What To Focus On When You Get Strong Enough | Starting Strength Radio Clips 

As soon as he read, "strength is no longer the most important physical attribute", I knew there was a browbeating incoming.

But do you really have enough balance if you can't do a weighted single leg pistol squat on a BOSU ball?

My balance has improved significantly thanks to becoming stronger.

Everyone writes a question partially to get an answer, partially to get roasted

Rip's really a strength purist, rightfully so in most cases.

The spirit of the question is about diminishing returns, and Rip seems to miss that. The stronger you get, the bigger the investment of time and energy is required to continue making equivalent gains. Eventually, you reach a point at which focusing on speed specificity, endurance specificity or whatever becomes a more fruitful investment given that this hypothetical person has not developed nearly as much in those areas. Mark has this fallacy that strength training will continue improving all other physical attributes at a constant rate forever.

Mark is hilarious.the sarcastic tone when he properly says,"comador decker",is fuckin epic.

If you're just a regular Joe who works out to be healthy, and attain that level of strength, then maybe your priorities will shift. I imagine the focus would shift to maintenance and longevity.

I know it correlates but I can't say for how long. Before I ever lifted weights I ran like a 17 second hundred. Like a couple months into lifting I ran a 15, then the other day I ran a 13. I dont train for that it was just always for fun to see if I got faster and I always did. Solely from weight training and getting my squat up

Love Rip, but man I think Commodore is asking a different question than what Rip is answering. Of course someone's endurance, speed, agility, etc. will get better with better strength because more muscle recruitment is available. But, the crux of the question comes from the idea of Diminishing Returns. What would be better at the next step when we finally start feeling that "asymptote" of strength?

Wish we had gotten a ‘that’s not heavy!’

When asked about emphasizing different qualities in post-novice trainees, Rip answers by...describing the effects of a novice progression on secondary characteristics. The entire question was about rotating once the cost of achieving more strength gains goes up. The answer was super straw-manny

You're not wrong because your Commodore Matt Decker... BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

That wasn't even sport's performance question.... "top 1% of the population". I think it'd be a good idea to work on those different qualities if you had the time and interest....especially cardio and flexibility.

I think the question is a bit more interesting if he went at it from a sport specificity angle. Rip is very clear time and time again that eventually you will need to put on weight in order to get stronger. If your goal is "strength," that's no problem. But what if you are a martial artist, and you want to stay in a weight class? What if you are a skill position in football, or a dancer, or gymnast, or otherwise an athlete who can't afford to pack on more weight? My answer is I think that's a high threshold to hit, and anyone who does hit it will know a thing or two about bulking and cutting cycles, so it's a moot point. If you go from 190 with some fat to 190 and shredded to the gills, you will perform better in your sport, whatever it is.

Commodore Matt Dekker may not be asking any more questions of Rip 🤣🤣🤣

Deja vu

I click on these now to get my daily chuckle out of Crusty Rip.

Rip missed the mark here. Yes, if you bring your deadlift from 135 to 365 you are going to improve all your attributes. But if your deadlift is already at 365 moving it to 505 will not improve your speed and endurance nearly as much, if at all. And there is a ton of research showing that doing slow, grindy lifts (which you necessarily do if you are lifting twice your body weight on the bench) will actually decrease your speed and power. It's all about specificity. For fuck's sake, even SS includes the power clean to keep your explosive strength on par with your absolute strength!

YOUR COMADOR MAT DECKER,,,LOOOOL

how is 2x bw squat and 2.5x bw deadlift strong?? I did that in less than 6 months of training, and I'm just average

Looks like the answer is quite a bit off the mark on this one. Getting strong is the priority if you're weak, but once you have reasonable levels of strength, gaining additional strength may not longer be the best investment of your training time to improve the performance of an activity. Take a weak grappler, and get him through a basic strength progression, and you have a massively better grappler. At that point, he'll probably be quite a bit stronger than his opposition who hasn't done so. He's no longer getting overpowered by the strong guys, he can finish his submissions if he gets them, etc. All great. But at that point, the benefits of more strength begin to taper off, and improving strength further becomes a time hog with diminishing returns on the mat. If strength was all there was to elite sport, strength athletes would dominate all sports. And they don't. Not even close. Sports are dominated by strong athletes who have other characteristics and skills beside just raw strength. Take Teddy Riner, a judo legend and a 6'8", 300lb giant. Benches a respectable 500lb. There are a lot of guys out there who can beat that number by a hundred pounds, but not on the mat. On the mat they get crushed because they lack the balance, flexibility, timing, speed, technique... There is a point where acquiring other attributes gives better returns than just raw strength.

24inch SVJ is not average, it's well above average.

How about this: if you’ve made it to the 1000# club, you’re pretty strong. Not very, or really, strong. You likely can get stronger, but most people don’t get to or stay in that company.

24 inch is above average. however its average athlete numbers

Rip didn't understand the question, similar to many guys to the comments. That guy didn't ask what an athlete should do.

😂😂 There's a back story to this Commodore

2345, is the Standard.

What's strong enough? I get it, we all have different goals but what's strong enough? 2.5 bw deadlift? 3bw deadlift?

