August 19, 2024
August Heat Edition
On Starting Strength
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The Market Ticker Chronicles: Four Years of American Turmoil –
Rip and Karl Denninger reflect over the last four years of American history, discussing key issues covered on Karl’s blog, The Market Ticker. They talk about topics ranging from government incompetence and mounting debt to the climate crisis, the challenges of transitioning to an all-electric infrastructure, and the potential downfall of Western civilization. The conversation also touches on AI, inflation, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. -
6 Tips to Help Load and Unload Your Deadlifts –
The most annoying part of getting a bigger, stronger deadlift? Having to load and unload all of those plates. Keep it simple and keep it easy. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers of Testify Strength & Conditioning in Omaha, NE, gives you 6 tips to make your life easier so you can save some energy for that big pull you’ve got coming up. -
The Correct Place for the Bar in Your Hands in the Deadlift by Mark Rippetoe –
“JUST PICK IT UP OFF THE FUCKIN’ FLOOR!!! GRIP IT AND RIP IT!!!! ARRRGH!!!!!” is the extent to which the deadlift is coached in some… -
Protein and Barbell Training by Robert Santana –
Most, if not all, strength trainees have been told at some point in their lifting careers that they need to consume protein to get stronger and build muscle mass… -
Why Fives for Strength Training? –
Starting Strength Seminar Staff Coach Brent Carter explains the continuum of rep ranges and why sets of five work best for strength training. - Weekend Archives:
Bill March: The Chosen One by Bill Starr –
Quite often, the degree of success that a person achieves in any endeavor in life is a result of being in the right place at the right time. Such was the case of Bill March… - Weekend Archives:
A Clarification by Mark Rippetoe –
Okay kids, it has come to my attention that quite a few of you are not doing the program and then bitching about the results of The Program…
In the Trenches
Charles Williams and Starting Strength Coach Josh Wells share a chuckle during the deadlift platform session at the Starting Strength Seminar held at WFAC last weekend. [photo courtesy of Nick Delgadillo]
Fernando deadlifts during the platform session of the recent Starting Strength Seminar. Fernando is an incredibly impressive guy, having recently recovered and now rehabbing from a condition that left him a quadriplegic for 6 months. [photo courtesy of Nick Delgadillo]
At the recent Starting Strength camp in Glasgow, Scotland, coach Byron Johnston uses a brightly coloured target to keep Matt’s eye gaze fixed on-point during the squat. [photo courtesy of Daniel Berry]
Paul locks out 160kg for the final rep of the final set of the Squat and Deadlift Camp in Glasgow. [photo courtesy of Daniel Berry]
Brooke, a high school soccer star, locks out her deadlift while several of her fellow Starting Strength Cincinnati members look on in support. [photo courtesy of Jon Conti]
Sam Hartsfield’s stoic face here works better than the more commonly seen (and often histrionic) “deadlift face,” as he does his workset at Starting Strength Atlanta. His eye gaze fixed on a spot on the floor about 12-15 feet away works best, too. [photo courtesy of Adam Martin]
Ella hits depth on a 135-lb PR squat single before heading back to college for her sophomore year. Best wishes to her from everyone at Starting Strength Boston! [photo courtesy of Stephen Babbitt]
In lieu of a drone shot, Adam Martin, SSC, stood on a (very) sturdy box to take this photo of the M-W-F 6:00 am crew at Starting Strength Atlanta. There are people from 10 different walks of life captured here that might not otherwise intersect, but doing hard work together regularly gets them talking to each other. [photo courtesy of Adam Martin]
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Best of the Week
Israetel: Is Strength Training Dangerous?
Richoldman
I watched your interview with Mike Israetel, because I started reading Israetel’s book on hypertrophy. I enjoyed listening to you discuss good and bad coaching. At the same time, I wanted to hear a comparison of the two approaches to training – strength vs. hypertrophy. As an advocate of hypertrophy, Israetel states,”Fatigue and injury risk generated by loading greater than 85% 1RM increases exponentially.” Presumably 85% 1RM is within the working range of strength training. Thus, he seems to be saying strength training is inherently dangerous when one gets to that level of intensity. Thoughts?
Mark Rippetoe
Do you know what “exponentially” means? Do you know what a 1RM actually is? Have you actually read an Exercise Science “study” about this? What is the actual phenomenology of injury rates among competitive lifters, who train at that level most of the time? Are you sure Dr. Israetel said this, because I don’t think he’s that stupid.
If you want to lift light weights, go ahead. But the NLP works a lot better if getting stronger is your objective.
Robert Santana
Ask Mike if the same level of risk applies to the 225 lb deadlifter versus the 825 deadlifter.
Best of the Forum
Major sudden stall on deadlifts
RealGlass
Hello everyone, after my last post I decided to take the advice given to me and I have been gaining body weight steadily. Right now I’m sitting a bit under 220 at 6’4″ and I am aware that I need to continue gaining weight. My current numbers are (3×5 and 1×5 for deadlifts) 310 squat, 400 deadlift, 200 bench and 135 press. I deadlifted 397×5 Monday, then Friday went to deadlift 405×5 and I couldn’t even get a single rep, even though my warmup at 315 moved fine.
There was obviously no need to do this and it’s stupid but I did about 100 pushups on Thursday (day before I couldn’t get a single deadlift rep) and I’m wondering whether this could have been the reason for why i couldn’t get a single rep (even though it didn’t affect my bench or squat? I was anticipating that I would be able to continue 10lb jumps on the deadlift, but I’m confident that even if I did a 5lb jump I still wouldn’t have gotten 1 rep. My legs have been feeling fatigued and sore most days although I have still been making progress squatting 3 days a week (though the sets have been very hard).
I’m only asking this because I should have been able to get at least 1 rep which indicates that something’s wrong. Should I just chalk this up to bad recovery and continue as I have been, or should I add in the light squat day, and swap to deadlifts only once per week? Feeling confused and demoralized because I want to pull 500 by the end of the month.
Sorry if this question is unnecessary, I don’t want to miss the reps again next week and be set back a couple of weeks. I was curious if anyone else has encountered a hard stall like this. Thanks everyone and to anyone who spent time helping me on my last post. Sorry for being stubborn about the whole weight gain thing, I feel as though I’ve gained weight too fast so I’m gonna watch my calories closer and gain at a more sensible rate.
Mark Rippetoe
It might be time to cut back to 1x/week for heavy deadlifts. And yes, the push ups were stupid.
