I’d like to preface this by emphasizing that I am not a starting strength coach. Just someone who has read Mark Rippetoes book and knows that it works for almost everyone for at least a little while. If any Starting Strength coaches read this and notice that there is something I’m not understanding or just plain wrong about then by all means please email me at cameron@atlasstrengthshop.com.
What is Starting Strength?
Starting Strength is a bestselling book by Mark Rippetoe written for the novice lifter. In this book he writes about basic body mechanics, the five barbell movements involved in the program and programming. The five movements that you’ll be doing on this program are the squat, the bench press, the deadlift, the overhead press, and the power clean. Currently, at the time this article is being written, the third and most recent edition is sold on
Amazon for $26.96
What is the Program?
The program consists of two workouts. That’s it. You train three days a week and alternate between workouts A and B. Every time you do the squat you add 10 lbs.; every time you deadlift you add 15 and you add 5 every time you do one of your upper body movements. When progress stalls you simply cut that figure in half.
Workout A
Squat 3x5
Bench Press 3x5
Deadlift 1x5
Workout B:
Squat 3x5
Overhead Press 3x5
Power Clean 5x3
So, as you can see it’s a very simple program to follow but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy. If you do the math, you’ll notice that you’re adding 15 lbs. to your squat every week. That’s roughly 60 lbs. a month. You’ll have to make sure that you’re eating and sleeping enough, or you’ll find this program impossible to recover from. Of course, with all programs that follow a linear progression eventually you’ll outgrow it. This program works great as it’s written for a few months for almost everyone that’s untrained. Even if you’ve been lifting for awhile it may be worth it to practice.
Changes to the Program
For older individuals I usually switch out the power clean for a bent over barbell row and I cut my jumps in half. I also cut the weight jumps in half for most females as well.
So as always if you have any questions please feel free to email me at cameron@atlasstrengthshop.com. Don’t forget to follow my Instagram
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Until next time,
Cameron
