I have come to believe that the SS program is “bone training”. We willingly place the entire skeleton under load, We do not isolate “muscles” - we use the skeleton as levers, and yield all the benefits of it- stronger, harder, denser bones, a body free of osteoporosis and sarcopenia (you young guns out there may not think that’s important, but wait until you are in your 50’s!) Additionally, we might actually learn from Rip and Sully that the bones are both an organ and a gland, signaling and secreting enzymes to the muscles which play an important role in muscle growth.
Ignore the role of skeletal loading at your own peril. Some people have to learn the difficult fact that “Easy Doesn’t Work”. The big compound movements are difficult - hard, if you will. But look at the alternative - fractured femur or hip in your 50’s? No thanks.
“Like it or not, we remain the possessors of potentially strong muscles, BONE, sinew, and nerve, and these hard-won commodities demand out attention. They were too long in the making to just be ignored, and we do so at our own peril. They are the very components of our existence, the quality of which now depend on our conscious, directed effort at giving them the stimulus they need to stay in the condition that is normal to them.
Thank you Rip for the incredible Preface to SS 3rd Edition, and to Sully for the detailed explanation of bone signaling and secretions in The Barbell Prescription. (Sorry, I don’t mean to preach to the choir....I am writing this to my 54 year old self to remember why I need to get under the bar.)
Should also included this excerpt from the Preface of Starting Strength 3rd Ed which addresses the topic directly:
“All of the exercises described in this book involve varying degrees of skeletal loading. After all, the bones are what ultimately support the weight on the bar. Bone is living, stress-responsive tissue, just like muscle, ligament, tendon, skin, nerve, and brain. It adapts to stress just like any other tissue, and becomes denser and harder in response to heavy weight. This aspect of barbell training is very important to older trainees and women, whose bone density is a major factor in continued health.”