 years and was a HS wrestler before that, and currently squats 600 lbs at 220 bodyweight. The other is 47 years old, has been lifting for 8 weeks and was sedentary for 20+ years before that, and squats 165 at 190 bodyweight.

If the first guy does a 65% for 5x5 workout, that comes to 390 lbs. This will be an adaptive stimulus for him because he’s still squatting 390. It’s an easier workout for him, of course; the program will progress him over about 3 months towards much heavier loads, hopefully exceeding 600 by the end. But he can start at 390 and still gain adaptive stimulus even though he has 10 or more reps in reserve.

Even the studies that say close proximity to failure isn’t as important for strength, don’t talk about 10+ RIR being so useful, but for high absolute loads, it can be.

Whereas the first guy, if he squatted the same 65%, 105x5x5, he would literally be wasting his time. It would be a warmup with no adaptive stimulus at all. It wouldn’t propel him to be able to lift more in the future, even though it’s the exact same %.

Why?

Because absolute load matters. Percentage is an abstraction of intensity - a useful one, but not sufficient on its own.

RIR/RPE is an abstraction of relative effort. A useful one, but not sufficient on it’s own.

If you are not taking into account the absolute load on the bar, you’re missing a big part of the picture.