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Rippetoe's Starting Strength

Its been a couple years since you tried maintaining a healthy life style. Along the road some where a wrench was thrown between your wheels that halted progression. You managed to scramble upon a million diets and programs but failed continuously. Your not quiet ready to give it a shot again and wondering what crazy genius approach i am about to present. They say honesty will honestly go a long way so iam not going to preach to you unnecessary amounts of information. There are two main focuses needed in developing a body you want. The first is the weightlifting/cardio program [which later on most will realize is the easy part] and  the most important aspect of training is to maintain a diet.

I will discuss the foremost important aspect which is developing a routine that is right for you.

Starting Strength Approach.

Starting strength revolves around the idea of developing solid power before progressing to the muscular development of the body. It is developed by Mark Rippetoe who is a very knowledgeable person in terms of strength conditioning.  I recommend Starting strength to any one i know who is beginning his journey in weightlifting as it establishes a solid foundation. Nearly three years later i still revert back to some of the things i had learned while doing mark Rippetoes Starting strength program. I had developed most of my strength and foundation from the first year that i had followed his approach.

How a person would make transition from SS to a typical Bodybuilding routine is quite easy. During starting strength a person is able to lift heavier weights at shorter repetitions 4 -6 rep ranges while in a body building routine it is usually in the 8 - 12 rep ranges. The transition would include dropping the weight and pumping out more reps from the developed strength from your SS routine.

Pros: 
-Develops  Strength in order to later excel in muscular development. 
-Easy program to follow.
-Easy diet to maintain while on the program. Most SS diets include large amounts of calories to provide the body with sufficient nutrients to promote development.
- Hitting big numbers rapidly.


Cons:
- Appearance results are very minimal causing lack of motivation and interest in
- Is basically an investment into your future with minimal results during the process.


Is Starting Strength Right for you ?

• The Newbie. If you're a complete beginner (or recently started), then this program is right for you. It doesn’t matter if you're an aspiring bodybuilder or don't care about being strong. You still need a base of strength and technique to get huge.
• The Weakling. Do you consider yourself to be beyond the beginner weight training level, but just can't seem to gain much strength? If yes, then this program can definitely help jumpstart your strength gains and catch you up to where you should be, relative to how long you have been training.
• The Frustrated Bodybuilder. Are you disappointed with a lack of results from "bodybuilding" routines? If so, then this program can get you out of the slump and on your way to XXL t-shirts. The typical bodybuilding routines work for the guys who look like what you want to look like. They can only do so much for less advanced lifters.
• The Machinist. Have you been in the gym for a while, but never really focused on the major compound exercises? If you've been doing a lot of machine/nautilus exercises or isolation movements, then you're limiting your potential. Starting Strength will help you gain dense muscle and functional strength.
• The Comeback Kid. Are you a seasoned vet who's coming back from an extended break? Whatever your reasons for taking a layoff from pumping iron (injury, midlife crisis, baby mama issues, etc.), Starting Strength is a safe and effective workout routine for getting back to your previous glory.

The Schedule

In the Starting Strength routine, there are two workout schedules to follow, and I have listed them below. You will pretty much alternate workouts every other day. Take a look at the schedule below to get an understanding of what to do when:

• Monday: Workout A
• Wednesday: Workout B
• Friday: Workout A

The following week, your schedule will look like this:

• Monday: Workout B
• Wednesday: Workout A
• Friday: Workout B

As you can see, we are alternating workouts every other training day. Now, you don’t have to train only on Monday/Wednesday/Friday; you can, for example, train Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday instead. The key thing to remember here is that you should train 3 times a week non-consecutively as to let your body recover for a full day after your training day. After one week of training is over, you take two days off and then start the next week of training.

If you’re new to weight lifting, stick to this workout routine and don’t change anything. Training more often per week does not mean more results (in fact, you can hinder your progress if you over-train).

The Exercises / Lifts

Here’s a list of the exercises associated for every workout along with their appropriate Sets and Repetitions. These exercises are placed in order, so always follow them accordingly and never do one before the other just because you feel like it or else you will be ruining the whole point of this routine. The numbers next to the exercises are Sets X Reps. If you don’t know any of these exercises or how to execute them properly, look into getting a copy of the book for your own sake.

