You see, there are really two versions of this program.
1 - The meme version everyone is familiar with: the GOMAD, perma-bulk, forever-novice who spends years resetting the weights every time they hit a stall, go on vacation, get sick, or wake up with a crick in their neck.
Conspicuously, these are the people most likely to tell you, "YNDTFP!"
2 - The version of this program that competent coaches with actual clients run.
The version where the NLP is short and fast, intermediate training is highly individualized, bodyweight is managed appropriately to improve body composition, and cardio is incorporated without reservation whenever it becomes useful or necessary. Because this is ostensibly a strength and conditioning program.
This community should represent the version of the program where the principles of effective training matter more than the template and the meme.
So let me be the first to tell you:
You're probably Not Doing The Program.
And chances are, you probably shouldn’t be doing the bone-stock program if you're outside its intended demographic: skinny, young males or people who started training about six weeks ago.
That's not a criticism of the program itself. That's just an obvious statement that only has to be made because some people have taken a method designed to be adapted to the individual and turned its introductory template into religious doctrine.
Meanwhile, Enshittification Intensifies
Reddit's recent shift from community-driven content distribution to an algorithm-driven feed has changed the dynamic quite a bit. Reddit's new features funnel people who have never heard of this program into the subreddit and prompt them to make off-topic posts.
Their somewhat off-topic posts function as rage bait, while mundane form checks and training questions fail to farm engagement the same way. That means subscribers of this sub either see silly bullshit or nothing at all in their new algorithmic feeds.
Complicating matters further, much of my time moderating lately has been consumed finding new ways to filter an onslaught of AI-powered bots, OF accounts, vibe-coded fitness app posts and self-promotions while Reddit removes or restricts moderation tools we've relied on for years.
Reddit's increasingly aggressive automated spam enforcement has also punished some of our best contributors, flagging legitimate training resources as spam and nuking accounts for sharing links to lifting tutorials.
Edit to add: Im also really annoyed about the markdown editor being broken on mobile.
User Behavior Has Enshittified, Too
AI has made everyone an expert in everything. The TikTokification of content has created the illusion that fitness must be simple. Gone are the days when a 30-minute Bromley video about different ways to overhead press could go viral.
The medium is the message, right? And if short-form content is the medium, then the message is "this topic is simple." If AI is the medium, then the message is, "You're a brilliant, unparalleled genius."
We're increasingly dealing with people who are terminally confident, who have consumed enormous amounts of fitness slop, but have never really spent much time actually training.
That makes it more important than ever to distinguish between having information and knowing what to do with it.
Adapt or Die - I'm making some changes
The goal is to remain congruent with the principles of the Starting Strength model without reducing the program to memes and ideological loyalty tests.
We want to be welcoming and educational to people who genuinely want to learn, whether they're six weeks into their NLP, six years into intermediate training. Either way, they need to know what comes next.
We need a better way to communicate useful information: actionable, concise, and accessible, with people doing the distribution instead of machines.
And we also need to distinguish between people who are here to train and self-interested hustlers.
What's Going to Change?
- First
I'm going to put more effort into organizing the information that gets repeated here constantly. Newcomers should have somewhere to start, and experienced trainees shouldn't have to explain the same fundamentals from scratch every week.
I know I've been talking about building a proper wiki for like two years. I'm actually doing it now. I spent the last year doing it for another project.
- Second
I want to encourage more substantive discussions about training. Not just whether someone is doing the program, but why a particular approach works, when it stops working, and what to do next.
This is still something we do better than AI because we have experience in the real world with physical bodies, finding out what works. AI can't touch grass. We can.
- Third
We're going to continue encouraging form checks, training logs, programming questions, and contributions from people who actually lift. Those are the things that make this community useful, even if they don't harvest your attention the way this platform would like.
- Finally
We'll continue to be hostile to spam, disguised advertising, and low-effort commentary. Being welcoming to beginners doesn't mean providing a captive audience for hustlers.
The Big Distinction
We aren't going to function as a volunteer PR firm for the Starting Strength company, nor are we going to become an anti-Starting Strength outlet like so many of the brands that separated themselves over the years.
But we are going to offer an alternative to the company channels of discussion in the form of an independent community for people who just want to train for strength using these principles.
For politics and cultural commentary, please proceed directly to the SS Forums or an official SS channel. My days of moderating low-effort political sniping are over.
The Starting Strength model has a great deal to offer, which is why it should be studied, challenged, and applied intelligently rather than treated as doctrine.
And if you're a coach, you shouldn't be afraid to teach this approach simply because you don't work for Starting Strength Gyms. Rip has always said nobody owns the principles of effective strength training.
Render unto Geedorah, what is Geedorah's
And always read the fine print.
