• Keep up to date with Ausbb via Twitter and Facebook. Please add us!
  • Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

    The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

    Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.
Biggest mistake was drinking the Riptard kool-aide.
Second biggest mistake was drinking the 140/100/180 kool-aide.
Third biggest mistake was not training in a PL gym.

The first two were, IMO, bigger mistakes than the third, because they created some real attitude problems and kept me from using most of the knowledge I had accrued leading up to it (as well as preventing me from looking outside a very narrow, and frequently wrong framework to build my knowledge further). The Riptard kool-aide had me doing several things that were harmful (and didn't provide any positive impact) while also dogmatically avoiding several things that would actually have been a good idea. The 140/100/180 kool-aide resulted in me putting far too many ego-eggs in a rather arbitrary basket and obsessing over stuff that really didn't matter one iota.

In comparison, not using a PL gym and its coaches was a relatively minor offense. No doubt I would have made much better progress early on doing that, and would be stronger now because of it. But I would have been just as likely to drink the kool-aide wherever I trained, too, so it would have been as big of a problem, just for slightly different reasons.
 
Can you elaborate on the kool aid Ryan?

What specifically did you not like about SS or PTC standards.
I only ask because I find both training methods interesting, i'm considering doing SS for a few months because bored and Im currently doing Markos beginner program.
 
The meathead prescribed programs will only deliver mild improvements to performance unless you are prepared to do the other part of their program - the stuff they wouldn't want to put up on YouTube and their mums don't know about. Just about any program will deliver improvements for people who don't care to play with biochemistry.
 
I probably should have done a three lift comp when I was younger and more capable instead of just bench competition. Was always worried about not being able to get total in the 700's in front of my peers and it just never happened. Now I'd be content with a total in the 600's with nobody around (there never is at local PA events anyway).But I'm glad I didn't bust myself up too much so I can still lift reasonable weights now. Definitely regret not doing more Olympic lifts but again, I might not be capable of training heavy now if I had done so.Best lesson from 30 years or so of lifting weights - no one cares about your pecs or what you lift, only you care.

yeah a guy with your training numbers isnt capable...im weaker,probably suffer from social anxiety as much if not more than you do and i love getting up there,i really enjoy grabbing that bar not knowing if im going to make that lift or not.gives me the shits..its great.

i think you arent prepared for having your numbers judged.they do make you do it properly.not being an ass here,but my first comp i bombed weakly because of not following comp rules.and ive had troubles with various things in following comps.it finetunes how you train.
 
Last edited:
biggest lesson is as above...start earlier,i reckon i would of been good if i started at 16 and didnt veer off the holy path,it just wasnt available..the prevailing wisdom of the time was weights stunted your growth..so wat..this sport is made for small guys , large ones,and even old ones which makes it numero uno in my book. turns out being 5 7 is good for something sporty.too bad.

id probably quit lifting if i didnt have a comp to work towards or some aim in my mind.
 
Last edited:
Rippetoe teaches people to squat for exercise
It's different to squatting for powerlifting
 
yeah a guy with your training numbers isnt capable...im weaker,probably suffer from social anxiety as much if not more than you do and i love getting up there,i really enjoy grabbing that bar not knowing if im going to make that lift or not.gives me the shits..its great.

i think you arent prepared for having your numbers judged.they do make you do it properly.not being an ass here,but my first comp i bombed weakly because of not following comp rules.and ive had troubles with various things in following comps.it finetunes how you train.

The only thing a competition makes one "do properly" is barely break parallel on a squat, bench with an almost non existent pause with bum chums to help it in and out of the rack and deadlift without dumping the bar. All rather pointless effort that translate into nothing of any consequence in athletic performance or life skills. (Unless of course knowing how to speak the dialect of puffy faced spastics is considered a life skill).

The challenge is - can one lift and keep strong when no one else is watching and the other squishy faced retards who wear the powerlifting badge aren't there for motivation? Powerlifting does not facilitate that autonomous level of commitment and it is safe to say that 90% of people currently taking the competiton platform will barely even look at a barbell in ten years time.
 
Can you elaborate on the kool aid Ryan?

What specifically did you not like about SS or PTC standards.
I only ask because I find both training methods interesting, i'm considering doing SS for a few months because bored and Im currently doing Markos beginner program.
Riptard kool-aide: 3x5 is so magic that if you do more reps than that it's totez dangerous and ineffective and if you do less reps than that you need to decrease the weight by 10%; squats are a hamstring exercise and shooting your bum up into the air is what your glutes are good at; if you do more than 1x5 deadlifts you'll burn out; upper back exercises exist only to make your bench press improve and not because training your upper back is a good idea in its own right; rows and RDL's aren't useful if you're a beginner; if you gain 10lb in your first two weeks of barely training it will be lean; if you aren't stronger this week than last week it's probably because you aren't eating enough and not because the body has limited adaptation capabilities; you definitely need to build a strength base before you ever do any intentional hypertrophy training even though strength is the product (not cause) of muscle mass.

