For the Sake of 5 More Pounds

by Carl Raghavan, SSC | March 25, 2025

You’ve heard it before. Hell, maybe you’ve even said it yourself.

“I don’t want to get fat just to put 5 more pounds on the bar.”

This is the kind of shallow thinking that holds people back. It’s a weak, superficial view of strength training – one that ignores what we’re really here to do.

For years, people have tried to put Starting Strength in a box:

• “Just get fat and keep adding weight to the bar.”
• “Drink a gallon of milk a day and become a bloated mess.”
• “It’s just a SEE-food diet – eat everything you SEE.”

But when you tell them to eat enough protein, move well, and sleep 8 hours a night – perhaps even read the Not Feeling Athletic article – they don’t want to hear it. That requires effort, discipline, and patience. They’d rather focus on the downsides of gaining weight than on the upside of getting bigger and stronger.

This kind of thinking doesn’t hold up anywhere else in life.

In Denmark, for example, I’ve noticed that many people make use of well-designed trailers attached to their cars. And let’s be clear: some of these cars are towing big, beautiful boats, so it’s not about money. It’s about practicality. Instead of driving a larger, more expensive vehicle full-time, they opt for a reasonably priced European or Japanese car and use a trailer whenever they need extra capacity. It’s a smart, flexible approach.

Strength works the same way. Your body, like a car, benefits from having more performance available when needed. Why do cars have speedometers that go well beyond 100 mph, even though most drivers will never reach those speeds unless you live near the Autobahn? Simple: because capability matters. Even if you never push a car to its limit, having more performance available when needed is useful. Ever had to overtake on the highway? That extra power can be the difference between a clean pass and a dangerous situation.

Now, think about the cars people actually buy. If raw utility were the only factor, the Honda Fit and Toyota Camry are cheap, reliable, practical, and fuel-efficient – everything the average buyer should want. But they don’t buy them.

Instead, they buy sports cars, pickup trucks, and high-performance vehicles. Why?

• Most of them don’t race.
• Most of them don’t own a ranch.
• Most of them could rent a car for those experiences instead of buying one.

You don’t need a black 1949 Mercury Eight Coupe or a pink 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz or a purple 1971 Hemi Cuda. You want it because it’s Driving Culture, a rolling art exhibit, and a masterpiece of design and engineering. Also, boys love their toys.

They buy them because we value tools that perform at a higher level than simply a vehicle that takes you from point A to B. A Porsche is more than just a car – it’s an expression of engineering excellence. A high-performance truck isn’t just a car – it’s a machine that can do so much more. It’s useful.

The same principle applies to your body and your strength. The barbell isn’t just a piece of metal with weight on each side. It’s a tool to build and express a higher level of capability.

Dismissing 5 more pounds on the bar because you might gain some weight is the mindset of someone who doesn’t understand what they’re doing. A bigger engine doesn’t slow down a car – it makes it more powerful.

Getting bigger and stronger isn’t just about looking a certain way or chasing an arbitrary number. It’s about becoming harder to kill and more useful in general. Strength isn’t just for the gym – it carries over to everything you do. A stronger body is a more capable body, ready for whatever life throws at it. And that process? It should be championed, not dismissed.