Results for “rippetoe”

Simple questions are sometimes the most profound. And answers to simple questions about exercise sometimes are the hardest to find. Rather, they are often intuitive to skilled coaches or contained in knowledge that is that is passed on in the lore of the gym rather than recorded in books or formal training programs. Expert coaches, teachers, clinicians, and professors sometimes take it for granted that what we think is basic, simple… Continue Reading

Have you ever watched an infomercial or a shop-at-home network exercise equipment segment? If you have you will know that the formula is a slick spokesperson or salesperson, an exercise expert with lots of letters after their name, and an attractive and fit-looking model to demonstrate the equipment and make the pitch: "This equipment is so easy to use and so effective that you will be looking like Buffy and Biff here in just a… Continue Reading

Coaching, according to expert lifting coach Mark Rippetoe, is no more than figuring out what to say to people to get them to move how you want them to move. This will vary from person to person, so, as a trainer, your bag of tricks--your ways of explaining and cueing movement and mechanics--must be broad and diverse. But, before that, you need to understand exactly what's going on in the mechanics of lifting and the body positions it… Continue Reading

The purpose of exercise is to live the life we are genetically encoded to live. So be alive, be very alive. We have not spent the last 65 million or so years finely honing our physiology to watch Oprah. Like it or not, we are the product of a very long process of adaptation to a harsh physical existence. The past couple centuries of comparative ease and plenty are not enough time to change our genome.

To a great… Continue Reading

What constitutes good form for barbell lifts is not a matter of opinion or up for debate, argues lifting coach Mark Rippetoe. Rather, proper mechanics are about understanding the relevant bits of human skeletal anatomy and the principles of force and physics. These are what determine the most efficient, strongest, and mechanically sound body positions for all the lifts and these are what we, as… Continue Reading

Bad form is bad in every way. Citing specific examples from lifts, Mark Rippetoe co-author of Starting Strength and owner of Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls, writes that what constitutes bad form is not a matter of opinion.

Bad form occurs when a movement pattern is executed inefficiently. The bar is moved by incorrect biomechanics. Instead of all the muscles in the system making their anatomically… Continue Reading

Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general, Coach Mark Rippetoe of Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Fallls writes in Strong Enough? an article that explores the relationship between strength and technique.

Strength is the ability to produce force. It is arguably the most important component in athletics. Strength is dependent on muscle mass, on the nerves that the muscles fire, and on the will of the athlete.

Both strength… Continue Reading

A great American and patriot once said, "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

As I entered CrossFit San Diego to attend a CrossFit Basic Barbell Certification seminar, I knew what I knew, I knew… Continue Reading

There is a lot of advice, information, and well-understood knowledge regarding the field in which I practice--strength training and fitness--that is just silly bullshit, writes Mark Rippetoe, co-author of Starting Strength and owner Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls.

Often times it’s physicians who are perpetuating this, well, BS. The medical community is famous for equating exercise with running, walking, and cycling, all undertakings that are… Continue Reading

These days, Mark Rippetoe of Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita is a 50+ masters lifter who calls himself “boneheaded and tenacious.” In an article about training for the aged, Rip says masters lifters are obviously different from their younger hard-training counterparts. He offers common sense rules, along with a few caveats.

We have accumulated injuries that have to be considered when training is programmed. And more… Continue Reading

Women respond to heavy physical stress differently than men, Coach Mark Rippetoe of Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls writes in an article about sex, appearance, and training.

Women get the best results when they train for performance. Even though there are differences between men’s and women’s response to training, there is no difference in the quality of the exercise needed to produce the stress that causes adaptation.

Ignore the… Continue Reading

In Popular Bicomechanics Mark Rippetoe of Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls says there are objective ways to describe proper form for the basic barbell exercises that are valid for everybody who does them, regardless of their anthropometry.

Any correct pull from the floor—for deadlift, clean, or snatch—will start with the bar directly under the scapulas and against the shins… Continue Reading

Much of the conventional wisdom about the fitness industry is just plain wrong, according to Mark Rippetoe of Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita

Closing the sale is the only valued expertise in the big box health club industry. Deadlifts and chalk are prohibited, sweating is discouraged, and noise is considered offensive.

Doctors and other health care professionals have no specific training in sports performance or strength and conditioning, yet… Continue Reading

Training advancement and adaptation are perfectly obvious principles that are too often ignored, writes Coach Mark Rippetoe of Wichita falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls

Adaptation is the response of the human body to physical stress. And the most fundamental concept in exercise programming is the way adaptation varies among athletes at different levels of training advancement.

The principle of diminishing returns applies quite specifically… Continue Reading

The CrossFit Total reflects an athlete's functional strength capacity more accurately than any other test, writes Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength and owner of The Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls.

The CrossFit Total is the sum of the best of three attempts at the squat, the press, and the deadlift. All three lifts are done while standing on the floor. They require minimal… Continue Reading

It is a rather dim memory, but I have pictures and trophies that I am told are mine. I was once a decent deadlifter. My PR was 633, done on two separate occasions at a bodyweight of 220. So here I offer a new, rather long, analysis of the deadlift.

The start position involves the shoulders being in front of the bar, which is to say, on the other side of the bar from the rest of the… Continue Reading

In an article about personal equipment, Coach Mark Rippetoe of Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls discusses the good, the bad and the ugly.

Squat shoes are the single most useful piece of personal equipment you can own, and the only one that is really, honestly necessary. It only takes one set of five in a pair of squat shoes to demonstrate this convincingly to anybody who… Continue Reading

Contrary to what you might hear from some medical professionals, going deep in full squats is a spectacularly good idea, writes Coach Mark Rippetoe, co-author of Starting Strength and owner of Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls.

Oftentimes orthopedic surgeons, athletic trainers, physical therapists, and nurses are administering bad advice when the conversation turns towards squatting. Most people have absolutely no idea… Continue Reading

The power clean is critical to sports performance training because it is a scalable way to develop power, writes Mark Rippetoe, of The Wichita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Wichita Falls.

The power clean teaches explosion. It cannot be done slowly. And since it involves a longer pull than the squat clean, it emphasizes the finish, where the maximum hip, knee, and ankle extension occurs, without the… Continue Reading

There is no more functional movement than picking up something heavy, as we do in the deadlift, writes Mark Rippetoe of The Witchita Falls Athletic Club/CrossFit Witchita Falls in part 5 of his series on the slow lifts.

The deadlift is one of the things our bodies are built to do. By practicing, we gain proficiency at movements we are frequently called on to perform in nature.

The lower back needs to… Continue Reading