SS,

just to clarify: are you adding 2 kg (I assume 2.5 kg = 5 lbs?) every week or every lifting day? Linear novice programs like SS or GSLP add weight every session, not every week. If you're not microloading this will quickly become impossible for upper body lifts (something Rippetoe also acknowledges, iirc he says the press needs to be microloaded after a few weeks), while lower body lifts can continue increasing for quite a while.

If you regularly stall for 2-3 weeks at a time on a linear novice program, it's probably time to examine whether there are external reasons for this (lack of a caloric surplus in particular, but also sleep, stress, technique etc) or whether it's time to change to an intermediate program. Haven't followed your log so I don't know the particulars.

Thanks Doug! I like the AMRAP idea and I did it a few times even though I wasn't aware that is what it was called.

SM, I am adding 2kg (1kg plates each side) to whichever big lift I am doing on the lifting day. So in my programming, Bench Press and OHP are re-visisted once per week. Due to my low back problems, there is a bunch of accessory stuff I do, but each day there is a big lift or two that I treat as the one where the weight progression is essential.

Can smarts drop some knowledge on fish oil brands and stuff? I found this
http://chriskresser.com/the-definiti...l-buyers-guide
when buying my last batch and bought Jarrow Max DHA instead of the Nature Made that I and probably many others end up getting.

I'm low and unsure what to do, I have a hard time spending more money on stuff that I feel absolutely zero effect on my life, and the Jarrow is more than twice the price of Max DHA(.07 for 1200mg vs $.16)

People on here often just say "get whatever's cheapest" which is probably not terrible but if the Jarrow is that great, or Nature's Made is that bad, I'm fine with spending the extra money.

Only thing I know about fish oil is you want to make sure it isn't rancid. Other than that and comparing actual amounts of O3 and DHA I don't know any way of evaluating the quality of the product.

I guess you could subscribe to this: https://www.consumerlab.com/reviews/...review/omega3/

Or probably just read this: http://www.ifosprogram.com/consumer-reports.aspx

Good AMA on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/AdvancedFitn...periodization/

Hard to read it and not want to go squat every day.

Disagree.

Good read though.

So, I read this article on chaos&pain:

http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/201...r-fault-4.html

Jamie Lewis seems to pride himself on writing well researched articles or at least not spewing random stuff that isn't backed up. I have heard of a fat set point in the past but recently since I don't think it's gotten much play on H&F, assumed it was not a real thing.

So....is it? This seems like it would be another, possibly most important reason for someone whose main long-term goal is strength & aesthetics to cut down to whatever long-term bf % they want and then do smaller cycles so that they already have a few years under their belt of their body being at a good bf % once they have the physique they want. At that point it should be easier to maintain than staying at a medium/high bf % while trying to get strong and then cutting down, yes?

I am not familiar with Jamie Lewis, other than knowing he has a lot of random scat porn on his website, guaranteeing I will never go on it at work where I do most of my browsing.

Does he claim he is natural and trained his body to fluctuate around a 6-8% set point? This I am very skeptical of.

He does not claim natural

I find it very reasonable that someone with an understanding of endocrine altering drugs and how their body responds to these drugs can manipulate their system in the way being described.

Yugo,
Are you asking whether this logic can work for a natty, maybe moving the set-point up to 13-15% instead of 6-8%?

Yugo, it is very real. Some good reads:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...on-part-1.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...on-part-2.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...in-part-1.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...in-part-2.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...in-part-3.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...in-part-4.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...in-part-6.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...-the-last.html

saw - . That's what I'm talking about. Although god that will take a while to sift through. While I do so, the next most important question in my mind is: Is this a medium to big rock, a small rock, or a tiny rock?

If it's a medium or big rock, it seems like this is the actual "culprit" in the normal's misunderstanding of why it's hard to get and stay thin. Instead of using bogus excuses this at least is a real one. And one that I didn't even realize was a real thing somehow.

It's individual and goal dependent. It probably plays a part in why KC's diet stalled out a bit and why Saw seems to hit "stubborn" bodyfat levels when he gets down to 15% and needs to go to more drastic lengths than just a moderate deficit.

I don't think you'd be off base if your train of thought was "man it took way more effort to get down to 12% than it seems to take most people, I'm gonna hang around here for awhile and never let myself get above 15% again."

