Using this program and nothing else, between November 1 and December 23 of this year, my squat went from 180 to 270, my deadlift from 180 to 305, and my bench press from 120 to 165.
You do not need to be an expert, or know how to lift to do the program. It is (for me) almost exactly one hour a day, three days a week.
Make working out a habit, not a question of willpower. It needs to "just be", or else you, if you're at all like me, won't do it. That's why I don't care much about variety; I don't need variety in brushing my teeth either.
Congrats! That's some pretty big gains < 2 months. I have been lifting long enough now that those sorts of gains are a forgotten memory. My deadlift is at 525 now, and I'd like to say that 600 seems reachable, but damn it's just so heavy. It's to the point where I can feel a strength difference between 1-2 lbs of more/less bodyweight. I often wonder if there is a way to figure out my personal potential max in a lift. I love dead lifting, but it would be nice to know if I'm at 50% of my possible strength or 90%.
The hour workout touches on some studies that I have read that going over an hour often doesn't get you much with respect to strength training.
I love deadlifting, if I wasn't in the offseason training for a sport I might be able to get up into your realm :)
There's something so basic and satisfying about picking up something really heavy.
It seems (from my reading) that once you reach weights like yours, progression gets much harder. There's lots of tricky assistance work you need to figure out, you need to eat like a friggin animal, and you need to work just hard enough to not overtrain.
Thanks! Yeah, if I could keep my eating right I could probably get there. I am much stronger with my weight over 200lbs, but life has been so busy I'm down around a lean 185-190 right now. For me finding time for the gym has been the easy part. Figuring out how to eat enough through the day has always been the problem.
And yeah, progression slows and waivers depending on current bodyweight, current emotional state, time of day, etc... It can take months to add another 5lbs onto the bar.
Definitely agree that working out should be a habit, must like most other productive (but initially unattractive) activities in our lives. Congrats on your awesome progress!
You are much like myself in that we both seem to have strong lower bodies and relatively weaker upper bodies :P
>You do not need to be an expert, or know how to lift to do the program.
You don't have to be an expert, but it's crucial to have regular form checks on the lifts. Nothing is more depressing than being sidelined for several weeks because of bad squat form leading to an injury!
> You don't have to be an expert, but it's crucial to have regular form checks on the lifts. Nothing is more depressing than being sidelined for several weeks because of bad squat form leading to an injury!
I just mean to say that I used to think you couldn't do these sorts of lifts without some sort of trainer that could teach me how to do them, and that since I didn't know one, I couldn't.
Rather, these days, you can read starting strength, watch videos online, film your own lifts and get people to help you pretty easily.
I started there a few years ago, progressed past that to his other book, "Practical Programming for Strength Training", and now I'm all over the place. I went from more of a distance person to competing in strongman. I compete in a lightweight division, but still only doing 4 or 5 exercises consistently I'm at a 550lb deadlift, 450 squat, and 350 bench. I think when I started I was about half at each of those. Do a few exercises, do them right, and do them with extremely high intensity and it'll get you places!
