Today at the gym.

[the_junk]

So today in the gym I was squatting 170# 3x5. When the biggest and definitely strongest guy in there comes over to me to give me some wisdom.

He says "Not many people squat like that"

I said "Most people are pussies, I'm doing Coach Rippetoes's Starting Strength and....."

He cuts me off and says "Oh of course, well your form is perfect"

Then he goes back to where he was to finish dead-lifting what I can only refer to as basically a small car. (A shit load of weight)

I don't care if the under-armour wearing bodybuilder types ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blpPA7Kc6MA&feature=related ) or disco dancing suirrels ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrTqDKKeIdM ) give me weird looks when I'm doing my power cleans. Because I know soon that I will be able to break them in half, and that makes me feel good.

Thanks Rip.

[Mark Rippetoe]

And people actually criticize me for fucking with bodybuilders. The other guy hasn't got enough sense to be embarrassed.

[DSC]

Those videos almost made me puke...

I feel the same as you "The Junk". Walked up to these three guys on the squat rack yesterday who were doing triceps dips on it. I asked if I could do squats and one pointed to the Smith machine and said I could do them there. "That's for Pussies" I said, and proceeded to load the barbell to warm up. Yesterday I got my biggest group of starers. 225# squats, Press and then Power Cleans. I was trying to teach a friend good form but he wasn't up to the task, which is a shame really, because he could be really strong if only he tweaked his form some. /sigh

I don't care about the stares anymore. I find them funny, and would love for some people to ask me what the fark I'm doing just to try and get a convert or two, but if not, all the power to me, and the squat rack too. In the 5 weeks I've been on SS I've not had ONE SINGLE problem on finding it empty or people needing to use it. And there's only one in the gym.

Incredible.

DSC

[di1an]

"because I know that soon I will be able to break them in half"

couldn't have put it better myself. People do like to stare at the power cleans. I actually like that ;)

[Gottatri2lift]

Just keep lifting. On Friday I saw 2 guys attempting 135 power cleans on the smith machine! You only can chuckle under your breath and keep going. I get looks and chuckles using an empty bar for warm ups and 2.5 pound weights that I bought to continue to gain strength. The stopped laughing when I hit 300 on my squat for 3 sets of 5. :)

[sushi362]

And people actually criticize me for fucking with bodybuilders. The other guy hasn't got enough sense to be embarrassed.

Why is that?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Why is what?

[misspelledgeoff]

Why is that?

yeah coach, why do you fuck with bodybuilders? they are intense competitors and certainly aren't gay.

http://www.musclemania.com/news/20080315/mex_t.jpg

http://www.musclemania.com/news/20061221/newbodies.jpg

http://www.musclemania.com/news/20061125/brad.jpg

http://www.musclemania.com/news/20051122/knight.jpg

http://www.musclemania.com/news/20071125/open_lhw.jpg

where is it written that grown men shouldn't hold hands...while lubed to a high gloss...and wearing silk panties??

[sushi362]

Why is what?

why do people think you fuck with bodybuilders?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I might do so on occasion.

[UnBalanced]

I might do so on occasion.

I have tangled with Coach Rippetoe on the concept of hypertrophy in the past. Good times. I argue that pursuing hypertrophy (becoming stronger and looking bigger, better, more masculine and more muscular in the process) is laudable while bodybuilding per se (wearing silk panties and lubing your body) is just plain gay. Coach tends to automatically equate a desire to improve one's physical appearance and performance through barbell training with bodybuilding.

I barbell train to get stronger, be healthier and look better. Rippetoe trains (and advocates) barbell training to get stronger and be healthier. To Coach, looking better is only a douchebag's errand.

That being said, I predict that, much to his chagrin, 10-25 years from now nobody will have done more to advance/further the development of bodybuilding than Rippetoe, simply because his coaching (unlike the recommendations in the muscle comic books) effectively produces muscular results. As per the tenets of capitalism, what works suceeds. Eventually, Rippetoe will produce more bodybuilders than Joe Weider! Just my opinion.

[franklie]

Those pictures remind me of why I stopped my subscriptions to FLEX and Muscle and Fitness - they were nothing more than soft-core gay porn magazines.

