Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3rd edition Paperback – November 11, 2011

Excellent resource that has had an enormous impact on my quality of life. Combine this with the free Starting Strength podcast and instructional YouTube vids and you have your self a worthwhile education and practical application class. I put a rack and barbell in my garage and have been applying what I have been learning over the past 6 months.

Bench was 195lbs for 5 reps and is now 245lbs
OHP was 115lbs for 5 and is now 155lbs
DL was 315lbs for 5 and is now 455lbs
BS was 285 for 5 and is now 365lbs
and all still climbing..

As an added benefit, I am not constantly hurting myself with bad form and having to take time to heal and thus lose gains. Also, I don't hurt when I get up in the morning. All this with previous C-Spine, knee and nerve damage injuries from three combat tours to Iraq.

Not much programming in this book, but the discussion of the lifts and the benefits of barbell training are as good as I've come across in 18 years of lifting. I wish I would have come across this when I was starting out as it has helped me correct a lot of small defects in my form. Good for serious lifters and people who want to learn to lift for fitness.

I'm a competitive marathon runner who decided to start lifting about eight months ago, and for the first few months, I just sort of did what I saw other guys doing in the gym. Being a novice lifter, I got some pretty decent gains rather quickly. About three months ago, a friend of mine who is an experienced lifter, recommended this book to me. The difference in the quality of my workouts and my resulting strength gains since I began the Starting Strength program is incredible. Mark Rippetoe does a fantastic job explaining (VERY in-depth) each of the lifts and how to get the greatest strength gains. Things such as equipment, nutrition, lifting schedules, and many of the wrong techniques that are often seen from other lifters are also addressed. There are many helpful diagrams and pictures that help illustrate the ideas too. One thing to be aware of though is that this book is essentially a college textbook. It's a fantastic tool, but it's not a book that you will just zoom through in a matter of hours. You will probably want a highlighter and a few weeks worth of free time to get through the entire thing. That being said, you will learn a ton and your strength will improve enormously.

Note: Since starting med school, I haven't run any marathons. Lifting has been a great way to get some serious exercise with less serious time commitment (only 3 days/week). I'm not lifting to improve my running. In fact, I've gained 30 lbs in the past few months, so I bet I'm way slower.

This book is an excellent tool for getting started in the world of weightlifting and strength building. This book is all about building a great foundation and ensuring perfect form in the basic lifts. The author presents wealth of very specific information regarding the musculoskeletal mechanics of the major lifts, and the information is supported by rudimentary yet useful pictures and illustrations. The book often veers into what will seem like "overkill" territory for most readers when it comes to tue sheer amount of information it presents, but when it comes to learning proper form in the back squat and deadlift, a "less is more" approach is not what you want. Personally, I focused on the discussions of proper form and mechanics and discovered that my squat, deadlift, and press were in dire need of serious correction. The results speak for themselves, and I have been injury free for the past year. Starting Strength is exactly what it claims to be, a perfect starting point.

The book is very detailed and the program is wonderful. Having tried it for a few weeks i know that it works. I am giving it 4 stars because of a dearth of pictures/video links which i feel are absolutely necessary to get proper exercise form. It's hard to figure this out from words alone

I bought this book while I was working at a summer camp in America. I actually took John Berardi's 'Scrawny to Brawny' with me with the intention of reading it and then follow the workout once I returned back home in England. Once I had finished it, I decided that I wanted some more information on the lifts. I'm the kind of guy who likes to know the theory and techniques involved before getting down to business. If you are like me then this book is definitely for you! Mark Rippetoe does an outstanding job with this book. He has written it in such a way that each compound lift - that he feels is necessary in achieving optimal strength gains - has its own chapter. In these chapters he goes over what the lift is, which variations are popular and which he feels is the best one and why. The why part is particularly interesting as it delves into Biomechanics and demonstrates, through brilliant diagrams and illustrations, the reasoning behind his options. The chapters also cover common mistakes to look out for and then a basic program to follow initially. In my opinion, the chapters are clear and concise and are very well written. Mark injects quite alot of humour into the book and you find that there are areas of the book where you feel as though he's actually coaching you in person. Each lift is broken down into compartments which makes every one much easier to understand and follow. He plays close attention to detail and it is these details, I believe, that are the most valuable. There is only so much you can learn from watching and studying successful lifters on the likes of YouTube, for the rest I would advise you buy this book. The following chapters cover useful assistance excercises and programming. These chapters are useful but I feel it is the chapters on each individual lift that truly makes this book standout. The only downside, if you would call it that, is the section on nutrition. Nutrition is a very important part of weight training regardless whether you are looking to put size on or just increase your strength. The section gets the point across but I feel it is very basic and somewhat outdated. I feel it will leave anyone who is completely new to the idea of nutrition feeling a little underwhelmed and searching for more information on the matter. This was not really an issue for myself as I was fortunate in the sense that I also had 'Scrawny to Brawny'. John Berardi is well known for his knowledge on sports nutrition and has a huge chunk of the book dedicated to the nutritional aspect of weight training. I believe it is worth buying for this reason alone and would be a good accompaniment for anyone who found themselves in this particular predicament. Before buying this book I had researched it on the Internet and all of the reviews I had read were very positive. I can honestly say that I was not disappointed. This book is ideal for its intended purpose and I would definitely recommend it.