Strength-training is an effective way to get a handle on life because it induces confidence, and it suggests many analogies for dealing with and overcoming life’s difficulties. “Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training” by Mark Rippetoe, is the perfect book for getting started in this training because it doesn’t offer false promises of easy success, and, at the same time, provides solid, usable information that can get one started immediately.
The Reasons and Challenges to the Book
The reasons to read are powerful. For one, the program offers the chance for increased self-confidence in a relatively concise program: these six lifts (squat, press, deadlift, bench press, clean, and snatch) will allow a person to reach 80 to 90 percent of his or her potential strength.
Strength-training, particularly barbell training, not only makes one stronger but also quicker and more powerful, because while strength is capacity for work, power is work in relation to time. The faster the same work is done, the more powerful it is. Indeed, it results in greater general health, affecting not only the muscles, but the skeleton, the nervous system, and the brain.
It can also develop the capacity for virtues like courage. There are few ways to make a regular appointment with fear and stress in a relatively safe environment; one of these ways is squatting a load that is a good deal heavier than oneself, five times in a row.
That said, the challenges of the book must be noted. It is a long book, with extensive, necessary explanations; the first-time reader might not understand it all but the rewarding process has started.
Furthermore, while Rippetoe does define certain terms—a lot of scientific terminology in anatomy, physics, and chemistry—there is simply too much going on in the human body to define everything. The reader needs to be humble enough to pause and take in the graphs and illustrations. The author is not obfuscating what should be clear by itself, but rather, being as helpful as possible in explaining how the human body works. It is, after all, the most complicated creation in the world. The book demands attention, and the program requires a commitment of time.
While it may take an hour just to get through the section on squats, and while readers may feel a little lost in the terms and concepts, that is just on the beginning of the process. The novices can then perform a couple sets of squats as well as they can, adding perhaps five or 10 pounds on each side of the barbell. They can repeat the process with the push press and deadlifts. This takes at most an hour. The time spent is about two hours, and yet the novice lifters are on the way to getting stronger very quickly.
This is a point that Rippetoe emphasizes: the rapid gains that novice lifters make. The excitement of this process is more than enough to balance out the initial demands of the text.
Working out the Mind, Body, and Soul
As one lifts heavier and heavier weights, the gains are not as rapid, but what is just as important is the deepening understanding of concepts, not to mention the growing awareness of what the proper function for one’s own body is.As in life, general principles are absorbed first, and then learners can discover the things that work or don’t work on an individual basis. Once again, lifting is both a great practice and a timely reminder of how life itself works.
The attention demanded by the book is itself worth developing for its own sake. There are no five-minute online videos to show one how to perform a correct power clean; it is such a technical lift that there is no substitute for careful, thoughtful engagement with the text Rippetoe provides. And careful, thoughtful engagement with a text is one of the most important skills that anyone can develop.
Rippetoe is to be commended for writing in a style that is clear and exhaustive at the same time; even more importantly, he prepares people to read good books, which are generally clear and exhaustive in one way or another.
Finally, the time commitment: Everything that is worthwhile in life requires some sacrifice in the short term. So it is in lifting. The lifter will have to invest a minimum of an hour or two, three times a week. But it is a simple program, and a few hours a week is doable for most people. The payoff of this doable and simple program is greater health not only in body, but also in mind and soul.
Instead of a complex and constantly changing to-do list, the book offers the challenge of accomplishing a few of the fundamental lifts at each weightlifting session. And the essence of the challenge is one of the hardest things imaginable: lifting a little more than one did the session before.
This is what makes strength-training, and particularly Rippetoe’s version, such a compelling exercise for almost anyone. For the person down-and-out, struggling, faced with challenges from multiple directions, questioning his or her very ability to improve, “Starting Strength” provides one clear avenue to start making those little, accumulative improvements.
An Online Presence
While the book offers a complete program, Rippetoe has developed the program beyond the book. Since the last edition of the book came out 10 years ago, the “Starting Strength” program has built up an online presence, producing supplemental videos and blog posts.Pursuing the Starting Strength program provides a manageable and efficient way to fulfill a good part of one’s potential for strength. And while one may disagree with Rippetoe (as this reviewer does) that “physical strength is the most important thing in life,” it is unquestionable that physical strength is one important thing in life.
Indeed, there may be a sense in which Rippetoe is correct after all; physical strength is the most concrete part of our well-being as humans. The Romans and Greeks both used their words for physical strength to express the idea of virtue: spiritual, intellectual, and moral strength. Seeing oneself getting stronger through regular lifting allows a deeper insight into how to improve in other ways: Learning that one may only be able to improve his 350-pound squat one pound at a time, and to be pleased with slow gains, may help one realize that controlling one’s temper is worth similar dedication and time.
As a strength and conditioning coach for a successful high school rugby program, I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of “Starting Strength”; it is effective because it is simple and strenuous. These characteristics particularly suit high school boys, but they are effective for the development of everyone.
By Mark Rippetoe
