Starting Strength

8-15. The most common type of inexpensive spring collar is available from most sporting goods stores. They can be doubled up for extra security.

    Chalk, clothing, training logs, and gym bags
     
    Chalk should be provided in the weight room, by either the gym or you. Chalk increases traction between the bar and the hands, reducing the likelihood of grip accidents. It reduces callus formation, since the folding of and friction against the skin of the palms and fingers are functions of the movement of the bar, and calluses form in response to this stress. It should be kept in a chalk box in a strategic location in the weight room. If the gym does not provide the chalk, for whatever misguided reason, you should bring your own, in a plastic bag or a can that stays in your gym bag. It can be purchased at most sporting goods stores or ordered over the Internet. If the gym is nice enough to provide the chalk, be nice enough back to use it sparingly; don’t bathe in it, don’t drop chunks on the floor, don’t put clouds of it in the air, or otherwise waste it. Gyms that provide chalk have decided that training is more important than their housekeeping concerns, and you should appreciate this attitude.
    Each trainee should have proper clothing, i.e., a cotton T-shirt, stretchy sweats or shorts, and a pair of shoes suitable for squatting and pulling. Some facilities provide belts, but not many, and you’ll probably want your own anyway. One of the wonderful things about strength training is that minimal personal equipment is actually necessary, especially compared with other sports. The money spent on shoes is about the only significant expenditure the trainee has to make, belts being cheap and quite shareable between buddies.
    Another thing each trainee should have is a training log – a journal in which to record each workout. No one can remember all the numbers involved in all the exercises in this program. Maybe the numbers for a couple of weeks of workouts can be remembered, but a person’s entire training history constitutes valuable data that should be recorded for future use. This is information that will be used each workout and over the course of your training career to determine the nature of problems and to analyze the productivity of various training periods. Training information should be written in a format that can be easily read by both you and any coach you might have, since you will have to consult your training log on a regular basis. A composition book works just fine, and the price is certainly right. A spiral notebook tears up too easily in the gym bag. The best training book would be a bound ledger, with enough pages for years’ worth of training notes. All people who are serious about their training write down their workouts.
    Speaking of gym bags, get one, put all your stuff in it, and keep it with you. That way you’ll always have your shoes, belt, chalk, training book, Band-Aids, tape, Desenex, spare shoelaces, extra shirt, towel, knee wraps, straps, and lucky troll doll. Don’t worry about making a fashion statement with your bag. Just get one and take it with you every time so that I don’t have to spot you a towel.
    Soreness and Injuries
     
    There are two more things that everyone who trains with weights will have: soreness and injuries. They are as inevitable as the progress they accompany. If you work hard enough to improve, you will work hard enough to get sore, and eventually you will work hard enough to get hurt. It is your responsibility to make sure that you are using proper technique, appropriate progression, and safe weight room procedures. You will still get hurt, but you will have come by it honestly – when people lift heavy, they are risking injury. It is an inherent part of training hard, and it must be prepared for and dealt with properly when it happens.
     
    Soreness is a widely recognized and studied phenomenon. Despite the fact that humans have experienced muscle soreness since the Dawn of Time, its cause remains poorly understood. It is thought to be the result of inflammation in the basic contractile unit of the muscle fiber, and the fact that it responds well to anti-inflammatory therapy tends to support this theory. Since muscular soreness has been experienced by so many people for so long, many misconceptions about it are bound to develop, and they have. What is certain is that lactic acid (a transient byproduct of muscle contraction) has nothing whatsoever to