Rip's Thought on Recent MTI Revelation

[bbrenon]

Rip, I got this in my email the other day from Mountain Tactical Institute, a crossfit-esque/functional training group dedicated to tailored training for outdoor professional/tactical athletes, including military, cops, firefighters, back country rescuers, etc. I have tried some of the plans and they are smokers, but more importantly, they do not suffer the same fatal flaw as crossfit, as they are engineered to improve in certain areas (some focus on strength, others on endurance, agility, etc). Even the strength ones are well-designed but not geared towards the simple, efficient growth of strength as whole-mindedly as the SS NLP is, but they have the added benefit (from my standpoint as a Soldier who needs to be cognizant of my waistline or become unemployed) of trimming the fat through the approach.

Anyways, the study (linked below) found- shock and surprise- that the squat is the best exercise for overall strength gains because it incorporates the whole damn body. I would love to see your response, either here or on an upcoming podcast. After having spent time listening to the SS Radio podcast and most of this year on the NLP (I had to take a few months off due to an unrelated knee injury in February which I could not load or fully flex until May, at which point I had to drop from 295 to 125 and work back up), I was personally unsurprised to see the outcome.


Mini Study Results: Back Squats defeat Dead Lifts and Thrusters to be crowned the "King of Strength Exercises" - Mountain Tactical Institute

[Mark Rippetoe]

There are too many things wrong with this "study" to dissect, and if you've read our materials you already know this. But I'm glad they like the squat, even if they don't know how to perform it.