Founder and CEO of Metabolic Precision (MP) which is a one-stop-shop for providing the tools, the strategies and the knowledge and also the support. Dr Cribb has 3 undergraduate degrees, PhD in body composition, and in 2006 was one of Australia’s leading scientists. Dr Cribb loves surfing and first picked up the first barbell at the age of 17.
By the time Dr Cribb was 24 years old, he was known for playing a Seagulls Rugby League Club as a forward. He operated his personal training business out of Melbourne and charging $300 per hour back in the ’90s.
It all came to a sharp halt when he blew out his L4/L5 disc and couldn’t walk due to an overworking and continuous gridding of his disc from heavy and incorrect deadlift and squats. He lost a large portion of his life to disc operations and artificial discs. This life-changing experience catapulted him to education in the field of personal training, with facts and science, rather than here-say and the latest fitness fads.
So far, there is no magic pill as Dr Cribb explains, everything comes down to all hard fashion work combined with education and science back information from what we know now, “I know we see all the developments, especially the thighs on Current Affair always like to promote the latest thing that is going on. Really, to be honest, the more we delve into human physiological and biochemistry of our DNA to the environment, it gets more and more complex. Even though we have a DNA identified, I still think we are a long way off, even having any sort of pill, we are still a long way off. We still can’t build a heart as good as the one we got. We can’t build kidney’s. We can’t build a liver. We build organs, let alone make dynamic changes. That’s why we have to look after what we got.”
MP focuses on what we know, backed up by scientific data, and then pulled together as an easy to understand the process for everyday people to follow.
“Some people think that MP is my idea and my belief. MP is really the end product of research. Whatever the research says, that’s what I put into the program, I don’t just make stuff up. Everything that is in there is in there for a reason, and that’s because there is a wealth of data that is supporting it.”
A top diet has to do 3 things; it has to improve your body composition, it has to make you look better. The second thing that it must do is promote your health. The third thing is to do, it’s got to make you perform better – not just perform better in the gym, but perform better as a mother, as a daughter, in your career. If a fitness plan can make you feel better, look better, perform better – that is a great plan.
The reality is that not all diets address all three components of a proper diet.
“MP teaches the foundations first and makes sure that it has a strong foundation. When you have the foundation and then you can build the other aspects, and you start to refine it and really create it your own. It’s no different to building a house. Structure still has to be there, concrete slab has still got to be there…And everyone’s house ends up a little bit different. Your diet and nutrient plan has to be the strong foundation, but also allow you to fine-tune. Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to jump into the refinement of something (with no foundation).”
“I am 51 now, but I couldn’t do any heavy loading through my spine; I didn’t have the disc (L4/L5). So I had to learn how to train in a way that still promotes muscle growth and maintains muscle growth, flexibility and mobility well. I still love teaching people how to squat, deadlift, and bench press, but how to do it now without destroying their back. That’s my passion. I still use barbells and dumbbells, but I modify exercises, so I don’t have the direct loading on the back. I use a lot of kettlebells and TRX bands. A lot of that stuff helps with balance.”
Barbells and dumbbells remain the foundation for changing your composition. However, there are those other modes which are needed to put those finishing touches for quality of life.