Back in college I picked up a copy of Starting Strength which began my workout life. It was the first lifting book I had ever read and I basically became a Rippetoe disciple and I did the GOMAD diet.
My friends told me I was retarded for drinking so much milk, but I just ignored them, assuring myself that Rippetoe knows more than them.
My strength went up, but I also got really fat (+30 lbs) and fucked up my bowels.
I wouldn't recommend the GOMAD diet at all. Novices don't need it to gain strength and a well balanced diet high in protein and fats will do a better job.
I actually disagree with Rippetoe on many topics nowadays. I still think that Starting Strength is a good book for novices, but I wouldn't listen to him past the novice stage. His diet advice is not good for the majority of people. He only cares about strength, and absolutely nothing else. But is it really worth it to add 50 pounds to your squat when you add 25 pounds to your belly at the same time?
Had an amazing lifting sesh. This dench ghanian dude became my lifting buddy, we killed bench press and T bar rows. Even did a push up challenge with his uncle in Ghana through facetime, this guy is hilarious but addicted to snapchatting everything at the gym. I usually work out alone but it helps if you have a guy to hype you up.
(05-17-2018 11:19 AM)redonion Wrote: I actually disagree with Rippetoe on many topics nowadays. I still think that Starting Strength is a good book for novices, but I wouldn't listen to him past the novice stage. His diet advice is not good for the majority of people. He only cares about strength, and absolutely nothing else. But is it really worth it to add 50 pounds to your squat when you add 25 pounds to your belly at the same time?
So much this!
The Blue Book is great tho, for learning the main exercises. Like that 200+ pages on the squat chapter is so rich of any possible information that needs several reads before absorbing all of it and reaching real enlightenment on the squat.
The first time I was done reading it I was like "wait, what?".
Quote:I wouldn't recommend the GOMAD diet at all. Novices don't need it to gain strength and a well balanced diet high in protein and fats will do a better job.
yes and no. dont necessarily use yourself as an example: try imagining that there is PLENTY of kids out there nowadays who are seriously underweight and so skinny that are barely able to hold a 20kg barbell by themselves.
Rip's fault was to making generic statements in SS3rd that were easily misinterpreted. He should have included the "Clarification" in the latest version of the book, https://startingstrength.com/articles/cl...ppetoe.pdf , to rectify a bit.
Anyway, people have figured that there is no point going over a 40" waist so if you're doing GOMAD and reach that, you should stop it immediately, then by keeping on training hard with proper programs the waist will go down on its own in due course.
The target audience for SS was originally High schoolers looking to bulk up for sports, IIRC.
I think SS is a great book, don't get me wrong. It made lifting intuitive, easy and workable for me. Nothing scares a newbie more than seeing an Arnold workout with 7 exercises with 5x10 for each.
Til this day, I recommend SS to newbies who are looking to learn the fundamentals or even people who just don't understand the mechanics of the big lifts.
In the Forum "Lounge" somebody started talking about intermittent fasting. I want to transfer the conversation between Fortis and me to this thread since it is more suitable. First, I wrote the following:
(05-20-2018 02:11 AM)sterling_archer Wrote: Only thing I have currently against IF is the fact that I am a bit unsure if is a smart idea for me right now. I am doing SS and eating whole day (avoiding really early and late meals though) and I can definitely feel if my workout is harder or easier depending of how my nutrition was previous day. Basically SS requires bulking and eating throughout the day has been a way for me to intake necessary caloric/macro goals. Just can't fit them into the for example 6 hour window that begins at lets say at noon. Also I am lifting fasted in the morning around 9 o'clock so it is hard to wait at least 3 hours for the first meal.
Questions for those who do IF:
1. Do you intake same amount of calories and macros like before when you ate throughout the day, starting with morning breakfast?
2. At what time do you train, i.e. is it fasted in the morning or during your IF window?
3. Do you cut or bulk in your IF routine?
On which Fortis answered:
(05-20-2018 02:18 AM)Fortis Wrote: What is your goal? You are a naturally smaller guy, so i doubt you can eat a caloric surplus within an 8 hour feeding window, if you're bulking.
Before subscribing to any diet you first need to ask this to yourself:
'what am i trying to achieve and how quickly do i want to get there?'
To which I replied:
(05-20-2018 04:16 AM)sterling_archer Wrote: Exactly. That is why I simply cannot do IF right now. My goal, as stated on my thread is to get foundation in strength and lifting technique (of course gaining some muscle along the way) so I can later switch to more intermediate hypertrophy based routine. From what I read, SS is a good getaway for various intermediate routines, either powerlifting or bodybuilding ones.
How quickly? Steady and good progress is probably more important to me than sudden jumps up/down in weight. I am aware that muscle cannot be packed as fast as you can lose fat so I am not rushing anywhere. That being said, I wouldn't mind getting muscle fast, but it is probably not really achievable in my case.
