September 02, 2024
Thirtwar Edition
On Starting Strength
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Abdominal Wall, Blood Meridian, and More –
Rip answers questions live from Starting Strength Network subscribers and fans. -
Paradigm Change by Zachary Millunchick –
You’re too skinny. You’re “glommy” fat – to use Rip’s colorful term. You feel weak. You couldn’t lift your own furniture so you had to spend money you don’t have… -
How to Sit on a Box and Call It a Squat –
Whether you’re recovering from an injury or managing training stress as a more advanced lifter, Rip shows you how to safely set up and perform box squats correctly. -
Buying and Using a Light Bar by Andrew Lewis –
A standard barbell weighs roughly 45 lb. This is a versatile piece of equipment that can be used by a wide demographic to get strong. It can be loaded from 45 lb to over 800… -
Dealing with a Misloaded Barbell –
Starting Strength Coach Byron Johnston explains what to do if you discover you’ve misloaded the barbell and a tip to prevent this problem in the future. - Weekend Archives:
Barbell Training & Physical Therapy by John Petrizzo –
Hi. My name is John, and I am a physical therapist. It feels good to get that off my chest. Over the years, the field of physical therapy has not done much… - Weekend Archives:
Abs by Mark Rippetoe –
In every weight room in all the countries of the world since the dawn of training with weights, the single biggest distraction from the actual task at hand has been abs…
In the Trenches
Dave of Atlanta, Georgia, and a member of the United States Army Reserve, demonstrates a full depth Squat during last weekend’s Squat and Deadlift Camp in Greenville South Carolina. [photo courtesy of Grant Broggi]
Cole squats 300 lb for sets of five under the guidance of SSC Phil Meggers at this weekend’s Squat & Deadlift Camp. Cole and his brother, Ethan, learned and trained together at the camp, which was held at CrossFit 5885 in St. Paul, MN. [photo courtesy of Barb Mueller]
SSC Barb Mueller coaches Chris through his warm-ups as he squats 135 lb for a set of five at the Squat & Deadlift Camp in St. Paul, MN. [photo courtesy of Phil Meggers]
Weston attended this weekend’s Squat & Deadlift Camp at CrossFit 5885 in St. Paul, MN. Here, he finishes up his lifting for the day by pulling 175 lb for a smooth set of five. [photo courtesy of Barb Mueller]
Dave Jenkins pushes his knees out into his elbows during his deadlift setup at Starting Strength Atlanta. He is 81 years young and served our country in the U.S. Army as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. It should come as no surprise that he is always the first client to check in at his gym sessions (“…if you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late”.) [photo courtesy of Adam Martin]
Mylene Gonzales drops under the bar to rack a power snatch at Starting Strength Atlanta. She also trains – and is equally adept at – the power clean. [photo courtesy of Brent Duckett]
Grace punches out 38 kg for a PR clean-and-jerk at Testify Strength & Conditioning in Omaha, NE. Grace trains at Testify with her dad, mom, sister, and brother, and her family is teaming up to compete in the upcoming Barbell Blizzard competition in December. [photo courtesy of Phil Meggers]
Starting Strength Gyms’ national coach development award goes to … Michael Shammas! Boston’s Head Coach won the 2024 trophy for growth in providing an exceptional member experience, customer service, and retention. Congratulations Michael! [photo courtesy of Arthur Frontczak]
Get Involved
Best of the Week
Thoughts on Pitbulls
ColeTrain
I know you’re a huge dog lover, even going so far as to say that people who don’t like dogs can, “get fucked”. I’m curious how you feel about Pits? I personally have had very little experience with them, mainly just seeing videos of them either attacking people/animals or dressed up in a tutu being extremely sweet. I know a lot of people have strong opinions about them one way or the other, so I wanted to know how you felt about them?
Mark Rippetoe
The best dog I ever had was a female pit. She was the sweetest thing who ever lived. You can make any dog into an asshole by mistreating it. Chihuahuas seem to need the least help. I don’t think you’ll find anyone outside the media who thinks badly of pit bulldogs.
Best of the Forum
Double progression more appropriate for upper body lifts?
mathgainer
It is suggested to use micro plates for the upper body lifts during the NLP, because of the slower rate of progress.
This involves weighing the plates at your gym and marking them, which is an extremely tedious endeavor. One would have to take scales with them to the gym, weight plates without looking like a weirdo, and then proceed to mark them without getting caught.
My question is, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to use double progression on these lifts?
You will use a rep range that is wide enough so that, once you reach the upper end of the range for a particular weight, you are able to increase by 5lb.
For example, on the bench press you might do 3×5-8 reps. Let’s say you are at 70kg and you are no longer able to increase 5 lb each workout. The sessions might go like this:
5,5,5
7,6,5
8,8,6
8,8,8
Once you reach these numbers you increase to 72.5kg.
It might look like slower progress, but you are progressing at the maximum possible rate because you are doing the reps to failure each time.
In other words, when you start 72.5kg you might actually start off with 8,6,5 for example and then only take 1-2 workouts to reach 8,8,8, before increasing by another 2.5kg.
Isn’t this more convenient than weighing plates in order to use micro plates at the gym?
Mark Rippetoe
Yeah, that’s fine, just do it like that, because convenience is very important.
