Came a question from a reader:
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Hey Phil,
I’ve been watching more of Rips videos for guidance on form etc (thanks for the tip). I recently read his ‘starting strength’ program and theory – it seems super (maybe overly?) simple, and his whole ‘do sets of 5, add weight every session’ philosophy doesn’t align with yours. But there seems to be some strong overlap in terms of focus on key lifts & a ‘whole body’ approach to each session.
So I wanted to ask you – what do you see as the pros and cons of his approach, or put another way, where do you think Rippetoe is incorrect / suboptimal?
I’m still very much in the novice stage of lifting, and I have definitely noticed some of his principles playing out in that I feel stronger in everything I’m doing just as a result of deadlifting, benching and squatting quite regularly. So what he says kinda makes real-world sense to me.
Would love to hear your perspective!
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It’s a good question, and here is what I think:
There is nothing incorrect or suboptimal about Rippetoe’s work whatsoever.
Starting Strength is actually the best and fastest way to build raw strength in my (likely correct) opinion.
But.
And it is a big but.
What I’ve found is that the vast majority of the general population cannot reliably follow his programme AS WRITTEN due to one or a combination of factors including:
* Injury history,
* Work commitments,
* Insufficient desire to train in that style,
* Lack of mental fortitude,
* Poor general physical preparedness,
* And so on.
Hence, what ends up happening is they do it for a few weeks to a few months, make some decent progress, and then stall hard. What happens after that is they either fall off the wagon altogether or start the whole process all over again (on weightlifting forums back in the day you couldn’t move for beginners telling other beginners to “deload to the bar”).
The latter is especially problematic because it results in the trainee doing the basic Starting Strength plan for years and years, which is not what it was designed for (something they would know if they’d actually bought and read the book instead of trying to piece it together based on whatever scraps they can find for free online).
All of the above is why what I do is a great deal more flexible in terms of exercise selection with much less “push” to slap more plates on the bar. Not to mention the emphasis I place on training for performance AND looks.
Ultimately, the main challenge facing the people I serve (whether they’re prepared to admit it or not) is finding something they can do week in week out without fail (planned rest aside) indefinitely. And that, by definition, means giving them something with enough enjoyable variety to create a dopamine loop that’s also unlikely to cause or aggravate injury while still providing the musculoskeletal and cardiorespiritoy training stimuli necessary for meaningful results.
The main downside of my way is that it’s a whole lot slower to do the job than something like what Rippetoe prescribes, so it takes a very special type of person to be willing to do as I command. However, their patience and ability to delay gratification means they’re the ones who will still be not just training but training productively many, many years from now, in my experience — perhaps having “graduated” from my stuff to one of Rippetoe’s sublime training systems.
Them’s my thoughts on the matter. Do with them what you will.
Although if you recognise the issue I mentioned a few paragraphs back, getting yourself subscribed to The Phil Tyreman Letter will likely go a long way towards fixing it.
To find out why I say that, consult the below-linked audio and letter:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/information/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman