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March 27, 2015 - Louder with Crowder
31:18
Mark Rippetoe Talks Girly Men and Crossfit || Louder With Crowder
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Why would anyone be listening in Germany?
Well, I don't know, Stephen.
That's your demographic problem.
Very glad to have this next guest on not what you're used to on Ladder with Crowder, shifting gears from politics a little bit, but a guy who I've read for a while.
You can pick up his book, actually, Starting Strength.
It's probably the single book that anyone who's looking to get strong and healthy should read.
StartingStrength.com.
Coach Mark Ripito, thank you for being on the show, sir.
Oh, gosh, Stephen.
Appreciate it, man.
Thank you for having me on.
What's that sigh for?
Right off the bat, you don't sound happy to be here.
Oh, I am happy to be here.
Of course I'm happy to be here.
I mean, we're fellow travelers, right?
I'm in strength.
You're into Planet Fitness.
I've got a barbell gym.
You go to Planet Fitness.
I know.
I tell you what, I didn't know it was as bad as it was until I went.
They don't have a squat rack.
No, no.
Stephen, look.
Planet Fitness is not about fitness.
That's just part of the name.
They're a sales organization.
And they're a very effective sales organization.
In fact, I'll tell you a story if you're up for it, if we want to segue back into your trolling situation you had with them earlier in the week.
A long time ago, when I first opened my gym in 1984, a friend of mine was running a promotion, a sales promotion, that really presaged the model that Planet Fitness uses right now.
They're primarily designed to Appeal to people that are not going to use the membership.
Right.
That's their whole deal.
Their sales model is sell cheap memberships to people who will not use a gym membership, but that are cheap enough that people will not stop the draft on.
That's the whole model.
Right.
And we had a deal.
It was drawing kind of a lead box based promotion.
Back a long time ago that said that you want a free membership to the Wichita Falls Athletic Club as a consolation prize and somebody's going to win a vacation to Hawaii.
All you have to do to claim this free membership to the gym is to come in and pay the maintenance fees of $96, which was something like $53 a year.
No, $46.
I can't do the math.
But it was $96 for two years worth.
And you had a two-year membership for $96.
Now, people that are regular gym members don't put their name in lead boxes anyway.
So the thing generated quite a bit of cash up front, and it generated a grand total of about five people that used that membership for the next two years.
Wow.
Out of the hundreds of people that signed up for this thing, five of them.
I'll tell you what, though.
I've been a member of some of those gyms that aren't quite Planet Fitness, but they have a few squat racks, and their goal is to get as many to sign up with cheap rates.
And sometimes you do join up, and you know how to use it properly, and you're the only person in the gym, and it's great.
There was a gym actually in Texas that I went to, which actually, funnily that you talk about it.
And that's why I wanted to bring you on, too.
A lot of people don't realize this.
I mean, you're more libertarian.
I'm libertarian conservative.
What bothers me about the fitness industry is the scamming.
I mean, for example, I have my wife right now, and she cannot find a trainer who will get her doing the right things.
And won't listen to me.
What was that?
I hear you muttering angrily.
It's a problem within this industry.
This industry is such that You walk in to a fitness industry gym, and the kid's got a shirt on that says trainer.
Right.
How does a layperson know the difference between him and me?
By your sweet pecs?
There's not any way to tell.
Oh, jeez.
Don't do that again.
There's not any way for a layperson to tell, and it's a problem.
It really is.
Yeah, well, and that being said, my first gym ever, I've talked about this on air, was Energy Cardio.
It was the only gym around Montreal where I was on the South Shore that would allow my parents to sign off.
I was 13.
I was a fat little kid, and it was the only gym that would allow my parents to sign off on me going without them being present.
And they didn't have a squat rack.
They had all the other freeways, so their dumbbells did go up, to their credit, to 110 pounds.
So I was allowed to do deadlifts, and I did those.
I wasn't really able to squat for the first few years, which obviously you're a big proponent of that.
