New article: A Clarification

[Mark Rippetoe]

In response to a suggestion by John Sheaffer. Read it carefully, some of you.

[caseyd123]

fan-fucking-tastic. just what i needed as a kick in the ass...

we're in for one wild summer

[Corey]

Great article.

Welcome to YNDTP Anonymous.

My name is Corey and INDTP.

[gordonrumble]

Great article. An awful lot of people need to read this.

[bomb1977]

I can vouch for the fact that when you bastardize the program it might work a little, but when you just give in and follow the program your gains will jump. Plain and simple.

I have always been very clear that I was phasing in the starting strength exercises into my workout routine which started as a full body workout twice a week back in early February. But I was 240 pounds then with a lean body mass in the mid 170's. I was 30% BF...

Now I am 22% BF and following the SS program to a complete T. My squats have gone from 185x5 to 260x5 and I feel that I have 275x5 in me very soon. Because I am outside of the optimal 10-20% BF range I have just cut the milk in half, I consume 2 litres a day instead of the 4.

It works, just fucking do it...

Current stats are

245 with a LBM in the low 190's.
260x5 squat
300x3 deadlift
115x5 overhead
150x5 powerclean
still doing assisted chins and dips, however I have made significant progress.

[DirtyD]

Everyone is pretty much out of excuses. Just Do The Fucking Program (JDTFP).

[hardAtWork]

Rip,

I skimmed the first paragraph of this article and I'm still confused!! I'm 6'3", 165lbs and 21 years old and I can't seem to get my squat up! I'm doing the program like you said - except I'm running 2 miles a day because I don't want to get fat. Plus, in the book you said anything a novice did would make his squat improve...but my squat is still stuck at 135 x 5! And I'm doing GOMAD - "Glass of Milk A Day", right? For the calcium? And its skim milk.

What am I doing wrong!?

[MikeHawk]

Mike Hawk has a question.

You say(from middle paragraph on pg 4): "after the first three or four months...bodyfat may have also gone from 10% to 18-19%...now drop the milk down to a half gallon a day for a while, and then perhaps less than that...daily caloric intake should drop to about 4000/day."

Why not keep milk intake at 3/4 or a gallon a day if the person can handle that proportion of milk to total calories, or use defatted milk(assuming it affects IGF-1 the same as whole)? And that's the main point I'm trying to get at(anabolic effect of milk). You've noticed novices who do GOMAD get better results than ones who don't, so I'm curious why you don't suggest a high milk intake during all intended periods of increasing strength regardless of bodyfat? Can most people not slowly and gradually lose bf or maintain bf while ingesting this much milk even in the presence of lowered total calories? If a trainee can handle this amount of milk and can manipulate his bodyfat as needed, wouldn't you recommend a high milk intake?

[Mark Rippetoe]

There reaches a point at which all the carbs in any flavor of milk will make you fatter faster than the anabolic environment you can sustain due to you level of training advancement makes you gain LBM. Milk is your best friend at the skinny novice level, but it will make an intermediate gain fat unnecessarily.

[Domjo54]

I know you just somewhat answered this question from MikeHawk, but will the carbs still make you fat even if they fit into the proper macros (while still limiting number of carbs)? I ask because now, the majority of my carbs come from milk (skim milk, actually, as that's what my ma buys now--it ain't bad, though), but if I am still able to hit my target, I don't see what the problem would be...plus, milk is just flat-out awesome.