What does this mean?

[ludwig23]

A Cold Slap in the Newbie Face | T Nation

And unless you bodybuild for a living, make sure your alarm is of sufficient volume.

[manveer]

It means that since the use of ear plugs is being recommended to block out the noise, you will need an alarm clock which is loud enough to wake you up. Unless you are a professional bodybuilder with no other obligations, because then you can afford to sleep through your alarm clock or may not use one at all.

Right now, you younger guys ought to be sleeping pretty well. If not, there's probably a reason that you can fix relatively easily, if you want to. It will usually involve light, temperature, or noise. Some modifications to the room windows (like blinds, maybe) will correct the light thing, and if you can afford a gym membership we'll assume you have some control over your room temperature. Opinions vary, but it seems that everybody agrees on a range of between 60 and 72 degrees.

The noise may not be within your purview to alter; after all, you can't always make everybody just shut the fuck up, and that's a shame. However, Charles Staley told me a secret once. He uses earplugs. It works, and I recommend them highly. Just be sure that you're sleeping in a place where you won't need to react instantly to an important noise, i.e. home invaders, zombies, etc. And unless you bodybuild for a living, make sure your alarm is of sufficient volume.

[Gerhard]

That entire article was not Rip at his finest... There are some key points, but it will be lost on people who take thigs literally and don't look for subtleties...

[ludwig23]

It means that since the use of ear plugs is being recommended to block out the noise, you will need an alarm clock which is loud enough to wake you up. Unless you are a professional bodybuilder with no other obligations, because then you can afford to sleep through your alarm clock or may not use one at all.

Oh yeah. That makes sense. I could not connect the ear plugs recommendation even just after one sentence.
My bad.

[Nermin]

There are some key points, but it will be lost on people who take thigs literally and don't look for subtleties...

Won't everything cool and worthwhile, though?

[MBasic]

That entire article was not Rip at his finest...

favorite part:

The sad thing about this is that the guys who can't seem to tolerate the idea of gaining 5% bodyfat are the very guys that know the most about how to take it off when and if the time comes to do so. They're also the guys that need to gain weight the most, since they're usually skinny little insect-looking dudes who just appear to be starved, not lean like they seem to think. Remember, we can't see your razor abs – all we're likely to notice is your pencil neck and narrow ass.

[Gerhard]

Well here's the subtleties I THINK Rip is trying to stress.

- If one continues to (truly) undereat, observing prototypical skinny-guy eating maintenence habits, within the context of heavy strength training, they will never achieve anything. In the words of the infamous Mike Graham: "Not a fucking dime"! You need to be eating enough to fuel and recover from training sessions. If you are truly skinny (read: not carrying around a higher bodyfat percentage, in leiu of being thin, aka "skinnyfat") you will not succeed without gaining some weight, because the enhanced recomp effect that most newbies can take advantage of, will be non-existent without that excess bodyfat to fuel it.

If you look like this:



You need to gain weight,

But... If you gain weight at the rapid pace on Starting Strength and take LP to the limit (which may not actually be that much, or may be something you could have done without gaining as much weight) or any pure strength programs... Here's a bit of unpopular observation: Unless you are a freak like say Bryan Fox, it's unlikely you will look great at the end of gaining a decent amount of weight, by simply doing general strength programming. What the SS program does is takes you from NOTHING to something, sets you up with a basic foundation with which to pursue other more specific endeavours.

Let's talk about me for a minute. I am not genetically gifted, I have no athletic background, I spent over a decade being sedentary and quite overweight and even obese in stages. I refused to (and still do, which may have prompted MBasic's quote - ya bugger! ) "fluff" up. I had cut down from an obese 140k+kg to a "skinnyfat" 82kg, without ever touching a barbell. Then I discovered lifting, I didn't "bulk" But, I ate enough to maintain my weight and drive progress on basic barebones barbell strength programming until LP was up. Apart from a three month post-weight loss binge period (which took me to just under 90kg from 82kg), I didn't really gain at all. I then spent a year training under Jordan Feigenbaum, who I constantly fought with over gaining weight, I spent the first 6 months of that relationship cutting down from that indiscretion that took me to 90kg and holding steady (recomping) around the 82kg mark, whilst significantly improving my work capacity by sheer fucking will, keeping up with Jordan's programming (which was designed for somebody gaining weight, given what I initially stated to him) as best I could. I was back at 82kg, but I had significantly improved my body composition, to the point I was maybe 12% bodyfat at best. We eventually mutually agreed to gain a bit of weight, I went up to just under 86kg before I realised that this kind of programming wasn't suitable for me, and I elected to simply maintain, find different programming that I could make work better, and try to tap out what I had left as a "lighter" lifter.

