Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

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Champion

9407

Montague Gold Mines, Nova Scotia

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

Based on what I have seen, I would highly suggest not spending money on it.

Shane

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Expert

844

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

gsmacleod - 2012-01-17 12:31 PM Based on what I have seen, I would highly suggest not spending money on it. Shane

X2. He reeks of cheesy......

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Extreme Veteran

662

Sunny San Diego

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

It's a new product so I don't think you'll get many testimonials yet.

I listen to Ben's podcasts and he really knows his stuff. Opposed to 90% of coaches out there who are/were great triathletes who happened to pass a certification class. But that is a whole different debate.

If you look though the BT Strength Training forum you'll find many strength routines but many of these are based off of bodybuilding routines for maximizing muscle size. Yes, your body will look nicer but then you may be carrying excess muscle. I haven't examined Ben's Tri Ripped program but based off of his many youtube videos, I'm guessing that he'll advocate strength excercises that are functional vs. isolation movements.

Another big thing is that your BF% has more to do with your diet than with your exercise regimen. This another thing Ben is good at. From Ben's podcasts, I'm going to guess that he is going to recommend a diet that is higher in good fats, lean meats and eating your carbs mostly before during and after your workouts. This more than anything else will help in achieving that ripped look.

Ben has also studied supplementation products and I'm pretty sure in Tri Ripped he'll make recommendations if you want to add them to your program.

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Champion

9407

Montague Gold Mines, Nova Scotia

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

joker70 - 2012-01-17 6:00 PM

I listen to Ben's podcasts and he really knows his stuff. Opposed to 90% of coaches out there who are/were great triathletes who happened to pass a certification class.

IF this is true, IMO this is less an endorsement of his coaching and more a sad commentary on the state of triathlon coaching.

Shane

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Member

64

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

I bought it when it first came out and have been studying through it for the past month or so (just finished half marathon) I am starting it next week. I've done a few of the strength workouts and feel pretty good about it. I am a newbie so I have only my last season plan to compare it to. Its pretty much 3 strength per week (circuits/supersets) along with 2 workouts in each sport a week with extras later in the program for distances over olympic. The workouts are pretty much drill sessions along with interval and hill stuff. not a whole lot of long slow (aside from some of the iron and half iron extras).

honestly, I had some initial buyers remorse but after watching the FAQ pages and researching a little more on short hard vs long slow workouts, im feeling pretty good about it.

I listen to Ben's podcasts as well and while there is some element of cheese here and there, the guy really appears to know his stuff and is a fast triathlete.

My .02

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Member

64

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

I didnt mention that there is also a lot of supplement info and a little diet stuff too.

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Elite

2608

Denver, Colorado

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

It's pricey.

The comments on slow twitch were harsh (mostly trashing the video as being infomercialesque, which is true), but I guess that place is known for that sort of thing.

I think he is being deliberately and strategically vague on his web site. While he says that his program will make you faster, he doesn't come right out and explicitly say that weight training will improve your endurance performance, thus sidestepping that entire land mine. Instead, he says that if you want to look "ripped" like the guy in the video, which I understand is Ben Greenfield, then you need to add some weights. On this issue he has a point, especially for those folks who want to lose fat while training for a tri. He mentions the "skinny fat" look. This is real. What happens on a reduced calorie diet combined with endurance only training is the body will dump muscle to spare the fat. Blame our paleo ancestors for this as this is a survival mechanism. You'll certainly lose some fat with this approach, and you'll definitely lose a bunch of weight as muscle is denser than fat. However, the end result is skinny arms and legs that have lost lots of muscle mass combined with a paunch. Hence you are "skinny," but still a little "fat." Not a good look, IMO.

So, if you want to avoid this look, or already have it and want to get rid of it, AND you don't mind spending the money, then it may be worth looking into for you. If you don't want to spend the money, then you can just add weight training to your try training, or do some Crossfit workouts (someone suggested this on slow twitch and was not run off). Personally, I wouldn't mind looking like Ben, but I think I'll do the do it yourself method. I can already power snatch what he was deadlifting in the video.

