Starting Strength Program: The Novice Plan, Phase by Phase

The short answer

The Starting Strength program is two full-body workouts, A and B, that you alternate three days a week. You squat every session, and you add weight every time you train.

Every session starts with 3 sets of 5 squats. The press and the bench press take turns for 3 sets of 5, and the deadlift is 1 set of 5. Later on, some deadlifts become power cleans and chin-ups join in.

It's written for beginners: people whose squat, press and deadlift can still go up from one session to the next. Everything below follows the program's own description on the Starting Strength website.

The three phases

The program changes twice as you get stronger. The squat and the press or bench press stay the same the whole way; what changes is the pulling.

Phase 1: squat, press or bench, deadlift

In Phase 1 the two workouts are the same except that the press and bench press take turns. The deadlift gets one work set of 5.

Phase 2: the power clean replaces every other deadlift

Once deadlifting three times a week gets too much to recover from, Workout B swaps it for 5 sets of 3 power cleans. The idea is that cleans keep pushing the deadlift up without the fatigue of pulling heavy every session. The power clean is technical, so get it coached or learn it carefully before you load it up.

Phase 3: chin-ups arrive

In Phase 3 the deadlift and the power clean alternate on Workout A, and Workout B gets chin-ups instead. Once you can do 3 sets of 10 at bodyweight, the program suggests making every other chin-up day 3 sets of 5 with added weight, and 3 sets of bodyweight chin-ups for as many reps as you can on the others.

Phase 3 is also where a lot of lifters hit what the program calls the "advanced novice" stage: the squat only goes up twice a week, Monday and Friday, and Wednesday becomes a lighter squat day.

Week-by-week schedule

Two workouts spread over three training days means no two weeks in a row look the same. Here's how the rotation works out on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule.

Phase 1, repeating every two weeks:

Phase 3, repeating every four weeks:

Phase 2 follows the Phase 1 rotation, with power cleans instead of deadlifts on every Workout B. There's no set week for switching phases. You move on when the deadlift gets too heavy to pull three times a week, not when the calendar says so.

Download the Starting Strength log (.xlsx). Enter your starting weights and it works out the next target for every lift, session by session, including the switch to power cleans and chin-ups.

How much weight to add each session

Here's how much the Starting Strength site says to add, for healthy men between about 18 and 35 or 40:

Women and lifters over about 35 or 40 should expect smaller jumps: maybe one 10 lb jump on the squat, two or three on the deadlift, 5 lb from the start on everything else, and 2.5 lb or smaller jumps sooner. By the end of Phase 1, the site expects a young, healthy man's squat to be up 40 to 50 lb, his deadlift up 50 to 70 lb, and his press and bench press up 15 to 20 lb each.

Small plates matter more than you'd think. Adding 2.5 kg to a 40 kg press is a jump of over 6%, which is why the upper-body lifts usually stall first. How much weight to add covers choosing increments when the smallest plates in your gym are still too big.

When to stop running Starting Strength

You're done with the program when the weight stops going up every session, and not before. Each lift runs out at its own pace, usually the upper-body lifts first. Before you blame the program, check the usual suspects: sleep, food, and a jump that's too big for the lift. Linear progression for beginners covers what to do the first time a weight fails, including the common reset of about 10%.

Once resets stop working, you've most likely outgrown beginner programs and need one that progresses weekly or monthly instead of every session. The Starting Strength site points to its own intermediate programming, including the Texas Method. The powerlifting program comparison covers the Texas Method and 5/3/1 and includes a free 12-week plan in percentages of your 1RM, which starts where a novice program leaves off.

Starting Strength vs. StrongLifts 5×5

The two most popular beginner programs look alike and differ in the details.

The StrongLifts details come from its own quick start guide. StrongLifts does more sets per lift and trains the upper back with rows from day one. Starting Strength does fewer sets and adds the power clean. Both work for the same reason: as a beginner, you can recover from a small jump in weight every session. Pick the one you'll actually follow, and let it tell you when you've outgrown it.

Who the program suits, and its limits

Starting Strength suits anyone new to barbell training with a rack, a bench and a barbell and three days a week to train. Its limits are mostly trade-offs, not flaws:

• Little direct upper-back work at first. Phase 1 has no rows or chin-ups. If that bothers you, the program's own later phases add them, and nothing stops you from adding a few sets of rows.
• Squatting three times a week gets hard. As the loads rise, the program itself moves to a lighter Wednesday squat.
• It's a strength program. There's no arm or shoulder isolation work, so if muscle size is also a goal, adding a few sets for the muscles you care about won't break it.
• Older lifters need smaller jumps. The Starting Strength site covers modifications for lifters over 40 in a separate book, The Barbell Prescription.

Tracking the program in GymEvo

A program that adds weight every session only works if you know exactly what you lifted last time. GymEvo shows last session's weights and reps on the set you're about to do, and each exercise can have its own weight increment, so the squat can move in 2.5 kg steps while the press moves in 1 kg steps. Both are free, and so is the estimated 1RM chart for each lift. Automatic progression, which proposes the next weight from what you actually did, is part of Premium. See how GymEvo handles progressive overload.