Originally Posted by
FatButWeak
One of the greatest things about "Starting Strength, the philosophy," is that strength uber alles.
As a kid born in 1970, I participated in the presidential physical fitness challenges and, despite being a super active, normal, healthy, sports-oriented, bike jumping, ball throwing normal kid...I never won shit and I couldn't meet any of the standards, except for situps, as I recall. Genetically i was (still am) very tall, with long levers, lower levels of muscularity and higher levels of bodyfat. This made me "skinny fat" in today's parlance, and although I was super active year round playing sports, and I had good eye-hand coordination and all that shit, I was just too weak to powerfully and accurately move my body through time and space. So my sports and athletic career never really got anywhere.
Sadly, despite loving to lift weights and loving to work out in the gym (fucking bodybuilding magazines were full of worthless advice for someone like me, despite the fact that I consumed massive amounts of them regularly) , it was not until age 40 or so that I finally discovered SS the novice linear progression and I learned the lifts and I learned the philosophy did I finally get that strength was the most important thing.
And so, it has been. And it has greatly improved every facet of my life. If only I had been "strong like bull" in my younger years, things could have gone much differently for me. Presently, women literally proposition me and touch me in public because of arms, shouldrs, traps and back - not all day, every day, but it happens in a way that it never did when I was a much younger man. So for all the haters of the SS programs, who claim it does not build muscle - EAT SHIT, then get stronger! The searing hatred that I have for EVERYONE (doctors, coaches, teachers, the President's Council on Physical Fitness, etc.) that failed to push the simple message of strength through barbells is profound without end. Even though I coincidentally share most of his political views, Rip is a godless asshole of person. I think we all agree on that. But because of his simple, straightforward, honest, integral and unpolished message of strength through barbells he deserves a throne in the Pantheon of intellects affecting human accomplishment, and for that ALONE I feel he MAY someday qualify as a saint. No cap.
Thanks Rip, and may Bill Fixx twist in agonized hell forever, in a duet of screaming 69 with Ancel Keyes.