I'm obviously not recommending untrained novice individuals show up and do heavy squats. For one thing, this is impossible--they are not adapted to lift anything heavy. This is what linear progression/General Adaptation is and why it is useful to understand: you start with light weights, and add weight linearly and progressively. In three months, that weight will be heavier, but now you can lift it easily, unlike on week one. The stressor was overcome and adapted to. A sedentary person starts squatting with the empty bar or a training bar and adds 5 pounds or less 3 days/week. They don't start with 225. Surprisingly for most, this actually works, unlike doing 50 pushups every day, which will only result in you being able to maybe do 60 pushups three months later.lightheir wrote:No, my statements about more reps/low rep for older folks is not anecdotal. 5 heavy squats at a strong effort is the WORST thing you could recommend to an older or off-the-couch person...)
Why on Earth would I aim to have chest-pushing endurance vs. max pushing force production/strength? I do not see any application for pushing endurance other than pushups. Chances are, a person with a five rep 225# bench press can do more pushups than someone that just does pushups. Strength has a carryover to endurance, whereas endurance does not carry over to strength. Sprinters weight train. This is why strength training is so useful, especially to the general population. Let's agree to disagree on this one, some people just like pushups, but they won't be pushup-ing their way to 10 body-weight bench presses.lightheir wrote:50 pushups as well, is clearly NOT wasting your time. But 50 pushups in fact does train strength AND endurance (less on the strength component), and because the peak force/power is much less than a 1 rep max, your odds of tearing/straining a muscle are much lower.
Well, an untrained novice has no real concept of a max effort because they are not adapted to anything at all. Their strength improves on a daily basis on a linear program. Their first three rep max squat could very well be 55 pounds--a pittance that likely won't be injurious unless it is done incorrectly.lightheir wrote:Ask any sports coach or physical therapist which will do more damage or potential damage to a ligament or muscle - a 3-rep max vs a 20 rep or 50 rep max effort. Due to the max loading of those high weight/low reps, the damage or risk of damage is much more significant.
You're building this argument off of a flawed assumption: that unconditioned novices, or endurance conditioned athletes, can somehow strength train at weights sufficiently heavy enough to hurt themselves, or would be foolish enough to do so.