building strength before trying to build muscle is solid advice, and you've obviously never read Rippetoe's articles, most of which I might add, are aimed at young (high school age) beginners, the dietary advice is aimed at "hardgainers" in place of drinking sugar filled mass gainer shakes. What is online powerlifting anyway?
I'd say whether people like it or not, that Crossfit and the weightlifting associated with it are the real 'new bodybuilding', that and the physique classes as previously mentioned.
I never said there's such a thing as online powerlifting. There's an online lifting community, eg us right here, and in general that community pushes powerlifting-esque stuff on beginners as a one-size-fits-all solution.
For about 2 years I read everything from Rippetoe. He has
some good advice....mixed in with a large pile of horseshit that, if it worked, would be demonstrated by me being huge. It's a known fact that doing it his way took me from skinny and weak to fat and less weak. When I decided to cull the fat, it turned out I was still skinny, and right now I'm approaching the weight I was before I started SS, having only a little more muscle on me than I did back then.
Progressive overload is progressive overload is progressive overload. As a beginner, you can get stronger by vigorously picking your nose.
The most controllable variables of strength are skill and muscle. Trying to get strong first and then get muscle after is trying to get strong without including one of the key components of strength. But then saying that these beginner strength programs will make you more muscular proves the point null and void to begin with, since, if it works, they
are building muscle, not building strength first and then muscle. Regardless, what's wrong with getting stronger at 6, 8, 10 or 12 reps? Your technique will get shaky? That's Rip's main safety argument. Pro tip: apply some fricken discipline and build up your ability to focus in the next rep. Let's say you start out with 3x5 on everything up front, next session you could do 3x6 with the same weights, and your technique would carry through to the 6th reps. You can't add weight as aggressively with higher reps? Well the aggressive progression on SS is largely manufactured by starting with weights that are barely challenging -- anyone can add weight aggressively if they're going from 3x5 with weights that barely challenge them up to an actual 5RM weeks later.
"Hardgainer" or not, Rip promotes GOMAD as adding 10lb to your weight in your first 2 weeks. I'm not sure that's even a good idea for someone with anorexia or who's just been released from a POW camp, let alone someone who's otherwise normal and just wants to put on some muscle and become more athletic. Especially given how strenuous the training
isn't until a month or so into the program, and that most male beginners can't add more than 20lb of muscle onto their frame in a whole year, that's basically how to get fatter and bloat up a bit on water weight caused by not being used to exercise.