But I remember that, and it wasn't the best gym, but it was better than nothing.
In our school, in Canadian schools, there were no athletic programs.
We didn't have any serious free weights, so it wasn't like American kids have it.
And that started me on my journey, and then the really serious games came actually.
It wasn't your program, but very similar, Bill Starr's.
Five times five.
It changed my life.
I think a lot of people out there don't realize we talked about this with Brett McKay.
The strenuous life.
Challenging yourself every day to better yourself as a man, as a woman, as a person is very important.
That's where you talk about progressive overloading with training is a great example of that.
If you do it, you'll get better and you'll become stronger.
I think it's very important to For any human being to know where their limits are.
Yes.
Because if you don't know where the limits are, then you have no idea what you can, in fact, do.
And the only way to know where your limits are is to exceed them occasionally.
Right.
And it takes a lot of effort.
Most people aren't willing to do it.
No, and it's a lot easier.
Like you talk about the fitness industry, you know, my wife has never done a squat.
And the fact is, I'll tell you this.
This is a true story.
It just happened yesterday.
She went in with a personal trainer.
I handed them your book.
I said, I want her doing this.
I'm paying for a glorified babysitter.
She won't listen to me.
And they never do any of it.
There's a saying amongst these strength coaches.
You can't coach...
Your wife.
No.
Okay.
Well, that's a pretty simple thing.
You cannot...
That doesn't work.
It just doesn't work.
Well, I will tell you this.
So that happened, and they had her doing everything except squatting.
We have to go to the break, so I'll finish this and let you take the rage when we come back.
But...
She's tall, she's six foot, and she's slim, and she's gorgeous.
She modeled for a long time.
That's nature.
And the first thing the trainer asked, he said, listen, I'll give you a discount if you let me put you on my blog as an after picture.
Taking credit for God's work.
We will be right back with Coach Mark Ripoteau.
Stay tuned.
Very excited back with the one and only Coach Mark Ripoteau.
I told you that story before the break.
And isn't that the truth?
And people come in and say, hey, can you make me look like Mrs.
Crowder?
And it's just the way she was born.
You can't.
Right.
Well, that's an interesting topic.
And I think you have stumbled onto...
One of the problems with the strength and conditioning business in general.
The strength and conditioning business nowadays is largely...
This is a deceptive mess.
Extremely talented athletes are extremely talented athletes because they were born that way.
And in terms of their athletic talent...
All of the skipping around in the floor and balanced drills and high-level D1 college-looking activities that are designed to hone the abilities of very, very talented athletes are a complete, absolute waste of time.
Extremely talented athletes aren't made any better by these types of...
Just look around at D1 college programs.
They're not made any better by these exercises.
And activities that are designed to display talent.
They are displaying talent that's already there.
They aren't developing anything.
And, you know, the model is that strength and conditioning coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, am I saying that right?
Strength and conditioning coaches are primarily designed, they primarily designed their activity and time In the gym around activities that are designed to display the talent of the athlete, which in the model of the industry is designed to display the talent of the coach.
It doesn't.
It just, you know.
Like CrossFit.
A lot of those things now where it started, I know you worked with it, but I have guys come and go, look, I can do a single leg overhead barbell squat on top of a kettlebell.
I say, why?
Why?
Well, it's good.
It's good that you can do that.
You're talented enough to do that.
That's wonderful.
But now, the question becomes, as a strength and conditioning coach, what do I do to make you better?
Have you do the other leg?
You just displayed to me a fantastic talent for balance.
You know, D1 programs primarily recruit on the basis of...
A suite of activities that are centered around measuring vertical jump because these indicate the set of explosive athletic genetics that you're looking for.
You take a guy with a 36 inch vertical, he's going to make any coach look pretty good because he's a good athlete.
Whether the coach does anything for him or not, Is largely irrelevant because he already looks good because that's why you recruited him.
Well, let me ask you this.
Before we get off into, you have to understand, a lot of people listening aren't that far along the trail.