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Extreme Veteran

662

Sunny San Diego

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

Ahedges - 2012-02-17 6:03 AM

I bought it when it first came out and have been studying through it for the past month or so (just finished half marathon) I am starting it next week. I've done a few of the strength workouts and feel pretty good about it. I am a newbie so I have only my last season plan to compare it to. Its pretty much 3 strength per week (circuits/supersets) along with 2 workouts in each sport a week with extras later in the program for distances over olympic. The workouts are pretty much drill sessions along with interval and hill stuff. not a whole lot of long slow (aside from some of the iron and half iron extras).

honestly, I had some initial buyers remorse but after watching the FAQ pages and researching a little more on short hard vs long slow workouts, im feeling pretty good about it.

I listen to Ben's podcasts as well and while there is some element of cheese here and there, the guy really appears to know his stuff and is a fast triathlete.

My .02

Thanks for the review. IMO the reason why there is very little long slow distance training is that it is very hard to recover from LSD workouts and still do high intensity swim/bike/run + strength training. For sprint to olympic distance you can reduce LSD with little loss of endurance.

What I'm curious to know is if you need to go into a caloric deficit to lose fat or just clean up your diet to eliminate foods that cause your body to store fat.

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Pro

4723

CyFair

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

joker70 - 2012-02-21 6:34 PM

Ahedges - 2012-02-17 6:03 AM

I bought it when it first came out and have been studying through it for the past month or so (just finished half marathon) I am starting it next week. I've done a few of the strength workouts and feel pretty good about it. I am a newbie so I have only my last season plan to compare it to. Its pretty much 3 strength per week (circuits/supersets) along with 2 workouts in each sport a week with extras later in the program for distances over olympic. The workouts are pretty much drill sessions along with interval and hill stuff. not a whole lot of long slow (aside from some of the iron and half iron extras).

honestly, I had some initial buyers remorse but after watching the FAQ pages and researching a little more on short hard vs long slow workouts, im feeling pretty good about it.

I listen to Ben's podcasts as well and while there is some element of cheese here and there, the guy really appears to know his stuff and is a fast triathlete.

My .02

Thanks for the review. IMO the reason why there is very little long slow distance training is that it is very hard to recover from LSD workouts and still do high intensity swim/bike/run + strength training. For sprint to olympic distance you can reduce LSD with little loss of endurance. What I'm curious to know is if you need to go into a caloric deficit to lose fat or just clean up your diet to eliminate foods that cause your body to store fat.

All foods cause your body to store fat. Kinda confused here? Even if you take in too much protein there is a process which I can't remember the name of off the top of my head, want to say glycokenisis?, where the excess is turned into a carb like substance and and stored as fat. Cleaning up your diet helps in that "clean" foods are more easily processed and are more bioavailable to the body. Excess calories turn to fat to be stored for energy on days when you don't take in excess of what you expend.

So based on feed back from people you will see newbs to lifting making advances where strength and muscle increases while fat stores decrease, but in general most have to be in caloric deficit to lose weight and fat. How you structure you macros will help retain muscle during a cut.

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Elite

2608

Denver, Colorado

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

uhcoog - 2012-02-22 9:33 AM

joker70 - 2012-02-21 6:34 PM

Ahedges - 2012-02-17 6:03 AM

I bought it when it first came out and have been studying through it for the past month or so (just finished half marathon) I am starting it next week. I've done a few of the strength workouts and feel pretty good about it. I am a newbie so I have only my last season plan to compare it to. Its pretty much 3 strength per week (circuits/supersets) along with 2 workouts in each sport a week with extras later in the program for distances over olympic. The workouts are pretty much drill sessions along with interval and hill stuff. not a whole lot of long slow (aside from some of the iron and half iron extras).

honestly, I had some initial buyers remorse but after watching the FAQ pages and researching a little more on short hard vs long slow workouts, im feeling pretty good about it.

I listen to Ben's podcasts as well and while there is some element of cheese here and there, the guy really appears to know his stuff and is a fast triathlete.

