Rippetoe's Practical Programming Questions (VRI, Bill Starr, etc.)

[sw1rmd85]

Quick note: I've been working out for about 12 months. I did Rippetoe's for about 3-4 months, had solid gains and moved on to VRI. I've e-mailed Rippetoe about most of these things, just to get more confused, but when i say "Rippetoe told me," that's what I mean.

I've read PP, SS, Kethnaab's posts, etc., and I am still not confident with a few things.

1.In PP/Kethnabb's/Madcow's, front squats are considered efficient recovery work; however, other times -- specifically in the bill starr section of PP -- it's said they are good for MEDIUM days at a certain point. Is there a point where front squats are too demanding for recovery days? And if so, when?

2.Rippetoe told me he never uses front squats with more than 3 reps, on my recovery day i do 3x8. Should i drop them down to 3s or 5s. Is there something I'm missing?

3.In Madcow's 5x5, he has deadlifts on the mid-week recovery day. Isn't this an unsuitable recovery day exercise? I e-mailed Rippetoe about that and he said yes they aren't ideal for recovery days, but he also says, in PP, weighted chinups can sometimes be too demanding and can hinder gains on the following HEAVY bench day. However weighted chinups tend to be on numerous recovery day routine templates, BEFORE the heavy benching upcoming workout. I deadlift on Intensity day's; should i move chinups to my Volume days or even Intensity?

4.For Bill Starr type programs, PP says you can simply ADD days when progress stalls -- starting the day out as a medium day and then eventually making it heavy, followed by an addition heavy day down the line and so on. This confuses me. I first assumed you add days with various exercises; thus, the weekly routine becomes more split-like. Once again, i asked rippetoe and he said you simply add another FULL-BODY day, so you squat, bench, pull from floor workout, just at varying intensities, EVERY workout. However, i then stumbled upon a little quote in PP that refutes the idea of adding FULL body days, "Squats will be done every workout until the trainee goes to 4 days per week. (p. 173). So, how exactly does that work? Does he mean you add different exercises for each workout. So on a 4 day routine with 2 heavy days, 1 medium day and 1 light day you would:

Squat
Heavy 1: 5x5 across
Heavy 2: 1x3 PR day
medium: 3x8 front squat
light: 3x10 lunges

However, when the medium day becomes a heavy day, and additional heavy days are added, how can you do heavy leg days without squatting? Or on one of those days, I simply not worry about legs, basically an upper-lower split type routine?


The 4th question confuses me the most, and I am probably most eager to hear some information on it.


Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

[vicjg]

I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can and with the wayI understand the answers.

**Disclaimer - All the answers below are my opinion and my opinion only and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the producers or sponsors.

1&2. Starr actually uses an arbitrary amount of 300 pounds for decreasing the reps to 3. Below that he recommended 5 reps. The point where they become too demanding -- when they interfere with the following workout.

3. Starr's program contained a few advanced versions. All the programs advanced during the week Heavy, Medium, Light. But that doesn't mean they were all Heavy on day 1, all medium on day 2, etc. I think Madcow went this route.

BTW Starr represented heavy,medium,light by tonnage not % RM therefore:

Wednesday is actually a Heavy pulling day & a light squatting & pressing day. So your pulls would progress from Heavy (W), Medium(F), Light(M).
Squats/Presses would go Heavy(F), Light(W), Medium(M).

4. I agree. It does give conflicting information. But I am assuming it can be done both ways. You can add another squat variant into the medium day (OH squat, Box Squat) and squat four days varying the intenstities or rep ranges. Another way to do this, and this is less intuitive (and I'm not sure if this is what he had in mind) would be to replace the fourth day's squat (Med prob) with deadlifts. And then add a light day's pulling exercise at the end. Remember your Heavy leg day, can also be your light pull day, etc.

[DallasLynx]

I think vicjb has addressed these points well. That's pretty much what I would have said.

As far as the reps on front squat going to 3s I would guess this has to do with the fact that Rippetoe considers the front squat to be more of a olympic assistance exercise. As in the bottom of a full power clean. I'm pretty sure he talks about 3 sets of 8 being what he reccomends for olympic lifts and cleans. So, that's why I think he told you 8x3 on the front squats.

[Dave76]

Rip usually recommends 1 to 3 reps for any of the Oly lifts. The technique is of prime importance in these lifts. If you do more reps than that, you get tired and the technique starts to break down.