Well, let me ask you this.
What would be your advice to someone who's not elite?
Get stronger.
Even if you are elite, the one thing that you can always control is to get stronger.
Anybody can get stronger.
Unless you're a strength specialist, anybody can get stronger.
For anyone, old person that doesn't do athletics, young 18-year-old kid looking to go to college and play sports, the most important thing they can do is the thing that they can make the most difference doing, and that is a strength program.
Right.
And you know what?
I will say this.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu, grappling, which is, I guess, sort of my sport.
I mean, if you're not in a pro sport, you're not in college.
You either have to pick something.
My dad's more accomplished in the competitive realm.
A lot of them just don't get stronger.
I'm going to work on technique.
And that obviously is important.
And we've talked about this off-air.
There is a point of diminishing returns.
And as someone who's strength trained my whole life, I know where that is.
Where I go, okay, now it's time to maintain this because 10 more pounds on this barbell...
At the end of the year is not going to be time best served compared to spending time on my sport.
But getting to that baseline is so important.
People have an extremely skewed perspective about where that baseline is.
Sure.
A guy like you, you're 27, 6'2", 205.
No, I'm 6'2", 220.
6'2", 220.
Steven, you ought to be squatting, you know, 475 or 75.
And the fact that you're not indicates to me that you're not at baseline.
See what I mean?
Yeah, and that's impressive.
You don't have the appreciation for what the baseline actually is.
Yeah, but I will say this, Mark, and I do, I love your book, and I recommend it actually to my producer here, to everyone who's starting strength.
You give me crap for the unilateral work that I did earlier, but you have to understand, I did have two severely herniated discs.
I lost all actual motor function in my legs.
They were pricking me with pins.
So there was a time where I had to focus on maximal loading that I could with minimal spinal compression.
And that was where I found a system that worked for me to maintain strength and actually increase flexibility, mobility, to the point where I felt like I could get back to barbells.
Now, I will say this.
Did you ever get back to barbells?
Right now I am, yeah.
What are you deadlifting now?
Well, yeah, I don't deadlift.
I don't deadlift right now.
I do squats and benches and overhead press.
I mean, you know, I have a torn rotator.
I told you that before I tore my rotator.
I have a torn rotator.
I did 23 pull-ups.
Did you?
At 220.
I did 18 pull-ups at a fat man's body weight.
Okay, I don't want to get into this competition because here's a fact.
I said in my 54-year-old father, and he would be the least efficient at lifting barbells, and he would choke everyone in your gym out.
And that's the skill set that's most important to me, is combat.
I understand that, but what I'm saying to you, that a guy with extremely high skill lift, extremely high skill lift, that doubles his squat, All of a sudden he got better without improving his skills.
I agree.
But let me say this.
I agree completely.
My whole point.
I agree completely.
But if you look at heavyweight champions right now, like Boucher, people like that, there is a point.
And I don't know that you've ever tried to gain strength while doing grappling or wrestling six, seven sessions a week.
It is very, very difficult to do.
It's very catabolic.
It's very hard.
If I do grappling, even when I tone down the strength train to three times a week...
It is very hard for me to get above 205.
What I'm suggesting is that it might be to your advantage to maybe get stronger, which takes twice a week.
Work those two strength training sessions in so that your strength would progress.
And that total benefit obtained by doing that It might very well make up for the loss of time on the mat.
Oh, and that's what I'm doing right now because I can't spend time on the mat.
To give you an idea, that's a great example with your program.
Obviously, there's only so much recovery you have.
So when I was doing your program and lifting pretty heavy right now and just did some drilling and mitt work was incredibly sore.
It was very difficult to recover from both activities, and that's why I've put that on hold, because of the injuries.
But I do, I advocate your program or something similar, generally your program exactly, for everyone I know who's starting lifting.
We're actually getting this gentleman here who's, we won't bring him in, but my producer, Jared, who is 145 pounds and needs to start lifting heavy.