Depends what context you're talking about. From what I understand, it basically boils down to "you get hungrier," but it's possible I've trivialized this issue when I read about it. Energy balance still applies. And from what I understand, your set point can be partially determined by a very long term BF% moving average, so if you really work on staying lean, it should get easier over time. In the context of practice, methods, and how one goes about getting lean, it doesn't really play a role imo. In the context of "how am I going to be mentally prepared," then maybe a bigger rock...?

I think this is an area where genetics plays a big role as well. Some people will be able to maintain 8% no problem, and some people will have to actively go through dieting cycles just to stay <15%. In one of Omar Isuf's interviews with AA, AA basically says straight up, most people probably cannot maintain single digit BF%.

I def buy the set point thing. I just don't know if it's possible to go from 25%bf to 10% in one long deficit without lighting all your lbm on fire.

I mostly stalled due to complacency and getting sick of getting weaker. I think I could have managed it better if I thought longer term and took 4-6 week breaks every 12 weeks or so to get metabolism back in line, put on a little muscle and improve gym performance.

The problem with that is you're looking at a 2 year effort and that can be daunting.

The bb.com nutrition section has a similar thread to this (but specific to nutrition) that I've been following. There was a big discussion on fish oil. Hopefully I can summarize the main points accurately (note that I'm not agreeing with them, just that they were stated by others, and presenting here for discussion):

* DHA is really the essential thing your body needs, and you should aim to get 300 mg/day, one poster said he tries to get 500 mg/day.
* EPA is really nonessential, but does have SOME health benefits related to anti-inflammation.
* EPA mitigates arachidonic acid (ArA) metabolism, which is probably worse for health, but is important for muscle hypertrophy
* so the conclusion was to maximize health, take in like 1g EPA, to maximize hypertrophy, minimize EPA. the poster of this logic takes ~pure DHA.
* either way, make sure you can see how much DHA your fish oil has and try to get a sufficient quantity.

Anyone knowledgeable enough to provide thoughts on this? I personally responded and voiced the opinion that I'd be surprised if the muscle-building effects were significant, and it sounded like it made more sense to me to get a lot of EPA.

ETA: if you're curious - from wikipedia (the ArA article): "Through its conversion to active components such as the prostaglandin PGF2alpha and PGE2 after physical exercise, arachidonic acid is necessary for the repair and growth of skeletal muscle tissue" - and it references this: Trappe, TA; Fluckey, JD; White, F; Lambert, CP; Evans, WJ (2001). "Skeletal muscle PGF(2)(alpha) and PGE(2) in response to eccentric resistance exercise: influence of ibuprofen acetaminophen". The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 86 (10): 5067–70. doi:10.1210/jc.86.10.5067. PMID 11600586.

Has anyone read about or experimented with CNS fatigue measures to improve programming?

I'm thinking something like testing vertical jump, grip strength, and finger tapping first thing in the morning and charting the results to monitor CNS fatigue and recovery relative to training cycles. Eventually I think you could use that info to dictate how to train on a training day:

If you score very low, do a recovery workout
If you score moderately low, do a volume workout
If you score moderately high, do an intensity workout
If you score extremely high, shoot for PRs

Mike tuschererer has something like that he uses called trac. You do some type of heart rate rest in the morning when you wake up. After a week or so it gets a base line then it will recommend changes to volume depending on how it perceives you are recovering. He keys you try it for 1 month for a dollar then after that it's 15 per month

Pretty cool. I'm not sure how good an indicator heart rate is but I like what he's trying to do.

Heart rate doesn't intuitively seem like a good indicator.

Here is more information about it from his site. https://store.reactivetrainingsystem...ProductCode=84

He did a presentation on it when I went to train with him and it seemed pretty damn cool.

Pretty interesting interview (actually SFW for once). Some solid easy to follow advice. Mainly, focus on the big rocks: http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/201...ngman-and.html

Jaime comes off kind of bad here. He constantly talks about being keto, but I highly doubt he's ever in keto because he consumes so much protein.

I read that too, KC. The strongman dude is ****ing shredded, but what an injury history.

Every morning I'm going to do a 10 second mouse click test (before coffee) and also rate my grip strength based on how easy I perceive it to be to close a CoC #1. Assuming I don't forget, I will report back in a month or two with some trend graphs.

^Will be interesting.

KC,

The article you linked, my favorite quote from Trevor: