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We actually PM'd back and forth so that part of the discussion isn't there. Short take was Ripp's program is the absolute bastard for someone who has trained those lifts before. Setting PRs mutliple times per week, handling 3x5 with record weight every workout, and worse there is no end in site until you keel over and give up. Holding weights equal it's a lot closer to the periodized 5x5 which is periodized for a reasion (i.e. do workload calcs for all of them and slash anything under 60-65% and see what I mean). A beginner can't really lift enough at first or push hard enough to kill themselves so Ripp's program has a nice foundation but really - someone who's trained those lifts for a while, that fast progression, constant beating, and workload will likely turn into a nightmare. At least a periodized model has a light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyway the jist was he thought the SF 5x5 would be even harder and he must have worked pretty hard and didn't want to experience that again. In reality, it's a lot easier for an experienced lifter except maybe at the very end and even then it's more tolerable. Progression is slower and although there are more total reps that count as work sets - in reality there's only 1 really heavy set of 5 and another of 3 each week.

I think that was where his resistance was coming from. Actually from the sound of him I gather he was beating his head into the wall with everything he had to continue on Ripp's setup. Just be glad you knew when to stop when the weights stopped as otherwise you can dig yourself into a nice hole that's pretty hard to rebound from (I actually did it as an experiment once and will never ever do it again).