Mark Rippetoe, libertarian Gym Owner, Chats with Motorhome Diaries
{ Posted on May 13 2009 by Pete Eyre }
As Jason mentioned in a recent Thank-you Thursday post, we stopped by the Wichita Falls Athletic Club (WFAC) when we were cruising through Texas. Our good bud Dan Patrick (who, along with his awesome wife Leah and their son Liam, will be a future NH resident as part of the Free State Project) put the WFAC on our radar. So we made sure to stop by; not only because we’re all looking to get in shape, but because the gym owner — Mark Rippetoe — is into the ideas of liberty himself.
If your’e in the Wichita Falls area I encourage you to stop by Mark’s gym.
12 Responses
to “Mark Rippetoe, libertarian Gym Owner, Chats with Motorhome Diaries”
4 Trackback(s)
- May 16, 2009: » Help Us Hammer Out Our Itinerary | the Motorhome Diaries
- May 23, 2009: Figure athletes, feminism, and risk « The Brass Tack
- Jun 22, 2009: » Reason’s Nick Gillespie talks to MHD about the Libertarian Moment | the Motorhome Diaries
- Jul 13, 2009: Like foodies, but with worse politics « The Brass Tack
Some times it may take time and effort to induce a paradigm shift towards liberty and freedom. It is no different with a shift away from bodybuilding type training to that of effective and relevant strength training.
The majority of the movements in the video aren’t indicative of what we teach and implement at CrossFit Wichita Falls/Wichita Falls Athletic Club.
You guys are welcome back any time, and then we can spend some time learning the squat!
While the ideas of freedom and liberty are of great importance to me personally, my professional interest is in barbell training and functional human movement. The guys in this video do not train at my gym, they just stopped by for the interview. Sorry to have to disclaim this, but the bodybuilding-based exercise you see in the video is not representative of what actually happens here at WFAC/CFWF, and a person seeing this would have a hard time reconciling it with the material presented in our books, articles, and seminars.
We enjoyed having you guys here, but next time I’ll edit the video.
Rip
Glad you guys went by. Good to see Jason on the slosh pipe! Keep reading up on Cross Fit and the ideas. Cross Fit is to fitness training as libertarianism is to politics. I guarantee there is a parallel.
The website that appears onscreen when Mark Rippetoe mentions being a long-time subscriber to Liberty magazine is incorrect.
The correct website is http://www.libertyunbound.com; the website that appears is for a Seventh Day Adventist publication of the same name. (I do not believe Rippetoe subscribes to the Seventh Day Adventist magazine, and I know he is a long-time subscriber to the libertarian Liberty magazine whose website is http://www.libertyunbound.com.)
Hi Mark, as someone who is both a strong believer in liberty and on my first cycle of Starting Strength (my back squat has gone from 115 to 220), I was happy to see the MHD stop at WFAC. Oh ya… I can’t STAND it when people do bicep curls in the only squat cage at my gym.
Oh ya, thanks for harping on the milk, it works.
Damn Pete is ripped and buff as hell!
Mark, you do not need to defend yourself about the routine that was on the video. The viewers know that the motor home diaries simply stopped by and do not represent your training philosophy. On top of that I think most people would take Pete’s body over yours playa!
CrossFit is an okay solution for some people with particular goals. It is not (and granted, does not claim to be) for everyone.
Bodybuilding addresses different goals.
What I don’t understand about the CrossFit community is how intolerant it is of other training philosophies despite its “libertarian” and self-sufficient message. Coming online to write a disclaimer like this falls right into that pattern. The guys came to a gym, worked out, and rolled some tires around.
Speaking of rolling tires, I do not believe that Pete actually lost that race. Staged.
@Adam, sweet burn.
Mark, Adam nailed it on the head — the part about us not trying to portray the type of training done at your facility. I realized as I was editing the video and dropping clips of us doing rows when you were talking about squats it wouldn’t mesh but I still thought it’d keep people’s attention while watching the video better than just a shot of us speaking.
Thanks again for letting us stop by. Great to learn of you and Justin and the WFAC.