A squat cannot be performed on a Smith machine any more than it can be performed in a small closet with a hamster. Mark Rippetoe More Quotes by Mark Rippetoe More Quotes From Mark Rippetoe You don't get big and strong from lifting weights - you get big and strong from recovering from lifting weights Mark Rippetoe lifting-weights bigs strong I was driving home the other night, listening to the radio, and the guy filling in for Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM was talking to some other guy about Nazis, UFOs, the Kennedy Assassination, time travel, and George Bush, and how it all relates to OneWorldGovernment. This, of course, made me think about barbell training. Mark Rippetoe home art thinking You guys that worry about eating clean are actually merely bodybuilders looking for justification for your obsession with abs. You cannot get big and strong on 3000 kcal/day. And you cannot eat 7000/day and eat perfectly “clean”. Mark Rippetoe guy strong worry Mediocre athletes that tried like hell to get good are the best coaches. Mark Rippetoe bad-ass workout athlete The deadlift also serves as a way to train the mind to do things that are hard. Mark Rippetoe things-that-are-hard mind way Stronger people are harder to kill Mark Rippetoe harder stronger people Any idiot can get on a treadmill and watch TV and then take great pride in the fact they've ‘exercised. Mark Rippetoe pride watches facts Humans are not physically normal in the absence of hard physical effort. Mark Rippetoe effort normal absence I like musicianship, and it's quite lacking in most modern popular music. You're always safe with old Chicago, the Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule, or Tower of Power. Mark Rippetoe chicago towers brother Accumulating injuries are the price we pay for the thrill of not having sat around on our asses. Mark Rippetoe ass thrill pay The BEST training program in the entire world will be a DISMAL FAILURE if people fail to hold up their end of the deal. The success of ANY training program is ultimately the trainee's responsibility. Mark Rippetoe training responsibility people What we're trying to do is get things fixed, not allow them to stay broke. Mark Rippetoe broke fixed trying Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in. Mark Rippetoe bad-ass workout jesus I know that I'm an animal that displays bilateral symmetry. I understand that one side should be the mirror of the other, and that human perceptions of beauty are intimately associated with symmetry. For example, I am very handsome. Mark Rippetoe perception-of-beauty mirrors animal You are right to be wary. There is much bullshit. Be wary of me too, because I may be wrong. Make up your own mind after you evaluate all the evidence and the logic. Mark Rippetoe bad-ass bullshit workout If a program of physical activity isn't designed to get you stronger or faster or better conditioned by producing a specific stress to which a specific desirable adaptation can occur, you don't get to call it training. It's just exercise. Mark Rippetoe training stress exercise You don’t get to mis-define a thing, and then on the basis of that mis-definition, say that that thing is bad … it’s incumbent upon you, if you’re going to make a criticism of something, that you actually have at your command a working definition of the thing you're criticizing Mark Rippetoe criticize definitions criticism The full-range-of-m otion exercise known as the squat is the single most useful exercise in the weight room, and our most valuable tool for building strength, power, and size. Mark Rippetoe tools weight exercise You do not need to do many different exercises to get strong - you need to get strong on a very few important exercises, movements that train the whole body as a system, not as a collection of separate body parts. The problem with the programs advocated by all the national exercise organizations is that they fail to recognize this basic principle: the body best adapts as a whole organism to stress applied to the whole organism. The more stress that can be applied to as much of the body at one time as possible, the more effective and productive the adaptation will be. Mark Rippetoe stress strong exercise But a hot gym is where most of us have trained before. Learn to deal with it: more water, more minerals, bigger balls. Mark Rippetoe balls hot water