ExRx.net

http://jasonferruggia.com/training-stupidity/

{discussing stupid ideas}
"Saying that the longer you have been training the lower your average number of reps should be. This means that a guy who has been training for twenty years, has gotten incredibly strong and can squat 600 pounds should never do above 2-3 reps. He should always pummel himself into the ground and destroy his joints with massively heavy loads. And in another ten years when he is 50 I guess that would leave him no choice but do only do heavy supramaximal eccentrics every time he goes to the gym? That is what some experts are recommending. This is probably the most ridiculous rule of all time. The truth is exactly 180 degrees in the opposite direction. I would rather have this guy keep his average number of reps a little higher at that stage of his career if he is that strong already. Why continually inflict more and more damage on the body?"

without spending much time on discussing Jason and your opinion of him (I'm browsing "knee flexion training fwiw"), I wanted to use this as a jump off point for a question I've been meaning to ask.

Jason implies there damage being done when we lift heavy things. Many of us are lifting to improve health, not diminsh it.

Presuming some other benefits do come with ever increasing loads, what are y'alls opinons regarding the trade-offs? Or do you dismiss the notion that heavy loads repeatedly lifted do damage? Is there a "sweet spot"? Perhaps, for example, a 60 yr old should not do heavy triples frequently; then again, maybe higher volume is "more damaging" / per benefit.

In summary, I want lifting to be on balance as beneficial as possible. With "beneficial" meaning increasing my health (yes that is vague) and minimizing risks of injury current or future, chronic and acute.

Ps I have no opinion, I am quite interested in others/ research or otherwise

I'm not sure that Ferruggia is really saying that it does harm. He seems to be waxing eloquent and dramatic to make his point that the "rule" he is discussing is silly.

If he is, indeed saying that heavy lifting is bad for your joints, I don't think he has any scientific basis for it. I'm not 60, but I'm just a year and a couple of weeks away. If doing heavy triples is bad, then the heavy singles I've been doing is probably terrible.

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan