Starting Strength
An Interview with Mark Rippetoe
by Chris Colucci
What do you get when you combine 30 years of coaching experience
with a deep-seated need to teach as many people as possible the
benefits of lifting heavy iron? You get Mark Rippetoe, a guy who's
written not one, not two, but
three of the most
comprehensive books explaining the basics of strength training, and
beyond.
Testosterone: Coach, I know you've been certified through the
NSCA since 1985 (with their first certification group), you've been
a competitive powerlifter, and you've been involved with Crossfit.
How'd it all come about?
Mark Rippetoe: 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. So, I didn't really see anything about
Crossfit for a long time.
But it came to my attention a couple of years ago, and I just
recognized it. I may have minor methodological problems with
them, but they're the only organization I see with momentum that's
moving in the right direction.
They advocate basic methods of human movement that all serious
trainers have used for a long time, and they've formalized the
process through randomness. Crossfit doesn't pretend that they're
anything but GPP [general physical preparation]. We're not saying
powerlifters need to do Crossfit. We're not saying Olympic
weightlifters need to do Crossfit, or bodybuilders.
This guy's workouts shouldn't involve doing 50 muscle-ups or
running a 5K.
But for people for whom the random use of their body, and
physical abilities, comes up at work or for certain sports,
Crossfit is the best program out there... for them. We're not
saying that it's anything else. But it is, quite literally, the
best synthesis of all this stuff that's been
formalized.
If you look at Crossfit from the standpoint of, 'This is what
they're trying to accomplish for these particular athletes,' I
don't see that there should be any controversy about it at
all.
T-Nation: Sometimes there does seem to be a misinterpretation of
those goals. While it's not ideal for bodybuilding, it does appeal
to a lot of firefighters, law enforcement, and the military. I
think people in those lines of work seem drawn to
it.
Rippetoe: I do too, because it works. One of the reasons our
methods fit into Crossfit so well, is because the stronger you are,
the more effective you are at Crossfit. Lots and lots of people
have figured that out through experience. And that's why we're so
widely accepted as a nice adjunct program, at least in terms of our
methods detailed in Basic Barbell Training.
T-Nation: One thing about the Starting Strength program that
I've noticed, especially because of the Internet, it that it's
starting to suffer from the telephone game syndrome. One person
read the book and figured they knew how to do it, then they told
someone else who tweaked it a bit, and they told two friends, and
they told two friends.
Here's the million-dollar question. What is the Starting
Strength program and why does it seem to work so
well?
Rippetoe: The Starting Strength program consists of the use of
basic barbell exercises. We primarily rely on the squat, bench
press, the deadlift, the press, and the power clean. And we
combined those exercises into very short, simple
workouts.
When we specifically speak of the Starting Strength program,
we're talking about its application to
novice athletes. This
is extremely important to understand, and this is kind of the
premise for Practical Programming for Strength Training, our second book.
When a person first starts training, I mean first rattle out of
the box, an 18-year old kid comes in the gym and starts training,
he's so unadapted that riding a bicycle will make his bench press
go up. The further removed you are from your potential to adapt,
the quicker and easier adaptation is.
The Starting Strength program takes into account the fact that
there are just a
few basic exercises that, when done in a
program of strict linear increase — come in, do 3x5 after
your warm-up, go up 10 pounds in your next workout, and do that
until it doesn't work anymore — they produce a total body
adaptation that's superior to the use of exercises that dilute the
body into bodyparts.
In other words, we don't think, "legs." We think, "squat." We
don't attempt to assemble a complete workout from bodyparts. We
don't have muscle groups that are favorites; we don't think in
terms of muscle groups. We think in terms of
movements.
I don't really coach but seven or eight exercises. We squat, and
press overhead, we deadlift, we bench press, we clean, we snatch.
We occasionally do barbell rows, but we don't really use
barbell rows in our program.
T-Nation: That's actually one of those telephone game problems
that's popped up. Any reason for not using rows
much?
Rippetoe: It's a decent assistance exercise, and so are dips. I
don't really want to put chins or pull-ups in that list, because
they're essential upper body exercises. I think chin-ups and
barbell rows are in two different categories. But we don't
really use barbell rows, and I think that's one of the puzzling
things that developed on the Internet.
I think rows are in a lot of these spin-offs of my program
because people need another exercise off the floor besides
deadlifts, but everybody's afraid to learn the clean. I don't
really understand it, except that, in people's minds, rows are
easier to learn. They look slow, they don't look as
complicated.
I think I did a decent job of explaining the clean in the book,
and I think it's a much better exercise than the barbell row.
Because it
can't be done slowly. That's why we use it. It's
an explosive lift.
T-Nation: You're okay with recreational lifters using the
Olympic lifts? Do you think Average Joes can benefit from
them?
Rippetoe: Sure! Oh, God yes. For the same reasons, they
can't be done slowly. You have to explode to do a snatch and a
power clean. And explosive training recruits more motor units than
slow training.
To do things very, very slowly because it makes your muscles
burn seems rather silly to me. It's like making your pecs burn.
Just gotta get the pump, right?
T-Nation: Aw come on, everyone loves the occasional pump.
Another major criticism of the Starting Strength program comes from
squatting three times a week. People say it's "bad" for the lower
back. Just like they say you shouldn't squat and deadlift in the
same workout.
Rippetoe: Sure you can... if you're a novice.
(laughs) T-Nation: So it all comes back to experience being part of the
program design?
Rippetoe: Yeah. The point of the whole thing is that your
training program must reflect your level of training advancement.
You wouldn't put a person who's been a competitive lifter for 10
years on this simple, novice program because they won't benefit
from it.
Accueil 
