The ultimate guide to Starting Strength

Starting Strength is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, strength training program out there. If you want to get strong, stop looking for a better program - there isn't one.

Here's how you use Starting Strength:

Starting Strength is not just a training program, it's also a book by Mark Rippetoe. When I use the term Starting Strength below, I am referring to the training program. More about the book will follow later.

As the name suggests, Starting Strength is aimed at beginners. If you have just started training, then you have a unique potential to become stronger than you will ever experience again in your training career.

We refer to this as beginner gains.

It's worth noting that even if you've spent years in the gym, that doesn't mean you're no longer a beginner when it comes to strength training. The creator of Starting Strength, Mark Rippetoe, has this to say:

"You can take the average exerciser who has been messing around in front of the dumbbell racks and running on the treadmill watching TV for 10 years. You can take that guy and get him to adapt and grow. The first thing you do is have him do squats. And two days later, you can have him do squats again, but this time with 5 to 10 pounds more weight. Whether he's 25, 35 or 55, this adaptation can still happen if it hasn't happened before. Most people out there, regardless of what they may say, are still beginners."

- Mark Rippetoe

Starting Strength is based entirely on barbell training because the barbell is unique in terms of how it can be progressively loaded with weights and used safely with increasing weights.

There is of course a lot of equipment you can use to get stronger, but using a barbell and the Starting Strength system is probably the most efficient way you can choose.

Beginner gains

To get stronger, you need to move progressively heavier weights. This is called progression.

Starting Strength uses something called linear progression, which is the simplest type of progression. Basically, you increase the weight a little each day and over time this will add up to a huge amount of weight. This approach is very simple and therein lies its beauty.

There is a famous story about a Greek wrestler from the 6th century BC - Milo of Croton. He trained by picking up a newborn calf and carrying it around. He did this every day as the calf grew into a full-grown bull. That's linear progression.

Of course, you can't keep increasing the weight forever, but you can increase it a lot if you keep at it.

Most people can increase their strength to a point where they can bench press their own bodyweight, perform squats at 150% of their bodyweight and move even more weight when deadlifting.

When you start to reach these heavier weights, it will get harder. If you've never done a proper strength training program before, this will test your physical and mental strength. Go for it and you will be richly rewarded.

Structure

The structure of Starting Strength is simple, which is a good thing.

Complicated programs are either for advanced strength athletes or for personal trainers who want to impress their clients with fancy circus exercises. These programs are not for people like you and me.

To get strong, you only need a few basic exercises that train the greatest amount of muscle through the greatest range of motion your body allows and where you can use as much weight as possible.

Two workouts

If you follow the Starting Strength program, you will alternate between workout A and B:

Workout A

• 3 x 5 squats
• 3 x 5 barbell shoulder presses
• 1 x 5 deadlifts

Training session B

• 3 x 5 squats
• 3 x 5 bench presses
• 1 x 5 deadlifts

These are three sets of squats and presses with 5 repetitions each and one set of deadlifts with 5 repetitions. This means that you perform five squats in a row, put the bar down, rest for a few minutes and repeat for two more sets.

The order of the exercises is important, as squats are designed to warm up your entire body, while the following press exercises give your legs and back a rest before you finally perform your final pull exercise.

You perform these training sessions alternately on three days a week, e.g. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Choose any days that suit you best, but make sure that there is always at least one rest day between two training days. This may sound like very little training to some, but trust me - you can't skip rest days on this one.

Two example weeks could look like this:

Week 1

• Monday: squats, shoulder presses, deadlifts
• Wednesday: squats, bench press, deadlift
• Friday: squats, shoulder presses, deadlifts

Week 2

• Monday: squats, bench press, deadlift
• Wednesday: squats, shoulder press, deadlift
• Friday: squats, bench presses, deadlifts

In week 3 you start again with training session A: squats, shoulder presses, deadlifts. Simply alternate between the two training days.

Of course, you could also choose Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as training days if you prefer. Or Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. As long as you have at least one rest day between two training days so that your body has enough time to recover and get stronger, you can use any combination of days of the week.

Four phases

As Starting Strength is aimed at beginners, it starts with just four exercises. The basic idea is to start light and focus on getting into the right technique before slowly increasing the weight.

It can be tempting to get through these four phases as quickly as possible, but you won't be doing yourself any favors. The longer you stay with each phase and continue to recover and grow, the better your results will be.

Some people try to get through the Starting Strength program as quickly as possible so they can call themselves somewhat advanced exercisers. But why would you rush to get to a place where your gains will be slower? This defeats the purpose of this program. Don't you want to get as strong as possible?

You will find other setups on the internet than the one described below. I don't know which book these authors have read, but what follows is taken directly from Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, third edition.

Phase 1

• Workout A: Squats, shoulder press, deadlift
• Workout B: Squats, bench press, deadlift

Take the time at the beginning to really learn the technique for each exercise. Treat each exercise as if it is sufficiently heavy, even if it is not. Breathe deeply, grip the weight correctly, squeeze the bar and learn to work with your whole body.

