In recent reading I came across an interesting study:
Fry et al, 1994. Does short term near maximal intensity resistance exercise induce overtraining? Journal of Applied Sport Science Research
Whilst the high intensity lifting protocol did not ellicit a specific performance decrement (and infact an increase in 1RM was achieved in many cases) there were universal decrements in sprint speed…
Hey Dave,
What was the high-intensity protocol used in the study? Were the subjects trained or untrained (as both lifters and sprinters)?
3wk protocol; 5 sessions per week; 8 squat singles @ 95%
Subjects had 2 years+ lifting experience (sprint experience unspecified)
same thing happened to me when I attempted the 365lb squat in anotehr thread here. 3 days later I couldn’t even hang clean 175lbs…
one reason why I only go heavy once in a while 
It’s not just the weight - the mental stress and physcing up do create large inroads into CNS recovery
That’s a lot of high-intensity work over a short time period (40 reps @95% per week). In a concentrated loading protocol like that, you might expect that a week of lowered volume and slightly lowered intensity might be needed for supercompensation. I guess that might explain the drop in sprint performance, but it doesn’t explain why strength continued to increase. Any ideas?
I would suggest that the subjects were ‘general’ gym trainers used to training with 8+ repetitions. THis protocol might elicit motor control improvements - increased recruitment, improved inter/intra muscle coordination and decreased inhibition in such a population.
The intention of the study was to induce overtraining in the subjects (indicated by decline in 1RM, sprints, jumps). That’s why they designed such a high-intensity program. The authors were surprised that they achieved overtraining only partially (sprint performance went down, but 1RM squats went up).
I’m not surprised. Super loading overtime and then some!
Not exactly what we do for our 3wk. max lift phase.
I think that if they had continued this program for another week their results in the squat would have dropped.
According to the guys at WSB beginners can handle ME training for 3-4 weeks before burnout will kick in, Most people can handle 2 weeks and very advanced lifters can handle just one week. Thus in ME workouts beginners rotate exercises every three weeks, intermediates every two and adv. every week.
Dave tate covers this in his periodization bible article at the t-mag site (good read). This is one of the reasons they don’t like the western method of periodization.