Starting Strength to Build Muscle & Power

Starting Strength Program for General Adaption & Pushing Your Genetics Limits

Starting Strength is one of the strength training programs created by the former American Powerlifter, Strength Training Coach, and Author Mark Rippetoe. It’s a popular and effective strength training routine that is designed for a wide variety of goals and people who are looking to gain strength fast.

Starting Strength Program – What Is It?

The Starting Strength training focuses on mastering the five fundamental compound exercises.

• Squats
• Deadlift
• Bench Press
• OHP (Overhead Press) Power Clean

Similarly, all these exercises are combined into a short and intense workout and performed thrice a week. Unlike typical bodybuilding style workout splits where muscle isolation is focused, Starting Strength (SS) looks at a body as a unified system while making functional strength a priority over aesthetics.

The Starting Strength History

Published earlier in 2005 by Mark Rippetoe, Starting Strength is one of the revolutionizing strength training, which stripped down fitness fads & bodybuilding fluffs while focusing on building strength using the progressive overload of vital barbell lifts and minimal volume.

Key Ideas That Changed the Game and Its Legacy & Impact

• The entire focus is shifted to compound movements like deadlifts, squats, and overhead presses.
• Linear progression is used. For instance, adding weight in every workout session for steady strength gains.
• Rejected trending workouts and promoted long-term strength building, such as 5/3/1.
• Focused on isolation exercises and not muscle confusion.
• Made powerlifting style workout accessible for beginners and made it the mainstream.
• Inspired by modern strength research and programming. Its no-nonsense approach still influences lifters to date.

4 Reasons Why Starting Strength Works Well

1) Adjusted for Untrained or Novice Lifters & Athletes

Starting Strength is designed keeping novice or untrained athletes in mind. It offers good potential to those who haven’t reached their true potential. For instance, it allows beginner lifters to add 5 to 10 lbs in their every lifting session, which gives them massive strength gain in a few weeks.

2) Strict Linear Progression

This training program forces progressive overload. For instance,

• Squats – Adding 5 Lbs in every workout
• Deadlift – Adding 10 Lbs per session (from early on)
• Bench Press or Overhead Press – Adding 2.5 to 5 Lbs in every session       

Hence, it forces the lifter’s body to adapt to the continuous change, which leads to building strength at a dramatic rate for beginners.

3) Movement Based Full Body Type Workout

Unlike splitting workouts into body parts like “chest day” or “arms day,” Starting Strength is focused on movements and not particular muscles. For instance,

• Squats train legs, core, and back.
• Deadlift helps develop posterior chain strength.
• Overhead Press helps build upper body pushing strength and shoulder stability.

By preventing “body part” workout split, this Starting Strength provides balanced & functional strength without wasting efforts.

4) Minimalist Approach & Efficient

It avoids incorporating complicated routines and unnecessary exercises, which eliminates fatigue and ensures your every workout session will lead to progression.

For Whom the Starting Strength Works Best

The Starting Strength is best for anyone who’s capable of lifting weights and hasn’t gotten strong. According to Rippetoe, the program is recommended to beginners, young lifters who want to get bigger, older people who have lost their strength, people who want to get stronger and get out of pain, and people having manual labor. Put simply, if you haven’t reached your true potential of getting stronger and getting into the plateau phase, this program will work well for you.

This Starting Strength starts in a very simple manner, and gradually, it keeps advancing, but even after the program gets advanced, it remains simple to follow. The SS program is recommended for a 16-year-old child who has never lifted the weight before to a 25-year-old jacked guy who hasn’t followed a strict barbell workout program.

What Does Starting Strength Do?

Starting strength is built using one rule: Increase weights to the barbell in every workout session.

• You’ll not change exercises, reps, or sets. – You’ll only change weights.
• The goal is to lift heavier weights in every session until you can’t add more weights.

According to Mark, this program doesn’t offer 45 types of different exercises for confusing muscles. Instead, it makes use of a few compound exercises, and all you’ve to do is keep adding weights in every session, which will eventually help you get stronger.

Further, this workout looks simple as you just do squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses, but being a compound lift and lifting heavier every time makes it tough. However, you’ll get results without your time being wasted.

Starting Strength: 12-Week Sample Workout Routine to Follow

• Main Goal: Using linear progression, maximizing novice strength gains.
• Workout Frequency: 3 times per week. For instance, Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
• Main Exercises: Squats, Bench Press, Deadlift, Overhead Press & Power Clean.

Weeks 1 to 4 – Foundation Phase

Workout A:

• Back Squats – 3 x 5
• BB Bench Press – 3 x 5
• Deadlift – 1 x 5

Workout B:

• Back Squats – 3 x 5
• Overhead Press – 3 x 5
• Power Clean – 5 x 3

Progress:

• Back Squats – Adding 5 lbs per workout
• Deadlift – Adding 10 lbs per workout
• Bench & Overhead Press – 5 lbs per workout (You can even use micro loads like 2.5 lbs if required.)
• Power Clean – 5 lbs per week

Weeks 5 to 8 – Adjusting Progress

Here light squat day will be introduced for managing fatigue.

