How I increased my deadlift from 110kg to 140kg in 2 months

An introduction to Starting Strength.


Pick up a copy of a men's fitness or health magazine, and you'll see the latest workout to help you gain 10lbs of muscle, show your abs etc etc. The problem is, if these really work then why would we need to buy the magazine the following month? You know why - for the new workout that will really, really help you gain 10lbs in muscle, show your abs...


The truth is, a lot of these workouts are based on isolation exercises, where you only use a small amount of muscle. However, switch to compound moves and you'll be using multiple muscles which will lead to an overall increase in muscle mass, which in turn will give you a greater resting metabolic rate. To make this simpler, this means you'll be burning more calories when your sitting on the sofa watching TV.


An example of this is the bicep curl: when doing this, your only really using your bicep (which every guy wishes was that little big bigger). But, change to a chin-up and aside from the bicep, you will also be using the muscle in your lats, forearms and upper & outer back amongst others. When you read it like that, it it makes sense doesn't it?


Basic compound moves are something that anyone with even a slight interest in building muscle should be doing. Some people say it's hard or that it worries them, but all your doing is picking heavy stuff off the floor - what could be simpler?


For a few years I was doing the magazine routines, thinking it would would turn me into the guy on the front cover - which it didn't! My eating wasn't great either but my workout was a case of picking up a few weights and doing some long boring cardio sessions. After a few years I started to become frustrated (this in itself was bad enough, the alarm bells should've started going off in my head much sooner). But the magazines did mention compound moves quite often. So, it started to look like compound moves were the way to go.


I started to do some Google searches on routines that would build muscle. There was a lot of rubbish about but then I came to a programme and website called Stronglifts which was run by a guy called Mehdi. It was based on heavy compound moves where you would increase the weight by a few kg each workout. I thought you would just do a load of compound moves (deadlift, squat, bench, press, clean amongst others) each and every gym session, but this would quickly lead to burnout for the average person.


Stronglifts was a routine where you did 3 compound moves per exercise for 5 reps, over 5 sets. There was workout A and workout B:


Workout A:
Squat 5x5, Bench Press 5x5, Barbell Row 5x5


Workout B:
Squat 5x5, Overhead Press 5x5, Deadlift 5x1


I enjoyed the workout's as it was easy to follow and I was starting to lift some serious weight. But something still didn't feel right and despite following the routine exactly, I wasn't making the gains that a lot of other people on the routine were making. Also, a lot of the users on the Stronglifts forum seemed to have a problem with Mehdi. I did feel some of he's member e-mails were quite blunt (which isn't always a bad thing in training) and that he didn't to seem to like any form of criticism. But he's routine is free to download and like I said, lots of people have made some great gains on it, so it is well worth checking out.


http://stronglifts.com/


When I had been searching on Google, I had seen Starting Strength come up a few times and the name Mark Rippetoe. Joe Weider was another name that came up a lot regarding workout routines and he's incredible well respected. However, I have yet to try any of he's routines so don't feel I should really comment. But he is certainly worth reading up on and is something I'll check out another time.


So, I decided to try Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength. Like Stronglifts it consists of two workouts comprised of compound moves but with a few minor changes:


Workout A:
Squat 5x3, Bench 5x3, Deadlift 5x1


Workout B
Squat 5x3, Press 5x3, Clean 3x5


This had a similar approach to Stronglifts, in that you added weight every workout. But to me, the difference was that Mark Rippetoe seemed more approachable and the forum users seemed more open to answering questions and giving advice. There also seemed to be a greater amount of respect for Mark to as a coach. Before starting the programme it's worth reading he's book, which is currently on its second edition with the next edition currently being worked on by Mark:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Starting-Strength-Basic-Barbell-Training/dp/0976805421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322497633&sr=8-1


I started the programme on September 26th. In the 2 months since I've added 30kg to my deadlift and 30kg to the zercher squat (there's a reason why I'm currently doing these rather then back squats but that's for another time). My clean has also increased by 15kg. These's may not be the huge numbers that other's have managed to increase, but it's a big improvement for me. I do find though that I've struggled to make big gains on the bench (only 10kg) and overhead press (only a dreadful 5kg). I've tried deloading a few times, which is recommend when you stall on a weight more then 3 times and this has seemed to help.


But more importantly, I've been enjoying the programme. I've also been keeping an excel sheet of my weights and it's great to be able to look at it and see the improvements. It's not so good seeing where you haven't made as good gains, but this in turn can help to motivate you to push on. I have also added bodyweight dips and chin-ups' to some sessions.


There are different level's of Starting Strength but I've only done the basic. But it's really worth check out. You can either do a Google search for 'Mark Rippetoe Starting Strength' for lots of success stories and information about it, or you can go direct to the official website.


http://startingstrength.com/


As I said, I do enjoy the Starting Strength programme, but I've been thinking of trying something completely different (for me anyway). Crossfit and the Gym Jones workouts are becoming more popular by the day and both are something I might try out sooner rather then later.


Talk soon,


Dan