I am willing to try IF bulking according to Berkhan's leangains. I was already familiar with IF and Berkhan before and I did IF last year for several months. I definitely could manage it, except in that case I didn't do weightlifting program. My workout routine at that time were bodyweight exercises with which I wanted to preserve strength while my primary goal was fat loss. It was successful.
I am bit worried if I will manage to have linear progression as I have it currently on the SS if I follow this. Are my fears grounded in reality or not?
Will IF bulking nutrition routine help me burn fat and at the same time build muscle like the website claims? Also, is feeding window starting at noon important or you can shift it to 10 in the morning and finish at 6 in the afternoon?
It seems to me the only point of IF is to enhance *compliance* with regards to whichever diet regime you might be on at a given time.
Other than that, I cannot find any scientific evidence that can be more/less advantageous.
As long as you hit your weekly calories/macros requirements you won't have problems with SS or other programs. When SS eventually stalls it's because it will have reached its unavoidable expiration date (12-16 weeks for most people), not much because you need to eat necessarily more.
(05-17-2018 07:45 PM)Bushido Wrote: Even Rippetoe has said GOMAD isn't for everyone. People seem to misunderstand him.
I'd need to see a link that answers who is exempt from GOMAD (that's not a copout like "the elderly" or "people who live more than a five minute walk from a bathroom"), because otherwise that's a weirdly generous comment to make about somebody whose response to every program questions is "DTFP", where "the program" is half diet advice, on a 'lifting' board where people who report injuries are told they're not eating enough.
I decided I will eat as much as I did now, but will fit my feeding phase in the 6 hour window that will start at 10 o'clock in the morning. So classic 16/8 IF. Until now I started eating whenever (sometimes around half past 8) and finished at 8 afternoon.
(05-21-2018 12:34 AM)flanders Wrote: I'd need to see a link that answers who is exempt from GOMAD (that's not a copout like "the elderly" or "people who live more than a five minute walk from a bathroom"), because otherwise that's a weirdly generous comment to make about somebody whose response to every program questions is "DTFP", where "the program" is half diet advice, on a 'lifting' board where people who report injuries are told they're not eating enough.
(05-21-2018 12:34 AM)flanders Wrote: I'd need to see a link that answers who is exempt from GOMAD (that's not a copout like "the elderly" or "people who live more than a five minute walk from a bathroom"), because otherwise that's a weirdly generous comment to make about somebody whose response to every program questions is "DTFP", where "the program" is half diet advice, on a 'lifting' board where people who report injuries are told they're not eating enough.
(05-21-2018 01:26 AM)sterling_archer Wrote: I decided I will eat as much as I did now, but will fit my feeding phase in the 6 hour window that will start at 10 o'clock in the morning. So classic 16/8 IF. Until now I started eating whenever (sometimes around half past 8) and finished at 8 afternoon.
One of my buddies spent a year getting fucking wrecked in the gym, hitting every exercise he could think of as hard as he could. Machines, dumbbells, barbells, pushups, it didn't matter to him. He ate 3000-4000 calories a day and much of those calories were Skittles and Mcdonalds. He put on fifty pounds in a year (30 of it was muscle) and then did biking and some weird P90x shit with a sandbag to get lean. Now he maintains with a shitty brosplit at a Snap Fitness.
My larger point here is this, forget about lean bulking. You started Starting Strength a month ago. The path to lean bulking as a noobie is the path to waking up one morning and realizing that you only put fifteen pounds on your bench all year and you still haven't deadlifted 3 plates yet.
Put on some size first and then worry about your abs.
Most folks never make it to the next level, you might as well hammer it now while you make the fastest gains of your life and then do your atkins/paleo/IF/RFL/warrior diet/whatever.
Cutting down is not complicated, you literally just lift weights, keep protein high, and eat less.
Thank you, Hannibal. Focus on 1 thing. Stop letting fad diets make you feel like you're missing out. Focus on mass right now as a newbie. Eat, eat, eat, eat and sleep and train. Take advantage of this newbie phase and build a respectable base. You can do IF after if you really want to, but I feel like you're shortchanging yourself by not just sticking to a basic bulking meal plan, training hard and sleeping, Sterling.
I just want to be clear, though. I'm not against IF, I just think it doesn't seem to fit with your overarching goal: getting bigger as a newbie.
If you were like 200 pounds and wanted to add some details while shredding down and taking it easy, I'd be all for IF. I'm a big fan of it as an overall lifestyle and diet choice, I just don't think it's quite right for a new guy who needs to focus on building his base.
On dieting - my thoughts and personal experience echo others about being a beginner:
Worrying about minutiae and tricked out diet plans and fasting and this and that is silly if you are just starting out. My honest opinion is you would be hindering yourself if you were eating like a bird and enforcing consumption windows and this and that. Just eat, lift, eat some more, and sleep.
How you moderate your diet will depend on your goals. Honestly I think a lot of people chase big numbers on weights and mislead themselves as to how much weight (fat) they have put on in the process - and indeed how much of their performance is dependent on the improved leverages the extra fat gives them, and the energy that comes from being in a constant calorie surplus.
