@whatwoulddexterdo That's brilliant. We are planning to have a mid-year Christmas this year so we can bust out our penguin and reindeer jumpers in the winter Downunder!
@BigButtons that article? I can't quite tally up all her statements really. It does not matter what anyone else lifts, no, but what was strange was that in something like Iron Pro she was increasing the rest times and in many cases lifting lower weights than she had previously. So... fewer reps at lower weights and not typically incorporating isometric holds, tempo work or the other compensatory this-is-how-we-achieve-progressive-overload techniques she is usually clever at incorporating. Where's the stimulus? In IronPro she was sometimes including warm-up sets and back-off sets which you would associate with someone increasing their weights for hypertrophy and strength-building, but then not using any heavier weights than usual. It seemed a bit random.
Her list of reasons for using lighter weights is interesting. It is totally true if you lift too much too soon you can compensate using the wrong muscles like traps or lower back. But that's also true if you use weights that are too light- you can actually fail to recruit the muscle you want at all. That is why do many people don't do the hip snap properly in kettlebell swings- they use a far too light bell that they can lift with their arms, and so their arms just casually front raise the weight while their glutes don't have to do anything. You're more likely to get the movement right with a challenging 20kg or whatever kettlebell than with a little 4 or 6kg kettlebell, as you're absolutely forced to use your posterior to drive the weight up.
Caroline used to get criticised for her youtube form for RDL and hip thrusts and this was the reason I think. If you are just holding 10kg handweights you can blithely hinge from the back and not get hurt. If she's doing 60-100kg+ barbell RDL a woman would be training in a standard lifting program, she would have to use perfect form to get the weight off the ground or bench, and to complete her set without injury. Her hip thrust form got better instantly on the app when she brought in the barbell and wasn't just doing yogaish hyperextended thrusts with a dumbbell sitting on top. You can't physically do that with the heavier weight.
Her text also implies that you can retain your strength wholly without regularly training it at those levels ("I know I can OHP my bodyweight" etc). Unfortunately this is not true, or else powerlifters would just be doing Bodypump between meets.