Hey, loved the rant!
But, I wanted to address your feelings about Starting Strength with the admission that I am new to training and am totally in the learning process so any of the points I make are really just my understanding, and are by no means authoritative pronouncements. I ran Starting Strength for about ten weeks and absolutely loved it. I actually hired a Starting Strength coach, who also happens to be a DPT, an Exercise Science Professor, and a competitive powerlifter.
Absolutely!! Anybody that doesn’t understand this hasn’t read the literature. I think it’s a good program for building a strength base that @robstein spoke about. I am also reading The Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, which is the text for C.S.C.S. certification. One of the things mentioned is that initial strength increases are more a product of improved motor unit recruitment and not necessarily hypertrophy. In my opinion, beginning a bodybuilding program without a strength base would result in a lot of wasted time improving CNS response and not actually triggering hypertrophy.
Yes, but it is not intended to be a permanent program. Most of the templates in the book show about twenty four weeks as a maximum for running the program before switching over to an intermediate program. The theory, as I understand it, is that it’s more important to develop strength in the core lifts before wasting time doing calf raises or wrist curls. This makes sense to me, but I feel like twenty four weeks might be too long to run a LP program like this. Most people plateau after 12-16 weeks based on my own observations of an anecdotal nature.
I disagree. After twelve weeks, if you are new to lifting, doing 3x5@250 squats, 3x5@150 BP, and 5x3@150 in power cleans should be considered a lot of work in a training session. I know that at the end of SS, my sessions were taking me ninety minutes or more and I was flat out gassed! When I switched to 5/3/1 Triumvirate, it felt like a vacation!
In my opinion, many people misunderstand SS and so when they do twenty four weeks, start missing reps, have gained a lot of fat, they characterize it as a shitty program. In fact, they did not follow the program. I went from squatting 3x5@140 to squatting 3x5@265 in twelve weeks. I probably should have stayed on it a little longer and dropped my progression amounts significantly, but it just got too fucking hard! Again, switching programs was a relief.
Again, just my experience. I did read the book, I did read PPST, I did hire an excellent SS coach, and I did not have the experiences you describe…although I have no doubt that others may have had those experiences.
Is SS the holy grail and Mark Rippetoe the messiah? No. Is it a good option for developing strength for novice lifters? Yes. Is Rippetoe a pretty knowledgeable guy? Well, I think he is, but that’s just my opinion.
No disrespect intended. I lifted Bro split for thirty five years before stumbling onto a few programs - Mass Made Simple, 5/3/1, and then SS. I did one cycle of 5/3/1 before SS, and when I stalled, came back to 5/3/1. My point being, that I’ve only been lifting intelligently for 6-9 months, so I don’t have a lot of credibility other than my own experience.
Good thread by the way!