At this point you should already be reading the book (see below) as it will teach you how to perform these exercises safely and effectively, which is one of the main goals of this phase.

The other goal is to adapt your body to squats and deadlifts three times a week.

This first phase ends when the novelty of deadlifts has worn off and after the initial weight increases have placed deadlifts well ahead of squats. This usually takes 2 to 4 weeks

Phase 2

• Training session A: Squats, shoulder back, deadlift
• Training session B: Squats, bench press, power clean (power transfer)

Now that the weight on deadlifts has become so heavy that you can no longer recover sufficiently if you do deadlifts every training day, it's time to replace deadlifts with power cleans on the second training day. This is a similar but more explosive exercise that will keep you growing.

Do this for another 2 to 3 weeks to become more familiar with power cleans.

Phase 3

• Training session A: Squats, shoulder press, deadlift
• Training session B: squats, bench press, power cleans, pull-ups

In this third phase, you perform an additional 3 sets of pull-ups after the power cleans to get a little more training volume for the upper body (and build up the arms).

If you can perform more than 3 x 10 pull-ups, start using additional weights. Add 2.5 kilos per weight increase with the goal of being able to do more than 5 repetitions but less than 7 repetitions. If you can do 7 reps, then it's time to increase the weight further.

This third phase will continue for a long time - many weeks or months.

When your recovery ability begins to reach its limits and you feel you are no longer making as much progress as before, it is time to try the fourth and final phase of Starting Strength.

Phase 4

• Training session A: Squats, shoulder presses, deadlifts / powercleans
• Training session B: squats, bench press, back extensions, pull-ups

During the fourth phase, we alternate between deadlifts and power cleans in training unit A so that each of these two exercises is only trained every fourth day. This will help you to recover after these exercises.

In training unit B, we perform 3 sets each of pull-ups and back extensions with 5 to 7 repetitions as described above.

The whole thing looks like this:

Week 1

• Monday: Squats, shoulder presses, deadlifts
• Wednesday: squats, bench presses, back extensions, pull-ups
• Friday: squats, shoulder presses, power cleans

Week 2

• Monday: squats, bench presses, back extensions, pull-ups
• Wednesday: squats, shoulder presses, deadlifts
• Friday: squats, bench presses, back extensions, pull-ups

During this phase, it may be necessary to use lower weight increases for the pressing exercises. This is where mini discs can be helpful, allowing you to increase the weight by 1 kilo or less at a time.

A final modification is to perform squats on Wednesdays with a lighter weight (80% of the 1RM) to allow for better recovery. When you reach the point where this becomes necessary, it's time to stop Starting Strength and move on to an advanced program.

Five exercises

The book describes these exercises and their correct execution very well.

These five heavy basic exercises (squats, deadlifts, shoulder press, bench press, power cleans) were chosen for very specific reasons to force very specific adaptations in your body. If you want to start powerlifting or another strength sport, it may make sense to modify this list of exercises slightly, but if you want to get as strong as possible as quickly as possible, these exercises are pretty much all you need and nothing you don't need

Progression

Start with the empty bar. This might feel a little weird, but trying to move a weight you can't handle properly yet is just plain stupid.

You'll be doing squats and deadlifts three times a week to start with, which is probably a lot more often than you're used to. Each training session will use pretty much every muscle in your body, so you'll be grateful for this adjustment period.

If you really want to start with heavier weights, since you already have some experience in training heavy and often, then you should know your 5RM weight. Start with 20% less than this weight.

Once you have determined your starting point, then start increasing the weight.

As I mentioned earlier, Starting Strength uses a linear progression. In our context, this means that you increase the weight with each training session, trying to increase your strength in steady increments.

Some programs use complex periodization with high volume days, low intensity weeks, max effort sets, etc. Starting Strength uses none of this - you train and you increase the weight.

"I'm not against periodization, but I am against using periodization with the wrong population. Periodization is a complete waste of time for beginners. My rule is simple: the less your body has adapted to your training, the more straightforward the program should be."

- Mark Rippetoe

Improvements will vary from exercise to exercise and from trainee to trainee. Normally you will be able to increase your weights equally quickly on squats and deadlifts, although this increase may be slightly faster on deadlifts, while the weight increases on shoulder presses and bench presses will be slower.

In the beginning, you may be able to increase the weight of squats and deadlifts by 10 kilos and the weight of shoulder presses and bench presses by 5 kilos with each subsequent training session. So if you can successfully (with good technique) perform three sets of squats with 60 kilos, then increase the weight in the next squat training session and perhaps try to use 70 kilos.

If, on the other hand, you are unable to complete the three sets with a given weight, then try again with the same weight in the next training session. At least until you fail several times, which may be a sign that it's time for an unloading phase (see below).

