Tag Archives: Mark Rippetoe

Outdoor Weight Lifting

Posted by Tim on

Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to write about until I write it. I’ll start a blog post without having any kind of idea for a thesis. I play it by ear, see where my thoughts take me, and “wing it”. Sometimes it works out and it turns into something. Other times I delete the whole post and walk away feeling like I’ve wasted a small amount of my ever-so valuable time. I think I’m doing this right now – the whole “wing it” thing.

There isn’t a whole lot that’s new right now. Politics are pretty much the same – high gas prices, the Republican primary continues, nothing super interesting happening. You know when people are talking about Obama’s daughter’s vacation that things are slow in politics. But hey – we can always fall back on the weather. That’s the cliche, right? “So, the weather has been interesting, ey?” Well, really it has. It’s March and I’m already using my air conditioner. It’s not great for my energy costs, but on the plus side, it means that its warm enough to work out outside.

I’ve talked about the pros of working out at home versus at a commercial gym. (You can read the post HERE.) You avoid a lot of the problems that public gyms have, but sometimes public gyms offer things that a home rarely can offer. For me, this means overhead presses. If I’m working out in my basement, it’s kind of hard to be doing power cleans, push presses, and the occasional snatch. I prefer to do these exercises outside, but in the winter these exercises pretty much lose their place in my training program.

But summer is back, at least it is for the next few days, and I’ve taken the bar outdoors again. I’m getting the hang of things. Its been a few months since I’ve done any olympic lifts, so I keep the weight relatively low, and concentrate on form. Nothing too fancy was done today – a few sets of power cleans, and a few sets of push presses. Gotta get myself back into the game, and I keep it simple at first.

These big lifts are great. They’re especially fun outside in the summer because they get your heart rate going real fast, and in the summer heat – they get you sweating real fast too. (Be sure to keep some chalk nearby so the bar won’t slip out of your hands.) The fresh air, the hot rays of the sun – everything is perfect for lifting. Its these lifts that are a lot of fun to do, and that have the best impact on your athletic ability. If you have a home gym, I strongly encourage you to take a bar and some plates outside and practice your olympic lifts.

The power clean is extremely useful for anyone involved in sports. It’s the exercise that forces your body to convert plain old strength into power. Explosiveness is key to the power clean, and explosiveness is key to most sports. Football, baseball, and wrestling all require an athlete to be fast AND strong. If being both fast and strong is your goal, better learn the power clean.

The other exercise I love to do outside is an oldie but a goodie – the press. As Mark Rippetoe says, “The Press is the oldest upper body exercise using a barbell. The day the barbell was invented, the guy who invented it figured out a way to pick it up and shove it over his head. After all, it is the logical thing to do with a weight.” He goes on to say, “…pressing the barbell overhead is still the most useful upper body exercise in the weight room.” There is nothing that will strengthen your shoulders more than the overhead press. The muscle control involved, especially when using heavy weight, is extreme, and extremely beneficial.

I’ll stick to those two for now. Really, guys. If you want to build muscle, skip the bicep curls and all the lame machines at the gym. Get outside, bring the barbell, and start moving some weights.

Top 5 Fitness Books (Part II)

Posted by Tim on

Well, since the first book on the list was a Jim Wendler book, the second one might as well be one that Jim speaks very highly of –  ”Everyday I get asked what is the best book for weight training. I always give the same answer: Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training.”

Mark Rippetoe is probably one of the best known strength coaches in America, and a big part of that is because he’s the author of Starting Strength, which is probably one of the best known books on weight training – and there’s a reason for that.

If you ever wanted to learn how to properly perform the most important exercises, you should probably get a good coach. If you can’t afford a good coach, you should probably read Starting Strength. This book is essential for anyone who wants to understand strength training, either as a lifter or as a coach. Starting Strength goes over the squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, power clean, various assistance exercises, and practical programming.

Mark is a big fan of keeping things simple, and training the body for natural movement. He’s doesn’t believe in doing exercises that don’t crossover to sports well. He doesn’t bother with silly exercises like leg presses, but rather sees the squat as the most important exercise of all. (He wrote 45 pages on just the squat alone!) If you can teach someone to squat, you can teach them how to do the rest.

Throughout the book Mark includes his cynical sense of humor. Although this book is basically a textbook on lifting, it’s rather fun and easy to read. Everything you want to know about the basic lifts is answered. If this book isn’t a mainstay on your desk, it ought to be!

Deadlift is King

Posted by Tim on

“While the squat has only been practiced for a few decades, the deadlift was practiced under different names since the days we stopped walking on all fours.” – Pavel Tsatsouline

“The deadlift builds back strength better than any other exercise, bar none.” – Mark Rippetoe

“The considerable stresses involved make the deadlift the most productive exercise of all.” – Mike Mentzer



“Are You Ignorant When It Comes to the Deadlift?” by Mark Rippetoe

It’s not always apparent, and is often poorly understood. Stated succinctly, stupid is not your fault – you were born that way. You’re just dumb. You can’t learn.

Ignorance means you just don’t know. Ignorance probably is your fault, because you’ve failed to inform yourself. This is especially true since the advent of the internet has enabled the most universal and thorough dissemination of information in the history of human communication.

The obvious problem is that 95% of that information is wrong, which follows my popular maxim: 95% of all the shit that occurs everywhere is completely fucked up. The internet is no different.

But you can, with a little diligence, tease out the facts if you want to. If you’re interested in a subject, it eventually falls upon you to distill the truth from the bullshit.

This you’ll do gladly, if you’re interested enough to devote significant amounts of time and effort to it, because an intelligent person realizes that bullshit is a waste of time. A stupid person might not appreciate this, and therefore continue to be ignorant of the truth of a matter.

Take the deadlift, for example. It’s the most basic, obvious movement in barbell training, the one with the most carryover to everyday tasks and the easiest to learn of all the basic exercises.

Read the rest of Rip’s article on T-Nation HERE