Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Why Do You Hate Mark Rippetoe?


Unless you are new to rookiejournal.com you know that I have posted some serious negative comments on Mark Rippetoe and his famous routine Starting Strength. That's why I receive quite often some sexy comments which politely suggest that I go fuck myself. So, today I will explain once more why I don't like Mark Rippetoe.

I don't hate Mark Rippetoe. I just don't like the guy for one very simple and obvious reason. He is wrong. Yes, he is wrong. He is not different than the supplement companies selling fairy tales to the kids that one day if they take their multi everyday massive size and 8 pack abs are knocking on the door.

He says that you can gain a shitload of muscle on his program when in fact the only thing you gain on his program is a shitload of fat.

Take a look:

Typical Rippetoe victim looks like this:

Starting stats

150 lbs, 5'10, 17%BF

After Starting Strength 6 months later

200lbs, 5'10, 23+% BF

Impressive?

The guys starts with 150lbs and 17%BF which means his lean mass was 125lbs.

The guys ends with 200lbs and 24% BF which means that his lean mas is 152lbs.

In other words the typical skinny fat Rippetoe victim ends up gaining 50% fat on his program. And just to illustrate what 50% are I would like you to imagine that your salary decreases by 50%. Pretty big, right? However it does not end there.

Out of those 25lbs lean mass which were gain around 5-10 lbs are water and glycogen which means that the poor kid gained only around 15lbs of actual muscle which he would have gained on a regular diet without all the fat. 15 lbs out of 50 lbs is the true muscle gain on Starting Strength for the typical skinny beginner. I would go even further and say that the particular person would have gained 5-7lbs just by eating more and not even training. There was a research which siggested that usually if you don't train and you gain weight around 30% would be lean gains. Is it true in real world and not only the labs? I don't know. Most likely yes.

This is the truth whether you like it or not. I know Rippetoe says that usually 60% of the gains are muscle but they are not. He would like them to be and it sure as hell helps him make millions out of his gay books but reality speaks louder than words.

I don't like Mark Rippetoe because I was one of those guys. I did his program back in the day and I got to be a skinny fat ass to the sky. I gained 45 lbs in 4 months and I didn't even consume the recommended 6 000 calories. On average I was eating 3000-3500 calories. I started at 149lbs and had an office job so I was not burning much calories doing squats 3x5. I was able to eat 5 000 calories only for 2 days. I could only imagine how it feels to eat 6 000 calories a day from good sources. Living in the toilet sounds fun.

Later I lost 30lbs + in around 4 months. I could have done better but I did not care much about training at that time. For that I blame Mark Rippetoe as well as all other liars who talk about eating big. I also blame myself for not knowing any better and it makes sense to me to share this information with other people so that my experience is worth something more than a bad memory.




No, thanks.

In my next post I will talk p90x vs. starting strength once more. 

I like blogspot a lot it's so much easier to post.

Thank you for reading. I hope my lameness becomes your greatness.