Can you clarify if you guys are changing the guidance given in Practical Programming regarding rep ranges? On page 110 it says "Strength work needs up to five sets of 1 to 5 reps on the core lifts, hypertrophy calls for five sets of 12 to 15 reps with little rest between sets, and power work requires five to ten sets of 1 to 5 reps at weights light enough to move fast but heavy enough to be hard to complete." Higher rep ranges are also mentioned in other places in the book for hypertrophy but it seems like all of your recent videos have settled on 5 reps and there's no need for anything beyond that. I love Starting Strength so I'm not trying to be a "gotcha" guy or anything, just trying to clarify which guidance to follow. Thanks.

Glad I found Starting Strength. I’m 60 yrs old and it has helped me simplify my performance goals and the means to achieve them. The KZfaq technique videos are especially helpful. Thanks!

Happy to see you monetising on this great series even more. You've helped me focus over the last year on having a good regimen!

Absolutely correct. That's why I half rep. Maximum load, no wasted reps.

Rip, spell "why" Whoowai Bingo

Starting strength is a national treasure, a great community just getting it done :)

I did 5 reps for my sets for about a two months Broke my PR for Overhead press Squat Bench Barbell row I hurt my back doing deadlifts so I’m scared to go high on that. But it seems to work very well….so far.

So sets of 8-12 are only for drug users? Are they suggesting that natural bodybuilders or individuals chasing hypertrophy only do fives? And why is every Starting Strength coach fat?

Will there be a gym in Washington state?

Not a huge Ali fan but one time he was asked how many sit ups he can do. He said, idk, I only start counting when it starts to hurt. Interesting talk guys 👍

I have always stuck to 12 to 20 rep range for almost five years. The hypertrophy 5 rep range sounds tempting.

I love ss....but you even done 3 x 20 rep squats with bar equal to your body weight?

At the end of the day its apples and oranges. Sets of five get you stronger quicker. 8-12 repitions, slow and controlled, until failure. It has been proven to produce better hypertrophic stimulus. Youre gonna spend more time on the set of 8-12 than a set of five even though the set of five is heavier. Why not incorporate both.

Should I do more weight and fewer reps, or less weight and more reps?

I found 8 reps on heavy compounds to be optimal for getting big and strong

Rip has nice beard and shoulders.

The simplest thing to do is get sufficiently strong first. Now say for a small guy like me at 5’5, a 135 OHP, 225 bench, 315 squat, 405 deadlift. For an average 5’10 or bigger, 225 OHP, 315 bench, 405 squat, 495 deadlift. Go through a 3x5 until you get to those numbers or somewhere in between. Then hold a top set of 5 with where you bench 315 for one set only, try to get 6. If you get at least 5, add 2-5 lbs next session. Follow that top set by taking off 40lbs and going for as many reps as you can get which should be around 8-10, then strip off the next 50lbs so 225 is on the bar and rep that out until you know that last rep will fail. You’ll do 315, 275, 225… next time you’ll do 320, 280, 230. As long as you can get 5 or 6 on that first set, keep going up. I went from 225 3x5 on bench and I now hold a top set of 315, as a small guy and I’m pretty damn sure 3x5 strength went up no problem.

Tom Platz said something like "it took me 10 years to be able to train heavy with many reps"

Is 5 reps really ideal for every exercise? It seems good for squat and deadlift. Not so much for press

Minimum effective volume for strength is below hypertrophy maintenance volume once you’re not a beginner.

5 reps for big compounds like squat and deadlift? Sure. But sets of 5 for pullups, rows, RDL’s, tricep extensions, and curls…? Nah. Sets of 5 got me kinda strong, but eventually you’ll need to add some exercise variety and higher rep sets. Good luck fellow lifters. Pls look into Dr. Mike Israetel, he’s great post Starting Strength

So if I want a stronger bicep, better to do set of 5 than sets of 10 to 12 repetitions?

Hyper 🏆

I keep fucking burning out on SS, I cannot figure my shit out, please help.

sam sulek called out

Looking through the comments there are so many people completely missing the point. Whether you do a ten repetition set or a five repetitions that you are doing Five meaningful repetitions. If you do twenty repetitions you're doing fifteen of those reps with negligible force output. You're very likely to fail mentally before you do physically on a high repetition set because the glycolosis makes you feel like you've got battery acid pumping through your veins. Maybe one feels more manly when you're masochistically enduring the pain of a high repetition set but it's far more useful to just pick up heavier shit

Starting strength works for bigger and stronger. It is power lifting basically. But as far as fitness they don’t even talk about cardio. You can have strength and cardio. What good are muscles if your cardio is bad

Why were powerlifters from the 70s generally jacked compared with the more chubby modern ones. Is it possible to get jacked like a Doug Young from the 70s just doing 5 reps?