What I always find astonishing incoherent: Rip is often talking about the general public as a target audience on the one hand and on the other hand he is looking for the absolut maximum in strength. The general public (even the subset of motivated strength interested people) is often interested in other sports. Insofar the question is legit, but as usual he dismisses the point for a snarky reply. And no, not every sport performance is increased in getting a heavier squat/bench/Dl. Well in theory yes, but there is a balance, especially in endurance sports, or sports that require some sort of technique. If someone could push strenght without any cost (time, muscle mass that needs oxygen, stress...) it would be true, but that is in no way possible. And yes, some sports require more flexibility than squatting or more balance than pulling weight.

Without discounting the importance of strength, I must say that real life challenges are varied in nature and don't always rely upon the maximal strength. Other attributes of fitness do have importance, and can't be discarded or thrown to lower grade importance. You may hold the world records in squat and deadlift. But if you can't reach 10th floor up using stairs (when the elevator of your building is out of power or order) to pick your car keys that you forgot in a hurry and get back down, your strength and world records are useless. If you can't play football or basketball with your kids without gassing out, your world records are useless. If you can't chase that guy who picked your pocket, what good are your records.

If you are not getting stronger than you are getting weaker. Remember that.

“MATT!! THERE IS NO THIRD PLANET!!!!”

"Commodore" inspired by the "Colonel" from" Boogie Nights"?

After Rip's conclusion, Commodore Decker will be reassessing his life after he recovers.

The funny part is the askers strenght standarts (1.5x bw bench etc..) aint really that strong😭

The question and statements that guy wrote in is completely absurd.

I always have fun listening, but this is not one if Rip’s best answers. The guy asking the question clearly has a point. But it seems to be ignored. Is strength important? Yes, obviously. Will getting your squat from 135 to 315 be a big help in almost any sport? Duh. Yes. Of course. The guy asking the question implicitly agrees with this. The point is: Unless your sport is powerlifting, is there a point of diminishing returns for increases n maximal strength? Absolutely yes. If you are doing a combat sport for instance, and have hit a 1.5x bench 2x squat and 2.5x deadlift, but have not been equally serious about your flexibility or conditioning, then further strength gains should not be a priority over those other areas. Depending on your training style, pursuing further maximal strength gains with too much priority could be a hinderance to your technical development, or your development of other attributes, both in time management and recovery management. As others have said, Rip purports emphasize strength training for “regular” people-which means non-powerlifters who have non-powerlifting goals. Yet here, he gives an un-nuanced answer that is only relevant to competitive power lifters. Seems silly. There are also sports where maximal strength, though helpful, is probably not the key attribute. Others here have mentioned BJJ as one example, where high levels of strength are certainly helpful, but perhaps not as helpful as high levels of flexibility...or as helpful as maintaining less focus on strength development with more time and energy left for technical development and reflex development. Should a BJJ practitioner still try to hit a 2.5x deadlift at some point? I think so. At least a 2x one. But should they pursue it ahead of all other attributes? No. Will they have greater returns by focusing on other less developed attributes once they hit that kind of strength. Certainly. Can they be a world dominating competitor if they never hit even a 2x deadlift? Absolutely, yes.

Relative strength.. ever heard of it?

The question is poorly worded and sounds like a troll. If the hypothetical guy got that strong in the first place, wasn't strength the most important physical attribute to him? And now that he's strong and wants to focus on physical attribute #2, wouldn't that make that next hypothetical thing the second-most important, even to the "strong" guy?

There is no strong enough. Literally

He gets faster, his endurance increases, etc... Can we assume this is solely a result of strength training? If we assume he is *only* power lifting, then this could be the case, but I do not believe we can reasonably assume that building to a 315 squat is the most effective way to improve your ability to do anything other than squat. What to focus on when you get strong enough? The primary tenet of power lifting is that you are never "strong enough." The point is to become stronger, or more accurately, to lift as much weight as possible. No other aspect of "strength" is relevant to power lifting. As a person who has devoted his life to this pursuit, I do not believe Rip is capable of objectively assessing the value of other aspects of conditioning. He probably considers the total weight that can be moved in a single effort to be the ultimate measure of a man, even though some guy who can't lift half what he can might beat his ass like a redheaded stepchild...

Commodore should lose his rank and settle for Captain now.

Rip has a large head.

Commodore must have been trolling. This is like asking a priest if Jesus was akshully important.

😂😂😂

Balance is good if you don't fall down!?! 😂 So if I don't fall down while I'm standing still (maybe even while squatting), I have good balance? Rip says the silliest things. I don't know whether to be amused or appalled. 🤔

Clearly there is no point in doing any other form of training than heavy barbells. So says Ripp. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING imporves to the max with just barbell training. That's the logical conclusion one might draw from this video. Love Rip on strength training but boy, how narrow minded can one possibly be??? Some people want more balance and flexibility than is needed to lift a barbell. Some people want to run long distances. Some people want to look lean and lithe or not put on weight. There is a world outside heavy weight barbell lifting. Believe it or not....

How come nobody at starting strength looks athletic in any way?

If your grappling some would say flexibility over strength. Strength will take you only so far in bjj.

You are crazy...then they get slower...didnt you get fired from CROSS FIT..

Where in this did you answer the question posed? You made up a small man to make a point.

A 150lb kid squatting 315 isn't strong?

Starting Strength...novice linear progression...approx 1 year of lifting. After that...this ENTIRE premise and attitude of Rippetoe is USELESS.