Starting Strength Radio topic suggestions

[Nick Delgadillo]

We’re working on a topic list for future SS Radio episodes. Post your suggestions below. Let’s see what you guys can come up with.

[Fatfacts25]

There are a lot of personal training gyms and a lot fail. What makes the SS gyms able to succeed where others cannot? Training philosophy aside, that would too easy an answer. What BUSINESS strategy do these facility’s need to operate for the long haul?

[Ivan Stepic]

Selfishly proposing olympic weightlifting. I enjoyed the recent video series on it.

[Lee F. Stewart]

Programming for female lifters in proximity (or during) oestrus cycle. Not being funny. What considerations? Has there been observed changes, good or bad, in performance leading up to or during oestrus? Perhaps a female coach to attend discussion would be prudent?

[Travis Reid]

I would love to see episodes with Darin Deaton and Sully - I always love to hear these Doctors talk about barbell training and health.

I'd also love to hear from Ray Gillenwater, an in-depth interview about the SS Gyms project, especially now that there is a years worth of data to decipher.

Thanks Nick! I love the show. It's mandatory viewing/listening for me every week. Keep up the great work mate.

[DAllen]

1. What do hard nipples actually signify or portend?
2. Trying for outstanding results in one dimension (eg, strength) creates costs in other dimensions. For example, eating to spike IGF-1 to promote muscle hypertrophy also promotes cancer cell multiplication. It’s a growth factor after all. Perhaps strength can be trained a bit slower without collateral damage via cancer or arterial insult or visceral fat loading.
3. Why are strong XX’s so dang cute? (This question is from an XY married to a strong XX.) Someone out there that can talk in complete sentences knows the answer. Write out the cue cards for Mr. Rippetoe..
4. While recovering from two rotator cuff repairs this year (6 tendons total), it occurs to me that over-50 types need to get strong without the unintended consequences that go with strengthening over-50 equipment. In the wiser, grayer gym population, injures are waiting to surprise. Effective strength programming doesn’t avoid these surprises because PRs are previously undone and desirable actions that are necessarily new big stressors. I’m 66 and don’t see any way to hit another PR before I’m 68. If I were 26 and recovering to make a new PR at 28, then I later would not much miss that recovery year. But when the remaining runway is short, one must not stop accelerating to do slow and goofy things like heal.
The latent injury prospects of over-50s and how to avoid realized injury needs some work by smart persons. Do it.
By the way, the over-50s often have disposable income.
5. What the heck does one do during the 15-minute inter-set rest? Write poetry?
6. About the hard nipple thing, I have a theory, but you can’t afford.... Nevermind.
7. When the squat comes up with five new pounds, the sweating person cannot suppress the whole-body smile. How come?

[MWM]

Selfishly proposing olympic weightlifting. I enjoyed the recent video series on it.

I'd also be interested in this. It would be great to hear discussion about, for example, when it makes sense to move from a general strength training programme to a weightlifting programme (i.e. at the end of an NLP? at the end of the early intermediate phase?) if your long-term ambition is to compete in the sport; what, if any, extra considerations should be made with regards to particular injuries (e.g. lateral meniscus tears) due to the dynamic nature of the lifts? When if ever does it make sense to use straps, considering the high volume of pulling in a given week? What are the common pitfalls in weightlifting training (beyond an overemphasis on technique and an underemphasis on strength)? How should you decide which weight class to compete in? Beyond bumper plates, is there any particular equipment/clothing which is especially useful for weightlifting but not general strength training?

It might also be interesting to hear Rip's thoughts on Strongman, but I'm not familiar with Strongman so I don't have any suggestions for more specific topics or questions. We hear a lot about powerlifting but not nearly as much about the other strength sports.

[Erik Y]

I always enjoy interviews that focus less on nuts and bolts or specific topics and more on stories and grit and the mentality necessary to actually do the work, get strong, and keep training. Would love to hear an episode with one of these guys who suffered a cataclysmic injury and kept training or used their training to get through it. Same for athletes who train or old hands in the iron game who are still at it in their eighties and nineties.

[BroadDaylight]

Programming for female lifters in proximity (or during) oestrus cycle. Not being funny. What considerations? Has there been observed changes, good or bad, in performance leading up to or during oestrus? Perhaps a female coach to attend discussion would be prudent?

Sorry (not sorry) to be pedantic... but female humans, aka women, do not have an (o)estrous cycle; we have a menstrual cycle. They aren't synonymous.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yes, that was terribly offensive. Even I, who have extensive education in biology and zoology, was offended. I'm having him killed. Thanks for being offended for the rest of us.