But I do want to get into sort of the macro issue here.
I'm writing a column right now, and you can tell me if you agree or disagree.
I believe that we've reached a point in the Planet Fitness thing, it wasn't about the transgender deal or the cross-dressing.
It was about, I truly believe, and you talk about this with weightlifting, and I think in every aspect of life, you have to look at yourself, correct yourself, and at the end of the day, you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, did I do everything I could do to get better?
Have I done everything I can to prepare for whatever your job may be?
If so, yes, let's get to work.
But now, if I were raised in modern, politically correct liberal America, I believe I would be fat, weak, and feel good about myself.
Sure.
Because we've gotten to a point, and I will say this flat out, liberalism creates fat, weak, young men who feel good about being, not just, I'm not talking about physically, in character.
And if you look at people like Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, that's, I use this term, the strenuous life.
They talked about every day pushing yourself a little bit.
Do you have a lot of people who come in, or young men, who just don't have that sensibility of, hey, this is going to be hard, and that's what's beautiful in it?
I don't know that most people that start this program think in those terms.
I think that they come in understanding that this is what they need, but they haven't couched it in terms of They're placed on the political spectrum.
You and I can be philosophical about this, and we didn't, because we've got time to do that.
But a kid that's, you know, working full-time at Sonic Drive-In, he's 19 years old, he's underweight, he knows he needs to be bigger, he doesn't think about it in those terms.
He just knows that everything he's tried before hasn't worked.
And he knows that he's heard that what we can do can help him, so he comes in.
But stepping back from the immediate nature of such a thing, I agree with your bigger point.
I agree with your point that the pressure now is to be accepting of complacency, because complacency is easier, and complacency Is the kind of thing that enables people to feel good about themselves when somebody else tells them that that's really all you need to do.
Why push hard?
Why test your own limits?
We're here to make those limits nice and low.
We're here to make you comfortable.
And comfort is the most important thing you can be and satisfied with yourself and high self-esteem and all that other stuff.
This is kind of an odd time.
The history of the human race, I think.
For those of you listening terrestrially, Mark has the most disgusted look on his face that I can imagine.
This is an odd, odd time.
It really is.
We've got, on the one hand, a society where PSAs on the radio are telling us one in four people are struggling with hunger.
Those of you listening on terrestrial radio have heard this PSA on the station today.
One in four.
I'm one of one in four.
I'm the person that rides up the elevator with you.
And I'm struggling with hunger.
Yet, what's the obesity rate in the United States?
Right.
Well, you guys, make up your mind, all right?
We can't have it both ways.
And the...
The politically expedient nature of both of these messages, the fact that they conflict with each other, doesn't seem to bother anybody.
And it's just real strange.
Yeah.
It's also funny to me, you know, you have Michelle Obama who declared it a national crisis, right?
A bigger threat than global terrorism.
No, the obesity thing.
But I always think...
She needs to listen to more radio.
Because if she did, she'd understand that one in four is struggling.
Sure.
Well, I don't think she's struggling with hunger, and that wasn't what I was implying, but I guess I just said it now.
We'll be right back with Coach Mark Ripto after this break, where we'll see how much more inappropriate we can get.
Back in this next hour, we went through the hour, and now we're still back with Coach Mark Ripto.
Before this, we were talking about hunger versus obesity in this country, and that's a good point.
I talk about that, though, too.
If obesity is our biggest epidemic, as some leftists say, I go, I mean, if you had to pick your problem out of a pile, wouldn't that be the one you would first pick, a problem of overabundance and choice?
I can't imagine a better problem to have.
Ah, the perils of capitalists.
Overabundance.
Yes.
As opposed to the manufactured nonsense of struggling with hunger.
Right.
This is...
As I said, this is an interesting time in the history of the human race.
We've got a giant dichotomy, and I know this is what bothers leftists.
We have a huge segment of the world's population that don't get enough to eat.
And then again, here we are in the United States, where you can walk into a grocery store, you can walk into Walmart and buy pre-made pancakes.
