Post Punk Kitchen Forum

A few weeks ago I got my super sweet "impoverished citizen" free gym pass from the city. I'd been wanting to try the much lauded "Starting Strength" program for a while, and as of tomorrow will be going onto the fifth day.

If you're unfamiliar with the program, it is a beginner barbell training program that is super straight forward and has a reputation for rapid strength gain. You can check it out here.

I'm doing the practical programming version, since I'm wary about learning power cleans without direct instruction. It's going awesome so far, and I'm always anticipating the next day in the gym. I'm really eager to see the numbers continue to increase; the way it's laid out with the logbook/calculator and steady weight increments makes it feel almost like completing a video game quest of some sort.

So I just wanted to share, and let you all know about the program if you haven't come across it before. I'll keep posting when I hit some of my target weights on the various lifts. My press is hilariously low right now, but squats are a breeze; must be all the cycling!

I have the book and the DVD but I mostly wanted them for the form, not the program itself.

Right now, I do Crossfit which is awesome. We did a bunch of power cleans yesterday although I had a first yesterday when I hit my boob hard with a power clean, it wasn't pleasant. With Olympic lifts in general, I couldn't imagine trying to learn them on your own.

Good to know! I'm doing the P90X program right now, and when I finish, I'd like to get into doing some actual weight training. I've heard good things about Starting Strength, and I'll definitely check it out!

Reviving this thread because I'm thinking of starting doing this program.

I no longer see any results on my current workout routine (I'm actually getting weaker(?)), and I'd like something more basic, more intense and shorter, which this seem to be.
I'm not a complete newb at the gym, but I haven't been feeling so well lately and would like a fresh start at the gym.

I'm the naturally skinny, "hard gainer" kinda guy and I've heard that short workouts based on compound exercises is the way to go for hard gainers. I'm so tired of doing endless sets of completely pointless exercises like calf raises and stuff (which I've done in the past, following recommendations from PT:s at the gym and self-proclaimed fitness gurus on the internet...

You think I should go for it? Is anyone doing this now or have done it before? If so, how do/did you like it?

I did it for about six weeks and definitely saw consistent improvement, and I think the site has explicitly vegan resources and guidance hidden in it somewhere. My only complaint with it is that it gets very boring after a little while.