Starting Strength is a full body training program for beginners. It is arguably the world’s most popular strength training program in this regard. The program (and book of the same name) is by Mark Rippetoe, a pupil of Bill Starr, that ‘other’ well-known weightlifting coach. It is therefore not surprising that Starting Strength has many similarities with Bill Starr’s 5×5 program.
This article is by no means intended to replace the 347-page book Starting Strength, Basic Barbell Training (2012, third edition). About half of the book is devoted to the correct execution of the exercises, something the program places heavy emphasis on. Rippetoe knows a thing or two about classical mechanics, gravity and levers, and knows how to translate this effortlessly into (training) practice. Discussing with Rippetoe, especially about the execution, is of little use, because ‘coach Rip’ has, in addition to a very well developed logical reasoning ability, that typical Texan stubbornness.
GOAL AND TARGET GROUP
As the name suggests, Starting Strength is a program for beginners. Please note, by ‘beginners’ we mean people who are starting with pure strength training for the first time. That can be an absolute beginner as well as someone who has trained ‘wrong’ for years. The program is also ideal for quickly returning to your old level after a forced or unforced break. The program is suitable for both (healthy) men and women of all ages. The purpose of the program is also implied in its name: strength. ‘Barbell’ means barbell, the only tool you need for this program, besides some weight plates of course.
LAY THE FOUNDATION WITH BASIC EXERCISES
The program (the prescribed exercises and the number of sets/repetitions) is simple and practical, so that every beginner can understand it (an underestimated condition for the success of a program). It’s all about the basics: squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead or millitary press — the most functional exercises for any beginner (and advanced, in this regard). As for the output of these exercises, we really recommend that you buy the book. Rippetoe’s explanation is indeed extensive, but as simple as the program itself. In addition to the (at least) fifteen euros that you spend monthly on your gym subscription, the fifteen euros that the (digital) book costs is an excellent investment in yourself and your training.
STARTING STRENGTH: THE PROGRAM
Okay, enough talk. It is high time to introduce the program. The actual program (you’ll soon understand why we say actual), consists of an A and a B training, which you do alternately on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for example – three times a week, on non-consecutive days. You train according to the rhythm ABA, BAB et cetera.
Workout A
Squat, 3 sets of 5 reps
Millitary press, 3 sets of 5 reps
Deadlift, 1 set of 5 reps
Workout B
Squat, 3 sets of 5 reps
Bench press, 3 sets of 5 reps
Power cleans, 5 sets of 3 reps
WARMING UP
Note that the prescribed number of sets does not include the necessary warm-up sets! These warm-up sets are not only intended to prepare your body (and mind) for heavier weights, but also to master the correct technique. Especially during your warm-up sets you can pay attention to a correct execution, since it is not hindered by a heavy weight. It is important that you give a set with 20 kg (read: only the barbell) just as much attention as your work sets with a pack of 120 kg. Look up a video on YouTube of Ed Coan, the best powerlifter of all time. He treats a paltry 60 kg with the same respect as 400 kg.
A common beginner mistake is using too much weight during your warm-up. A warm-up is what it is: a warm-up, meant to warm up, not to have your powder fired before the actual work begins. Beginners in particular, but also many advanced players, tend to do too many reps during their warm-up sets. Most people think that if they’re going to bench press three sets of five reps with 100 kg, they should do the previous two sets of five reps with 80 and 90 kg, respectively, or something in that range.
Now there is nothing wrong with warming up with submaximal weights, but do limit the number of repetitions. Otherwise, you’ll be tired to start the sets that really matter: your three work sets. Modern training insights teach us that after your two, maximum three ‘serious’ sets, the principle of diminished returns kicks in. In the aforementioned example in which you ‘warmed up’ with 80 and 90 kg, it is true that you only benefit from the first working set and therefore do not achieve optimal results.
So how should you warm up? Good question! For example, if you plan to bench press 3x5x100 kg, it is best to do one set of five reps using the barbell only and another set of five with 40 kg (bar plus 20 kg weight plates). After this you do one set of three reps with 60 kg (no, not with 80 kg) and one set of two repetitions with 80 kg (no, not with 90 kg). You see: as you increase the weights, you decrease the number of repetitions. This way you can approach the weight of your work sets without tiring yourself. Now you can give it your all during your working sets.
Four paragraphs about a warm-up, with a lot of repetition. You see, neither we nor Rippetoe take this lightly. Or actually it is. But you know what we mean.
VARIANT: THE WICHITA FALLS NOVICE PROGRAM
The program described above is the actual – there’s that word finally – Starting Strength program. However, it’s often mistakenly used for another Rippetoe program: the perhaps more popular Wichita Falls Novice Program, also a beginner’s program – Wichita Falls is the Texas town where Rippetoe’s gym is located.
In fact, the Wichita Falls Novice Program is more practical than the original Starting Strength in that it consists of three weekly workouts, rather than Starting Strength’s alternating A/B workout. It also eliminates the unpopular power clean, which gives way to chinups and pullups.
Here is – again excluding warm-up sets – the program:
Monday
Squat, 3 sets of 5 reps
Bench press/millitary press, 3 sets of 5 reps
Chinups, 3 sets to exhaustion
Wednesday
Squat, 3 sets of 5 reps
Bench press/millitary press, 3 sets of 5 reps
Deadlift, 1 set of 5 reps
Friday
Squat, 3 sets of 5 reps
Bench press/millitary press, 3 sets of 5 reps
Pullups, 3 sets to muscle failure
The slash between “Bench press/millitary press” means you alternate between these exercises weekly. So you only do the bench press for one week and only the millitary press the following week. We prefer to switch from day to day between the bench press and millitary press, as in the original Starting Strength – we can’t imagine a week where we don’t bench press or don’t shoulder press.
The program needs another small caveat: as soon as you can perform more than 15 chin-/pullups, according to Rippetoe you should increase the weight of the exercise, for example by clamping a dumbbell between your feet or ankles, wearing a weighted vest or using to make a special belt to which you can attach a chain with weight plates. We ourselves would already increase the weight from ten repetitions, but who are we to contradict coach Rip?
WHAT ABOUT WEIGHTS?
The program has no percentages; Neither Starting Strength nor the Wichita Falls Novice Program prescribes a specific training intensity. If it says “3 sets of 5 reps” then you’re doing three sets of five reps with a weight you can complete three sets of five reps with. It’s that simple. It makes no sense to show training intensity in terms of percentages, because such a percentage is always based on your one-rep max (1RM), a number that a beginner does not know yet. Guessing and Missing is the only way to figure out what weight you can do three sets of five reps with.
You do all three work sets with the same, not with increasing weight. That is not uncommon in a beginner program. And if you think your first set of five is (too) easy for you, then wait until the third set. If you can squeeze out just five reps during your third set (with the same weight as in your first and second set, we’ll just add), you know you’ve chosen the right weight.
In addition to weights, the program does not prescribe progression. It does not instruct you to increase the weight by Y kg in week X and it follows a natural progression, as it were. It is not uncommon for beginners to add 2.5-5kg each week to their work sets for months at a time, say twelve weeks. This means that beginners, for example, improve their squat by an average of 45 kg in less than three months. And that increase in strength is certainly accompanied by the necessary muscle growth.
FINALLY
It doesn’t matter to us whether you want to start with Starting Strength or the Wichita Falls Novice Program. The main difference between the programs is the presence or absence of the powerclean and chin-/pullups, and the frequency with which you deadlift – once or twice a week in the first program, once in the second program. Give both programs a chance and see what you feel most comfortable with. Whichever program you start with, you are sure to start getting stronger!