Starting Strength

cautionary statement-issuing from the registered-dietetics people, it is a fact that these numbers work well for the vast majority of people who lift weights, and these numbers have worked well for decades.
    One of the best ways to move in the direction of these numbers is to drink a gallon of milk a day, most especially if weight gain is a primary concern. A gallon of whole milk per day, added to the regular diet at intervals throughout the day, will put weight on any skinny kid. Really. The problem is getting them to do it. It is apparently a persistent tendency, since about 1990, for boys to think they need a “six pack,” although most of them don’t have an ice chest to put it in. The psychology of this particular historical phenomenon is best left to others to investigate and explain. Aesthetics aside, heavier is eventually necessary if stronger is to occur, and once most people see that weight gain actually makes them look better (amazingly enough), they become less resistant to the idea.
    Milk works because it is easy, it is available, it doesn’t need any preparation, and it has all the components necessary for growing mammals, which novice lifters most definitely are. There also seems to be something special about milk that the equivalent amount of calories, protein, fat, and carbs can’t duplicate in terms of growth enhancement. It may be the fact that milk has very high levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), a peptide hormone that has been shown to have some relationship to accelerated growth in mammals. But that research is far from conclusive; suffice it to say that experience has shown that people who drink lots of milk during their novice phase get bigger and stronger than people who don’t. This time-proven method works for everybody who can digest milk – though the truly lactose-intolerant might not be able to take advantage of its benefits without supplementing with lactase, the enzyme needed for the breakdown of this milk sugar. Most other people are fine with a gallon per day if they start out with a quart and work up over two weeks.
    Weight gain occurs the same way strength gains occur – fast at first, then more slowly as training progresses. It is quite possible for genetically favored individuals – for example, a broad-shouldered, motivated 5'10 kid, weighing 140 pounds – to gain as much as 60 pounds in a year of good steady training, good diet, and milk. This is actually not that unusual a result for this type of trainee, although when it occurs, there will always be talk of steroids, because this is human nature – as a general rule, anybody stronger than you is taking steroids. What is unusual is finding a genetically gifted athlete who will actually do the program – all of it. It is far more common to see 20-pound increases in bodyweight over a four-month period, with only a very few diligent trainees doing much better. But most guys who will eat even a little better than they did before will gain several pounds the first few weeks.
    Fat guys (not used here disparagingly) see a different result entirely, as their bodyweight doesn’t change much for the first few months. What they notice is looser pants in the waist; legs and hips staying about the same; shirts that are much tighter in the chest, arms, and neck; and faster strength increases compared to their skinny buddies. Their body composition changes while their bodyweight stays close to the same, the result of a loss in bodyfat due to their increasing muscle mass.
    So if you do the program as written, and you are a novice male between the ages of 18 and 35 with a starting bodyweight of 160–175 pounds, the first five or six squat workouts will see the work sets going up 10 pounds every time. If your first day is 115 x 5 x 3 sets across, then 165 x 5 x 3 will be the sixth workout. A novice in this demographic who is eating and resting correctly and who is otherwise healthy will be able to do this. Eating correctly may mean 6000 calories/day, including a gallon of whole milk, or it may mean 3500 calories/day on a Paleo-type, lower-carb, no-dairy diet, depending on your initial body composition. If this or its equivalent training result did not happen, you’re not doing the program. During this period of time, it is common to gain 5–10 pounds of bodyweight if you are underweight, or to stay about the same if you are in need of bodyfat loss. In this demographic, you’re too fat if you’re over 20%