The Heinz Ketchup of Barbell Training

by Carl Raghavan, SSC | March 10, 2026

You know
what Heinz Ketchup is, right? Ubiquitous. Recognizable. The gold
standard. You can try to copy it, but it never tastes quite the same.
That’s Starting Strength. It’s the Heinz Ketchup of barbell
training – often imitated, never duplicated.

Now,
let’s talk condiments. Hot Sauce? That’s CrossFit. Flashy.
Trendy. Everyone and their mum thinks they can make a hot sauce brand
– or open a CrossFit box. True story: I worked in a box in North
London where not just other coaches, but other clients were launching
CrossFit gyms. No experience, just a CF-Level 1 weekend certification
and you’re off. That’s the flavour-of-the-month crowd. Tastes
good, burns out quick.

Mustard?
That’s bodybuilding. Low-cal, punchy, and almost universally liked
– perhaps in secret. If you don’t like mustard, you’re the
weirdo, right? Bodybuilding’s got its quirks – it’s basically a
homoerotic beauty pageant – but it’s been around forever and
isn’t going anywhere.

Mayonnaise?
Group classes. Goes down easy with the general public, blends into
any gym setting, and pleases the crowd. No one’s writing home about
it, but it’s always there.

But
Starting Strength? It’s ketchup. The original. The backbone of the
fridge door. You don’t need to use it every day, but when it’s
missing, something feels off.

Why
am I making condiment analogies? Because every method out there is
fighting for shelf space. Constant reinventions, rebrands, fads
dressed up as revolutions. The latest being Hyrox, that’s looking
to take CrossFit’s crown. But Starting Strength isn’t fighting
for relevance – it is
relevant. It’s foundational. It outlives the trends because it’s
built on logic, coaching, and results.

Heinz
will be in your fridge long after that rogue ghost pepper sauce gets
binned. And Starting Strength will still be teaching people how to
get strong when all the gimmicks have dried up.

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