What are your opinions on Stronglifts?

[gzt]

Dan John has squatted 275kg for a triple, benched a bit over 400, and deadlifted somewhere in the low 600s. That's not uniformly stronger, but it's pretty strong. I believe he's C+J'ed 385 and snatched 314. But what he's really good at coaching is throws and S&C for throwers, so I think it's very fair to note that he's not the best guy for powerlifting specific training. He's more S&C for athletes who benefit from strength (eg football, throwers...). He's a better thrower than lifter and has coached people to success in throwing. He's been a nationally competitive thrower and got some master's records in throwing of some sort or something like that after he was no longer nationally competitive.

[Corrie]

For many years I was a sporadic and aimless gym rat. SL was the first "program" I ever followed. A couple weeks after starting it, it was my looking for more, better detailed information -- mostly about how to do a squat correctly -- that led me to Starting Strength. It was immediately obvious that SS was what I needed to be doing. I don't have any hostility to Mehdi. He unwittingly led me to Ripp. I do see now that Mehdi's just a fellow traveler, though, who doesn't know much more about this stuff than I do (and I don't claim to know a lot). But if I had become heavily involved in his forum before the Great Monetization and/or sent him a pile of money, I'd be pretty surly about him, too. Now that I'm doing SS, I don't really pay much attention to him either way.

This story is identical to mine. Stronglifts can be pretty crappy but at least it leads a lot of people to SS.

[Justin Jordan]

I'd posit this: getting yourself good is a separate skill from getting others good which is a separate skill from getting anyone to be great.

I don't actually disagree. But I think that the ability to look at a person, figure out what they need to progress, and then figuring out how to get them to actually do it, is a seperate skill than getting yourself to be great.

To use the examples here - If I wanted to be a world class powerlifter, I'd pick Louie Simmons over Dan John. But if my choices were some one who has coached a lot of people to pretty good levels and someone who has only done great themselves, I'd pick the guy with coaching experience and a track record. Now, obviously, this assumes the choice is binary. What'd I probably do is work with different coaches until I found the one I want.

But to use Lewis as an example - despite this claims, most people that are at his level in powerlifting don't lift like he does. And it's absolutely possible that he's right, and if they lifted like he does, they'd be more awesome. It is also possible that they would burnout and regress. Because we don't really know if Chaos and Pain works for other people the way it does for him. Whereas while Westside doesn't work for everyone, it does have a track record.

[Tom Narvaez]

We're pretty much in agreement.

[gatorinexile]

This story is identical to mine. Stronglifts can be pretty crappy but at least it leads a lot of people to SS.

And mine.

[Mike C]

This story is identical to mine. Stronglifts can be pretty crappy but at least it leads a lot of people to SS.

Same here.