I am starting this new gym program designed to increase overall strength for beginners. It mainly deals with squats, the bench press and deadlifts. I will train 3 times a week and alternate between two workouts. This routine was designed by Mark Rippetoe (buy his book! I’ll post a link to it soon). It was quite possibly the best investment I’ve done towards training. Forget buying creatine and protein powders, everyone should purchase this book first before diving into supplements (discipline over chemicals).

For more information, please take a look at my Starting Strength website.

Here are the workouts:

Workout A
Squat: 3×5
Bench Press: 3×5
Deadlift: 1×5
Dips: 2×5-8

Workout B
Squat: 3×5
Military Press: 3×5
Power Cleans: 5×3
Chin-ups: 2×5-8

Fridays Only (after 3 weeks on this program, totally optional, I don’t do ’em)
Parallel Bar Dips: 2×8-12
Ez-Bar Curls: 3×5

Everyday
Sit-ups(45deg): 3×5
Hyper-extensions: 3×8

Now, for those who don’t understand the schema, this is how it works. Let’s say your training days are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. First, you’d do workout A on Monday, workout B on Wednesday then workout A on Friday. The next Monday would be workout B, then workout A on Wednesday and finally workout B on Friday. See the pattern? You simply alternate workouts every training day, forever, till you don’t see anymore improvements on this program.

Every workout, you’re supposed to increase your weight to 5 lbs (that means 2.5lbs on each side of the bar). So, if you were squatting 200 lbs, you need to increase it to 205 lbs the next time you do squats. Like this, you set a new PR (Personal Record) each time you workout. If you aren’t able to do the new weight, go back to your previous weight and try again.