Quote:
Originally Posted by kyleb
Again, this is something Rippetoe has already commented on elsewhere. For people overly worried about their physique, he advocates adding some high-rep work on some days. I can't remember exactly.
Regardless, all novices are nearly the same and should come close to completion of SS before starting bodybuilder nonsense.
He mentioned that in the first edition of PPST. It's not in the 2nd edition. There is an example of a young trainee who wants to add lean muscle mass after completing SS. So he would go on the Texas Method and instead of doing the Intensity Friday with a new 5RM PR every week, he'd do 5 sets of 10 to 15 reps instead and try to progress strength wise with 5x5 on Mondays. The volume days actually include training to failure etc. All the BB techniques. If there is interest, I can get the book and type that passage. It's not very long.
This is not a good thing for novices because the "moderate" weights will be way too low and you won't have a nice linear progression. And novices gain mass anyway, so the payoff of training for strength gains and adding weight to the bar is much greater.
Varying the intermediate programming like that is one instance of how you can decide what you want to focus on as soon as you are beyond the novice stage. Some people want to add muscle mass and do a more physique oriented training and do not care about pure strength gains that much anymore. That is perfectly fine AT THAT POINT IN TIME. Not earlier.
I tried this for like three weeks. 5x10 of squats across is ****ing brutal. This is not for beginners. You need to have solid form, you need to have the attitude and the experience to squat while you are basically blacking out.