Strong Enough? Thoughts from Thirty Years of Barbell Training by Mark Rippetoe

Strong Enough? Thoughts from Thirty Years of Barbell Training Reviews

• 
  Dustin

  Absolutely brilliant, crucial reading for anyone involved, or even just merely curious about, fitness. A collection of Coach Rip's essays, mostly pulled from the CrossFit Journal, near as I can tell, detailing his thoughts on specific weight training exercises, as well as the overall "industry" and fashions plaguing it. A must read for weight lifters, endurance athletes, medical doctors who dispense 'training advice' free of charge, and anyone considering getting in shape for the first or second time.
  
  Coach Rip's approach is no-nonsense. No Silly BS (his words), just those things that have been proven to work. Will you cut fat in 7 minutes a day? Probably not. Will the abRocket do what it claims? Not likely. Will lifting weights, real weights, make a definite difference in your physique? Guaranteed.
• 
  Xavier Shay

  Not a lot of new stuff if you've read "Starting Strength", but a fun read. The author has lots of entertaining opinions and isn't afraid to express them.
  
  On running: "Anything you can do for an uninterrupted 2 hours can't be that hard, in terms of the amount of force required. It produces endurance adaptations at the cellular level, changes that are actually detrimental to strength. Long, slow distance destroys muscle mass, beats the hell out of your knees and hips, and takes way too long."
  "If I had to choose between looking like a marathon runner or having a heart attack, I'd take the heart attack. How running 26.2 miles at one time ever got to be associated with a Good Thing just beats the absolute hell out of me."
  
  On mainstream gym: "If you're trying to relax after a strenuous day in the cubicle, go ahead and do your yoga class, finish up with some seated alternate 3 lb. dumbbell presses on a balance ball, and have yourself a nice smoothie."
  
  Squats: "Anyone who says that full squats are "bad for the knees" has, with that statement, demonstrated conclusively that they are not entitled to an opinion about the matter."
  
  Deadlifts: "They affect the body in a systemic way, producing sufficient stress that a hormonal response is produced to facilitate recovery and adaptation. They are very hard. They produce psychological toughness when trained correctly. And absolutely no one has ever gotten as brutally, ungodly strong as they possibly can without doing them."
  
  "Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general."
• 
  Cris Morales

  It's impossible to train Starting Strength and not grow fond of Coach Rip. It's a solid method, makes incredible sense and the mindset around it spreads into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being.
  
  A quote that should give you an idea what it's about:
  
  "The problem is complex, and the solution is simple. It is incumbent on you, yes You, to educate yourself to a sufficient extent that you are in a position to evaluate information issued from a position of authority. You are supposed to be able to recognize silly bullshit when you hear it. And I'm sorry if it's hard to have to think all the time, but the consequences of placing your responsibility to do so in the hands of others can result in a closet full of Thigh Masters, which will make it necessary to find somewhere else to hang your shirts — like on your Bowflex."
• 
  Daniel

  Being the author of several classics in the training industry, Rippetoe is entitled to talk a little about his opinions. This is where he gets to let off some steam about all the silly Bosu Balls and Miracle Fat Loss Pills as well as share a few insights into what it means, in his estimation, to be human and to truly thrive.
  
  The format allows more of his personality (read: funny) to come through than some of his more technical work and that makes reading it a pure joy. If you're a fan of Ripp, read it. If you're not, this one might just convert you.
• 
  Terry Kim

  Great book on strength sports and lifting weights. Like the subtitle suggests, this book is like a podcast with Mark Rippetoe's take on all things barbell. I listened to this on audible with Mark narrating the audiobook. There were quite a few laugh out loud moments with Mark's narration, and it was the best thing about this audiobook.
  
  I don't think I learned anything that would improve my powerlifting numbers, but it was a fun listen.
• 
  Ann Xiang

  Mark Rippetoe sounds like a stubborn tough guy at times, with a somewhat condescending view about sports other than traditional weightlifting. But attitude aside, this book is undeniably funny and inspiring, casual readers might need a quick pictorial intro to weightlifting before diving into the text, and runners should start with the last article, it captured the spirit of this book which is really not so different from running, or other endeavors in life: the human body is not designed for "comfort", it thrives in a rigorous training plan and periodical challenges. This is something to live by even as we step past our prime into old age.
• 
  Patrick

  I loved this book. There's so much crap out there in terms of strength training. This book is the real stuff, from someone who knows, and has the writing skill to put the information forward. If you want to read some material that'll tell you how strength training actually works, read Rippetoe's stuff. Highly recommended. No "silly BS" as Rip would say.
• 
  Bernard Rodriguez

  First few chapters (on the deadlift, squat, and press) were the best and most informative. The rest is the usual, "everyone is wrong but me" stuff that you get in books like this.
• 
  Dan

  Funny and informative. And the last essay is downright inspiring.
• 
  Alex

  Excellent intro to the barbell strength training genre. Rippletoe has a great sense of humour that features well throughout the book. Absolutely a no bullshit kind of guy.
  
