H*ngry Edition – Starting Strength Weekly Report February 3, 2025

Jhun12

Rip,

3 questions

1) Do you recommend for powerlifting pausing all first reps for the bench or only when doing heavy singles?

2) How did you train the week of the meet when you were actively competing in powerlifting that worked best?

3) When running the halting/rack pull program when did you reintroduce the deadlift before a meet?

Mark Rippetoe

1. I don’t coach Powerlifting. You get stronger on the bench by utilizing the stretch reflex at the bottom.

2. I did a heavy workout with doubles or triples the Monday before the meet, and then Thursday did a circuit of light squat/bench/deadlift to keep the grooves fresh.

3. I didn’t deadlift except at the meet. I knew how to deadlift, and it didn’t need reintroduction.

Jhun12

I get you don’t actively coach powerlifting, but I respect your opinion. When Starr was coaching you for meets did he have you pausing all your bench reps? Also, did you always use straps in your training for your pulls?

Mark Rippetoe

You have to practice the pause. Do NOT listen to the judge, just make the pause correctly. Not all the sets need a pause. I strapped all my heavy rack pulls and haltings, but not the warmups.

laprcnx

Hello sir, been a fan for years.

I’m 42 y/o, used the SS method about 10-12 years ago and made good progress. Used the Texas method circa 2019 and made some more progress. I’m 5’9 currently about 180lbs, I enjoy playing Flag Football, and I am considering trying my first powerlifting meet in June. My best 1RM, which was last year in the fall, was 275 Bench, 405 Squat, & 495 Deadlift.

I would like to continue to make strength gains but I have been running into a wall. Playing slot or cornerback the added body weight in the past has caused me a lot of low back, knee, and ankle pain. I got up to 190-195 at one point (however, when I hit my maxes I was about 183) also I have backed off the heavy sets of 5 for the past 6 months because it was just kicking my ass. I still train but I am using more Hypertrophy protocol, 4 days a week, my joints feel better, but Im itching to get back to heavy 5s. I find myself having to be much more strategic because the systemic fatigue was crushing me. I used to train 3 days a week but the 2 hour workouts were unsustainable with my family schedule as well.

If Im feeling confident in June with my numbers I want to compete at the powerlifting meet at 83 kg. So just looking for your expertise on how to juggle these different goals (flag football, strength, and life), not kill myself, and still be able to compete at a higher level.

BTW I bought Practical Programming and I am reading the chapter about the Intermediate lifter now.

Thanks again for my years of solid gains

Maybach

Man what is with all these 5’9″ guys who weigh 30 pounds less than me talking about how being that way just turns them into degenerated pieces of shit? They hit 210 and they’re snoring, farting, knee pain, back pain, legs falling off, eyes melting out of their sockets.

Mark Rippetoe

I just get tired of responding to it. That’s why I didn’t reply. Abz have won the argument. He obviously thinks that champion powerlifters at 5’9″ weigh 185, with abs. and play flag football. Maybe they do.

laprcnx

Don’t have abs… Not really concerned with having them. Just telling you my experience. Last time I was 195 and doing my normal field work at practice I couldn’t sit down at a movie or on a plane without experiencing knee pain. Maybe causation isn’t correlation but being a few pounds lighter my knees stopped hurting.

Maybach, at one point I was heavier about 15lbs. And I felt how I felt… However, Im willing to admit that the knee and back pain after fieldwork may have come from something else, but losing a few lbs it went away. So, if you’ve heard this concern before from other 5’9″ guys who sprint and lift and quickly just dismiss it as bullshit then maybe you could offer some insight how I may be looking at this the wrong way rather then just trolling my question.

Maybach

“I think I’m allergic to shellfish. Every time I eat shrimp out of the dumpster behind Long John Silver’s, I get sick. I know correlation might not equal causation, but as soon as I stopped I started feeling much better”

This is how you sound.

If the mere task of existing at a higher body weight is causing you debilitating pain, then you’re fucked, man. I don’t know what to tell you. You’ve got some connective tissue disorder and have no business powerlifting or playing flag football, both of which are much harder on the knees than walking around weighing 210.

Back pain, blood work, snoring, are all just the older, more serious sounding excuses that razor abs are to not gain weight. If you were just “trying to keep active” I’d say be happy with your modest numbers and hang out at 183. But you’re trying to be a competitive powerlifter? I mean, wake the fuck up man. Listen to yourself.

Yngvi

This “lighter is always better” sort of thinking that is currently fashionable for many doctors to promote does not make sense from any physiological basis.

Do bodybuilders report more injury and more joint pain at lower body fat percentages or higher? Why?

The added stability in the joints from the extra muscle and fat outweighs the added traumatic/repetitive stress due to a small jump in bodyweight.

If you are a land whale, slug or another form of gelatinous sea creature, this may not apply.