Condensing information from multiple books and my experience is difficult to do without the posts being relatively long. Be patient, read all of it, and think about it. Again, there are lots of programs that will work with consistency. It’s not the program that’s the problem, it’s you. Stick to it and you’ll see results. This is my approach that I believe works the best in my experience. Please drop comments if you have questions but try not to ask me "if this other program works", or why you hate a certain program, see sentence three above.

Beginners Guide to Getting in Shape Part 1: Why Strength over Aesthetics (At first)
Beginners Guide to Getting in Shape Part 2: Programming for Linear Strength Gains
Beginners Guide to Getting in Shape Part 3: Transitioning to the intermediate phase

Where to get form checks

The hardest and most demotivating aspect of starting these big compound movements is the form. The deadlift is the easiest to coach, bench second, press then squat (IMO). If you don’t have access to a good SS coach, you’ll have to put in a tiny bit of effort.

Here are a few resources to help you get started. I suggest you video yourself and post it to the SS forms for free form checks. They have a FB page if you’re on social media. Search google for the following, and you’ll find the youtube videos for the forms and setup. Different online guys have instructional videos, some who filmed from Rip himself. I’m not linking here, you can easily find it on google:

 

‘ art of manliness starting strength ‘
‘ barbell logic learn how to squat beginners guide ‘
‘ barbell logic the deadlift ‘
‘ barbell logic how to press ‘
‘ barbell logic how to bench press ‘

 

A lot of guys get discouraged here because they’re too lazy to get their form down, then start blaming "mobility", "flexibility" etc for why they can't squat. They don’t want to video themselves because taking 15s to set up a camera is too much work. You can prop up your phone against a dumbbell and edit your video with a free app.

Starting Strength vs Stronglifts

You can make good strength progress with Stronglifts but I’ve found with lifters who started with this program that after a few weeks the volume is too much on the deadlift. There’s a reason we only do one set of five on the deadlift. It’s very taxing on the body. For everything else, you can do four sets or two sets, but over decades people smarter than you and me have seen through experience that three sets of five work best.

As a beginner, stick with the plan and don’t complicate shit. SS has worked and continues to work for people. You’re not a snowflake. In my experience when clients come from a stronglifts background they have always burned out quick because 1) the 5 x 5 volume burns them out quick, 2) the deadlift volume starts to interfere with the squat. 5 x 5 for beginners will probably work, but it's overkill starting out. 3 x 5 is the sweet spot for volume to get stronger quickly for the first few months. If you're trying to argue for either program, just stop. Read my first paragraph again.

You are not special, nor a snowflake.

Doing a proper low bar squat DOES NOT require the flexibility of a gymnast. This is an excuse used by guys who don’t want to squat. If your knees can bend to 90 degrees and you can safely sit on a toilet to take a shit, you have enough flexibility. Only the really obese have a problem with this. If you’re a lurker and really overweight, you can let me know and I’ll address some modifications to the movements. However, there are a small group of people who generally can't do the low bar squat due to shoulder problems. The grip is important but you can take a thumbs around grip if you want as long as it sits stable on your back. (look at the videos on SS's website about grip). If you are really fucked, more so flexibility wise than a 70yr old man, then high bar will also work. This RARELY is the case.

As a beginner, you don’t have “lagging bodyparts” whatever the fuck that means. Don’t worry about the size of your muscles or whether you need to do “chicken-necking-shit-shrugs” with dumbbells to grow your traps. I have never seen a powerlifter with small traps. We’re not making you into a powerlifter, the point is doing heavy deadlifts and its variant supplemental lifts eventually will grow your traps like no dumbbell shrug can. Additional back work for lats and traps can be used in intermediate phases with the use of the deadlift alternatives like Rack Pulls etc.

This goes for “forearm curls” and “hitting a muscle from all angles”. Again, no strength lifter lifting decent weight has small legs or small dinky little forearms. When you’re established a good base of strength and have done a few 12 week blocks of hyperthopy then cutting, ONLY THEN can you fuck around with your delusions of “lagging” body parts. If you’re not a physique competitor, don’t worry about this. Training the body as a system will cause each bodypart to respond to the stimulus and get bigger/stronger in direct relationship to it's contribution of moving the lift through it's ROM. Adding in small doses for your arms etc will give you no reason to bitch about t-rex arms.

When you’re through your LP phase and want to focus on hypertrophy then you can add in some specific bodypart movements. For now, you’re a beginner. Do the program.

Incorporating upper body volume

The biggest complaint about SS is that it’s a lot of lower body work and leaves you looking like a t-rex. Personally I haven’t seen anyone looking like this even after ending their LP (linear progression) with a 135kg (300lbs+) squat for fives with no additional upper body movements except the prescribed chins and rows later on in the program. To cater to your imaginary fear, we’ll add in some upper body work for the arms after the first few weeks. If you followed SS in the past, the chinups and its volume would've given you some size to your arms.

Doing more during your first few weeks is not better. If you follow the program and add weight like you should you'll be lifting decent weights really quick and you need to recover. Doing some extra tricep work with LTEs or curls won’t hurt you too much.

A note on how I’m presenting the programs

Most guys read TRP on the app I’m assuming so the quickest way to show tabular versions of programs I’ll link to imgur with a picture of the program instead of fucking with markdown tabs. I show the full url to the imgur site.

