After several false starts trying to transform my body and losing momentum, I’ve finally decided to stop believing my own excuses and get some expert help.
I’ve started barbell strength training, following the Novice Linear Progression created by Mark Rippetoe.
What hasn’t worked well so far
For a long time, my main motivation had been to get over this hump of being “skinny fat” — undermuscled body but with a fluffy belly.
I was really afraid to “bulk”, thinking it would quickly make me even fatter (while any muscle gain would be slow and lag far behind), and I was afraid to “cut”, thinking I’d lose any muscle I have first before the belly fat went away.
I was stuck and keeping myself stuck.
Something changed when I was watching the Netflix show “Physical: Asia.”
I saw these athletes, looking big and strong, with thick arms and torsos. I felt weak and vulnerable just watching the show.
My current plan was not going towards “big and strong” — it was moving towards “stay mostly the same, but eventually look better when naked.”
I had to start thinking long-term, and address the core problem directly.
The fastest and most effective way to get “big and strong” is through barbell training and eating a lot of food. And that is what Starting Strength is about.
Why I’m confident about SS
It’s not that bodyweight training isn’t effective — I thoroughly enjoyed it — but it isn’t linear, and it’s very hard to measure and manage your progress. There are way too many variables, and I had to be my own coach.
Starting Strength is linear and measurable. It’s numbers. This means I don’t have to coach myself. I don’t have to think about how I feel.
The program is super duper simple:
- Learn the basic lifts: squat, overhead press, deadlift, power clean, bench press, chin up.
- Add weight every workout, in small increments, to continue to stress your body, and get enough food and sleep to recover and adapt.
- If you fail to add weight on any day to any particular lift, it means you haven’t been eating, sleeping, and resting enough. You don’t have to change anything else. Simple. There’s no other variable to play with.
I find it easy to follow, easy to course-correct, and elegant.
The goal is to follow the linear progression until you can’t follow it anymore; and then either switch to an intermediate program, or to switch back to bodyweight training to “solidify” the gains.
I might just fix the weight and just focus on adding reps.
The Only Tweak I’m Making to SS
I have to admit, I won’t be following the program exactly as laid out. There’s ONE exercise that I don’t want to do, simply because of how much TIME it takes in the gym to set up and do correctly and safely:
Bench press.
I like the bench press, but it’s a fairly complicated lift, which is probably why so many lifters eventually gets injured while doing it. And I much rather like push ups to be honest. With push ups, I don’t mind following a non-linear progression — just knowing that they’re in my program makes me feel better.
I’m currently at the level of incline push ups (hands at knee height). I want to eventually get to explosive push ups and one-arm push ups. Along the way I might do some dumbbell bench presses. I might do weighted push ups. Or I might ask someone to sit on my back as I do push ups.
WEEK ONE
All weights are in kg.
DAY 1:
| SQUAT | 27.5 |
| OVERHEAD PRESS | 20 |
| DEADLIFT | 45 |
DAY 2:
| SQUAT | 30 |
| BENCH PRESS | 25 |
| DEADLIFT | 50 |
DAY 3:
