Originally Posted by
Janglehorse
I totally agree that the 6-pack mindset is pretty ridiculous especially for novices, but it seems like once again this is just another Starting Strength article that seems to suggest people should get fat and strong and completely ignore the fact that it’s an entirely understandable long term goal for men want some semblance of a v-taper.
Maybe I’m missing that your target audience here are likely people who haven’t yet reached intermediate programming and are yet to go from being underweight males to gaining their first 50lbs, but
I’m having a hard time believing that a person who has 50lbs of legitimate fat to lose (as in they came to the program obese) would suffer a ton from simply cleaning up their diet and doing an intelligently managed cut at some mid-point like when they reach intermediate training.
And for those who are getting ansty about their newly acquired spare tire from gaining 50lbs in their LP, is it so crazy to believe that a small well-managed cut could be introduced to manage some fat while maintaining (and in the best possible scenario actually gaining) strength already acquired from the LP? (Not talking about getting “shredded” here by any stretch.) This is what my coach and I are going to do in about 6 weeks when I reach 210lbs (up from 163lbs) after I maintain for a few weeks. After that I will of course, bulk up again. Knowing that the maintenance period followed by the cut are getting closer has made diet compliance easier, and the easier PRs as I approach 210lbs are highly motivating for me to get even bigger after I cut.
Finally, is it just me or did it seem like this article was almost arguing against clients cleaning up their diet? I believe that my easier PRs lately are directly related to my recently cleaned up diet with an additional 1-2 servings of vegetables per day and less refined grains plus a bit of sled interval training on Fridays.
Just seems like there might be better ways to go about this in a market when things like Barbell Medicine and Renaissance Periodization exist. It’s cool to reach an audience that doesn’t so much care about looking like a cover model (nothing is more inspiring and/or humbling than to see a 60 year old woman pulling 225 at your local barbell gym), and I get some people just don’t want to change what they eat, but it seems like the Starting Strength brand always has to go ham-fisted on everything by pointing to the ideal “baseline” with little nuance or guidance about the intermediate steps along the way. Feels like if they could figure out how to do this better it would help from both a marketing and compliance perspective.