Starting Strength

know we’re actually doing something different in the weight room this time around.
    The deadlift will be the last thing to learn the first day. The deadlift is where you learn to set the lower back, and doing this at the conclusion of the first day, after the squat, will solidify the concept of back position and make it more understandable to your body and your mind. The mechanics of the correct pull from the floor are crucial to the clean, and the deadlift serves as the best introduction to the idea that pulling from the floor is not complicated. If the squat that first day has been difficult or has taken a long time, or if you are older or very deconditioned, the first deadlift workout might just be an introduction with light weight, and no attempt to go to a heavy work set. Going light prevents excessive soreness after the first session, which would definitely compromise the second one. The next deadlift workout can be heavier, and the target weight more easily and accurately determined, after you have recovered from the first squat workout.
    You will learn the other two lifts at the next workout, provided that you encountered no major problems. Start the second workout with the squat, and then learn the bench press. Your shoulders and arms may be tired from the press, but this will have little effect on the bench press, a stronger movement anyway. The bench press provides the same break for the lower body between exercises that the press does, and you will need this break because you will be power cleaning next.
    The power clean, being the most technically challenging of the exercises, should be introduced last, and only after the deadlift is correct off the floor. If that occurs in the first workout, you can learn the clean in the second workout. If you need more time to correct the deadlift, take it. Introducing the power clean too early will produce problems, since the bottom part of the movement depends on the deadlift’s being fairly automatic.
     
    Workout order
     
    For novices, and in fact for most advanced trainees, a very simple approach to training should be taken. Effective workouts need not be long, complicated affairs. Many people are under the impression that progress in the weight room means learning more ways to curl, the basic one or two not being sufficient. But progress means more strength , not more exercises; the variable we manipulate is load, not exercise selection. You do not need to do many different exercises to get strong – you need to get strong on a very few important exercises, movements that train the whole body as a system, not as a collection of separate body parts. The problem with the programs advocated by all the national exercise organizations is that they fail to recognize this basic principle: the body best adapts as a whole organism to stress applied to the whole organism. The more stress that can be applied to as much of the body at one time as possible, the more effective and productive the adaptation will be.
    For a rank novice, the simplest of workouts is in order. This short program can be followed for the first few workouts:
     

    The two workouts alternate across the MWF schedule for the first couple of weeks, until the freshness of the deadlift has worn off a little and after the quick initial gains establish the deadlift well ahead of the squat. At this point the power clean is introduced:
     

    After the first couple of weeks, you squat every workout and alternate the bench press and press, and the deadlift and power clean. This schedule is for three days per week, allowing a two-day rest at the end of the week. It will mean that one week you press and deadlift twice, and the next week you bench and power clean twice. Do the exercises in the listed order, with squats first, the upper-body movement second, and the pulling movement third. This sequence allows the squat to get everything warm for the next exercise (it does this well); then the upper-body exercise allows the legs and back to rest and recover for the pulling movement to be done next.
    For most people, and for quite some time, this schedule will work well. After two or three more weeks, chin-ups can be added as the only really useful assistance exercise at this point in the program. You might decide to add three sets of chins after your power cleans, and stay with this program for as many months as possible. Or, back extensions or glute/ham raises can be added in place of pulling every workout,