Barbells are Best for Aesthetics with Robert Santana | Starting Strength Radio # 26

Mark Rippetoe and Robert Santana, RD, SSC, discuss aesthetics, training, and nutrition.

https://youtu.be/0Or96GtqyJQ

Great stuff, I always look forward to a new episode for my Friday lunch break.
This is probably the funniest episode so far, I almost choked on my gallon of milk from laughing too much.

Enjoyed that. Photographs are a good idea. Tart cherry pie mmmmmmm with a scoop of clotted cream, perfect. Do you have clotted cream in the US of A

Never knew about that skin thickness/tension thing. Explains why I never could get a good read from a set of calipers on any thigh sites.

Thanks, this is to the point and gives the reason why. I know I can get distracted by so many opinions. This answers the question in “can you get muscular with SS?”

Great episode, guys.

My n=1 experience, for what it's worth. After discovering in June that my blood sugar was at prediabetic levels, I decided to start tracking my macros. Initially I just wanted to get a handle on what carbs I was eating and how much. After a week of that, I realized that I wasn't eating nearly enough protein and what protein I was eating was also high in fat. So then I decided if I was going to track the numbers anyway, I might as well see if I could lose some weight. So I calculated a rough maintenance calorie number and decided to try to stay under it by 200 to 500 calories a day. I put my protein target at 1g/lb of bodyweight, my carbs at over 300g per day, and my fat as low as I could get it, but I aimed for less than 60g.

The first thing that happened was my lifts got a lot more consistent. I also, partly due to calorie restriction and its impact on recovery, and partly due to schedule, wound up training with two days rest (or more, sometimes). I'm getting back to a more consistent schedule now, for what it's worth, and am in my second week of intermediate upper body programming (per Nick's article). My squats and pulls will be there soon too (squats have been delayed, first to correcting my form, and then due to a nagging injury, otherwise I would have switched to TM or 4 day split already). I also walk a fair amount. Probably 8 to 10 miles a week, depending on my schedule.

Hard numbers: when I started this project on June 17th I weighed 207.5 lbs. On Wednesday I weighed 188.5. I've added 30 pounds to every lift, in the same timeframe (I don't clean because I never learned how, but I'm hoping to correct that). I've lost more than 3 inches off my waist and I had to buy bigger dress shirts for work because my chest and shoulders have gotten bigger. And I know my thighs are bigger too based on how my pants fit.

I track every single thing I eat...mostly whole foods because it's easier to calculate. As of right now I'm still aiming for 190g of protein and 300 to 330 g of carbs. Interestingly over the last couple weeks my weight has stayed almost constant while I've still lost some waist circumference and seen noticeable muscle growth in my upper body and legs. I'm considering bumping up my total calories soon, based on how much hungrier I've been since doing 5x5s on the press and bench. I can't imagine that will change once I'm doing 5x5 squats, and I'd like to drive the muscle gains I'm seeing.

So, the short of it is, you can lose bodyfat and add weight to the bar, and you can track your food...if you're honest and want to. Yes, it's hard work, and yes, lifting progress will be slower. I am really curious to see what my blood sugar looks like in a couple weeks when I go back for a followup.