We don't wear singlets because A...one...they're gay

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Quote of the Day 30th March 2009

While pressing the sacrum of a trainee before the back squat -

"Why does this tactile cue work so well?

Because Colin is not used to having a 53-year-old man slap him on the ass.

I'm making an assumption here."

(photo from Barbell Cert held at CrossFit Millford March 28th/29th 2009.
Courtesy of Keith Wittenstein at CrossFit Virtuosity)

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Quote of the Day 29th March 2009

Responding to someone who wanted the book spoon fed to them:

Steve, buddy, the plan is in the fucking book. That's what the book is about. That's why I wrote the book. This is a Q&A for people who are already using the plan IN THE FUCKING BOOK.

Get it, read it, and use it. Really, the book is too long to post here.

Get the fucking book

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Quote of the Day 28th March 2009

Question -

..a guy in my gym told me that his friend did the gallon of milk a day diet...and ended up losing all his hair. He claimed that the doctors told his friend it was because of all the milk he was drinking.

Do you know if there is any truth to this?

Rips answer

Hmm, the only adverse effects I actually know about the GOMAD is the fact that it makes your dick shorter, but I never considered it important enough to mention.

I'll have to add the baldness warning to the list immediately, because THAT'S not something to be taken lightly

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Quote of the Day 27th March 2009

Yes, you're absolutely right, the books are so disorganized as to be all but unusable, especially in the absence of the ability to exercise one's own judgment and apply a bit of common sense.

Please e-mail me your mailing address and I shall refund all of your money, including shipping, you fucking idiot.

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Quote of the Day 26th March 2009

Speaking of kettlebells snatches shoulder position and the Russian:

I am a child of the Cold War. I don't like them.

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Quote of the Day 25th March 2009

There are few things graven in stone, except that you have to squat or you're a pussy.

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Quote of the Day 24th March 2009

My opinion about barbell rows is as follows: fuck barbell rows. Really. Fuck them.

Stop wasting time worrying about barbell rows and get your deadlift up to 500.

By then you'll have your own opinion and you won't have to worry about mine.

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Quote of the Day 23rd March 2009

The vast majority of women cannot get large, masculine muscles from barbell training.

If it were that easy, I would have them.

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Quote of the Day 22nd March 2009

Your muscles cannot get “longer” without some rather radical orthopaedic surgery.

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Quote of the Day 21st March 2009

The Question was

... I have a question about working a more physical job. I'm 16, and just about to do SS (well, restart it at least) and im looking for a warehouse job. The thing is, im not sure if this would hurt my progress....

Rips answer

I mowed yards in North Texas in the summer while I was competing as a powerlifter.

If you can't train and work in a warehouse at the same time, you probably have ovarian cancer. Consult your gynecologist.

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Quote of the Day 20th March 2009

Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you.

On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in.

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Quote of the Day 19th March 2009

You guys that worry about eating clean are actually merely bodybuilders looking for justification for your obsession with abs.

You cannot get big and strong on 3000 kcal/day.

And you cannot eat 7000/day and eat perfectly "clean".

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Quote of the Day 18th March 2009

The bulk/cut approach holds that you can either add muscle or lose bodyfat, and that all training should be concerned with one or the other.

This assumes that aesthetics is the criterion by which progress is measured, that pictures therefore tell the story, and that picture magazines can be the arbiters of success.

This type of thinking completely ignores the performance aspects of training, and performance is much more easily and rapidly influenced.

Rapid, quantifiable progress keeps motivation high, much higher than waiting for a six-pack that may or may not show up.

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Quote of the Day 17th March 2009

And folks, for weight-gaining purposes, "eating clean" is not a useful concept.
Big Macs are.

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Quote of the day 16th March 2009

I don't even like Greg Glassman.
I don't have a cult like allegiance to the guy.
I really don't like him.
He's too hard to get on the phone and he doesn't drink my kind of scotch.

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Quote of the day 15th March 2009

A guy asks if hack squat is useful since his college does not have any squat racks only squat machines)

I recommend that you change colleges.

