Mark Rippetoe says: she needs to be placed in sexual slavery

[alicia0201]

@meow69 Well, shit. I'm doing Starting Strength at the moment, though I haven't bought the book. That's firmly put me in the "never buying his book" camp. It does matter that Mark Rippetoe feels this way about women, and feels safe saying it. The standard we walk past is the standard we accept.

In saying that, I do want to ask: is there any way can take Starting Strength as a program (which as someone who has found it an accessible way to get into the daunting world of lifting stuff, I really have been enjoying) and separate the program itself from this misogynistic, sexist caveman?

The idea that the 5x5 novice progression through lifts might be something we just don't do anymore because he's a terrible human is deeply frustrating to me, especially when I consider that part of what made it accessible to me was the sheer amount of explanatory content. Do we take the methodology and stop calling it Starting Strength, and start from scratch with guides and descriptions?

 

[thecurioustchristian]

@alicia0201 In my experience, the Starting Strength gyms are just as bad. I visited my local one for a demo and was extremely put off by the fact that they referred to women as “females” (as in, “as you can see, we have a lot of guys working out here. And we have a female too.”)

Also, they were repeatedly rude and condescending to a man there with some mental challenges. They kept talking about how he couldn’t get off the toilet by himself before (rather then say, a chair or bed) and were afraid he was ruining their demo so kept having people pull him away, even as the man stated he just wanted to listen.

I wrote to the owner, whom I had previously met, to explain how these issues looked really bad for them and all he did was defend their treatment of the man and say “wow, I didn’t know the terms male and female weren’t acceptable anymore”. Zero interest in giving them a cent of money after that.

 

[y2pjwk]

@thecurioustchristian I'm sorry that gym was shitty. Pre-COVID, I went to a powerlifting gym that ran Starting Strength / had all their coaches Starting Strength certified, the community there is nothing but inclusive and positive, about a third of the clientele are women, and the owner is the nicest guy. I'd just hate for anyone to think badly about my gym or its owner on account of Rip or other gym owners being jackasses!

 

[jen2174]

@y2pjwk Why would you care if someone thought badly about a gym unless you own it?

 

[birddseedd]

@alicia0201 5x5 beginner progression programs arnt new. Rippetoe didn't invent the 5x5 program or linear progression. Him and some other guy (I can't remember the other program that's basically the same) just got popular on the internet for it a few years back. Like, I think Arnold said he did the Bill Starr program back in the day.

https://www.t-nation.com/training/reg-parks-5x5-program/

https://oldschooltrainer.com/bill-starrs-5-x-5-training/

 

[xelador]

@birddseedd Yeah I’m pretty sure 5x5 started with Reg Park doing it in the silver era of bb. But the original starting strength is 3x5. I started with strong lifts 5x5 7 years ago, I never knew about Mark Rippetoe until later. I didn’t care for him, I thought he was an old fart who gives dumb advice like drink a gallon of milk a day. I didn’t realize he had these whacky views.

 

[josh328]

@alicia0201 Stronglifts is basically the same program and has a slick free app. Iirc the only difference is stronglifts doesn't encourage beginners to do cleans (uses bb rows instead)

 

[meow69]

@josh328 Which is a good programming decision

 

[alicia0201]

@josh328 I've taken a look and I see what you mean about them basically being the same program besides the bb rows, I guess I'll switch over to that, thankyou for sharing it!

Fingers crossed I don't find out in a week or two there's something seriously abhorrent about the views of this Medhi guy...

 

[meow69]

@alicia0201 The Starting Strength program really sucks though, it does not set up beginners for long-term success. Short term results? Yes, but after that - after hitting the wall doing sets of five - you haven't built a base of strength beyond 5 reps.

I wrote this in another thread while ago:

Basically - beginners need to build a base of muscle, strength, and fitness and knowledge about programming. That means strength in various rep ranges, diversity of movements, and periodization. SS teaches none of this - it trains you to accept that every training session should be the hardest of your life and it forces you to specialize in 5 rep max training. Hit a wall? Drop by 10% AND DO THE SAME THING OVER DO NOT TRY DOING ANYTHING ELSE ONLY SETS OF 5. This is absurd. But Mark build his brand on this and will not budge. He literally said that people can build enough cardio for just about anything after 3 weeks of using a prowler.

 

[alicia0201]

@meow69 I mean, I've liked it so far as something that I can commit to, execute and can do on the same days I swim? I'm definitely too new to it to know what I don't know, so I appreciate the perspective there.

I got advice in this thread to check out Stronglifts because of its similarities, and while I've only scanned through in brief for now, I'm guessing that it has the same pitfall?

 

[meow69]

@alicia0201 It will eventually.

The 531 Beginner program is good because it has a slower progression scheme and allows for variation based on your circumstances. So after hitting the main lifts you do the accessory work. If you are swimming a lot you can dial back the accessory work and know that you got a good strength workout from the main lifts.

 

[jeanguypataterubberboot]

@meow69 Wendler isn't a whole lot better than Rippetoe. He's a Nazi sympathizer and misogynist.

 

[rebekka97]

@alicia0201 The book is available on pdf just google it. No $ to this clown.

 

[ollieclews]

@meow69 This is horrifying. You are not overthinking this, this man should not be in a position of any power and outing him is one of the ways of trying to reduce his ability to harm others.

 

[anon95]

@meow69 I had no idea! I'm so sad I supported him by buying his book, ugh

 

[bainzy]

@anon95 Me too. Right there with you. Just like a doctor I once had who said women over 40 should not be lifting. Fuck that.

 

[sue1215]

@meow69 Ugh, I’m from Texas and I refuse to placate ANYONE’s bigotry and dumbass views as admissible because of being raised in Texas. Folks aren’t born with wool in their ears, they have to keep jamming it back into place to keep it there.

 

[lovefirst]

@sue1215 Fellow Texan and AFRIGGINGMEN, my sister.

We're not all misogyonistic, gun toting, abortion hating, right wing assholes, for Chrissakes. Some of us are actually decent people.

It's just the assholes tend to be louder than us, unfortunately.

 

[softspokenlamb]

@sue1215 I LOVE that last sentence. Awesome.