The second book by Mark Rippetoe is Practical Programming for Strength Training, targeted towards people who are moving onwards from the beginner’s strength training routine (and entering the intermediate stage). It features chapters on periodization and advance techniques on strength training for people who can no longer move up in strength on the original routine. I will be writing a few articles on the intermediate book as soon as I finish reading it and putting it to use.

Please note that the above is a review and is considered an opinion. This site and its reviews and opinions have nothing to do with Mark Rippetoe, Lon Kilgore or The Aasgard Company.

More than two months ago, I learned the above the hard way when I was performing the squats incorrectly and this resulted in me experiencing a slight pain in my hamstrings. For the next month and a half, I had a hard time performing the squats because of this pain. Until I realized my form was to blame, I wasted more than a month performing incorrect squatting techniques. To fix my problem, I re-read the squat section in the Starting Strength book and figured out what I was doing wrong (my knees were too inward). Coupled with some key stretching exercises, I was back in the squatting game and have been lifting heavier since with the proper form. Sometimes you need to re-evaluate your exercise techniques to make sure you’re getting the best out of your workouts.

One of my weakest areas of training is the bench press I have to admit. As of this post, I am going up in weight on the squat and deadlift on a weekly basis, while the power clean and shoulder press are progressing slowly. This is to be expected according to a professional strength training coach as the squat and deaf-lift use more muscles than the other exercises, so you will go up in weight much quicker on them as opposed to the shoulder press, power clean and bench press.

If you are interested in breaking a bench press plateau, take a look at the following suggestions.

1. Eat well and check your diet: most rookies who start training will go up in weight and strength quite quickly without eating properly, but will end up plateauing eventually. Nutrition is probably the biggest cause of plateaus. If you want your muscles to recover and get stronger, proper nutrition is required during this phase. Remember, muscle is not made in the gym; it’s when you go home and recover after your workouts with good, clean food that allows your muscles to grow. Double check your diet; take in more protein and (clean) carbohydrates during the day. After your workout, have more protein (shakes are good) and eat well. Sometimes, people don’t eat enough and hence plateau since the muscles don’t have enough (or any) food to recover.
2. Make sure your triceps and shoulders are good: weak triceps and shoulders will definitely stall your bench press, so make sure they’re up to par with the rest of your body. Are you doing the shoulder presses properly? Perhaps you may need additional triceps work (weighted dips are great!) to help with the load. This is usually overlooked by a lot of people.
3. Switch to dumbbells: some people have better results with dumbbells than barbells. Rippetoe even says that dumbbells are a great (actually, better) alternative to barbells when it comes to the bench press, as it allows greater range of motion. Of course, you should definitely master the barbell bench press first before you switch to dumbbells.
4. Take a break if you are over-training: if you have been training for months without taking a break, you should really consider laying off the weights for a week to let your fatigued body heal completely. Chances are you will come back stronger than when you left the weights. I have personally seen my strength shoot up quite a bit when I did this once, so I recommend this to anyone who has been training non-stop for months. Of course, if you’re a newcomer to weight training, taking a week off during the first 6 months to a year (in my opinion) is useless. Rookies should train as much and not miss a workout for a year (at least) as over-training their bodies during this stage is almost non-existent. For a rookie, there is no such thing as over-training. No such thing.

A lot of people will also recommend doing high repetitions for a month or two. I personally think this “recommendation” isn’t that great since it defeats the whole purpose of a strength training routine. Just my opinion, anyway.

1. Always perform warm ups before your exercises. Warming up allows your muscles to get ready to the exercises’ motions and oncoming weight increases. By getting your muscles warmed up and increasing your heart rate, you are preparing your muscles for activity and letting them know that you’re about to use them. On Rippetoe’s routine, you should always warm up with an empty bar and then gradually increase the weights slowly until your work sets. Take a look at the warming up page for more information on how to properly warm up.
2. Make sure you’re 100% certain you can lift the weight. I’ve seen it too many times and it’s happened to me on one occasion (that resulted in my injury!): people (usually newbies) get too cocky and load up more weight on the bar then they can handle. Besides witnessing weights tumble down onto the floor, the unlucky ones will receive a jolt of pain in specific muscles. My advice: increase your weights slowly and don’t rush anything. Remember, there’s always the next workout to increase in weight!
3. Stretch your muscles after every workout. Usually overlooked and forgotten, stretching after your workouts will help with DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) which is basically next-day soreness and/or pain (a lot of rookies new to training will feel it). Stretching is beneficial for keeping your muscles happy, as it allows your muscles to strengthen, increase the range within a joint, and more blood and oxygen to pass through (thanks to the mechanical means of stretching the muscle). This way, future cramps are prevented and you’ll be ready for your next workout without (much) pain. Sometimes people also tend to stretch before their workouts. I consider this good practice as well and highly recommend it to start off your training on the right foot.
   