If you follow the program by the book, you'll end up with needlessly disproportionate adaptations. If you take what's good about it and modify what's not so great, you'd better not mention it to anyone (especially anyone on the internet) or else you will be condemned by the most damning 5-letter acronym: YNDTP. You'd be better off committing treason -- people will respect you more for it.

140/100/180 kool-aide: These aren't really PTC standards, even though they were used in one PTC program. They were around long before PTC, and they were just as arbitrary then. They're good goals to chase after, but they tell literally nothing about how much you've progressed or what sort of programming will be best for you. It doesn't factor in natural talent/genetic variance or competence. So everything that matters for building a context into which we could coach or program someone's training is ignored. So, while they are great achievements to make, they are essentially meaningless, until we go ahead and ascribe some special importance to them. Which we do on the internet. We ascribe a lot of importance to these numbers. Way too much in fact, as if a man's value as a human being depends on him being able to lift this much.*

And that's why I'm emphasising the kool-aide here. I'm not offended at all the Rippetoe has a gym and some books, or that a lot of guys are encouraging each other to lift 2, 3 and 4 plates. I'm fine with that. It's the ideology that comes with it all, that people really do get caught up in, and that I certainly got caught up in (thus why I'm listing it as a mistake I made when I first got into powerlifting).

*Yes, I know it's powerlifting. Being able to lift as much as possible is important to the sport. But making an ideology out of how much you lift is some seriously messed up culty shiz, and using weight on the bar rather than the lifter's actual progress, needs and proficiency to determine whether or not they're a beginner is just silly.
 

Joaquin-Phoenix_OMG.gif
 
And yet while I'm not the biggest fan of rippletitis it's better than the bulk of the program's you see people write up for themselves. And also the 140/100/180 target is also a pretty good target for beginners.
 
The only thing a competition makes one "do properly" is barely break parallel on a squat, bench with an almost non existent pause with bum chums to help it in and out of the rack and deadlift without dumping the bar. All rather pointless effort that translate into nothing of any consequence in athletic performance or life skills. (Unless of course knowing how to speak the dialect of puffy faced spastics is considered a life skill).

The challenge is - can one lift and keep strong when no one else is watching and the other squishy faced retards who wear the powerlifting badge aren't there for motivation? Powerlifting does not facilitate that autonomous level of commitment and it is safe to say that 90% of people currently taking the competiton platform will barely even look at a barbell in ten years time.

well as i said before we are quite similar,prefer to train on our own,dont care if we impress others or not,only does things that suits yourself, and kinda have bad attitudes.however you have an advanced case of it.sociopathic?

i guess i respect the sport a lot more than you do.ive met some good people through it and enjoy the raw nature of it,its pretty entertaining live man.i think you are a bit harsh.lol.nvm.everyone at that level trains their asses off,i respect that too.i cant see how someone can get to competitive level without training hard.
 
Last edited:
I would agree with Greg. Powerlifting is one of those sports that you can't really get away without doing a heap of training and be competitive.

Ive seen just freak footy players turn up the week before season starts and be able to still have their skill, use their smarts and do really well. I can't see a powerlfiter training the week before a comp after 6 months off doing that well.
 
And yet while I'm not the biggest fan of rippletitis it's better than the bulk of the program's you see people write up for themselves. And also the 140/100/180 target is also a pretty good target for beginners.
It certainly is a lot better than what a lot of people come up with on their own, and 140/100/180 are generally good targets. For both, it's all the ideological baggage that people heap onto it that I have a big beef with, and for 140/100/180, it's also the way people act like those numbers are the magic line between beginner and intermediate. Some people will be well and truly beyond the beginner stage long before they reach those numbers, some people will easily hit those numbers and keep progressing for a while longer before either establishing solid technique or needing more advanced programming to move ahead.
 
LOL! Sad thing is, on the bb.com forums this is barely hyperbolic.

Lol yep, my biggest issue with the program is the worry of overtraining. As an 18 year old you could do the program three times a day and be fine but the ripplecult would have you believe you will end up in emergency with one set over what is prescribed.

That is one of my biggest mistakes. As a 20 year old and skipping most Uni classes I could have been training most of the day rather than watching Dr Phil eating maccas worried that more traing will send me backwards.

with your post about those numbers. I agree they are in no way magic but I always liked targets to aim for and they are good to aim for with someone starting out.
 
Last edited:
This is what most do, is blame the program, more often than not we (and this goes for most of us) are just not good enough no matter how hard you work or which program you use.

A bloke who has the skill and ability will (when he applies himself) will progress extremely quick, so quick it's unbelievable.

Try training a donkey for the Melbourne Cup to see what I mean.
 
Last edited:
This is what most do, is blame the program, more often than not you (and this goes for most of us) are just not good enough no matter how hard you work or which program you use.

A bloke who has the skill and ability will (when he applies himself) will progress extremely quick, so quick it's unbelievable.

Try training a donkey for the Melbourne Cup to see see what I mean.

yep as much as I didn't want to believe it when younger some just have the genetic gifts.

Just google shaq or leBrons kids playing high school basketball like the other kids are all spastics.

In saying that most never work hard enough to see their genetic potential, myself included.
 
Top