Workout A

• Squats: 3 x 5
• Bench Press: 3 x 5
• Deadlift: 1 x 5
• Dips (weighted): 2 x 5-8

Workout B

• Squats: 3 x 5
• Press: 3 x 5
• Power Clean: 3 x 5
• Chin-ups: 3 x 8

  More information can be found on http://startingstrength.com/

  As mentioned it is also well advised to purchase the book

  Which has allot of important information.

Starting strenght isnt right for you ?

        4 day bodybuilding split.

This is the split i generally follow my self and recommend for the more experience lifters or for those who want to get down to business.

The four day split is split amongst four days concentrating on alternating muscles. The logic behind a 4 day split is to be able to fully hit a certain muscle group and also have time to recover before working the same muscle again. When a muscle is constantly being put to use the body is unable to rebuild the muscle fibers and allow full growth. Splits that follow a full body routine usually hit the same muscle group over and over damaging the muscle tissue but not allowing them to repair, recover and grow. 

Pros: 

-Change in appearance is noticeable through out the routine.

-More variety in exercises compared to Starting Strength.

- Over all a more motivating and interesting routine.

Cons:

- Even though changes are apparent they are not drastic as if one was to have strength developed and switch over to a bodybuilding split.

-While developing muscle you are also developing strength and this process can take a long time to reach desired results.

- More complicating routine.

-Diet is more complicating as most body builders try to maintain a lean physique while clean bulking.

The routine

Monday: Chest

Bench press: 4 sets of 10

Dumbbell Press: 4 sets of 10

Dumbbell Flys: 4 sets of 10

Body dips: 4 sets of 10.

Tricep extensions: 4 sets of 10

Tuesday: Back

Wide grip Pull Ups: 4 sets of 10.

Lat pull down: 4 sets of 10

Bent over rows: 4 sets of 10

Deadlifts: 4 sets of 10

Preacher Curls: 4 sets of 10.

Wednesday: Off or Cardio.

Thursday: Shoulders.

Military presses: 4 sets of 10

Front raises: 4 sets of 10

Side raises: 4 sets of 10

Shrugs: 4 sets of 10.

Friday: Legs

Squats: 4 sets of 10

Leg press: 4 sets of 20

Lunges: 4 sets of 12.

Leg extensions: 4 sets of 12.

This is what a typical 4 day split would look like. Obviously you can substitute some exercises such as dumbbell flys for cable cross overs. While switching all these exercises around its a must to keep the 3 compound exercises in place. The 3 most important compound exercises are Bench press, Squat, Dead lift. Military presses do not receive significant credit as the big three but Military presses are very important in order to develop shoulders.

These are the two recommended beginning routines that i would recommend. Starting with these and in the years tweaking to your own preference would be the perfect choice ! If you have any questions feel free to message me and i will try my best to help you. Let me know what you think of this post !

                  To be continued...
                     "the Diet"

 

The Iron

I'm going through a pretty hard time and a friend sent this to me. I don't care if it's a repost. I'm forever grateful so I thought that I'd pay it forward for my brahs. Yes, I've posted this on the Misc as well but I feel so strongly about this article that I felt the need to share it with as much people as possible.

No cliffs, it's a great read. I'll actually rep everyone that actually contributes.

I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself.

Completely.

When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me "garbage can" and telling me I'd be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn't run home crying, wondering why.

I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy. 

I hated myself all the time. 

As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn't going to get pounded in the hallway between classes. Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you'll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me hard time. I didn't think much of them either.

Then came Mr. Pepperman, my advisor. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class. Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard. Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn't even drag them to my mom's car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly.

Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.'s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn't looking. When I could take the punch we would know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing. In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn't want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in.

Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn't know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it.

Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn't say s--t to me.

It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn't want to come off the mat, it's the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn't teach you anything. That's the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.

It wasn't until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can't be as bad as that workout.

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn't ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you're not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I have never met a truly strong person who didn't have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone's shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr.Pepperman.

Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.

Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body.

Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn't see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads.

I prefer to work out alone.

It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you're made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live. Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it's some kind of miracle if you're not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole.

I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.

Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind.

The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it's impossible to turn back.

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.


Henry Rollins

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