YOUR FIRST WORKOUT

So you decided to give Starting Strength a shot.

You quickly look for the Novice Linear Progression template, put on your Converse shoes and head to the gym.

You hop on the stationary bike for a few minutes, warm-up, and walk over to the rack. You quickly realize you have no idea how much weight to lift, which barbell to use, how long to rest or how to even check if your form is correct. You remember something about bending over in the squat, shrugging in the press and being 1 inch from the bar in the deadlift, or was it 2 inches?

You also realize that having a coach would be pretty useful right now, but since you don’t, let me guide you through your first workout.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

Clothing and gear:

• lifting shoes or hard sole shoes

• cotton t-shirt

• loose sweatpants, shorts, leggings

• chalk (optional, for now)

Gym equipment and environment:

• Barbell 20, 15 or 10 kilo (45, 35 or 22 lbs)

• Power rack, standing squat rack, cage rack

• Flat bench, preferably movable around the gym so it can be put inside or in front of the rack

• 5, 10 or 15 kilo (10, 25, 35 lbs) bumper plates for the Deadlift and microplates (0.5 and 1 kilo or 1 and 2 lbs) for the Press and Bench Press (for detrained individuals and most women)

• A flat surface (I know, sounds intuitive, but for many gyms it is not)

• No mirrors around you if possible. Mirrors are the enemy of good technique and are usually there, along with horrible lighting, to shift your focus to aesthetics.

HOW MUCH WEIGHT?

Every lift has a different learning progression.

The Squat is learned with unloaded at first, to understand depth and hip drive.

The Press is learned in a strict fashion at first and with an added hip rebound later.

The Bench Press is learned from the bench setup first and then with the bar in our hands, with emphasis on safety

The Deadlift is learned in 5 progressive steps.

All of these lifts are gonna be practiced and repeated with incremental warm up sets of 5 repetitions, with short rests in between (1 to 2 minutes, enough to go over the technique and catch a breath) starting from the empty bar or the lightest weight possible in the Deadlift, until the bar speed visibly slows down, technique is hard to maintain, and fatigue starts to set in. It is always a good rule to be more conservative than you want on your first workout; the weight on the bar will increase each time you train from now on, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible.

Going too heavy on the first workout can cause a lifter to have to bring the weight down after just a few weeks, which can be demotivating.

FILM YOURSELF

If you are being coached online you are gonna have to film your worksets for your coach to review and correct, but even if you are completely on your own, you should film yourself (link to how to film your form check article or andrew lewis video) as you learn to recognize at least gross mistakes of each lift.

EXAMPLE FOR THE SQUAT

Learn hip drive and depth with no weight, repeat movement for a few reps, watch videos to check improvement

Add empty bar (20kg/45lbs for most men, 15kg/35lbs for most women), do 1 set of 5 reps, check video to see if landmarks are hit (depth, eye gaze, back angle, stance)

Do another set of 5 with the empty bar, check video to see improvement

Add 5-10kg/10.20lbs on each side (men), 2.5-5kg/5-10lbs (women, untrained) and do another set of 5**

Feels really easy? Increase by the same amount, take a minute rest, and do another set of 5.

Repeat until it feels slower and harder to focus, take off some weight if in doubt.

Ideally you want to do a maximum of 3-5 incremental sets, including a couple sets with the empty bar, before deciding your workset weight, which you will repeat for a total of 3 sets of 5 reps.

Here is a written example (weight x sets x reps):

Bodyweight 2x5

20kg (empty bar) 2x5

40kg 1x5

60kg 1x5

70kg 1x5 (feels too hard)

62,5kg 3x5

The same progression will be applied for the other lifts, with smaller increments for the Press and Bench (this is where microplates come in handy), and bigger increments for the Deadlift

You can find quick or in depth tutorials of each lift on the Starting Strenght youtube channel, so I won’t take up space here going through each one.

The idea is you try to nail 2-3 technical landmarks of each lift, with a weight that feels slightly challenging but safe, incrementally warming up for it, for the prescribed number of sets and reps in the program (3 sets of 5 for Squat, Press and Bench; 1 set of 5 for the Deadlift), and you film yourself to be able to check your form during or after the workout.

**these are general guidelines, some women will be able to add 5-10kg no problem and some men won’t. Some people will have to make smaller increments or only squat the empty bar. This is why having a coach on day one is incredibly useful.