Oh no, I’ll buy it from the publisher! Thanks again for the offer though. If I manage to grow a pair by then, I might run the program after I’ve gotten some gains out of 5/3/1.
I won’t stand here and defend Rip, but Alan Thrall and Chase Lindley are probably the two most notably strong and successful people who endorse his approach to strength training.
Then, you have the group of lifters who start training, hear that “a grown man must weigh 200 lbs.” line Mark loves to repeat, and GOMAD their way to a bodyweight 275 x 5 squat.
I was guilty of listening to this rhetoric. It took me 3 years to go from a fluffy 195 to a fairly muscular and solid 195. Would I change anything? Yeah, I’d probably have approached training and eating with a broader brush.
I will say the 3 x 5 approach worked to help me display my existing strength and get better at the lifts, and I do like Mark’s lengthy form discussions within the actual Starting Strength book.
However, unless you have the resources and energy to run the Texas Method, nobody who can squat 315 x 5 actually follows Starting Strength past that point.
TL;DR – good beginner program if you have the grit and knowledge to handle “stalls” correctly instead of eating your way through them. FWIW, I agree with your original point. I was fairly athletic (albeit skinny) BEFORE I did Starting Strength, so I didn’t go from “sedentary” to “GOMAD” without some kind of caloric expenditure.
I’m excited for you dude! It seems like Alan followed the Barbell Medicine crew when they had the exodus from Starting Strength, as Mark is super talented at alienating smart, accomplished people that initially agree with him. It’s what I mean about him being a stopped clock though: the things he’s right about he’s REALLY right about…he just tries to apply that area of expertise WELL outside his wheelhouse, and it runs a foul. You could do worse than to have Rip by your guide at the start of your journey, you just gotta be aware of the Koolaid, haha.
(3) Incline DB Bench/weighted chins superset
3x12x90s/2x15x20 (Got 12 in the first set of chins before having to stop and reset, will keep the weight the same until I can do 15 reps clean)
BtN Press/Band pull apart superset
3x10x110/50 total reps
Attempt squat warm-up, work up to 275, feel hamstring want to buckle
Re-warm up with good mornings, load up 350, feel hamstring want to buckle
2 minute existential tantrum
Breathing Good mornings/pull over superset
26x275/20x20lbs
Try to stop soul from escaping body
Realize soul has long been dead and the sensation I’m feeling is the demon that possessed me trying to vacate its host form because it’s clearly self-destructing
Shove demon back inside: don’t have time to find a new one
Kroc rows
17x115
Axle shrugs against strong short bands
1x30
Notes:
There’s humor in the commentary but truth as well. The hamstring is mending, I have capability, but not full capability. I can squat SOME weight but not the full amount. Pain I can deal with, but when I felt the muscle wall bulging under the weight I knew I was playing with fire. My original plan was to do good mornings with the weight I was supposed to squat with, but even that was just too much. I had a slight tantrum before deciding that, if 275 is what I can handle, 275 is what I’ll handle, and I just went for max reps. My goal was 25, so getting that 26th one was fantastic. The noises that come out of me when I do good mornings are something else, and that drunken stagger at the end was quite the experience. I racked the bar, stood there, and basically had a conversation with myself on if I wanted to die right there on my feet or if I felt like I might be able to keep on living for a few more minutes. Got a way forward now too. If I can’t squat on Friday, it’s good mornings again. If I can’t use the right weight, I’ll go for more reps. Chaos is the Plan, and we’re getting to yes. And for one more mantra, I’m living these next few weeks under the mantra “What Would Bruce Randall Do”, because that’s how we got here in the first place.
I realized I’ve been slacking on the pull overs as far as going for max stretch goes. Really focused on that today.
Very pleased with how the DB bench went. It’s been great seeing the progress coming through on all the other work. Also wild how just 2 sets of weighted chins has my back feeling blown up.
This workout ran longer than usual due to all the warming up and plan changes, so no conditioning to speak of, but I was clearly done after those good mornings.
You can see I’ve got the hamstring wrapped up in the video with a knee wrap. It’s worth appreciating that I’m wrapping muscles and not joints there.
