Somewhere during 2022, I was browsing social media discussions between strength coaches. The goal was to see what I might have been missing from the stuff that I was already "bought in" to doing. One coach, a gentleman named Paul Horn, mentioned that he had an upcoming book. I liked what he was saying, so I found his site and signed up to be notified when he released it. Later in the year, I received notifications that the book release was imminent, and I grabbed it on the first day it was available. Titled
Radically Simple Strength: A Practical Plan to Help Average Guys Build Awesome Bodies, I figured it was worth at least a read.Paul began putting out videos explaining his goals, organized a
Reddit community, and did all of the "go to market" things I would expect leading up to release. I received the book, read it, digested it, and even suggested it to a few people I was having conversations with. Eventually, Paul sent me a message in when he saw that I suggested his book to others and we had a short conversation. That resulted in him agreeing to come on for an interview.Getting the interview scheduled ended up taking a few months, way longer than expected. Then I spent another good chunk of time with editing. I'm happy to post it today.This article is a little strange in that it's both a podcast interview with Paul, but also my review of his book. Obviously, I wouldn't go to this level of effort if I didn't think it was a good product, so let's just get that out of the way up front.Bottom Line Up Front
Radically Simple Strength is a good book. It's not ground-breaking by any means, but few things are in the world of strength training. Steeped in the Starting Strength tradition, Paul's book takes an approachable angle that is both clear and easy to follow.Paul goes a step beyond to define a complete progression from novice to intermediate lifters. He also touches on advanced lifters, but admits that they aren't his primary audience. It's a very prescriptive model organized like, "These are your first 12 workouts. Then do these until X happens, then switch to these workouts." This is a book to hand the "average guy" and say, "follow this." If they do it, they'll see real results. That is assuming they stick to it (which is one of the big battles, and I touch on it in the takeaways).
He also offers a good bit of advice on nutrition, but I'll admit that the approach isn't for everyone. It works, and is similar to what I've done for over a year, but the approach can also be a turn off if you crave a lot of variety.Even if I'm not following Paul's guidance myself, Radically Simple Strength is the book to beat for the uninitiated looking to get started. Once someone has been on the intermediate program a while, the world is their oyster and they'll have a strong foundation to branch out.Paul doesn't talk about conditioning much, if at all. So if you're looking to blend a conditioning program on top of this, then you'll have to add that separately.Who is Paul Horn?I like Paul, and I think you'll hear in our conversation that he's a very personable fellow who is interested in everyone's story. He describes himself as a professional meathead, and has the credentials to back it up.
A screengrab from the recording of our discussion. Keep your eyes on the YouTube channel for clips!After an introduction to weightlifting in college, he started as many did with a huge emphasis on how he looked rather than how he performed. After a shoulder injury, he found himself drawn into the world of
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