First couple weeks HHH

Think of Monday, Wednesday and Friday days as Heavy - Heavy - Heavy days. This is what HHH stands for. Heavy meaning this is the high stress for the week for that movement. In the beginning, every workout is high stresss. HLH means Heavy-Light-Heavy and HLM, well you get the picture.

After you watched the videos above you’ll start with the standard program. Alternating Bench and Press every workout. To find your starting weight, add 4.5kg (10lbs) to the bar until it slows down. 2.5kg (5lbs) for the upper body movements.

Starting Strength HHH: https://imgur.com/akXcbFb

We’re not going to add in arms stuff just yet. Do your form checks online, go see a SS coach, post your checks on their page, whatever you can do.

Squats: Add 2.5kg (5lbs) every session
Deadlifts: Add 4.5kg (10lbs) every session for the first two weeks, then do 5lbs.
Press: Add 2.5kg (5lbs) the first week or so, then 1kg (2.5lbs)
Bench: Same as press.

Alternate Day Deadlifts

You have to gauge your progress here. If you get to a point where you feel too beat up to deadlift and you’re missing a rep, it’s time to alternate the days you deadlift. For 80% of people out there, once your deadlift is between 30kg to 45kg (60 to 100lbs) above your squat you'll see this happening. This is where you’ll start doing chinups. The program now looks like this:

Starting Strength HHH (Alternate Chinup day): https://imgur.com/hjWD7Fw

The chinup provides stimulation for your biceps. Your triceps get stimulated during press and bench.

If you just want to add in the arm fluff now go ahead and pick one exercise for your biceps (curls, bb curls, cable curls), and one for your triceps (LTE’s, skull crushers, cable pushdowns). Do these movements after you’ve completed your base movements. If you skip them, the world won’t end. They are arranged this way because when you do Chins you’re “hitting your biceps” as they say and on bench day your triceps are getting plenty of work. In this arrangement you have a “heavy” stimulus and a “lighter high rep” stimulus for your arms during the week. An optional substitute for the above with arm fluff:

Starting Strength HHH (adding some fluffy shit): https://imgur.com/U45kjNA

Running out NLP

At some point squatting heavy three days a week will be too much. You will notice your sets feeling a lot heavier, maybe you’re tired or such it depends on the person. We will change the midweek day to be a light squat day, and you will also deadlift on this day. You don't need to do this but I’ve found this is the best way to alternate your heavy/light days to continue making progress. Your new schedule looks like this:

Heavy-Light-Heavy (Light is relative to the squat): https://imgur.com/DQkPAW4

Type into google how to barbell row with starting strength keywords or barbell logic. Either will show you how. You can choose EITHER, not both on Fridays. Run this out for as long as you can. Don’t fret the details. If something comes up, you get stuck too early, come back and ask advise. Run this out until you’re ready for the intermediate fun part and optionally use the below methods to add just a little bit more weight for two or three weeks.

For the fluffy shit, some days you’ll have a heavy indirect stimulus for the triceps and then you’ll do the fluff tricep stuff later. Each day of the week you’ll stimulate the arms. Don’t listen to the bro’s telling you that you can’t “do arms” with this frequency. It’s not that much. If you want some more stimulus, you can add a set. Or you can leave them off. These are not hard and fast rules, use what you want and tailor this to your recovery etc. Fluffy stuff are always optional, get the base movements in first.

But what about other stuff like side delts, <insert smaller bodypart muscle>

Again fellas, these aren’t hard rules. If you want to do some side delts or face pulls, go ahead and sub it in for one of the arm movements. Sub them in and out every week and soon you will find a certain schedule for the fluff that you like. Just don’t go nuts with these. In the beginner phases you don’t need all of this except for some extra arm volume. Do 2 to 3 sets of 12 with intense focus and control and you’ll be set. Get the pump and get the fuck out.

HLH, Top sets/backoff sets, Top triples/backoffs

When you tell guys “it depends” they get frustrated. So many times I see someone ask “Yes but what about this or that”, “what if i do 4 sets on chins instead of 3”, or “why row and not <insert other thing>”. The devil is in the details but for a beginner, don’t purposely complicate things.

During this time it will be very heavy and you’ll wonder what the fuck are you doing. If you continue to build strength (I recommend it), there are things you can do to increase the weight on the bar. The weight on the bar is the most objective way to measure strength. If you move the bar through the ROM, you’re stronger than you were last week. Period.

When you begin to stall near the end of your noob gains do these things. Choose what you want or move to the intermediate phase.

On your heavy days, either:

1. Switch to 5 x 3 (five sets of three) for two or so weeks.
   
2. Do one top set of 5 , and take 5 to 10% off the bar and do another 3 sets or so.
3. Do one top set of 3, repeat step 1 with backoffs.
4. Do one top single, and repeat step 1 with backoffs.
5. Very unlikely but has been done, spread your week out with two resting days between workout days. So that’s Monday, Thursday, Sunday then Wednesday, Saturday and Tuesday.

You are free to add in back off sets as you see fit as long as your top set increases in weight every workout for the movement you’re doing. This doesn’t last long, usually around 2 or 3 weeks.

The next post will talk about the intermediate phase. We'll set up a test day to get some numbers for our intermediate programming. With a versatile template like HLM you can spend years making gains. It’s adaptable to hypertophy, powerlifting, cutting phases, everything. It’s free and just a template, customisable to your heart’s content.