As the weights get heavier and you struggle to add so much weight, start using smaller weight increases. For squats and deadlifts these increases could be 5 kilos, while for shoulder presses and bench presses it could be 2.5 kilos.

Later on, this will also become difficult at some point and you will have to work with increases of 2.5 or 1 kilo.

Of course, technically speaking, this is not a strict linear progression (k != 1), but I think you know what I'm getting at.

Unloading

Of course, you can't keep increasing your training weights forever. At some point the fun stops. Your job is to extend those initial beginner gains for as long as possible - you'll never make as good progress again.

One method you can use to prolong this process is called unloading.

Most likely, progress on one exercise will stall before the other exercises.

You will be stronger on deadlifts than squats and stronger on squats than power cleans, followed by bench presses and finally shoulder presses.

If you can no longer make progress on one of these exercises, there are four possible reasons for this:

• You're not recovering well enough between workouts. Eat more, sleep longer, take a nap from time to time and try to stress less.
• You are not increasing the weights as you should. Stop being greedy and choose smaller weight increases.
• You have added your own exercises to the program or made changes.
• You're at the end of linear progression.

Anyone can have a bad day with too little sleep, a bad boss or bad food. Don't give up because you occasionally get stuck on an exercise. Sometimes another attempt - or two - may be necessary. Therefore, do as many repetitions as possible on the remaining sets.

If you fail three times in a row or make no progress with the three sets of five repetitions, then it's time to unload. This is a kind of restart to help you attack the weights a little fresher.

Reduce the weights for this specific exercise by 10% and continue from this point in the next training session.

If you have already tried this but are stuck at the same weight limit again, then it may help to unload by 10% again, performing as many reps as possible with the lower weight until you are eventually only able to perform 5 reps again with increasing weights.

If this doesn't work, then you'll probably have reached the end of the linear progression and can move some nice weights to show off. Now it's time to move on to a more advanced program (see below)

Warm up

Warming up before a workout is important for two reasons: it can help prevent injury and it gives you the opportunity to get more routine and practice with an exercise.

Please note the following rather harsh statement: if your schedule doesn't allow you enough time for your warm-up, then it doesn't allow you enough time to train at all."

- Mark Rippetoe

A warm-up does indeed raise the temperature in your body and this helps to prevent injury. This is especially important if you are already suffering from an injury or are a little older.

You could warm up on a rowing machine (or cycle ergometer or treadmill) until you break a sweat and this is advisable if you are exercising in a cold environment. But this would deprive you of the second benefit of warming up: a workout of the exercises.

Instead, go straight to warming up with an empty barbell. Perform two sets with the empty bar and then use three weight jumps to get close to your working weight.

Rippetoe gives the following example of performing squats with 100 kilos:

• 2 with the empty bar (20 kg)
• 1 set of 5 repetitions with 40 kg
• 1 set of 3 repetitions with 60 kg
• 1 set of 2 repetitions with 80 kg
• Start the training session with 100 kg

Do not perform the warm-up sets too hastily just because the weight is light. Treat them like heavy work sets and concentrate on improving your technique. That's training too!

Warm-ups don't have to be complicated, but if you want someone to tell you what weights to use, you can use the Android app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.na.ss) or the iOS app (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/starting-strength-warmup/id438620117?mt=8).

Nutrition

Now for a more controversial part of Starting Strength - nutrition.

Rippetoe recommends consuming 3500 to 6000 kcal per day while doing this program. That's a lot of calories. In addition, he recommends drinking a gallon (3.8 liters) of milk every day.

"There's obviously been a tendency since 1990 for guys to think they need a six-pack, even though they don't have any muscle to speak of."

- Mark Rippetoe

Needless to say, these recommendations have caused something of an uproar.

However, most critics don't seem to have read the book. Having read the book, I believe that the actual recommendations contained in the book are quite good for the average reader.

No, not everyone should eat 6000 kcal a day and not everyone is encouraged to drink that amount of milk.

Rippetoe talks about the different calorie requirements of skinny hard gainers and fat people (which is not meant to be derogatory in this context). The former would be well advised to eat as much as if eating was their job, while the latter would be better off aiming for the lower 3500 kcal recommendation and focusing primarily on whole food sources.

The book

The book "Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training" is probably the most frequently mentioned book when people are asked which was the most important book on strength training for them.

One of the most common mistakes many exercisers make when following the Starting Strength training system is not reading the book. With all the material available online like this guide, you might easily feel that it's not necessary to read the book.

But you would be wrong.

Most of this book is not about the program, but the exercises. Take squats as an example - Rippetoe spends 65 pages explaining how to squat down and stand up with a weight on your shoulder.

The exercise descriptions are amazingly detailed and cover everything from why these specific exercises were chosen, how to prepare for the exercise, to potential mistakes and how to prevent them.

By Tobias Sjösten

Source: https://www.athlegan.com/starting-strength