Starting strength or Wendlers 531?

[Zipz]

My friend has been at the gym 6 months and wants a serious program,What one is better?

[Off Road]

Starting Strength for the next year. . .and then 5/3/1 for the next three years.

[BigJosh]

Originally Posted by Zipz

My friend has been at the gym 6 months and wants a serious program,What one is better?

I look at it like this, As an underdeveloped novice doing Starting Strength, it is possible to add 10lbs a workout to your squat and deadlift, and 5lbs a workout to your bench and and OHP.
Compare this to 5/3/1, where you are "only" (eventually this "only" is a pretty damn good increase but I digress) increasing your squat and deads 10lbs every 4 weeks and your bench and OHP 5lbs every 4 weeks.
Pretty significant difference there between 5/3/1 and starting strength (for the novice lifter)

Having said all that, as the novice lifter develops, the ability to progress on SS will diminish and the ability to recover from the frequency will diminish as well. At this point the lifter has moved from a novice to an advanced novice or intermediate lifter and as a result will benefit from the slow and steady approach of a program like 5/3/1.

So, to summarize, if your friend can make weight increases every workout without getting burnt out use a Rippetoe novice program. If your friend is at the point where it is difficult to progress every session or even every week, then 5/3/1 is probably more suited.
I would guess at only 6 months of training on a less than serious program, a Rippetoe Novice program is probably the way for your friend to go.