Why You Won't Do the Program | Mark Rippetoe

[EdTice]

Part 4: It's Too Hard Because It Works Too Fast

I have seen comments about the program that indicate skepticism – not about whether the program works as fast as it does, but concern about the fact that it does, and whether or not this is a good thing.

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Yeah, I mean you wouldn't want to make money too fast either, right? For anybody out there who is concerned that they might accrue too much wealth too quickly, please reach out to me.

[dalan]

Do people actually worry about getting strong too fast? I have never in my life heard of that concern. That's the strangest "complaint" ever. People are weird.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Do people actually worry about getting strong too fast? I have never in my life heard of that concern. That's the strangest "complaint" ever. People are weird.

"People" don't worry about it. Shitty coaches and Professors worry about it, for obvious reasons.

[stef]

Do people actually worry about getting strong too fast? I have never in my life heard of that concern. That's the strangest "complaint" ever. People are weird.

Yes, they do. It's pretty common, actually. Essentially they feel that if they adapt too fast, they are not really adapted, so it is better to go slow. This is often paired with the idea that increases should be done only after the work sets feel "easy" - instead of going up, the work outs are repeated two or three times. Or there will be some nitpicky technique flaw - often only showing up in a rep or two - that supposedly necessitates repeating the same weights at the next workout or even lowering the weight to get "perfect" reps. This sort of mindset obviously interferes with progress and you'll generally see this in the person's behaviour and lack of growth in other areas of their life if you're privy to those details.

[Lost and Found]

Or there will be some nitpicky technique flaw - often only showing up in a rep or two - that supposedly necessitates repeating the same weights at the next workout or even lowering the weight to get "perfect" reps. This sort of mindset obviously interferes with progress and you'll generally see this in the person's behaviour and lack of growth in other areas of their life if you're privy to those details.

This is great. Thanks Stef.
In one of Carl Raghavan's articles he mentions that when things get "heavy" it's important to grind out a final rep or set even if form suffers a bit just don't rack the weight.
"This is strength training, not figure skating"

[liftheavy4life]

Good article. I will fully admit I'm one of those people, and I paid the price for it. I did a few templates from Barbell Medicine (I know I know), and I wasted a lot of time. Here's what I found:

1) RPE is junk science. It just simply doesn’t work in practice. You cannot ascribe a subjective scale (perceived exertion) to an objective phenomenon (bar speed). Even after running three programs for about two years, I still cannot tell you the difference between an RPE 6, 7, 8, and 9. The only RPE I can tell you is RPE 10 and that’s only when I fail the next set. RPE simply allows you to “cheat” by choosing a lighter weight because today you are just not “feeling it” today.

2) Reps over 5 are not useful. Reps over 5 simply do not allow you to lift heavy enough. I remember some of the exercises requiring reps of 12. Have you ever tried to consistently do 12 reps of a barbell movement? All that happened was my form slowly broke down, and I chose lower and lower weights because the reps were so exhausting.

3) Too many exercises. More is not better. There are just too many exercises to do them all competently. The issue is the time it takes to learn proper form for 20+ exercises. Many lifts just don’t increase your strength., and some of them may increase strength overtime, but in a sub-optimal manner.

4) Too much time. I was spending 3+ hours on a single workout session trying to fit in all the exercises. I would skip workouts because they simply took too much time, or I was too exhausted from the previous exercise. I also would break the exercises on different days because they took too long to complete. Programs that should have taken 12 weeks took 24 weeks.

5) “Bodybuilding” or hypertrophy is a scam. Professional body builders are a product of time + genetics + diet + drugs. If you have good genes, a good diet, plenty of drugs, and spend 3+ hours in a gym 6 days a week, it doesn’t matter what you are doing, you are going to improve your physique. I ran the hypertrophy program from Barbell Medicine and my physique didn't approve. I just became weaker.

Now I have to eat my humble pie and admit I fucked up. I'm running the NLP model right now.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Keep us posted on your progress.

[John Watson]

Good article. I will fully admit I'm one of those people, and I paid the price for it. I did a few templates from Barbell Medicine (I know I know), and I wasted a lot of time. Here's what I found:

1) RPE is junk science. It just simply doesn’t work in practice. You cannot ascribe a subjective scale (perceived exertion) to an objective phenomenon (bar speed). Even after running three programs for about two years, I still cannot tell you the difference between an RPE 6, 7, 8, and 9. The only RPE I can tell you is RPE 10 and that’s only when I fail the next set. RPE simply allows you to “cheat” by choosing a lighter weight because today you are just not “feeling it” today.

2) Reps over 5 are not useful. Reps over 5 simply do not allow you to lift heavy enough. I remember some of the exercises requiring reps of 12. Have you ever tried to consistently do 12 reps of a barbell movement? All that happened was my form slowly broke down, and I chose lower and lower weights because the reps were so exhausting.

3) Too many exercises. More is not better. There are just too many exercises to do them all competently. The issue is the time it takes to learn proper form for 20+ exercises. Many lifts just don’t increase your strength., and some of them may increase strength overtime, but in a sub-optimal manner.

4) Too much time. I was spending 3+ hours on a single workout session trying to fit in all the exercises. I would skip workouts because they simply took too much time, or I was too exhausted from the previous exercise. I also would break the exercises on different days because they took too long to complete. Programs that should have taken 12 weeks took 24 weeks.

5) “Bodybuilding” or hypertrophy is a scam. Professional body builders are a product of time + genetics + diet + drugs. If you have good genes, a good diet, plenty of drugs, and spend 3+ hours in a gym 6 days a week, it doesn’t matter what you are doing, you are going to improve your physique. I ran the hypertrophy program from Barbell Medicine and my physique didn't approve. I just became weaker.

Now I have to eat my humble pie and admit I fucked up. I'm running the NLP model right now.

What? That's unbelievable.
They follow all the latest cutting edge science.
When they said the science said to take BCAA's I did.
Then when the "science" changed again they said BCAA's are useless or possibly detrimental I stopped.
That's when I really learned something. It was quite instructive, and I probably don't need to expand on it any further than that.
But it did prepare me well for similar lessons over the past two years.
Good luck in your training!

[liftheavy4life]

Will do, Mr. Rippetoe! Thanks for creating such a great program.

[Jovan Dragisic]

5) “Bodybuilding” or hypertrophy is a scam.

There is that video mash up of big name bodybuilders all benching 400+ pounds for low reps, which should put the hypertrophy training line to rest: Bench Press Ronnie Coleman Dorian Yates Kai Greene Phil Heath Big Ramy Roelly Winklaar Kevin Levrone - YouTube