Wait, the pancakes are already made or do you mean the mix?
I can understand that the dichotomy bothers people, okay?
But my position is that the dichotomy is not my problem.
The dichotomy is the problem of the third world who refuses to embrace the idea that private property and free market capitalism provides for pre-made pancakes.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm using this as a metaphor for the whole thing.
But I don't know if you really want to get me started.
No, I don't think I do.
I don't think I do.
I know.
Talk about this for quite a while.
No, I agree with you.
Well, I mean, listen, they don't have the problem of obesity.
You know, try getting some Zambian famine victims head around it.
They won't even be able to comprehend that your problem is you have too much to eat.
Try to find a dose of anorexia nervosa in Zambia.
I'd look for it.
I also don't think you have a lot of bodybuilders oiled and tanned bitching about their calves.
Probably not the body dysmorphia on either side.
So we get back to, you know, you talk about getting stronger.
Let me ask you this.
Okay.
To go back to strength training, How do you handle it?
I've gotten to a point in my life where I am just so tired with the BS. And I feel like it's everywhere.
And it's no more prevalent than in the supplement industry and the fitness industry.
Planet Fitness is an example.
But it's, I mean, literally, I cannot find one decent personal trainer to whom I can take my wife.
And we are just literally...
If you're looking at Planet Fitness for a decent personal trainer, You seem to have some serious misconceptions about this.
No, not Planet Fitness.
Like I told you, the vast majority, Planet Fitness is on the extreme end of this continuum.
You've got the standard industry model gyms, which are basically sales organizations, and then you've got on the far other end of the spectrum, places like Wichita Paul's Athletic Club, out the door here, that It has a sign on the door that says, Wichita Falls Athletic Club is a private strength training facility.
Membership is by invitation only.
We turn people away here that don't sufficiently appreciate what it is we're trying to do.
Okay, well let me real quick, because people are going to attack you.
In the middle is, you know, there is the functional training expression of the Right in the middle is really where more trainers ought to be and they're not.
Right.
In a position that serve a larger percentage of the population.
Sure.
Now, let me ask you this, because people will say, you turn people away.
See, that's why Planet Fitness exists.
You just want to judge fat people.
Now, I know that you have some old ladies who train at your gym.
It's not about where you are.
It's about how serious you are with self-improvement, right?
Yes.
It's about whether you came into the gym for...
The fact that we have a logical, arithmetical model for making you stronger.
Start where you are now, go up a little bit every time, right?
Or if you came in for pizza night.
If you came in for pizza night, yeah, we're going to probably draw a conclusion based on that.
Is that judgment?
Well, I guess, you know, whatever you want.
That's just semantics, okay?
But no, my 91-year-old gal that trains in here.
We'll be in here tomorrow about noon, thanks.
Is capable of doing an unassisted bodyweight squat below parallel.
Wow, good for her.
And that's been a long process, but we've gotten her to the point where she hasn't fallen down in a year.
She doesn't use her walker anymore.
That's been in her closet for about 10 months.
And the same process that we use for Sure.
Sure.
I see that and people see the planet fitness thing and say no judgment because we don't want to be mean.
I hear that story that you just tell me.
And I think how mean are you other personal trainers to rob this woman of that experience of the opportunity to put her Walker in the closet at the age of 91.
Good for her.
Are there any pictures online or videos?
Yeah, we've got a little video online of, Just look up Gus, G-U-S, Mrs.
Virginia Gustafson-Razon.
Look up Gus, W-F-A-C, and there'll be a nice little video that comes up.
91 years old.
Geez, well, that just goes to show people listening.
The same process that you, Steven Crowder, need to be doing.
I am doing it right now.
Oh, nice.
Look, all right, let me ask you a question.
I often come coach you.
And you've said...
You've never offered to come coach me.
Okay, no, no, hold on a second.
Don't make me mute your mic.
Don't make me mute your microphone.