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Quote of the day 14th March 2009

(A guy gives a very detail problem of bowl trouble while squatting and ask if Rip or his trainees had similar problems)

Jesus, Andrew, I could have gone a long time without having to hear about this.

The obvious fix is to take a newspaper into the bathroom and not to come out until the whole thing is read.

Just before you train. Works for me every time.

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Quote of the day 13th March 2009

The question was –

“…is adding an hours walk as easy cardio helpful, detrimental, irrelevant to strength improvements…”

Rips answer

“Walking for an hour is not exercise. It's shopping.

If you count it at all, in any way, as part of your program ...well, I'll be disappointed.”

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Quote of the day 12th March 2009

The question was

'Does a bigger motor slow the car down?'

And the answer is

'No. But a bunch of junk in the trunk does.'"

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Quote of the day 11th March 2009

(A thread from someone worried about learning/doing power cleans by himself)

Usually, people just feel intimidated by anything that resembles a technical exercise and just would rather not do them. This is just being a pussy, and sets a bad precedent for the management of both training and life.

I think the Starting Strength includes an understandable method for learning to power clean, and just in case it's not simple enough I rewrote it for the new book so that it is even simpler. You don't really need bumper plates to do them if you don't have access, so that doesn't wash either. They are in the program because an explosive movement is a valuable contribution to power production, and they make deadlifts get stronger faster.

Okay, you don't need a coach to learn power cleans, because we fixed things up so that you can learn them out of the book. And what exactly is the downside of trying to learn them and failing? Firing squad? The fucking bodybuilders making fun of you from the safety of the dumbbell rack? Loss of wages?

Just try them before you decide you can't learn them without a coach.

Quote of the day 10th March 2009

Your form's going to break down under heavier weight. That's just the nature of the universe.

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Quote of the day 9th March 2009

Opinions are like phasers -- everybody ought to have one.

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Quote of the day 8th March 2009

That's it, the whole program. Adding a bunch of other stuff in, or even adding a little other stuff in makes it NOT MY PROGRAM, because it fundamentally alters your response to the stress.

Do what you want, of course, but it won't be my program if you do it your way.

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Quote of the day 7th March 2009

I don't read around the web much, because I'm old and busy, and just haven't got time. If I'm on the Internet, I'd rather be looking at porn.

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Quote of the day 6th March 2009

Women who claim to be afraid to train hard because they “always bulk up too much” are often already pretty bulky, or “skinny fat” (thin but weak and deconditioned) and have found another excuse to continue life sitting on their butts.

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Quote of the day 5th March

Jon Gilson from http://www.againfaster.com sent me this one

"I was deadlifting, I believe 365x5. Rip goes:

"Jon, you'd be a decent lifter if you'd just put on 60 pounds".

Asshole..."

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Quote of the day 4th March

On resting in between reps:

It varies with the length of the set. 5s or fewer get a breath to reset. Longer sets might take 2 breaths.

During the last few reps of a true 20RM squat, just do what Jesus tells you.

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Quote of the day 3rd March

"...what should my ideal body weight be for this program? Have you made a table for this, or what do you recommend?" - trainee

"Your ideal bodyweight as an ectomorph at 6' 0" will be 214.378 lbs. There. Happy? And if you lose or gain a pound, I will have you killed. It is important to be ideal.." - Rip

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Quote of the day 2nd march

"Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY 1ST MARCH 2009

Q: This is as SERIOUS, question... life and death. Are you a trekkie Rip? Be honest.

A: I watch the show, yes. Okay, fuck you.

I am one of the proud folks who, at the age of 9, 10, and 11 were privileged to watch the first series in its entirety every week without missing a single episode.

Mr. Spock raised me, Captain Kirk taught me about women, and Mr. Scott is responsible for my malt whisky habit.

I have not watched TV hardly at all since about 1980, but I did see all of the Next Generation shows. I have no use for Deep Space Nine, Voyager, or Enterprise.

Once again, fuck you.

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