I am not underweight by any means (in a clinical or "normal person" context), because I have theoretically added 7-9kg of LBM over my tenure as a lifter, whilst remaining at a lower bodyfat. I am underweight by Powerlifting or Rip standards, but I like to think I've justified my approach by the fact I can Squat 180kg and pulled 500 last week, even if my Bench Press does suck (maybe ~110kg? 103.5kg is my current tested best). Did I have to work harder than necessary for this? Maybe, but now I've achieved some serious milestones and tapped out what I'm capable of at a lighter weight, I'm more inclined to gain (sensibly) and do the same at a heavier bodyweight.

Really, it depends on your mentality. Do you want to be strong as fast as possible, or do you want to take the harder approach, make this a battle, truly work your ass off for every kg on that bar, exhaust what you are capable of before you choose to become "a healthy adult male"?

[danlightbulb]

Great article from Rip. But 5-6k calories is very very difficult. I know many people can do it, have time to do it, make time to do it, etc etc, but its a huge amount of food that you have to be pretty much eating all day to get anywhere near it. I can't do it. Even drinking lots of milk I can't get anywhere near it. Naturally thin, small appetite, limited food palette. Without milk I'd struggle to get 3k. At age 20 how could you afford to eat that much?

Maybe I'm 'mis-seeing' here. But there are so many 'very large' men around and I don't believe they eat 6k calories a day. Where I work there are some roadworking guys, and a couple of them are really big guys from doing the manual work, but again I really don't think they eat 6k a day. Food confuses me in all honesty. I think some people are natural eaters and some are just not.

[dhalli]

Great article from Rip. But 5-6k calories is very very difficult. I know many people can do it, have time to do it, make time to do it, etc etc, but its a huge amount of food that you have to be pretty much eating all day to get anywhere near it. I can't do it. Even drinking lots of milk I can't get anywhere near it. Naturally thin, small appetite, limited food palette. Without milk I'd struggle to get 3k. At age 20 how could you afford to eat that much?

Maybe I'm 'mis-seeing' here. But there are so many 'very large' men around and I don't believe they eat 6k calories a day. Where I work there are some roadworking guys, and a couple of them are really big guys from doing the manual work, but again I really don't think they eat 6k a day. Food confuses me in all honesty. I think some people are natural eaters and some are just not.

Eating "clean" it's probably very difficult... But cheeseburgers, ice cream, pizza with olive oil poured on it, and milk (what's a gallon of hole milk have? 2k-ish?)

I've got a friend who's in no way into lifting, just wanted to drop some pounds (he's got all the belly). He started by counting calories on his normal daily diet for a week, and was averaging close to 5k/day.

Me... I'm too old to eat mucho calories, though I'd not mind doing so if it weren't for the rampant waist size change that suddenly accompanies said massive calories which is a new phenomenon happening in my 40s. When I track it, I'm averaging about 3800/day, no milk and occasional ice cream (and I'm eating pretty "clean")... I love eating, though, and like I said, would gladly eat more if it didn't make my pants tight

[manveer]

But... If you gain weight at the rapid pace on Starting Strength and take LP to the limit (which may not actually be that much, or may be something you could have done without gaining as much weight) or any pure strength programs... Here's a bit of unpopular observation: Unless you are a freak like say Bryan Fox, it's unlikely you will look great at the end of gaining a decent amount of weight, by simply doing general strength programming. What the SS program does is takes you from NOTHING to something, sets you up with a basic foundation with which to pursue other more specific endeavours.

Yes, SS is a program for building a strength foundation and not aesthetics. Why would this be an unpopular observation?

Really, it depends on your mentality. Do you want to be strong as fast as possible, or do you want to take the harder approach, make this a battle, truly work your ass off for every kg on that bar, exhaust what you are capable of before you choose to become "a healthy adult male"?

Why would you want to do this? If it's for aesthetic reasons, then sure...focus on that. If your primary goal is acquisition of strength and gaining weight sensibly gets you there faster, why wouldn't you do that? You will still have to work your ass off as the weights climb.