It's too bad you and Andy Baker have fallen out of favor with Rip and Nick D. Years ago the website and seminars were much, much different than they are now. It used to have a ton of content like this. Now it's all agenda and spite.
Some of it might be the failed hyping of once-wunderkind Chase Lindley, who is now completely burnt out. Some of it might be paranoia about people who worked with BLOC during the lawsuit.
SS since the mid 2000s will be a case study in how to squander a market advantage.
It's unfortunate what happened but I still remember my time with SS very fondly. I learned a lot from Rip and met a lot of other great people as a result of my affiliation with him, so generally try to keep my comments positive, despite what happened
I don't keep up with things there as much as I used to when I was a part of it, of course, but I didn't get the sense it was all agenda and spite now. It's sad if that's the public perception though, from someone who clearly used to be a fan like yourself and followed the ins and outs.
Indeed. I went through a novice progression a decade or so ago, and have kept up with my training. For people who care about training for strength, and who aren't into powerlifting (since, for reasons you've outlined in the past, it's a way for people to get around being strong) or Strongman (the focus on overhead movements is great, but I am only really into the static events), had hoped strengthlifting would work out.
Do you know if anyone else is trying to relaunch that sport? Would have to be a passion project for sure, since it's pretty niche, and would need some incentives in terms of price money for it to be worth it.
Not that I know of. It was gaining steam and had a puncher's chance before the BLOC split, but that basically killed it. The first nationals, held in Jan 2019 for the 2018 qualifying year, was well attended by both lifters and fans, and had real energy about it. The SL meets I judged or lifted at in queens starting in 2014 were all high energy and well attended too. It seemed like it was breaking out of the small niche, but that split basically squashed everything it had going. I don't know anyone with the reach and interest to try to bring it back right now.
Makes sense. I've only competed (casually) in USPA, but I hate the bench shenanigans and sumo (though I'm seeing more conventional deadlifting recently). It's really going to take a big sponsor for it to make a comeback.
Wolf. Would you still recommend enhanced lifters run the NLP? I’m 23, 5’11” 205lbs 9% BF, have only really trained BB, never test maxes. Incline bench is 315 for 5. Can do 10 squats at 315 (high bar). Don’t deadlift. Been working out for 3 years. Want to dedicate 1-1.5 years to strength.
Any special considerations for enhanced guys? Running 500mg test, 400mg deca per week. Go down to a sports TRT dosage between cycles.
Hard to say. If you weren't running anything those numbers would indicate that you've most likely trained your way past an LP even if you didn't do one, but hard to say given your situation. I'd give it a try, making sure to start light enough that you give yourself 2-3 weeks to really nail the form (it sounds like you haven't really been doing the main 4 movements of the program the way we teach them) and adjust to the different demands of the program from what you've been doing. If, after that - assuming you're eating to recover, resting properly between sets, not making weight jumps that are too big (should be 2.5 for bench and press, 5 for squat and DL) you're unable to recover workout to workout and make progress on the lifts according to the program's schedule, you know that you trained your way past it and shouldn't force it. A weekly or bi-weekly progress schedule might be more appropriate to try.
I notice I have trouble with this on 4 or 5 rep in a set. I'm assuming its because my core is not engaging due to fatigue. I'm working on my NLP. Is this where a belt would come in handy to help me engage my core for the entire rep?
If you're doing it properly the whole set til ~the last rep, it's probably just fatigue. Focus your hardest on keeping chest up before those last 1-2 hard reps, but after the fact, if the lag was small, don't sweat it. However you must never use this as an ex-ante excuse not to try to make the lag zero, only an ex post facto evaluation if you should continue going up based on whether it was a small lag (yes, go up), or a large one (maybe you need to work on hip drive, and it's not merely a fatigue issue).
It's probably not "your core," per se, as the whole system is working together here.
A belt is useful regardless though, once you've got the basic form down - so I'd get one anyway.
