SS - Building Strength/Muscle?

[irish27]

Lets put this to bed, someone on another thread basically said SS was a strength building routine and if I wanted to build muscle I should look into Hypertrophy programs.

I was always under the impression that doing SS whilst building strength this will also build muscle?

[Mark Rippetoe]

What other mechanism would you postulate to account for a doubling or tripling of strength and a 30% bodyweight gain other than muscle growth? Nighty-night.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

Why would you want to build muscle if it doesn't come with strength gains?

[clay]

Neurological efficiency and body fat.

[Mark Rippetoe]

An interesting theory. Let's ask the guys who have done it if they think that is a valid explanation.

[MAD9692]

I don't agree at all. Obviously neurological efficiency and BF is part of the equation. However - I've been lifting weights for about 10 years and I never put on so much weight (45lbs) increased strength so rapidly (100lb squat increase in 4 months) in such a short time frame and with such an easy to understand/do workout. I did get a bit chubby from all the GOMAD- so i went on a paleo diet for 2 weeks and dropped 10lbs (mostly BF) and now I look pretty fucking jacked.
Much bigger/stronger than I ever was doing traditional BB or CF workouts.

[clay]

I don't agree at all. Obviously neurological efficiency and BF is part of the equation. However - I've been lifting weights for about 10 years and I never put on so much weight (45lbs) increased strength so rapidly (100lb squat increase in 4 months) in such a short time frame and with such an easy to understand/do workout. I did get a bit chubby from all the GOMAD- so i went on a paleo diet for 2 weeks and dropped 10lbs (mostly BF) and now I look pretty fucking jacked.
Much bigger/stronger than I ever was doing traditional BB or CF workouts.

SS was my first serious attempt at real strength training. I had been on a 5x5 variant, incosistently, for a few months prior, but SS was the first program I did.

In 3-4 months my squat and deadlift went up ~60kg, bench up ~30kg, press was pretty, it increased about ~10kg.

Bodyweight went up ~13kg. 90% of which was bodyfat.

With those numbers, I just can not attribute hypertrophy, and thus better leverages, to my strength increases. I can only credit neurological efficiency to my strength gains. And obviously bodyfat to my weight gain. Which looked half decent with a shirt on, as my shoulders, chest and legs appeared bigger with the layers of fat. However, with my clothes of, which is where I care what the chicks see, my physical appearance was no longer as appealing with the extra bodyfat.

Thank God I had another huge appendage in full view with my clothes off to distract the chicks from the other fat, lol!

As Rip says, a lot of money and a big cock (or something like that), the bodyfat isn't favourable in this equation.

Impressive gains, in your case, by the way. Well done.

[karpasia]

SS was my first serious attempt at real strength training. I had been on a 5x5 variant, incosistently, for a few months prior, but SS was the first program I did.

In 3-4 months my squat and deadlift went up ~60kg, bench up ~30kg, press was pretty, it increased about ~10kg.

Bodyweight went up ~13kg. 90% of which was bodyfat.

With those numbers, I just can not attribute hypertrophy, and thus better leverages, to my strength increases. I can only credit neurological efficiency to my strength gains. And obviously bodyfat to my weight gain. Which looked half decent with a shirt on, as my shoulders, chest and legs appeared bigger with the layers of fat. However, with my clothes of, which is where I care what the chicks see, my physical appearance was no longer as appealing with the extra bodyfat.

Thank God I had another huge appendage in full view with my clothes off to distract the chicks from the other fat, lol!

As Rip says, a lot of money and a big cock (or something like that), the bodyfat isn't favourable in this equation.

Impressive gains, in your case, by the way. Well done.

By your own log posted in your link doing SS for 3 months your squat went from 95kg to 150kg which is brilliant progress. Then you go on to say you put on 15kg and estimate 6kg was lean. You've now said you put on 13kg and 90% was fat (ie 12kg).

What was the basis for this estimate?
so did you put on 1kg of muscle or 6kg?

You also did SS after doing a similar 5x5 style program for 7-8 months, putting on 8kg and making the attendant neurological gains typical of a complete newbie.

So you've gained, by your own estimates, at least 12kg or 26lbs of muscle doing sets of 5 in less than 1 year.

So, how is it that you say sets of 5 don't drive hypertrophy exactly?

BTW even if you only gained 6kg in 3 months doing SS, that is still 500g or week or almost 100g a day of muscle. That's a phenomenal amount of lean mass gain.

Coach never said you wouldn't gain fat doing GOMAD and SS - in fact he has frequently said you will, but the strength gains which are much harder to attain are worth it.

The difference is you appear to be more concerned about how you look, than the fact you've gotten your squat up to 150kg in less than 1 year.

[Roland83]

SS was my first serious attempt at real strength training. I had been on a 5x5 variant, incosistently, for a few months prior, but SS was the first program I did.

In 3-4 months my squat and deadlift went up ~60kg, bench up ~30kg, press was pretty, it increased about ~10kg.

Bodyweight went up ~13kg. 90% of which was bodyfat.

With those numbers, I just can not attribute hypertrophy, and thus better leverages, to my strength increases. I can only credit neurological efficiency to my strength gains. And obviously bodyfat to my weight gain. Which looked half decent with a shirt on, as my shoulders, chest and legs appeared bigger with the layers of fat. However, with my clothes of, which is where I care what the chicks see, my physical appearance was no longer as appealing with the extra bodyfat.
.

In 4 months you gained up to 60KG on some compound whole body lifts and only around 1kg of muscle but over 10kg pure fat? Which of the many devices are you using to measure body fat or is it a guess? Sorry I just think it would be hard to do well and increase on all of those lifts and gain only 1kg of muscle. I've gained about the same amount of weright and can feel and see new lumps of muscle i never knew could exist, it sure as hell hasn't been 90% fat.

[od1]

I don't agree at all. Obviously neurological efficiency and BF is part of the equation. However - I've been lifting weights for about 10 years and I never put on so much weight (45lbs) increased strength so rapidly (100lb squat increase in 4 months) in such a short time frame and with such an easy to understand/do workout. I did get a bit chubby from all the GOMAD- so i went on a paleo diet for 2 weeks and dropped 10lbs (mostly BF) and now I look pretty fucking jacked.
Much bigger/stronger than I ever was doing traditional BB or CF workouts.

I'm in my late 30s, and had very similar results except I'm still purposely keeping the body fat. The body fat is actually barely noticeable, and given the strength that I have acquired with it's resulting increase in sport performance, I'm keeping it because I fear that I might lose some strength by trying to lose the fat.

So, this program works damn fine. I still keep repeating that every high school kid should be required to go through this program before graduation. It's really so damn easy that it's silly not to.