Starting Strength is an amazing book for reference. I think the main take away from the book is Rippetoe’s analysis of proper lifting technique—although I believe his comments on progression and exercise programming are VERY insightful. The entire book is amazing.
He talks about proper hand placement on the bar, body position, and mentions various methods to observe yourself and know if you’re doing the lifts correctly or not. He also mentions useful and useless equipment; as well as useful and useless lifts. This is something a beginner needs, but anyone can benefit from.
I’m not sure what ‘the guy’s’ claims are or who ‘the guy’ is. I’ll need more info before I can comment on that. However, I have heard said before that ‘listening to Rippetoe explain a lift will increase it at least 5-10 pounds.’ He goes to great detail explaining why, exactly, you should perform a lift a certain way, down to very miniscule details that I originally thought were irrelevant. That being said, I’m no expert in physics or biomechanics, but I’m confident Rippetoe knows a lot more about these subjects than I. I have referenced Starting Strength before workouts when I was uncertain if I would be able to lift my goal weight. It’s important for me to have a concise, reliable source to make reference to.
This might not be important at all, but Jim Wendler recommends the book either in his 5/3/1 manual or on his website. He’s one of the testimonials on the back cover, saying ‘it’s the best book for weight training. Anyone serious about learning or coaching the basic lifts should get it.’
Er by ‘the guy’ I was referring to Mark Rippetoe, although I realized that I misinterpreted what he said.
For young males that weigh between 150-200 lbs., deadlifts can move up 15-20 lbs. per workout, squats 10-15 lbs., with continued steady progress for 3-4 weeks before slowing down to half that rate. Bench presses, presses, and cleans can move up 5-10 lbs. per workout, with progress on these exercises slowing down to 2.5-5 lbs. per workout after only 2-3 weeks. Young women make progress on the squat and the deadlift at about the same rate, adjusted for bodyweight, but much slower on the press, the bench press, cleans, and assistance exercises.
– Mark Rippetoe, Practical Programming, Pg. 122
I guess I missed the part about 2-3 weeks. It seemed like he was roughly claiming that you would increase your benching weight by e.g. 7.5 pounds a week (for a sustained period of time), which seems like a ridiculous speed to make gains at.
I think in this context he’s talking about the ‘beginner response’ where strength gains are largely due to increased neuromuscular efficiency in UNTRAINED athletes.
I believe he says, without reading my own copy to make sure: 1) 5-10 lbs per 3-4 weeks in the presses is the normal rate of progression for novices for the first several months of training—until they have an intermediate level of strength.
2) weights will then increase in smaller increments, such as 1lb
3) then more complex programming is used
If you’ve been training for two years you have probably already used up your super-fast awesome beginner strength gains.
I see. That is unfortunate I suppose, but makes more sense. So I guess the question for me is (I think?) whether I should drop in weight for a while to really focus on proper lifting form. Reading through his descriptions, I seem to already have happened on close to correct form just through experimentation, but I am missing a few things like the glute squeeze during bench press. I think I’ll probably spend a month or so nailing down the right form for everything and then read through Mark’s book to figure out what my long-term program should look like.
Starting Strength is an amazing book for reference. I think the main take away from the book is Rippetoe’s analysis of proper lifting technique—although I believe his comments on progression and exercise programming are VERY insightful. The entire book is amazing.
He talks about proper hand placement on the bar, body position, and mentions various methods to observe yourself and know if you’re doing the lifts correctly or not. He also mentions useful and useless equipment; as well as useful and useless lifts. This is something a beginner needs, but anyone can benefit from.
I’m not sure what ‘the guy’s’ claims are or who ‘the guy’ is. I’ll need more info before I can comment on that. However, I have heard said before that ‘listening to Rippetoe explain a lift will increase it at least 5-10 pounds.’ He goes to great detail explaining why, exactly, you should perform a lift a certain way, down to very miniscule details that I originally thought were irrelevant. That being said, I’m no expert in physics or biomechanics, but I’m confident Rippetoe knows a lot more about these subjects than I. I have referenced Starting Strength before workouts when I was uncertain if I would be able to lift my goal weight. It’s important for me to have a concise, reliable source to make reference to.
This might not be important at all, but Jim Wendler recommends the book either in his 5/3/1 manual or on his website. He’s one of the testimonials on the back cover, saying ‘it’s the best book for weight training. Anyone serious about learning or coaching the basic lifts should get it.’
Er by ‘the guy’ I was referring to Mark Rippetoe, although I realized that I misinterpreted what he said.
I guess I missed the part about 2-3 weeks. It seemed like he was roughly claiming that you would increase your benching weight by e.g. 7.5 pounds a week (for a sustained period of time), which seems like a ridiculous speed to make gains at.
I think in this context he’s talking about the ‘beginner response’ where strength gains are largely due to increased neuromuscular efficiency in UNTRAINED athletes.
I believe he says, without reading my own copy to make sure:
1) 5-10 lbs per 3-4 weeks in the presses is the normal rate of progression for novices for the first several months of training—until they have an intermediate level of strength.
2) weights will then increase in smaller increments, such as 1lb
3) then more complex programming is used
If you’ve been training for two years you have probably already used up your super-fast awesome beginner strength gains.
I see. That is unfortunate I suppose, but makes more sense. So I guess the question for me is (I think?) whether I should drop in weight for a while to really focus on proper lifting form. Reading through his descriptions, I seem to already have happened on close to correct form just through experimentation, but I am missing a few things like the glute squeeze during bench press. I think I’ll probably spend a month or so nailing down the right form for everything and then read through Mark’s book to figure out what my long-term program should look like.