It's too bad you and Andy Baker have fallen out of favor with Rip and Nick D. Years ago the website and seminars were much, much different than they are now. It used to have a ton of content like this. Now it's all agenda and spite.
Some of it might be the failed hyping of once-wunderkind Chase Lindley, who is now completely burnt out. Some of it might be paranoia about people who worked with BLOC during the lawsuit.
SS since the mid 2000s will be a case study in how to squander a market advantage.
It's unfortunate what happened but I still remember my time with SS very fondly. I learned a lot from Rip and met a lot of other great people as a result of my affiliation with him, so generally try to keep my comments positive, despite what happened
I don't keep up with things there as much as I used to when I was a part of it, of course, but I didn't get the sense it was all agenda and spite now. It's sad if that's the public perception though, from someone who clearly used to be a fan like yourself and followed the ins and outs.
Indeed. I went through a novice progression a decade or so ago, and have kept up with my training. For people who care about training for strength, and who aren't into powerlifting (since, for reasons you've outlined in the past, it's a way for people to get around being strong) or Strongman (the focus on overhead movements is great, but I am only really into the static events), had hoped strengthlifting would work out.
Do you know if anyone else is trying to relaunch that sport? Would have to be a passion project for sure, since it's pretty niche, and would need some incentives in terms of price money for it to be worth it.
Not that I know of. It was gaining steam and had a puncher's chance before the BLOC split, but that basically killed it. The first nationals, held in Jan 2019 for the 2018 qualifying year, was well attended by both lifters and fans, and had real energy about it. The SL meets I judged or lifted at in queens starting in 2014 were all high energy and well attended too. It seemed like it was breaking out of the small niche, but that split basically squashed everything it had going. I don't know anyone with the reach and interest to try to bring it back right now.
Makes sense. I've only competed (casually) in USPA, but I hate the bench shenanigans and sumo (though I'm seeing more conventional deadlifting recently). It's really going to take a big sponsor for it to make a comeback.
Wolf. Would you still recommend enhanced lifters run the NLP? I’m 23, 5’11” 205lbs 9% BF, have only really trained BB, never test maxes. Incline bench is 315 for 5. Can do 10 squats at 315 (high bar). Don’t deadlift. Been working out for 3 years. Want to dedicate 1-1.5 years to strength.
Any special considerations for enhanced guys? Running 500mg test, 400mg deca per week. Go down to a sports TRT dosage between cycles.
Hard to say. If you weren't running anything those numbers would indicate that you've most likely trained your way past an LP even if you didn't do one, but hard to say given your situation. I'd give it a try, making sure to start light enough that you give yourself 2-3 weeks to really nail the form (it sounds like you haven't really been doing the main 4 movements of the program the way we teach them) and adjust to the different demands of the program from what you've been doing. If, after that - assuming you're eating to recover, resting properly between sets, not making weight jumps that are too big (should be 2.5 for bench and press, 5 for squat and DL) you're unable to recover workout to workout and make progress on the lifts according to the program's schedule, you know that you trained your way past it and shouldn't force it. A weekly or bi-weekly progress schedule might be more appropriate to try.
I notice I have trouble with this on 4 or 5 rep in a set. I'm assuming its because my core is not engaging due to fatigue. I'm working on my NLP. Is this where a belt would come in handy to help me engage my core for the entire rep?
If you're doing it properly the whole set til ~the last rep, it's probably just fatigue. Focus your hardest on keeping chest up before those last 1-2 hard reps, but after the fact, if the lag was small, don't sweat it. However you must never use this as an ex-ante excuse not to try to make the lag zero, only an ex post facto evaluation if you should continue going up based on whether it was a small lag (yes, go up), or a large one (maybe you need to work on hip drive, and it's not merely a fatigue issue).
It's probably not "your core," per se, as the whole system is working together here.
A belt is useful regardless though, once you've got the basic form down - so I'd get one anyway.