My .02

Thanks for the review. IMO the reason why there is very little long slow distance training is that it is very hard to recover from LSD workouts and still do high intensity swim/bike/run + strength training. For sprint to olympic distance you can reduce LSD with little loss of endurance. What I'm curious to know is if you need to go into a caloric deficit to lose fat or just clean up your diet to eliminate foods that cause your body to store fat.

All foods cause your body to store fat. Kinda confused here? Even if you take in too much protein there is a process which I can't remember the name of off the top of my head, want to say glycokenisis?, where the excess is turned into a carb like substance and and stored as fat. Cleaning up your diet helps in that "clean" foods are more easily processed and are more bioavailable to the body. Excess calories turn to fat to be stored for energy on days when you don't take in excess of what you expend.

So based on feed back from people you will see newbs to lifting making advances where strength and muscle increases while fat stores decrease, but in general most have to be in caloric deficit to lose weight and fat. How you structure you macros will help retain muscle during a cut.

Gluconeogenesis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconeogenesis

Gary Taubes proposed that there are good calories and bad calories. While I think that there is some truth to that - it requires more effort for the body to store protein as fat than it does carbs, protein allows you to feel fuller longer so you won't eat as much, etc. - I don't agree that you can eat unlimited quantities of protein and lose weight. At the end of the day, you cannot defeat basic thermodynamics.

My Race Log

Pro

4723

CyFair

Subject: RE: Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

MikeTheBear - 2012-02-22 10:27 AM

uhcoog - 2012-02-22 9:33 AM

joker70 - 2012-02-21 6:34 PM

Ahedges - 2012-02-17 6:03 AM

I bought it when it first came out and have been studying through it for the past month or so (just finished half marathon) I am starting it next week. I've done a few of the strength workouts and feel pretty good about it. I am a newbie so I have only my last season plan to compare it to. Its pretty much 3 strength per week (circuits/supersets) along with 2 workouts in each sport a week with extras later in the program for distances over olympic. The workouts are pretty much drill sessions along with interval and hill stuff. not a whole lot of long slow (aside from some of the iron and half iron extras).

honestly, I had some initial buyers remorse but after watching the FAQ pages and researching a little more on short hard vs long slow workouts, im feeling pretty good about it.

I listen to Ben's podcasts as well and while there is some element of cheese here and there, the guy really appears to know his stuff and is a fast triathlete.

My .02

Thanks for the review. IMO the reason why there is very little long slow distance training is that it is very hard to recover from LSD workouts and still do high intensity swim/bike/run + strength training. For sprint to olympic distance you can reduce LSD with little loss of endurance. What I'm curious to know is if you need to go into a caloric deficit to lose fat or just clean up your diet to eliminate foods that cause your body to store fat.

All foods cause your body to store fat. Kinda confused here? Even if you take in too much protein there is a process which I can't remember the name of off the top of my head, want to say glycokenisis?, where the excess is turned into a carb like substance and and stored as fat. Cleaning up your diet helps in that "clean" foods are more easily processed and are more bioavailable to the body. Excess calories turn to fat to be stored for energy on days when you don't take in excess of what you expend.

So based on feed back from people you will see newbs to lifting making advances where strength and muscle increases while fat stores decrease, but in general most have to be in caloric deficit to lose weight and fat. How you structure you macros will help retain muscle during a cut.

Gluconeogenesis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GluconeogenesisGary Taubes proposed that there are good calories and bad calories. While I think that there is some truth to that - it requires more effort for the body to store protein as fat than it does carbs, protein allows you to feel fuller longer so you won't eat as much, etc. - I don't agree that you can eat unlimited quantities of protein and lose weight. At the end of the day, you cannot defeat basic thermodynamics.

Thanks. Can you tell I've done a lot of reading on CKD???? Too many friends that treat Shelby Starnes as a god.

Anyway point is that there is a reason bb'ers, who are the tops at knowing how to lose fat while holding on to muscle mass, have cut and bulk cycles and they have the advantage of anabolics.

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Tri-Ripped (Ben Greenfield)

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