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Comment by npsimons | Hacker News Reader

> which is why he advocates ancillary exercises as somebody progresses.

IIRC, he poo-poos assistance lifts such as bicep curls. The one exception is chins, which is in the official program and he insists on overhand because it works more muscle mass, despite overhand being the more practical version. Yeah, if you're bodybuilding get Pearl's "Keys to the Inner Universe" and plan on spending a lot of time just creating a program. But for most average people just looking to maintain, and especially beginners, the basic five lifts are simple, cover pretty much everything you need (for baseline strength) and can be done with a minimum of fuss, including creating programming and actual time lifting.

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I agree with your overall point but Rip seems agnostic on bicep curls. He's been asked on his podcast whether some can include them and his general reaction is "Sure, you can do bicep curls". He doesn't seem to think they're necessary but also doesn't shut down the suggestion as frivolous either.

>which is in the official program and he insists on overhand because it works more muscle mass

I assume this was a typo. But he does advocate (supine grip) chins because they involve more muscle mass (the biceps, specifically). He writes about it in his SS introductory text and also includes chins in his programming section of that book. That book also has a section titled "Ancillary Exercises".

> I agree with your overall point but Rip seems agnostic on bicep curls.

Unfortunately I don't have the book to hand (loaned it out), but I'm pretty sure I remember him saying something along the lines of "you don't need bicep curls, just focus on the five lifts, but since you're going to do them anyway, here's the correct form." I haven't listened to interviews with him.

> I assume this was a typo.

Yes, it was; should have been "underhand", because yeah, they work the biceps more. As a climber, though, it's uncommon to do underclings (basically underhand/supine chins), but pretty common to do overhand pullup type motion, so I tend to focus on that over supine chins. Course, what's really good is hand jam pullups, but those are hard on the tendons and ligaments in the forearms and hands.

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