Starting Strength: A Book Review

Starting Strength is a book about the fundamentals of strength training by Mark Rippetoe, a long-time and accomplished expert in the physical & strength training space. It introduces and explains the technique, mechanics, and benefits of Mark’s prescribed set of barbell exercises: the squat, the press, the deadlift, the bench press, and the power clean. The bulk of the book is focused on the details of these exercises, including, for some of them, broader introductions to certain relevant concepts, like leverage and moment in the physics of the squat and pulling mechanics in the deadlift. In all, it provides a comprehensive, if overly detailed, course in the “Starting Strength” training prescription.

The book opens with a motivating exhortation to the reader to begin barbell strength training and gain the benefits thereof - after all, “a weak man is not as happy as that same man would be if he were strong.” He also briefly makes the argument that barbell training is the superior form of strength training when compared to other options, like machines, because it is a more anatomical, human-adapted movement and it uses the whole nervous system.

The first exercise chapter is on the squat - considered by Rippetoe to be the most important exercise in strength training. The high-bar squat is the variation people generally learn; however, he recommends a low-bar squat over a high-back squat, because a high-bar squat sacrifices too much hip drive training in favor of extra quad training. Personally though, I still like a high-bar squat - I think in my zero-drop shoes, I still get plenty of hip drive and hamstring involvement, and as for reasons I’ll discuss in the deadlift section, I want to focus on extra quad involvement. Certainly though, Rippetoe and I are on the same page about the squat in general. It’s a movement that uses the body’s largest muscles through a wide range of motion under huge load - the squat is a fantastic strength builder.

The next chapter introduces the press, known to most as the overhead barbell press. The press has fallen to the wayside in popular lifting because powerlifting uses the squat, deadlift, and bench press. Despite falling out of popular favor, Rippetoe considers the press to be the most useful upper body exercise in the weight room - even more than the bench press. His primary reasoning is that the press is technically a full body exercise. That is, since a lifter supports the weight through the feet, the kinetic chain for the press involves the whole body, whereas the kinetic chain for the bench press ends at the shoulder blades. Likewise, the use of more muscles causes more stabilization strength, which is my primary reason for liking the press so much. When pressing overhead, the shoulder cuff and core muscles activate much more than with the bench press. I’ve been plagued by a hard-to-treat shoulder/lat/serratus issue for a long while - I’ve rehabbed it with bands and other PT exercises - but I’ve finally started to notice some serious progress toward recovery when I started prioritizing overhead pressing in my routine.

The middle exercise is the deadlift. In Rippetoe’s Starting Strength program, this is the primary back builder, as well as another large demand on the legs, like the squat. This additional load is one of the reasons I like to high-bar squat instead of low-bar. While a low-bar squat may be the best type of squat to build muscle, as a component of a broader exercise regimen, I think we ought to use a high-bar (or even front) squat to get more quad demand and let the deadlift pick up the hamstring and hip-drive slack. Similarly, I like to get more back specific work into my workouts as well, usually doing bent-over rows or some type of chin- or pull-ups. In fact, Rippetoe introduces these two movements as approved assistant exercises in a later section. Those caveats aside, I am a massive fan of the deadlift and absolutely agree it belongs in anybody’s workout plan, novice to expert.

Penultimate is the absolute OG GOAT, the first exercise most lifters learn, (incidentally, the last exercise many of those same lifters ever learn), the movement everyone loves to hate: the bench press. While Rippetoe still prefers the (overhead) press as the most useful upper body movement, he (and every person who asks “how much you bench, bro”) acknowledge the bench press as the best way to build raw strength in the upper body. Fun fact: men (and women) who have greater upper body strength tend to have more lifetime sexual partners, which may be compelling to those in pursuit of Ultimate Masculinity.

The last exercise Rippetoe presents is the power clean. This exercise is the only “power” movement in the program - power being the application of strength quickly - whereas the other 4 lifts are strictly intended as strength movements. Because of its unique role, the power clean is a massively impactful movement. In fact, Bill Starr, an influential strength and conditioning coach and leader, said that if your program could only have one exercise, it should be the power clean. Power is important in activities like sports, where the athlete has to be able to explode quickly and possibly hit hard. While strength is a necessary component of power, and getting strong is a great way to generate more power, the power clean is an excellent way to learn and practice harnessing and applying that power.

The last two chapters cover assistive exercises and programming. In the assistive exercises chapter, Rippetoe explains how to modify some of the movements to gain some particular benefit - for example, rack pulls to emphasize the deadlift lockout or box squats to remove the stretch reflex boost at the bottom of the squat. Importantly, in my opinion, Rippetoe covers the bentover row and both chin- and pull-ups in this section. Like I say above, I really like targeted back work, I feel that it helps balance out the targeted upper body pressing work from the press and bench press. In addition to the back muscles, the chin- and pull-ups also recruit the core, so they are another way to strengthen stability without targeted ab work like planks or birddogs. Rippetoe leaves the bentover row and pullups out of his prescribed routine for absolute novices, but quickly allows for at least the chin-up.

The programming section introduces the schedule at which a novice lifter should learn the lifts and how they can expect to progress. It also introduces some basic nutrition and recovery advice as well as some suggestions for home gym equipment - how to build a power rack, for example. It ends with some very powerful advice about how lifting is accessible and important for everyone, including special populations like the elderly, people with skeletal and muscular diseases, and the sedentary: the adaptation to weight training is precisely the adaptation these special populations need.

In summary, Starting Strength documents in painstaking detail the most important strength building exercises, why to do them, and how to do them. It’s an incredibly influential book and absolutely deserves its place in any serious lifter’s library. Nevertheless, the content can be dense and repetitive at times and I think there are likely faster ways to get into strength training that don’t require first parsing this strength training bible. In fact, Rippetoe even has a “Getting Started” program on the Starting Strength website, which, coupled with guidance from a trusted expert in the movements or research by a motivated self-starter could be a great way to dive in without too much academic investment in the literature. Alternatively, Coach Harry’s Guide has published You’re Not Too Weak to Start and You’re Not Strong Enough to Quit which serves as a comprehensive guide to starting to lift with a beginner program, including diagrams and descriptions of all the movements.