@creative_name I figure you’d appreciate that I was listening to NiN’s “Broken” while I did this. It seemed WAY too fitting.
Got in 15 ABCs in 5 minutes w/24 kg bells and chased it immediately with TABEARTA. I still can’t fully bend over, so these are a lot of stiff leg/muscle variants at play. Fewer reps and more fatigue: what a win!
Tang Soo Do sparring class later tonight. May tap into my boxing roots at this point.
I was gonna ask which song, but then I realized the video’s 40% as long as the entire EP (sans the two covers,) lol. “Last” is one of my favorite top-set songs.
“Fresh blood through tired skin / new sweat to drown me in / dress up this rotten carcass just to make it look alive”
@creative_name I am definitely not built to last, based on these past few workouts, haha. That whole album has great energy.
Slept until 0700, upon waking did fasted TABEARTA, got 3s for the majority of the rounds.
A few hours later, though Chaos is the Plan, traditions continue
High handle trap bar pulls: 135lbs for 401 reps (36 rep PR)
Last year, I took 3 prep workouts to nail 365. This year, with a broken hamstring, the day after Super Good Mornings, with no prep, I smashed 401. I told myself so many lies to get through it, you can literally see me dancing around the pain between reps as it surged through my body, but there was no question that this was the inevitable conclusion for today.
I remain, more trouble than I am worth. Happy Thanksgiving everyone: I’m going to eat all the limbs off my bird and celebrate with an appropriate feast.
Every time I see the title for one of your YT vids I think to myself this must be a typo and then I remember that you are the punisher. Happy thanksgiving mate.
@simo74 That made my day! Haha. My wife keeps me honest on the other hand. I came stumbling out of the garage into the house and said “I’m gonna just plain brag: I just did 401 reps of 135lb high handle trap bar pulls” and she goes “Oh, you’re not squatting today?”
She’s my Valkyrie.
Slept until 0700, woke up and hit a fasted workout of Tabata burpee chins w/bear complexes between rounds.
Then
PM WORKOUT
SUPER SQUATS Workout 9
Axle clean and strict press/band pull aparts superset (1 min rests)
3x10x156/50 reps total
Weighted Dips/axle rows superset (a min rests)
3x12x80/2x15x213
Breathing Squats/pull over
16+1x315/20
Very brief interlude to have this entire exchange with my hamstring
20x245/20
Because I’m f–king stupid. I don’t give a f–k about jail. That’s my business. That’s what I do.
Axle SLDL
12x263
Poundstone Curls
158xAxle
25 pushdowns
20 standing ab wheels
Notes:
Hamstring is coming along, and was well enough for 16 reps of 315 while wrapped up before it started giving me some warnings. Against all my instincts, I racked the bar, went for 17 and still felt it being stupid, so racked it again, got in the pull overs, realize I still had more in me, so stripped off an appropriate amount of weight and got in a legit 20 breathing squat workout. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from this process is something Randall Strossen wrote 30+ years ago: you can still get the benefits of this workout without a lot of weight on the bar. That was a legit Super Squats set at the end there.
People constantly ask me “what do I do if I fail to get the 20 reps?” Let this be an answer; YOU F–KING GET AFTER IT! That’s the answer!
Realized I’ve been 10lbs off logging all my SLDL workouts. I’m simply logging it more accurately now.
I may actually make the second half of this run of Super Squats one where I go back to 315 and get in 25-30 reps, as a means of meeting intent while keeping loading on the leg lighter. Gives me room to also give this ANOTHER run when I get back from my cruise with a more traditional approach. Chaos is the plan and I am LOVING it. I am learning a ton and just living this experience.
That’s blows, mainly because I was curious to see how nasty you could make super squats while getting your hormones fixed out.
But it’s awesome, because now I get to see how you handle what would be a career ending injury for a lot of lifters, and somehow still fit it in to finish super squats.
I appreciate that dude. The tear happened a week ago, so I feel like I am still meeting the first part of what you wrote though. Super Squats isnt stopping
