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Thread: The Novice Effect

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    Texas
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    Default The Novice Effect

    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    "We have a member here at WFAC who gained 55 pounds in 11 weeks. I shit you not. Zach Evetts started with us here in late August of 2009 and by November 12 when I weighed him and measured his bodyfat he had gained a total of 55 pounds of bodyweight and a little over 31 pounds of lean body mass (LBM). This calculates to a LBM gain of 2.84 pounds per week, approximately the rate of growth seen in young farm animals. Little baby pigs grow about this fast, and lots of people make money by raising baby pigs."

    Direct article link.

    Resources page.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    Default

    the p90x thing is everywhere lately. anyway, thanks for the clarity, rip.

  3. #3
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    Dec 2009
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    Default

    Firstly, congrats to Zach! Damn.

    What do you think you could do with a 155 lber starting with a 205x5x5 squat? I'm buying and starting SS as soon as I'm out of bootcamp in May.

  4. #4

    Default

    60% LBM gain...and 40% fat!? Oh no! He must have lost his abs!

    Seriously, I think people really don't understand how necessary fat gain is for getting more muscle. The ratio is nearly 1-to-1 even in a novice and it's my understanding that it gets closer to 1-to-1 and even inverts as one gets closer to one's genetic potential for carrying muscle. (Eventually NO muscle is added--though this could be an asymptotic thing--but more fat is.)

    Takeaway: you have to get fatter to get more muscular, period. In fact, you have to gain almost as much fat as you do muscle. Eventually you will be gaining more fat than muscle. Just the way it works. It's the airbrushed magazine cover influenced majority of gym-goers who just can't wrap their heads around this biological law and who will never get bigger and stronger.

  5. #5
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    Dec 2009
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    Default

    I very much appreciate this article. Thanks for pumping these out.

  6. #6
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    Jul 2009
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    The Kingdom
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    Default

    Great article. Keep them coming!

  7. #7
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    Nov 2009
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    Hampton, VA
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    Default

    It would seem that the methodology of Crossfit would be to milk the novice phase of training as long as possible with the use of constantly varied workouts.
    Are these so called "muscle confusion" programs ever necessary or effective for the advanced trainee or would a more structured training program always have better results? (Not that I want to try such silly BS)

  8. #8
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    Nov 2009
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    Wood-Ridge, NJ
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    Default

    Good article, that reinforced what was discussed in PPST (using some more recent real-life examples).

  9. #9
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    Nov 2009
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    Exeter, NH
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    Default

    Great article, and photo proof that gaining 55 pounds in 11 weeks doesn't mean you will get fat.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    208

    Default

    starting strength coach development program
    Great Article. I have a friend on the program who is about Zach's starting size, and this will be very inspiring to him.

    RE: crossfit, p90x, etc., I discovered the same thing once I started them. They were fun and challenging up until the moment I realized there was no progression built in. I can say without exaggeration that after 9 months of p90x and crossfit, I was weaker overall than when I started (years of bodybuilding splits had given me some strength).

    After 12 workouts on starting strength and GOMAD I've gone from 215lbs. to 238 lbs. (I'm 6'5") and I haven't stalled on any lifts (5 lbs per workout).

    I wish I'd found this sooner.

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