Starting Strength
Basic Barbell Training

Getting stronger is a very worthwhile pursuit.

"Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general."

Starting Strength is a system of physical training that is designed to make people stronger as efficiently as possible. It is intended for novice trainees, that is people who have not already succeeded in getting considerably stronger using barbell exercises (i.e. almost everyone). It is the combination of extensive anecdotal evidence, gained from coaching many trainees, with sound logic, basic physics, and common sense.

From their website:

The Starting Strength System makes use of the body's most basic movement patterns – barbell exercises that involve all the body’s muscle mass – utilized over the longest effective range of motion and loaded progressively, to force the adaptations necessary for increased strength.

Unlike other popular exercise protocols, Starting Strength is a training system – a long-term process designed for getting stronger over time, not a random collection of exercises that just make you hot, sweaty, sore, confused, and tired today.

This book covers:

• Why strength is important, even in the modern world.
• Why barbells are the most effective tools for strength training.
• The mechanical basis of barbell training, concisely and logically explained.
• Complete, detailed instructions for performing the basic barbell exercises: the squat, press, deadlift, bench press, power clean, and the power snatch.
• Detailed explanation of why the exercises are done a particular way, including biomechanics.
• Common mistakes on executing each exercise and how to fix them, and cues for how to coach each exercise.
• Details of how the human body adapts to stress through recovery, and why this is the foundation of the development of strength and lifetime health.
• How to program the basic exercises into the most effective program for long-term progress.

Even if you think you know a thing or two about lifting weights, you owe it to yourself to read this book. I wish I had read it, and understood it, sooner.