  Topics of discussion:
  - The slow lifts: deadlift, squat, bench, and overhead press should be staples of every athlete’s training regime. Compound movements develop functional strength. Executed properly, they create supermen and women.
  - A chapter each dedicated to the squat, overhead press, deadlift, bench press, and power clean. The mechanics and common mistakes are laid out.
  - The disconnect in the fitness industry between functional strength, health, and appearance. The benefits of ‘being fit’ are sold almost exclusively on appearance, when the appearance is an epiphenomenon of being strong (and lean). You can train for strength by increasing your 1, 3 or 5RM, but you can’t train for a V-look, or chiseled abs or a great ass. Those goals are qualitative, not quantitative. No one gets any of those things by being a weakling. Train for strength (muscle) and the looks come as a byproduct.
  - A chapter on the differences in training between men and women. Thoroughly enlightening given the current craze about transgender M-2-F athletes dominating women’s sports at the expense of natural-born women.
  - Chapter on training as an older person (50+ years of age). Your testosterone will be less than half of what it was in your teenage years. Your ability to recover is far less due to fractured sleep and more existential worry. None of this means you shouldn’t lift, only that you need to be more careful (and pick whether you’d rather be sore from lifting, or decrepit from being sedentary).
  My favourite chapter was titled ‘Silly Bullshit’, on the various kinds nonsense that people believe, and that medical and sports academic professionals are likely to sound off about.
  
• 
  Guilherme Zeitounlian

  This book is a fun and quick read and is composed of some of Mark Rippetoe's essays.
  
  It mainly speaks to people who already strength train.
  
  If you do, reading it may feel like "yeah, I belong to this club". This is my situation.
  
  If you don't, the message may feel a bit aggressive - especially the fun and sarcastic tirades against the fitness industry and the generalized BS it is so fond of propagating.
  
  If you like the strong personality of Mark and his snide remarks, you will probably enjoy this book. If you don't, it probably won't happen.
  
  Since I do, and it was (a bit) informative and (a lot of) fun, I give it a 5/5.
  
  Also, I have listened to some of his podcast interviews, and at times could imagine his voice pronouncing the words written in the book.
  
  OBS: For a more technical discussion, you should probably also read
  Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training
  
  
• 
  Yakov Pyatnitskov

  I've read it right after reading the Starting Strength (SS) and I am glad I did as it recaps some of the technical aspects of the lifts but not in such great details as in SS.
  If you are new to lifting (I am) then read SS first. But there is more than that.
  Here the style is more conversational and less dry and Coach Rippetoe covers some of the topics often misunderstood and that misunderstanding obviously touches him deeply: barbells for women, elderly and kids, barbells for modern Western world sedentary citizens, barbells and sports.
  It was an interesting and entertaining read and his second book did not disappoint. How could it? His language would make even a TV set instruction an entertaining read. I'll be sure to come back.
• 
  Marie

  Good information on weight lifting, especially for older lifters, but trying to visualize proper form in a text-only format gives me a headache. Not really sure who the reader is for this book - there are super-basic "the squat won't hurt your knees" sections and highly technical sections on joint angle and torque that only someone who specialized in training weightlifters (or physicists) would find interesting. Anyone who is involved in weight lifting will find sections that are useful and sections that are skippable.
• 
  Rupinder

  This book should be read preferably after reading Mark's Magnum Opus, i.e., "Starting Strength". This part memoir, part lifting philosophy book is hilarious in parts, and educational while not being too dry (mostly). There are a lot of opinions, ruminations and thoughts here which will be useful to anyone beginning Starting Strength, or Stronglifts, or any other strength training program focused on major lifts and use of barbells.
  A good read, indeed.
• 
  Shameer Ks

  Sometimes, he makes it feel that only his technique is good, justifying his words with the conjuring of some scientific terms. When Bro science is evoked to justify something which we cannot accept at the face of it--like his comments against endurance--we feel something is amiss. However, I believe this book will surely help someone who wants to achieve strength
  
• 
  Becky L Long

  Audiobook read by the author. If you have a dry sense of humor this may very well be the most humorous book about strength training out there. If you can't get enough of Rippetoe it's worth the listen. If you suffered through "starting strength" then don't bother cause it wasn't written for you.
• 
  Mikhail

  A must-read for any athlete and anyone who's interested in being healthy and functional.
  
  If you're already a regular at startingstrength.com, then much of the material will be familiar to you.
• 
  Христо Трендафилов

  Very good, great reading in the misleading fitness industry today. Recommended. Definitely will read other books by Mark Rippetoe.
• 
  Will G

  I'm not, obviously.
• 
  Matt

  Very entertaining. Not as dry as Practical Programming, not as life changing as Starting Strength, but very interesting observations and wit.
• 
  Emil Petersen

  A shorter and less serious version of "starting strength"; read it if you like Mark Rippetoe and his no-nonsense way of looking at things.
• 
  Yesmo

  Always funny, always smart.
• 
  Brandon

  Every essay is a nugget of common sense applied to fitness. I wish I would have found Rip 20 years ago so he could have saved me from program hopping and wasting my time doing stupid shit in the gym.
• 
  Armin

  Great summary of Rip’s teaching, but not a substitute for the blue and grey book he authored. The audio book has a special touch, because it is Rippetoe himself reading the book.