Adding fat with muscle can be a perfectly reasonable thing to do if you have competitive goals.
If you are just an ordinary dude, with ordinary genes, looking to add a bit of muscle and improve your general health and appearance, then I would personally counsel against adding fat unnecessarily. There's no particular rush with training if you've no competition deadline impending. Consistent training, over many years, plenty of animal and vegetable fats, adequate protein, and lots of fresh vegetables, and a good sleeping and sunbathing regime is what is required. The more aggressive approach to eating and training is fine for people who want to make the gym a very significant part of their lifestyle, but if that is not you then a lot of the advice one finds on fitness sites that gets repeated around the web can be inappropriate. You can absolutely build a fit, strong, muscular, lean and capable physique over time on a moderate diet.
People say you can just bulk up quickly, add muscle and fat, then strip the fat later on. However, this advice is usually offered to people who don't actually know much about diet and training in the first place, so cutting fat effectively actually becomes a much harder process than beginners might otherwise believe.
My personal advice to someone with no competitive goals, and no intention of juicing, would be to maintain a reasonably lean physique, mainly by exercising for an hour each day, pushing yourself on a few major exercises, sleeping regularly, and eating meat, fats and vegetables (and carbs if you like) at least 3 times each day, whilst avoiding refined sugar and booze where possible. Over time this will help you avoid injury, optimise your health, and develop a fit and strong physique.
If your goals are more extreme then you can obviously disregard all of this.
Its the summer so its getting way too hot to do heavy longsword sparring, so Im getting back to the gym after a year of intense martial arts focus.
Its pretty interesting the contrast between combat sports and lifting. Getting out of combat training I would be soaked in sweat, heightened attention and reflexes with bruises all over. However the muscular feedback is much less pronounced. I get bruised here and there from getting hit but nothing special.
Lifting is a lot less fun for me because there's no sense of danger or intensity (nobody is swinging 2kg of metal at you) but the feedback from your muscles is substantial. Biceps still sore and my arms cant straighten, and i have trouble climbing stairs after leg days. My back pain is also mostly gone. The best thing about lifting is that you can target specific muscle group that you want to train.
Also the beginning of the "back to the gym" period is the best because you feel the most muscle sore and progress.
Trying to figure out how to balance lifting and combat training at the same time. A bit concerned that the heavy cardio will "eat away" the muscle and the stiffness from lifting will slow my mobility in combat. Looking up Teddy Riner training regime.
Lifters, I want to share with you something I realized today and I want your opinion on this.
So this past weeks since starting SS, my lifts and BW has been steadily going up, never mind press which is always first to slow down. But last friday, squat has been a real chore. This monday, I lifted again 2,5 kg more than on friday, but it was damn near impossible to do. I even did 5,4,5 reps instead of 5,5,5. Because of this I decided that today I will repeat the same weight and not increase it and so I did. Easier than on monday, but a huge deal. And then it hit me...
I realized what is going on and what is possibly the fault of this.
The whole wall behind squat racks is a giant mirror. Since the beginning I must admit I was guilty of looking at myself from the front while lifting, even though front view doesn't show you much. That being said, it was a big help on press grip width and I immediately corrected it, but regarding squat I think it is making me not utilize hip drive properly and thus not having correct form.
When I go up or down during squat my eyes always look at how my butt is going, to see what is my depth. Always going for things slightly under parallel and that is fine, but in fact my head should be at the angle, a continuation of the angle of the back. By making that angle I should utilize hip drive. Since I am looking almost straight in front of me to see what is my depth instead of feeling it, my head is not in correct position.
I watched again squat videos and it is perfectly clear, when you don't put head like this, your bar speed suddenly drops and hip drive doesn't work like it should. That is exactly what is happening. I see that I am going up like a fucking snail. The point is, you can do valsalva correctly, have proper grip, stance, as less moment arm as possible and still mess up squat like I do because of head.
What are your opinions? Do you think that my biggest concern is angle of the the neck/head or something else?
All you can do is try different positions and cues and see how it works out. My rule of thumb for squatting (lowbar) is to look at the ground a few feet in front of you.
Check out this video for some lessons on good form and cues. Also at the 5:00 mark is a diagram on proper head position:
(05-23-2018 12:03 PM)sterling_archer Wrote: What are your opinions? Do you think that my biggest concern is angle of the the neck/head or something else?
Tnx
I'm a lowbar squatter myself.
When I did my SS I too had lots of trouble at the beginning without a coach to master proper lowbar form. Eventually I did it and never went back to highbar again.
Anyway, I think at beginner stages the head position is really important. And yes, the mirror is distracting. I fixed the problem by turning the J-hooks away from the mirror so that my stance would be giving my back to the mirror and facing the J-hooks. Always have your face front the rack for safety!
Head should be aligned with your spine at all times, if you're looking at some point in the mirror the angle will change. Also the distraction from the mirror will make you lose focus on what you need to do: thinking about your body position in the space, and cues for forward lean, hip drive, bracing etc.