Thoughts on S&C Training: Switching gears to starting strength

After finishing Dan John’s 10,000 swing challenge last Tuesday and then taking a day off, I did my first Starting Strength session today.

This program, created by Mark Rippetoe and described in detail in his seminal book – which is, incidentally, called Starting Strength – makes a nice general purpose plan for the off – season.

Basically, you’d do three sets of five on the following exercises:

Session A:
Squat
Press
Deadlift (1 x 5)

Session B:
Squat
Bench Press
Power Clean (5 x 3)

The days are alternated in an ABA BAB fashion. That means you’re training three days per week. In the first week, you’re doing session A twice and session B twice. In the next week, it’s the other way around.

Starting Strength is – at least in the beginning – a linear progression model, so basically weights are increased from day to day. Needless to say, that isn’t something you can sustain indefinitely. Hence, I’ve decided to do a six week block and then decide on what to do next. Six weeks means –

30 kg increase on the squat
22.5 kg increase on the deadlift
22.5 kg increase on the press
22.5 kg increase on the bench press
22.5 kg increase on the power clean

We’ll see how this theory holds up.

So long,

Don’t get hurt