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An Open Letter About Leaving Starting Strength

In late February, 2018 of this year, after a series of back and forth emails, I informed Rip et al that I was resigning from Starting Strength. Since then, there has been a large amount of chatter on the Internet about what happened and what’s next. This letter aims to address both topics.

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Our team of professional coaches will guide you through both nutrition coaching and online program design with remote coaching. With oversight at every level, you will be assigned a team of people making sure you get the best service.

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Our team of professional coaches will guide you through both nutrition coaching and online program design with remote coaching. With oversight at every level, you will be assigned a team of people making sure you get the best service.

Learn More

Latest From The Blog

Charlie Dickson 0
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Recovery
April 1, 2019

Recovering From an Injury: Embrace the Process

Introduction Setbacks are an inevitable part of the long-term training process. Progress is driven by applying more training stimulus over time to induce adaptation -- and this stimulus always carries an inherent risk of injury. Although there are effective strategies we can use to mitigate the risk of injury, preventing injuries entirely is impossible. Furthermore, preventing the experience of pain is not only impossible, but undesirable, given the importance of pain as a protective mechanism for survival. Pain and adversity are therefore a part of life, a normal human experience. Learning how to respond to and overcome these situations is…
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Vanessa Burman 3
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Nutrition
March 22, 2019

Handling Hunger

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, have ever missed a meal, or have even just driven by your favorite bakery…chances are you’ve experienced hunger. Hunger can be annoying, distracting, and is frequently blamed as “diet derailing,” yet it’s part of our normal physiology and something that can’t be avoided entirely. Background Hunger is defined as a feeling of discomfort caused by lack of food, followed by a desire to eat. Conversely, satiety is the feeling of being full and no longer desiring a meal. Hunger and satiety both stem from the interactions of biological, psychological, and social factors, which…
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Austin Baraki 0
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Recovery
February 27, 2019

Crepitus: Expectations vs. Reality

Crepitus is the menacingly-named phenomenon of noises produced by a joint during movement. It is common to hear snaps, crackles, and pops when flexing or extending a knee or an elbow. At times, these noises can be accompanied by a sensation of mechanical stiffness. When combined, these can cause distress, evoking deep-seated fears people have about their bodies “wearing out”. It leads many to seek consultation with a health care provider, even in the absence of pain or functional limitation. The good news is that not only is crepitus very common, it does not necessarily portend dire outcomes, nor should…
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Alan Flanagan 0
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Nutrition
February 8, 2019

Nutrition Science, Part IV – Moving Forward: Improving the approach

It is important to note that the assumptions discussed in the last article are not arbitrary to the biomedical model, but legitimized through common sense in the context of a given research topic (32). A common-sense approach to nutrition, therefore, is one which can legitimize a modified approach to scientific inquiry into diet-disease relationships. Although not exhaustive, a number of potential features and alternatives could modify the approach. The first is to move away from the narrow focus on isolated nutrients/compounds, to emphasizing food as the exposure of interest and design “whole-diet” interventions which reflect that the fundamental unit in…
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Alan Flanagan 1
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Nutrition
February 1, 2019

Nutrition Science, Part III – The Awkward Fit: RCTs and Nutrition Science

In the second part of this article series we discussed the utility, limitations, and misconceptions related to the prospective cohort design for nutrition science. As discussed in part I, the reductionist biomedical model and its gold standard randomized controlled trial (RCT) is ill-equipped for studying complex dietary patterns in a way that can effectively inform public policy. In this article we will examine the randomized controlled nutrition trial design in more detail. ..there are fundamental differences between the subject of inquiry for which the RCT model evolved to investigate (drugs) and the subject of inquiry to which it is now…
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Michael Ray 0
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Training
January 28, 2019

Shoulder, Part IV: The Rotator Cuff Teardown

Reviewed & Edited by Austin Baraki, MD Introduction The “rotator cuff” is a set of four muscles around the glenohumeral joint including the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor (see figure). These muscles all originate from the scapula, insert at various points on the humerus, and serve multiple coordinated functions including abduction, adduction internal rotation, external rotation, and stabilization. Each muscle is considered to have its own unique action on scapulohumeral movement (sometimes described as scapulohumeral rhythm, as discussed in the first installment of the shoulder series here). Unfortunately, the cuff muscles are often viewed as both the source and…
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Alan Flanagan 0
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Nutrition
January 22, 2019

Nutrition Science, Part II: The Prospective Cohort Design

In the first article in this series we discussed the history of nutrition science and traced its evolution alongside the biomedical model. We also introduced the discussion of nutritional epidemiology in comparison to the “gold standard” biomedical trial design: the randomized controlled trial. In this second article, we’ll discuss the utility, limitations, and misunderstandings about the prospective cohort study design for nutrition science. Prospective cohort studies are the only practical research design to investigate the long-term relationship between diet and disease, particularly with the preponderance of current evidence in nutrition indicating that whole diet patterns are more informative of diet-disease…
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Alan Flanagan 4
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Nutrition
January 17, 2019

Nutrition Science, Part I: How Did We Get Here?

Introduction To anyone versed in biomedicine, the so-called “hierarchy of evidence” is well-established and unquestioned. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (RCT) is considered the gold standard trial design, because it offers the ability to randomly allocate a treatment, minimize potential sources of bias, and compare the exposure or intervention of interest to a placebo. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this model, or this hierarchy … if the subject of inquiry is pharmaceutical drugs or the molecular mechanisms of disease. At its core, the biomedical model is based on a presupposition that all disease can be studied with such a reductionist…
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Michael Ray 0
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Training
December 14, 2018

The Shoulder, Part III: Internal Impingement

by Dr. Michael Ray and Dr. Austin Baraki In part 2 of our shoulder series we discussed the topic of “shoulder impingement”, which is commonly understood as the mechanical compression of the tissues beneath the acromion process, resulting in pain or dysfunction -- better known as external impingement. We described the biomechanical theory behind this diagnosis, and examined the available research evidence on the topic. Ultimately, we found a lack of compelling evidence -- and in fact, a substantial amount of contradictory evidence -- for our historical mechanically-focused understanding of this topic. Another lesser-known type of impingement, known as “internal” impingement,…
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bbmedicine 4
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MobilityTrainingUncategorized
November 20, 2018

The Shoulder, Part II: External Impingement

by Dr. Austin Baraki, Dr. Michael Ray, and Dr. Derek Miles. In the first article of this series we discussed the concept of “normal” or “abnormal” scapular movement (i.e., scapular dyskinesis), which is the pathomechanical foundation upon which other shoulder-related diagnoses and narratives are built. “Shoulder impingement” is one of these ideas that is commonly discussed in the coaching, rehab, and orthopedic worlds. The narrative describes soft tissue structures around the shoulder (e.g., rotator cuff tendons and bursae) becoming compressed between the bony surfaces of the joint. Two types are discussed in the scientific literature: “internal” and “external” impingement. Let’s…
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Featured Media

Your doctor is wrong about creatine. Jordan and Rip discuss common misinformation and conventional medical wisdom about creatine, the insulin spike resulting from protein consumption, and muscle protein synthesis on Episode 40 of the Starting Strength Podcast.

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