Workout A – Heavy

• Back Squats – 3 x 5
• BB Bench Press – 3 x 5
• Deadlift – 1 x 5

Workout B – Light

• Front Squats – 3 x 5 (80% of Back Squats)
• Overhead Press – 3 x 5
• Chin Ups – 3 x Till Failure

Progress:

• Squats – Adding 5 lbs twice per week. (On Heavy days only)
• Deadlift – Alternating with Power Cleans (Deadlift every 5 to 7 days)

Week 9 to 12 – Peak & Deload

Adding sets for volume.

Workout A:

• Back Squats – 3 x 5, 1 x 5 (90% of Working Weight)
• BB Bench Press – 3 x 5, 1 x 5 (90% of Working Weight)
• Deadlift – 1 x 5

Workout B:

• Front Squats – 3 x 5
• Overhead Press – 3 x 5, 1 x 5 (90% of Working Weight)
• Power Clean – 5 x 3

Note:

• In case you fail to add weights 3 times in a row, reduce the weight by 10% and rebuild your strength.
• Alternate workout A/B/A → B/A/B every week
• Warm Ups – 2×5 @ 40%, 1×5 @ 60%, 1×3 @ 80% of working weight.
• Rest between Sets – 3 to 5 Minutes for main lifts & 2 minutes for cleans.
• Nutrition – 1 Gram of protein per pound of body weight & Overall 3000 to 5000 Calories Surplus.

Further, after completing 12 weeks, you can repeat by microloading, like adding 1.25 lbs, if you see progress. And, if you’ve hit a plateau then you can switch to other workout methods like Texas Method.

Training Tips

1) Take Optimal Rest

The program will not work effectively, if you don’t take enough rest in between sets. Take proper rest so you don’t feel fatigued from the earlier sets before starting the next one. For instance, if the lifter is squatting 185 pounds in their work sets, then there should be 5 minutes rest between sets. And, if you’re waiting 90 seconds or less between work sets, you haven’t recovered, and you’ll get stuck.

2) Increase Weights Gradually

For the first few workouts, you can increase weights by 10 pounds on the squat. You can even do that on the deadlift. However, to continue again for the 10 pounds jump, you may find it hard. For the initial phase, you’re recovering and growing faster, so the increase in weight doesn’t look bigger.

However, once your progress starts slowing down, you may find it a little difficult to increase weight, and you may even hardly go for 5 pounds. Similarly, at a certain point, you’ll even find it harder to increase by 5 pounds on the bench press every time you workout, because to get stronger needs time.

3) Eating Adequately

Many times, people don’t eat as much as they should be during the program, so recovering becomes harder, and may even end up getting stuck. Based on your height, it’s best to eat between 3500 to 6000 calories per day, in which you eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.

Similarly, you can even make use of dietary supplements to fill up the deficit between meals and your actual calorie need.

Pros

• It uses linear progression to maximize lifting potential, especially for novice lifters. It means, it makes you capable of adding weights in every session. Hence, most lifters can easily add 100+ lbs in squats and deadlifts within 3 to 6 months.
• You only workout 3 days per week, and the time taken for one session is not more than 1 hour. Similarly, the workout is easy to follow as the focus stays on squats, press, power clean, bench press, and deadlift.
• Prepares lifters for advanced workout programs like Texas Method and 5/3/1.
• It’s a long-term-oriented program and not a random workout split.
• Thousands of lifters have been using it since 2005, and they’re getting consistent results.

Cons

• Due to low volume, like 3×5 sets, it limits muscle growth, and it’s not an ideal hypertrophy routine. For instance, it doesn’t include exercises like lateral raises or arm curls.
• Works only for beginners like 3 to 9 months. Intermediate or advanced lifters will need more complex workout routines.
• By repeating the same 5 exercises, you may get bored.
• It needs higher recovery and nutrition to prevent burnout, and heavy squats 3 times a week can even affect joints if forms aren’t strict.
• The Olympic lift technique isn’t easy to learn on your own. Though many substitute it with rows, but if you want, you can skip it entirely.

Who Should Follow Starting Strength?

• Beginners
• Athletes looking for raw strength, such as powerlifters or football players.
• Lifters who want a simple program to follow.
• Anyone looking to get bigger, get back into shape or start after recovering from an injury.

Who Shouldn’t Follow Starting Strength?

• Lifters have the goal of aesthetic or bodybuilding.
• Lifting from more than 6 months.
• Those who don’t like squatting regularly.

Wrapping Up

Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength is among the most effective workout programs to date for those looking to build raw strength, especially beginners. It focuses on compound lifts and progressive overload, due to which the lifter gets rapid results, making it best for novices looking for a no-bullshit approach to lifting.

Starting Strength provides a proven blueprint for maximum gains. Further, due to its linear progression and simplicity it’s recommended that lifters should eventually move forward with another intermediate program for continuous long-term progress.