Starting Strength Weekly Report


April 05, 2021


Cruelest Edition

On Starting Strength
  • A Lie Agreed Upon Part 2 – Mark Rippetoe is joined by Beth Stelzer from Save Women's Sports to discuss policy and legislation affecting girls' and women's sports.
  • Conditioning Modalities for Masters – The Barbell Prescription includes a conditioning prescription, and most people can fill that Rx with the Prowler (sled) or an appropriate high-intensity sport. Sully discusses the need for conditioning in Masters, why the sled checks all the boxes of our exercise prescription criteria....and what to do if you can't (or won't) use the sled.
  • The Starting Strength Terribly Useful Block of Wood – Mark Rippetoe presents the most useful piece of gym equipment you'll ever need. The TUBOW has helped millions of people with their squat and can completely replace a coach. No more paying hundreds of dollars every month to an online coach to watch your videos. Get your TUBOW today!
  • When to Omit the Power Clean by Mark Rippetoe – As we have said many times, not everybody needs to do the power clean. This has been repeatedly interpreted to mean, “I don't need to do the power clean.” Even more unfortunately, it has come to mean, “I don't need to learn how to coach the power clean”...
  • Elbow “Flare” in the Press by Nick Delgadillo – There’s a tendency for new or inexperienced coaches to see problems where they don’t exist, or to try to solve a problem using an unrelated piece of instruction due to a misunderstanding of the fundamental issue...
  • Weekend Archives: The Science of Verbal Cues: Turning Words into Action by Nick D'Agostino – What is your mission as a coach? When you’re working with a trainee, what are you aiming for?...
  • Weekend Archives: From Heart Patient to Lifter by Mark Rippetoe – I have known Scott Davison for about 20 years. A former columnist at our local newspaper, I used to read his opinions before he got fired for being on the wrong side of a local election. Prior to that, he had worked for the Strategic Air Command...


From the Coaches
  • Jerk blocks are handy for working on the Olympic lifts, so Phil and Becky Meggers show you how to construct a set of blocks (these are also pulling blocks). In Part 1, they specifically cover how to build the stackers, and they'll cover how to build the top block in the upcoming Part 2.
  • How are ties broken at a weightlifting meet? Hint - bodyweight has nothing to do with it! Phil Meggers covers the rules for tiebreakers as well as the overall reasoning.
Get Involved

In the Trenches

mark diffley teaches the deadlift at starting strength austin
Mark Diffley teaches the deadlift at Starting Strength Austin. [photo courtesy of Aaron Fredericks]
david lund at the bottom of a 315 squat
David Lund hits his first 315 squat during his linear progression.
nicole coaches chris through the squat at starting strength austin
Nicole Rutherford coaches Chris Leaming on a squat work set at Starting Strength Austin. [photo courtesy of Aaron Fredericks]

Best of the Week

The wages of silly bullshit

FatButWeak

Brooke Shields almost dies (whatever) after falling off a silly bullshit balance board and shattering her spindly, aged, osteoporotic legs. Probably a vegetarian. She also got real old and ugly. Enjoy: Media Story

Lesson: "Squatting is bad for the knees"

Mark Rippetoe

As usual, the media's treatment of the situation is factually incorrect, pompous, and embarrassing to all thinking people. Brooke Shields is irrelevant, but propaganda like this is a serious situation that affects what we do here.

MarinePMI

And that...was some epic...silly bullshit. Smdh…

Mark Rippetoe

It's why the hill we roll the ball up keeps getting steeper and higher.

Satch12879

They are having my mother-in-law doing something like this in PT. There's no use in trying to explain to them why it's stupid bullshit as there is nothing too stupid that someone in a position of authority with several groups of letters after his name can say that they won't believe. This applies to many aspects of life and current events. And my wife's best friend is a PT, so they can always defer to her to agree with the silly bullshit.

I just wait until the moment I can say, "I told you so" on a lot of things.


Best of the Forum

Isometric Deadlift Holds

TomRoHer

I recently came across a video in which Louie Simmons was teaching isometric deadlift holds, i.e., placing the pins at the sticking point of your deadlift with the bar beneath and applying maximal force against them for several seconds per rep.

It isn't a topic I can find covered by you anywhere and was curious as to what your take on them is.

For clarity this isn't something I am considering. I just thought it an interesting practise and would like to hear your two cents.

Mark Rippetoe

The Ultimate Strength Exercise

Note the date of the article.

Soule

And what is your opinion on isometrics, coach? I don’t believe there is anything on this in the gray book.

Mark Rippetoe

I haven't found them to be useful outside the context of a lot of drugs. They are almost impossible to train correctly, and completely unnecessary for novice/intermediate lifters.

TomRoHer

Thank you, that is exactly what I was looking for.





Starting Strength Weekly Report

Highlights from the StartingStrength Community. Browse archives.

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.