The only articles worth reading were the articles by Marty Gallagher and Bill Starr.

I still have articles from the magazines and I just reviewed them and now realize why I had such terrible form at the Starting Strength seminar two years ago. The pictures demonstrating the position of the deadlift in the article written by Bill Starr show the bodybuilder model with a rounded back and the shoulders in the wrong position. Coach Starr did not have editiorial authority with regards to the pictures methinks.

[drlvegas]

Looks like the guy in the fireman's outfit went full retard. "Never go full retard"

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh53/drlvegas/simple-jack.jpg

[Mark Rippetoe]

I have tangled with Coach Rippetoe on the concept of hypertrophy in the past. Good times. I argue that pursuing hypertrophy (becoming stronger and looking bigger, better, more masculine and more muscular in the process) is laudable while bodybuilding per se (wearing silk panties and lubing your body) is just plain gay. Coach tends to automatically equate a desire to improve one's physical appearance and performance through barbell training with bodybuilding.

I barbell train to get stronger, be healthier and look better. Rippetoe trains (and advocates) barbell training to get stronger and be healthier. To Coach, looking better is only a douchebag's errand.



I appreciate the kind words as always, but please don't mischaracterize my position. I understand that appearance is an integral part of most people's motivations when they begin training. It certainly was mine, and only a fool denies a desire to be perceived more favorably by other humans, as well as oneself. This serves as motivation for beginning to train, and once a person achieves a modicum of improvement in strength and physique, a normally adjusted individual moves beyond the aesthetic as the primary motivator and becomes interested in the various aspects of performance. My position is that when the aesthetic-improvement aspects of training are retained as the primary fascination with it, to the extent that a person wants to show everybody else what he looks like so badly that he enters a "competition" venue designed specifically for this purpose -- or prepares himself for this purpose whether he enters the physique show or not -- then he has become a fucking weirdo. The oil, brown paint, silky underthings, bizarre stage behavior, and questionable juxtapositions with one's fellow weirdos onstage are merely the trappings of such weirdness.

Such behavior is tolerated well when displayed by women, since our culture seems to appreciate such things. And the defenders of the IFBB/NPC may therefore claim that they are the leaders in the transformation of society, the fellows who are at the forefront of the push to objectify both sexes. Fine with me, boys. But it has been my experience that men who so desperately wish to be thought of as being muscular/defined/massive/Herculean that it becomes the sole focus of training, that it carries over into dietary practices that effectively isolate them from normal social interaction with family and friends, and that it finally leads them up on stage in their oil, paint, and underwear to show other men their muscles, are fundamentally different than I am. Better or worse is something we may disagree on.

[matclone]

The oil, brown paint, silky underthings, bizarre stage behavior, and questionable juxtapositions with one's fellow weirdos onstage are merely the trappings of such weirdness.

Other trappings of weirdness:

Shaving yourself (unless you're a woman)
Extreme diets, drugs, and other unhealthy habits

[thrillhouse]

I appreciate the kind words as always, but please don't mischaracterize my position. I understand that appearance is an integral part of most people's motivations when they begin training. It certainly was mine, and only a fool denies a desire to be perceived more favorably by other humans, as well as oneself. This serves as motivation for beginning to train, and once a person achieves a modicum of improvement in strength and physique, a normally adjusted individual moves beyond the aesthetic as the primary motivator and becomes interested in the various aspects of performance. My position is that when the aesthetic-improvement aspects of training are retained as the primary fascination with it, to the extent that a person wants to show everybody else what he looks like so badly that he enters a "competition" venue designed specifically for this purpose -- or prepares himself for this purpose whether he enters the physique show or not -- then he has become a fucking weirdo. The oil, brown paint, silky underthings, bizarre stage behavior, and questionable juxtapositions with one's fellow weirdos onstage are merely the trappings of such weirdness.

Such behavior is tolerated well when displayed by women, since our culture seems to appreciate such things. And the defenders of the IFBB/NPC may therefore claim that they are the leaders in the transformation of society, the fellows who are at the forefront of the push to objectify both sexes. Fine with me, boys. But it has been my experience that men who so desperately wish to be thought of as being muscular/defined/massive/Herculean that it becomes the sole focus of training, that it carries over into dietary practices that effectively isolate them from normal social interaction with family and friends, and that it finally leads them up on stage in their oil, paint, and underwear to show other men their muscles, are fundamentally different than I am. Better or worse is something we may disagree on.



