Has anyone heard of the Mark Rippletoe Starting Strength?

[aidancolin]

First off I am new to this site recommended by a good friend. I was recommended to the Starting Strength program on another health site, and was wondering if anyone has done it and what their results were and how long they were on it.

Just so everyone knows my stats right now are 5' 10'', male, 239 currently, (At late January was at 257 and started this program and cardio).

The program calls for 3 days a week strength training on nonconsectutive days. There are 2 workouts workout A and work out B which you alternate. So week 1 would be workout A tues., workout B Thurs., workout A again on Sat. Then week 2 would be Workout B Tues., Workout A Thurs., and workout B again Sat. So on and so forth. Workout A consist of squat, bench deadlift with 3 sets 5 reps of squats and bench, and 1 set of 5 of deadlift. Workout B consists of squat, standing military press, power clean all for 3 sets 5 reps. Rippletoe suggest doing one set of weighted crunches for 15 reps after each workout. The forum moderator on the other site suggested to do heavy cardio after each workout, and light cardio on my light days if I wanted just not too much so my muscle can rest. I am looking to maintain muscle while losing fat til I get down to a good BF% and then bulk.

Now don't laugh when I tell you what I am lifting right now, this is actually really good for me.
squat 175
bench 180
deadlift 215
military press 115

[CopyCat]

It's a good book and Mark is a solid name in the business.

[dedlifter1]

Yeah is a very simple, straight up program, involving all the real major movements your going to need to perfect. Dont worry about how much you lift, noone here is going to laugh. We all start somewhere. Wecome by the way.

[Steveoph]

Welcome to the site! Your deadlift is a bit behind your other lifts, but atleast you're learning how to do the movements properly. Rippetoe's book is a fantastic resource and I recommend it all the time to new lifters. I've never personally tried his program, but a friend just started it yesterday and it looks like a smart starting program.

[aidancolin]

Yes I agree that my deadlift, and I personally thought even my squat was behind. I admit I was taking it slower than even Rippletoe had recommended. He says that your squat can go up 10 lbs. from each workout, and deadlift up to 15lbs. I was only gong up 5 on both, one reason was and I neglected to say this in my original post is that I am trying to lose weight and I am mainly trying to maintain muscle. If I can gain some great but I know being in a calorie deficit it is hard. I eat anywhere between 2000 - 2400 a day and once a week I may eat 3000-3200 on a cheat day. So far my cheat days have not been about bad food, just eating more of the whole grains, lean protein, veggies some fruit and coffee lol. I really like black coffee. I am now after being on this a program a month going to start following rips advice and go up on the squat 10lbs, and deadlift 15 until I stalll.

[CopyCat]

You can still gain LBM in a calorie deficiency. What style of eating are you using?

[aidancolin]

I try to eat a balance of whole grain carbs, fresh veggies and fruit, and lean protein. My main sources of protein are boneless skinless chicken breast, tuna, lean pork chops, turkey both deli and ground turkey. I like make meatloaf with the turkey burger which is 93% lean. I eat sweet potatoes a lot cause I love em, and frozen broccoli. My mine friut is bananas and apples, with an orange here and there. I try to break my meals up in 5-6 meals aday with aobut 300-400 cals a piece. I really can't afford supplements and don't have any whey protein right now so post workout I drink 2 1/2 cups of FF milk with nesquik choc milk powder, not the best but it is about 25 grams so protein. So far I have been losing about 1-2 lbs. a week sometimes as little as .4 lbs a week. My waist has dropped 4 inches on my waist and I have continually gone up in weight from workout to workout, so I am hoping this means I am gaining or maintaining . In your opinion am I doing this the right way. Oh yeah on my workout days I do 30 mins of cardio on the rowing machine, and then 25 on the stationary bike. On the inbetween days I walk on my treadmill at home on a 4-5 incline for about 45 mins at a speed between 3-4. I take Sundays off always and sometimes I take one of my home walk days off if I feel I need the rest.

