Starting Strength Weekly Report May 2, 2016

Starting Strength Weekly Report

May 02, 2016

Announcements

The April Under the Bar winner is Eva Kunkel.

Articles

Want to be a Strength Coach? Rip gives some academic preparation advice to serious students - in a formal program or not - ready to take responsibility for their own education.
From the archives: Marty Gallager's article on Grippaldi and how he trained the press.

Training Log

Rip explains the use of the hook grip for deadlifts and why its use is preferred to other common grips.

Starting Strength Channel

Episode 24 - The Best Gym in NYC : Rip interviews David Osorio, owner of CrossFit South Brooklyn.

From the Coaches

CJ Gotcher on why you are not a special snowflake when it comes to physics or Squats.

Under the Bar

Andrew Lewis presses 225 lbs at the Starting Strength Challenge in Greensburg, PA. [photo courtesy of Nicholas Racculia]

Katie Slivko pulls 275 at the Starting Strength Challenge in Greensburg, PA. [photo courtesy of Nicholas Racculia]

New York Starting Strength Challenge Meet female winner Jennifer Kim pulls 315 for her second attempt. She successfully pulled 335 for her third attempt at a bodyweight of 111.5 lbs. [photo courtesy of Pete Troupos]

Starting Strength Coach John Petrizzo pulls his first attempt at 550 during the Starting Strength Challenge Meet in New York City. [photo courtesy of Pete Troupos]

Starting Strength Coach Matt Bickford, and overall men's winner of the Oakland meet, at the bottom of his successful third attempt, 585 pound squat. [photo courtesy of Tom Campitelli]

Cindy Lee, the overall women's winner for both Oakland, CA and the combined meet, unracks her third attempt press. Cindy went on to total 790 pounds and earn a Wilks score of 394.17. [photo courtesy of Tom Campitelli]

Alex grinds through a press PR of 185. [photo courtesy of Feral Fitness]

After lifting in competitions for over 20 years, Al decided that his competitive lifting would end with the 2016 Starting Strength Challenge. Here's one of his last deadlifts in a competition context. [photo courtesy of Feral Fitness]

Jay Kim working on his low bar squat form with 100kgs in Hong Kong. [photo courtesy of Jay Kim]

Scott Walker opts for squats instead of Cybex in Bel Air, MD. [photo courtesy of Todd Walker]

Starting Strength Coach Kelli Nielson presses 102 for triples. [photo courtesy of Gardiner Athletics]

Squat work at the recent Starting Strength Training Camp at Greysteel. [photo courtesy of Jonathon Sullivan]

Kelly carries the 425# yoke for 50 feet in the 2016 May Queen Strongwoman contest. [photo courtesy of FiveX3 Training]

Tonya locks out a 340# axle deadlift for her third attempt in the 2016 May Queen Strongwoman contest. She placed 2nd in the HW Novice division. [photo courtesy of FiveX3 Training]

Click images to view slideshow.
Submit your images to report@startingstrength.com
Submission guidelines to enter this month's Under the Bar prize drawing.

Best of the Week

Data Analysis: WNDTP, and it seems to work anyway

rumblefish

This is pretty interesting to read. Maybe it would be helpful to have a "What I did wrong / learn from my mistakes." thread where we can all admit, repent and ask forgiveness for the mistakes we made on linear progression (LP)?

I'll start.

I did not eat enough and specifically, not enough protein.
I started the program with poor equipment (no shoes, Velcro belt)
I needed coaching very badly, specifically for the squat. It was several months before I got any.
I over-corrected and ate too much.
I reset more times than I should of and not for the right reasons. Part of this is the need for coaching and part of this is due to fear of heavy weights (mostly with squats).
When I actually got somewhat inline I made rapid progress up to 3x5x350 for the squat. At this point I made the mistake of waffling. Instead of making adjustments to continue with an advanced novice or even switching to intermediate, I decided that I wanted to lose weight (that I had gained by eating too much). I regret not continuing to push at that point and I regret the subsequent loss of strength I experienced after finally being successful for that last month and a half. I would much rather have gotten to a 500lb squat and then lost weight.

MattimusMaximus

Excellent read and excellent work mulling through all that data. Must have been very tedious for them!

Reflecting back over my own LP I should have followed the program exactly as written. I know I would have progressed much quicker with less stalls and resets if I hadn't tinkered. Shit, there was a time when I was benching more than I could properly squat! Ha!

MarkFera

Great info. So much of my time was spent on finding new ways to get stronger and bigger. It would have been more useful to find those things that prevented it. Ego, training how I liked, lack of sleep, lack of calories, lack of rest between sets, etc. Most everything that you presented in the Observation section!

Best of the Forum

Learning the hook grip

stronger

I've decided to start using a hook grip to see if it helped my deadlift at all. I have a hunch that it's affecting my ability to gain in the lift.

I tried it yesterday and it seemed to work pretty well. I am right handed, so my right handed hook felt a lot better (it was double overhand to try and get my strength up). Is this typical to have a non-dominant hand's hook feel a bit off?

I've looked in Starting Strength and your hands don't look incredibly large, rather similar to mine. Can you make an effective hook?

Mark Rippetoe

I actually have large hands and can make a good hook. But I do not feel the difference between my dexterous and non-dexterous hands in the hook. I assume you are using a double-overhand hook as opposed to an alternate hook.

If anything, you may be over-gripping a little bit; you just need to cover your thumbnail, not wrap over the other side of it. This should let the bar hang a little lower in the fingers and will take some twist off of your thumb.

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