That may have been the most cogent and succinct assessment of body building ever.

Well done, sir.

[stronger]

That being said, I predict that, much to his chagrin, 10-25 years from now nobody will have done more to advance/further the development of bodybuilding than Rippetoe, simply because his coaching (unlike the recommendations in the muscle comic books) effectively produces muscular results. As per the tenets of capitalism, what works suceeds. Eventually, Rippetoe will produce more bodybuilders than Joe Weider! Just my opinion.

I'd put a caveat in there: whatever the consumer wants succeeds. Capitalism (I'm its biggest fan) gives the Right Things the necessary opportunities to succeed because they are not squelched by central planners. This does not mean that the Right Things will be chosen en mass, or else Milwaukee's Best and LA Fitness would be out of business long ago. what is best still has to fight for customers, but it has a chance, which is what distinguishes capitalism from other forms.

[the_junk]

Today one of them came "prancing" over to me during my squats.

He said "Hey you're probably going to need this if you don't want to get hurt" He then proceeds to hold up the "puss-pad" (The Nerve!!)

So I ate him.............

Well actually I just said thank-you, and threw it in the corner. He left and finished off his tenth set "forearm-curls". To his defense though, his foream's certainly did look pretty sculpted.

His eye-brows looked beautifully sculpted aswell.

[elVarouza]

that it carries over into dietary practices that effectively isolate them from normal social interaction with family and friends...

You mean to tell me that bringing tuperware containers of skinless chicken breasts and rice to Thanksgiving dinner isn't normal?

[misspelledgeoff]

I have a huge glass of whole milk I have been unable to drink for fear of spewing it out of my nose. I am fucking crying right now!! "never go full retard".


Looks like the guy in the fireman's outfit went full retard. "Never go full retard"

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh53/drlvegas/simple-jack.jpg

[Mark Rippetoe]

Those pictures remind me of why I stopped my subscriptions to FLEX and Muscle and Fitness - they were nothing more than soft-core gay porn magazines.

The only articles worth reading were the articles by Marty Gallagher and Bill Starr.

I still have articles from the magazines and I just reviewed them and now realize why I had such terrible form at the Starting Strength seminar two years ago. The pictures demonstrating the position of the deadlift in the article written by Bill Starr show the bodybuilder model with a rounded back and the shoulders in the wrong position. Coach Starr did not have editorial authority with regards to the pictures methinks.

I can tell you for absolute sure that he did not. No author that I know of does.

[Atlas shrugged]

why don't you all stop thinking of bodybuilders in strength training terms and just think of them as performers or models, the same way you might think of of any singer whose music and antics you don't like, or tyra banks, or keanu reeves?
i understand why you're annoyed if you have to deal with a lot of them in the gym, but realistically speaking, how many people in your average gym are actually bodybuilders? i'm guessing 1% or fewer. they are likely as annoyed by the rest of the idiots in the gym as you are. those idiots are the vast middle ground of people who don't know how to train for either end of the spectrum and who basically have bad etiquette.
also, deeming bodybuilding undesirable because it seems too gay (?) is pretty weak. men regularly admire other men for the bodies, whether they explicitly say it or not. it's just pure narcissism, and bodybuilding takes this to the extreme, which i think is freaky too (the paint/oil, the insane dieting, the obsession with body hair). but you might as well rant against pirates, gladiators, prison inmates, soldiers, and all the other manly folk who have been having sex with each other for millenia. basically, pick something legetimate to bitch about if you're going to bother. otherwise you sound like a bunch of insecure pricks.

[UnBalanced]

I appreciate the kind words as always, but please don't mischaracterize my position ....and underwear to show other men their muscles, are fundamentally different than I am. Better or worse is something we may disagree on.

Clarified and understood. The narcissitic prancing and exhibitions for other men is quite reprehensible. Indeed, there certainly is "something wrong with that."

And, yes, you have well defined bodybuilding for all of us.