MCDONALDS IS THE secret

You dont have to publish papers you just have to use your eyes

Despite his pigmentation issue, Rip is a fountain of knowledge. I was told in confidence he survived solely off of toilet paper during the entire length of Covid

The only thing that I would definitely disagree is you can put on muscle with sets of 10 reps or sets of 8 reps , I know because I did it . Otherwise I definitely agree

If you release a paper on the rep range, the rest of us that can read those, would better understand your data. Based on your history of misunderstanding "papers", I wouldn't expect one to suddenly show up. (Now, I am ready for the haters section?)

Everything this guy says is so defensive, he has a “are u a dumb ass” kind of attitude, talk with a bit of respect god damn

Those big (hypertrophy) guys that are pro body builders are also on a ton of gear. Those muscles were not produced by lifting the heaviest weights possible. Not saying those don't work hard... but bigger doesnt' mean stronger when it's a hormonal signal and not necessarily because of a load stimulus.

The cult of fives. In terms of hypertrophy 8,10,12 reps will build muscle as long as you go to failure. That’s the one thing they are not talking about. Are you taking the load till failure. The science and papers have been written to prove that. And I’m not saying to not do 3,5 and 6 rep loads.

Did rip forget he passed calc 2. What’s the point of hypertrophy in a cut? To make the second order derivative of hypertrophy bigger. If mark wanted to lose 80 lbs on the scale, training could change how many of those pounds were muscle. His leanness would be different. So would an immense amount of PED’s during that cut. If Rip cut out virtually all protein/training from his diet and did long distance running to lose that 80 lbs, his body fat percentage would at the lighter weight would be bigger than if he hadn’t lowered protein or if he hadn’t done marathons.

This is like Dave Ramsey trying to convince people on credit cards lol

I have always been a bodybuilding fan..in particular the 80's and early 90's bodybuilding..but i can be bluntly honest and say that bodybuilding has warped the minds of a lot of these uninformed young lifters to think that if they dont look ripped all the time that they are not in good fitness shape. And because they dont realize that many of those pro bodybuilders are on loads of gear to keep their body fat reasonably low while staying huge, they think if they dont look like that they are not in shape. If you are natural, forget trying to look like how a pro bodybulder looks. You cant put on size without consuming a caloric surplus..which will lead to body fat gain. Now how much fat you gain depends on how high of your surplus is. but you cant be afraid to gain some body fat if you want to gain size and brute strength as a natural. Its just no way around it unless you are sooooo genetically gifted that you are blessed to naturally stay lean. But 90% of the time, that is not the case.

I’m muscly

While I find starting strength can be a little dogmatic and one dimensional i still very much find their content very informative and true but not everyone can be big and strong for instance being to heavy when working a manual labour job is to much of a hindrance carrying around all that extra weight day when you're on your feet all day in the sun climbing up and down ladders, walking around in sand, crawling around on your hands and knees and then you add in recovery factors when you have to eat enough to lift heavy hence carrying around to much bodyweight, then you may have other physical hobbies like BJJ there's only so much you can recover from. It might be okay when you're young but at 45 year's old and 30years of construction labourer under your belt it makes for some rough work days. Im not sure if Rips saying everyone should be big and strong but that's kinda the gist I get from the starting strength cult-ture

Who tf says im doing a hypertrophy cut?? Fighting imaginary demons

Weight training for strength is different than weight training for body building it's proven by science and years of olympic lifting and Arnaldo classics ectera Both sets of athletes use steroids and varying rep ranges stop being so dogmatic pink man

I llke these guys but they chat shit, clip to larry wheels getting smashed by school boy armwrestling

If you can't do a 20 productive rep set near failure then that is a self report... Untrained beginners might not but whose to say an untrained beginner has even a 5 productive rep set especially if they are eating the way Mark tells them to eat (Frito Chili Pie and GOMAD)... I cannot wait for all the untrained beginners to try and fight me here in this comment section to only realize I am right when they eventually cut (you cannot be obese forever) to reveal spider physiques despite the fact they started working out for bigger arms and a v-taper but ended up with no arms and a thicker waist because they chose to follow Starting Strength for hypertrophy goals

So i guess the first rep is as difficult as the fifth? Wrong again. Using your argument every rep before the last rep is useless. Silly.

Strenght and size do not correlate. Many small people are way stronger than bigger guys