Originally Posted by
Scaldrew
I'm the guy who wears Starting Strength shirts at my gym. I coach newbies a lot, even friends who ask me to supervise them or teach them how to clean if they're already gymgoers. Everyone I see who squats and then presses and deadlifts usually says they got it from YouTube or Stronglifts or whatever. Never once heard someone tell me they got it from Starting Strength. So I just recommend it to everyone and they always have to save the name in their phone. Don't think many have looked you up, but then I don't see many of them a second time around.
One time a guy was squatting 220 in Adipowers, same as mine. He had probably the worst form of anyone in lifting shoes I have ever seen. His elbows were pointed way up, as was his head but he kept looking forwards into the mirror, as he slowly pushed his hips back as far as they could go, not even close to hitting depth. So one time I walk over to him and go "nice shoes" to break the ice, but he didn't get it. I explained my dumb dad joke to him and he kind of laughed. I then, quite aggressively in hindsight, asked him if he wanted me to teach him how to squat. Somehow I imagined he would be at least curious to hear what I had to say, given that his form was beyond repair. Instead, he laughed and, without any physical gestures since I'm much taller and bigger than he is, he waved me off saying something like "I've been doing this for quite a while". I begged to differ and told him he wasn't hitting depth at all, to which he responded he "worked 14 hours at a desk job and so his hamstrings were tight". He then rambled on about how tight his hamstrings were before coming to a dead stop and I just said alright and left. Haven't seen the guy since, but I doubt he's making progress. He was stuck on 220 for 6 months.
But so far no SS sightings in the wild. I'm the only guy I know who reads and refers to your material. And everyone else in my group just comes to me.