Bill Starr and the Starting Strength Method | Mark Rippetoe

[stef]

Mark Rippetoe answers a question about the origin of the Starting Strength Method and whether it is derived from Bill Starr's programs.

[Flying_tiger]

RIP Bill Starr.

[John Watson]

The NLP is remarkably similar to a course first published in 1958 by Reg Park.

Back extension 3x10

Squat 3x5
Bench 3x5
Deadlift 3x5

Train 3x a week, adding 5 lb.
Run for 3 months.

Park called it a strength and bulk course and it was intended to be the first in a series of courses for weightlifters and body builders.

He recommends keeping a log, dropping poundage by 10% at sticking points and working back up, or increasing bodyweight.

Interestingly at the time of writing Paul Anderson was the only man to have pressed over 400 lb. (props to Chase).

Park was the 2nd person to have benched 500 lb, he was a strength based bodybuilder.

Alternating press and bench, and cutting the 3x5 deadlift down to 1x5, and deleting the back extensions are improvements that would make the program identical to the first phase of Starting Strength NLP.

Not saying SS is based on Park's program, it's obviously not, but Park was onto some of the the same basic principles very early on.

[Mark Rippetoe]

As I said, I didn't invent this shit. I just used it and wrote it down.

[Theseahawk]

If the entirety of SS was the 5 barbell exercises for sets of 5 three times per week, the book would be a page long. Yet the book isn't a page long; it's a monstrous text book, but has absolutely no redundant padding. The what, why and how of every aspect of executing those 5 barbell exercises for sets of 5 three times a week is laid down in that book and there is no other single source that can do that. You could get it all piecemeal, of course, as the information is not unique to SS, but you'd have to wade through all the bullshit and be astute enough to filter the good from the bad.