When starting a strength training 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 a strength training 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

Every Workout / Assistance Work / OPTIONAL

• Weighted Sit-ups at a 45 degree angle on decline bench: 3 x 5
• Weighted Hyper-extensions: 3 x 8

Do not add, remove or substitute ANY of these exercises or else you will be wasting your time. These are key exercises to increasing strength in any individual in the shortest amount of time. No other exercises out there come close to the efficacy of the ones listed above. Adding more exercises to this list is considered over-training. Removing any of these exercises just because you don’t like them means you have already handicapped yourself for gaining the most amount of strength. Please do not mess with this routine or else you are seriously wasting your time. You might as well quit now if you don’t believe in strength training.

As you can see, there is no “bicep curls” or any direct arm work involved because your arms will be indirectly trained over time. I have seen my arms personally grow at their peak just by following this strength training routine and I haven’t done any direct bicep work. Why? Sometimes indirect work to a muscle is the best way to train it as opposed to targeting it directly. A lot of people don’t seem to understand that these days and they choose to ignore it. Just give this program a month of work and you will see your arms get sore without you doing a bicep curl.

Lastly, the weighted sit-ups and hyper-extensions are optional. If it gets in the way of progressing on the five core lifts (squats, deads, power cleans, shoulder presses, bench presses) then stop doing them.

What You Need to Know

Proper warm-ups are always required for proper strength training. You should do a minimum of 3 warm-up sets before you start your heavy sets. If you are unsure how to warm up, take a look at my warming up page.

Never increase (or “ramp”) your working/heavy sets. If you start doing 150 lbs of squats, then you do it 3 times for the remainder of your exercise workout (this is called “sets across”). Do not increase in weight once you have started your heavy set. Leave the increase for the next time you do squats. This goes for any exercise: proper technique is always more important than the amount of weight on the bar.

Somewhat Acceptable Substitutions

Honestly, you should stick to the above exercises, but you can substitute a few of the exercises with the following options. You should know that you’re much better off doing power cleans than barbell rows. As a famous strength training coach has said many times, “My opinion about barbell rows is as follows: f*** barbell rows. Really. F*** them. Stop wasting time worrying about barbell rows and get your deadlift up to 500. By then you’ll have your own opinion and you won’t have to worry about mine.”

• Replacing Power Cleans: you can do Pendlay Rows (3 x 5) and Chin-ups ( 2 x 8 ) as a replacement.
• Replacing Dips: Decline Dumbbell Bench press with your hands’ palms facing each other.

Additions to the Workouts

I’m quite confident to say that these additions will never come handy on this program, but should the need arise, you can add the following exercises to your weekly routine on Fridays only (or the last training day of the week). If you are just starting out new on this program, do not do these until 3 weeks into the routine. Trust me, these are really unnecessary and only here for the few people with exceptions.

• Parallel Bar Dips or Inline Skullcrushers (2 x 8-12)
• Barbell / Dumbell / EZ-Curls: (2 x 8-12)

While I’m not a doctor or have any sort of certificate in the training field, I do feel confident enough about my knowledge in the world of strength training to give the reader an insight into this fabulous way to transform your body. As of this writing, I have been training at my local gym (Monster Gym) for the past 6 years of my life and have seen all kinds of people train there, of all sizes, without so much knowing what they’re doing. Some of the people I’ve seen really have no idea where or how to start working out. I feel that with this site, I will be able to educate those people for the better and maybe give them a pointer or two on how to effectively train and get stronger.

Right now, this website is still in its primary stages of development, so a lot of content is missing. Hopefully, within the next few weeks, I will have the majority of the sections up and running for everyone to see.

The power clean is often regarded as an advanced training exercise unsuitable for most people. Newcomers to training will never attempt to power clean for several reasons, and I believe they are:

1. It looks complicating and highly intimidating at first glance,
2. Most gyms do not carry the necessary equipment (plastic weights) and safety mats, including
3. The space required for Olympic style lifting is pretty large and most gym owners do not want to see space wasted in their facility, and finally
4. There is no one to teach them the proper way to do a power clean.

I find that a lot of people out there disregard training their legs and opt for more upper body strength and bodybuilding. My gym (the Monster Gym) has the lower and upper body exercises and machines placed in two different sides of the gym. Guess which side is always packed and which one is always empty? I see a lot of guys with huge chests, biceps and killer traps, but their legs are nothing short of ordinary: they’re small and weak! I’m pretty sure that these guys could be tipped over easily since their lower body strength isn’t up to par with the rest of their body. Remember, the body needs to be balanced: you cannot simply train your upper body and forget about the legs. Eventually, all the weight you put on your upper body needs to be supported by the lower. Imagine all the pressure you’ll be putting on your knees when you go up in mass!

Following this strength training routine, going up in weight on the squats is quite rapid. Almost every novice trainer will be able to increase his or her squat weight by 5 lbs (total) every workout (that is, if one is consistent, eating well and following proper form). If you aren’t setting personal records every workout, you must be doing something wrong.