[CopyCat]

I try to eat a balance of whole grain carbs, fresh veggies and fruit, and lean protein. My main sources of protein are boneless skinless chicken breast, tuna, lean pork chops, turkey both deli and ground turkey. I like make meatloaf with the turkey burger which is 93% lean. I eat sweet potatoes a lot cause I love em, and frozen broccoli. My mine friut is bananas and apples, with an orange here and there. I try to break my meals up in 5-6 meals aday with aobut 300-400 cals a piece. I really can't afford supplements and don't have any whey protein right now so post workout I drink 2 1/2 cups of FF milk with nesquik choc milk powder, not the best but it is about 25 grams so protein. So far I have been losing about 1-2 lbs. a week sometimes as little as .4 lbs a week. My waist has dropped 4 inches on my waist and I have continually gone up in weight from workout to workout, so I am hoping this means I am gaining or maintaining . In your opinion am I doing this the right way. Oh yeah on my workout days I do 30 mins of cardio on the rowing machine, and then 25 on the stationary bike. On the inbetween days I walk on my treadmill at home on a 4-5 incline for about 45 mins at a speed between 3-4. I take Sundays off always and sometimes I take one of my home walk days off if I feel I need the rest.

I think you are doing great, I like the simplicity of it all. So many people go from eating and living a whatever lifestyle and jump straight into a complicated and overwhelming diet system and can't take it. Keep up with the way you are doing, work on the lifestyle/diet change as you are. Eventually when you are ready to shed the last of the pounds and really get ripped you'll be ready for the craziness of it all. If you look in my signature you find a link to Zone meal of the week. You can find some really good recipe ideas with pics in there. Also, here is a thread on nutrition in general I made a bit back.

Fuel Talk Pt 1...Though I'd Share This

Take care

[utmatt03]

I would suggest looking into Purchasing the starting strength DVD. It is a very good price around 20 dollars and Mark goes each stage of the major lifts. I learned alot from the video, and gives many good remedies for common mistakes.

[CopyCat]

You can also go to the Crossfit website and watch video demonstrations and instructions from Ripptoe and others. They have a lot of coaching videos posted. Here's the link...

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html

[Highlanda01602]

I second that notion! The CrossFit message boards are another great source of information to learn more about Rippetoe's Starting Strength program.

Even for the experienced, Starting Strength is a book to own. The program would suit you well if you are looking to bring up those numbers. You will see gains... and fast. Be prepared to work hard, and you'll be throwing more weight on the bar week in and out.

[jdev]

That was one of the first programs I started using. Its a solid program. squats every other day is a bitch at first.

[aidancolin]

Glad to here that it worked for others and that it has such a good reputation. I used to train 3 years ago and then quit for a multitude of reasons but none good, (really there are very few good reasons to not take care of yourself), anyway I got all of my training ideas from bodybuilding mags and thought that body split training is what you should do. OMG I wish someone had told me about starting strength then. It makes so much sense to work on all of the "core" lifts and build your overall strength. As a moderator told me on another site I was doing a too advanced workout and if I did then and built a good base then I could move up to a body split and start doing sets of 10-12. His rational was that doing 3 sets of 10-12 with a 225 bench yeilds more results than 10-12 with 115 which was funny cause he didn't know the poundages I was using but he called it exactly. I can't believe in a month how much progress I have made I am up to 185 lbs on squats 3x5, and before I had never done more than 155 after 3 years, I know pathetic, but it was because I was training wrong. I can't imagine what I will be doing once I get my BF % down to about 10-12 % (right now I am at about 24-26, I started out in Jan. at 27% as measured at my gym with skinfold calipers), and I start eating surplus calories to bulk.

In your opinons will I really start seeing big gains then?

[aidancolin]

Oh I was also curious, I am not getting sore at all from day one, the only body part I was sore in was my traps for the first 3 workouts where I did cleans, now I am not sore anywhere anytime. I used to think that if you were not sore you did not work your muscles hard enough, but on another site I was told that soreness is not an accurate indicator of progress. Any input on this to help me understand DOMS cause I thought it was normal if you were going to make progress to be sore and it meant your body was not used to that stimulus and would respond. Let me add that I do not mean the kind of sore were you literally can not move, I have been that way before, I mean the sore where you can tell you worked out but when you are doing normal daily activities you feel it.

[Joshua86]

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how squats and deads will improve your other lifts as well. Hands down two of the most beneficial lifts you can be doing for overall goodness.

[aidancolin]

Josh I agree with you 100%, and btw I miss the good ole days when I used to c ya at Campbellsville Health and Fitness.

[Sinon]

Man bro, when I first started lifting my best bench was 110. Yours is nothing to laugh at, trust me.

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