Starting Strength: four barbell lifts, and a little more weight every time you come back.

The squat, the press, the bench press and the deadlift, in sets of five.

You squat every workout, and two workouts take turns: one with the press, one with the bench press. You start with a deadlift in both, and later in the program the power clean takes turns with it. The squat, press and bench press are three sets of five after your warm-ups; the deadlift is one set of five. Each time a lift comes around, you add a little weight.

As the weight climbs, you add less each time, the way Rippetoe says you should, and you rest three to five minutes between work sets. Resting the full time is part of the discipline that builds your strength.

Rippetoe teaches each lift step by step in the book, which has sold half a million copies by its publisher’s count. You can start today, and read it when you want to understand the program more deeply.

Watch the man who wrote the book coach each lift.

These are on the Starting Strength channel. They show on video what Rippetoe teaches in the book.

• The Squat - Bar Position with Mark RippetoeStarting Strength · 18 min · 2012

  Where the bar sits on your back, and the grip. At 10:48 Rippetoe puts the lifter’s thumbs on top of the bar, not wrapped around it.

• Learning to Squat | The Starting Strength MethodStarting Strength · 6 min · 2018

  The whole squat in six minutes.

• Learning to Press with Mark RippetoeStarting Strength · 35 min · 2012

  Rippetoe teaches the press, rep by rep.

• The Bench Press | Rip CoachingStarting Strength · 18 min · 2015

  Rippetoe teaches the bench press.

• In Depth on the Deadlift with Mark RippetoeStarting Strength · 29 min · 2019

  Rippetoe teaches the deadlift, in depth.

Lifters in their fifties, seventies and nineties, on Starting Strength’s own channel.

Shelly Stettner started at 65 with the empty bar. At 73 she squats over 250 pounds and has won a world title in her age and weight class, coached by Andy Baker, co-author of The Barbell Prescription, as Women’s Health reported. Starting Strength keeps more of its lifters’ stories on its site.

• Becoming Strong in Your 50sStarting Strength · 3 min · 2023

  A 53-year-old who had stalled lifting on his own.

• At Age 70, David Got His Deadlift to 385lbs at Starting Strength DallasStarting Strength · 15 min · 2021

  A seventy-year-old, coached in person at a Starting Strength Gym.

• Starting Strength at 91?Starting Strength · 3 min · 2023

  Saralie Lewis started at 91.

Learn the lifts with a Starting Strength coach.

Starting Strength Gyms coach the program in person, in small groups. Find a gym near you.

If there is no gym near you, Starting Strength Online Coaching reviews videos of your lifts and writes your program. You can look up any certified coach in the Starting Strength Coach directory.

Rippetoe teaches each lift step by step, and why the program works.

Twospeed is how you follow the program, day by day.

Open the app at the gym and today’s workout is there: the weight for each lift, the warm-ups from the empty bar up, and which of your plates go on each side. You rest between work sets, and the timer shows you when to start the next one. If you have never lifted, you find each lift’s starting weight the first time it comes up, from the empty bar, one set at a time.

If you want to run too, your runs come from Klaas Lok’s Easy Interval Method: short, relaxed repeats with a walk and a jog between them. About the Easy Interval Method.