Because you just asked me if I did deadlifts on air.
When you were the one who specified, you said, oh, you got a torn rotator cuff?
Yeah, good mornings are good.
You should do those.
You don't need to be deadlifting or doing power cleans.
No, I didn't say anything about good mornings.
Look, I had this shoulder rotator cuff repair.
And you know what I did?
Three weeks post-op, I deadlifted 315.
Because...
Dead lefts don't bother a torn rotator.
Well, they do mine.
Well, maybe that's not what you've got.
Well, maybe it's not what I've got.
It's a diagnosis.
But everyone listening, I'm following his protocol.
I called him with questions.
He said, yeah, that actually seems good if you can do it and it's not irritating your back.
Those are good replacements.
And then he comes on here and tries to throw me under the bus.
So, I'll tell you what.
I will say this.
I don't remember saying I told you, Steve.
Well, you certainly didn't offer to come out and train me.
You were asking me about the Cherry Festival.
Hey, right now, I'm telling you on air, I'll come train you.
Okay.
Okay.
You come out here, I will be glad to...
And you can train my wife.
Yeah.
And you can...
I start with her.
Okay.
I start with her.
Put her up on starting strength and say, look at my handiwork.
Oh, God.
Yeah, she's way out of my league.
Okay.
There was something else I was going to ask you.
I don't even remember what it was now that we got off the beaten path.
I was going to say this.
Okay.
Do you talk about strength training?
If I may sort of parlay that into something, I don't know if you've ever been on the grappling mats, but I would invite you to go on there once because everyone should get their ass kicked once.
It's good for your soul.
Absolutely.
I've got my ass kicked way harder than one.
It's good to realize how a Marcelo Garcia-looking character, who you would see in the gym and see as weak, can feel so strong and absolutely end your life at any time they want to, just to realize that strength is important, but it does not make a complete human.
No, no.
I'll tell you what is even more important than strength.
Youth.
I don't know.
Guys like you, enjoy it while you've got it.
Once you accumulate all the injuries I've got, You know, at one time, I was about, you know, halfway tough.
Now I'm just old.
Yeah, I'll tell you what, though.
We've had guys who came in who were halfway tough.
We've had division, we've had pro football players come in and just get their, just the life choked out of them.
There's nothing they can do about it.
Not everybody can do everybody else's sport.
This is true.
Thank God I don't have to deal with that.
I just deal with the thing that makes everybody's sport better, and that's getting strong.
That's getting strong.
That is absolutely true.
And on that, we completely agree.
And it has to be done with, certainly, heavy weights for people who are starting with measurable loading increase.
This is the process.
Really?
I thought...
And five pounds of workout.
That's the process.
I thought I could just go CrossFit and go ape crap crazy with a barbell and train for randomness.
You're blowing my mind.
Do things in random.
Now, that doesn't seem to work.
In other words, you can't learn to play the piano by a combination of attempting to play the saxophone, the guitar, and digging a hole in the backyard.
What age do you cross over into the nonsensical?
I'm kidding.
About 50.
Okay.
All right.
Well, we have to get going.
And maybe we'll keep you on for another online segment.
But for Terrestrial, we must say goodbye.
Where can people best find you, Mark?
Startingstrength.com is my website.
I'm there way too much of the day.
So feel free to post.
Feel free to contact me through that website or books.
And...
DVDs are for sale on that website.
We're also available on Amazon.com.
Our German translation is available on Amazon.de.
You don't need to say.com.
You're going to throw the HTTP in there?
The German translation is at Amazon.de.
If they're in Germany, I'm sure it reroutes them.
Why would anyone be listening in Germany?
Well, I don't know, Stephen.
That's your demographic problem.
Once you get big enough.
Mark Ripito, startingstrength.com.
Whether you're 91 years old or 19, I highly recommend it.
Mark, thanks for being with us, brother.
Hey, if you enjoyed this video, subscribe by clicking my face.
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That's the magic of the internet.
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Still playing.
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