Starting strength training

Two months ago, I had a minor injury occur on my hamstring, which resulted in me not being able to squat, deadlift or power clean for a whole month. I decided not to do any leg exercises for a whole four weeks to let my hamstring recover. This, of course, could’ve been avoided if I had taken the necessary precautions to prevent injury while strength training. I learned my lesson at the time and swore to never repeat that same mistake. By following the guidelines below, you can hinder the possibility of injuring yourself in the future. Without further ado, here’s the short list:

1. Always perform warm ups before your exercises. Warming up allows your muscles to get ready to the exercises’ motions and oncoming weight increases. By getting your muscles warmed up and increasing your heart rate, you are preparing your muscles for activity and letting them know that you’re about to use them. On Rippetoe’s routine, you should always warm up with an empty bar and then gradually increase the weights slowly until your work sets. Take a look at the warming up page for more information on how to properly warm up.
2. Make sure you’re 100% certain you can lift the weight. I’ve seen it too many times and it’s happened to me on one occasion (that resulted in my injury!): people (usually newbies) get too cocky and load up more weight on the bar then they can handle. Besides witnessing weights tumble down onto the floor, the unlucky ones will receive a jolt of pain in specific muscles. My advice: increase your weights slowly and don’t rush anything. Remember, there’s always the next workout to increase in weight!
3. Stretch your muscles after every workout. Usually overlooked and forgotten, stretching after your workouts will help with DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) which is basically next-day soreness and/or pain (a lot of rookies new to training will feel it). Stretching is beneficial for keeping your muscles happy, as it allows your muscles to strengthen, increase the range within a joint, and more blood and oxygen to pass through (thanks to the mechanical means of stretching the muscle). This way, future cramps are prevented and you’ll be ready for your next workout without (much) pain. Sometimes people also tend to stretch before their workouts. I consider this good practice as well and highly recommend it to start off your training on the right foot.
   

I always hear people saying “I wish I could get stronger!” or “How can I get stronger?” yet they didn’t know where to start. You’ll also hear the same people say “I want to get bigger” or “I want to bulk up” but also weren’t quite sure how to proceed in terms of exercise and dieting. Luckily for them, I have created this website/blog for people who are clueless when it comes to strength training. Hopefully I’ll be able to guide them in the right direction and give them great training tips for maximum results based on a popular strength training book (which everyone should definitely pick up a copy and read).

I am starting up a few sections of the site in my spare time right now and so far it’s going good. A lot of the site’s planning is being done while I train at the gym and everyday I come up with a new idea to improve the site’s success. One thing I would like to implement on here is a QA (Questions/Answers) page where someone might have a question or two to pose, specific to the Starting Strength routine (e.g. “Do I have to rest one week every 8 to 10 weeks of training?”). A lot to do!

Hello everyone! My name is Saro and I’m an avid beginner of starting a strength training  routine. I have decided to start this website up for several reasons, but the main three are to keep track of my progress, to further my knowledge of strength training and to educate the potential trainer in learning how to properly follow strength training routines, primarily barbell training. Other reasons include discussing book reviews, learning the proper way to do exercises (the squat, deadlift, bench press, etc.), any questions a follower may have (“How do I know when to increase in weight?”) and lastly, how to properly diet (dieting does not mean losing weight!).

While I’m not a doctor or have any sort of certificate in the training field, I do feel confident enough about my knowledge in the world of strength training to give the reader an insight into this fabulous way to transform your body. As of this writing, I have been training at my local gym (Monster Gym) for the past 6 years of my life and have seen all kinds of people train there, of all sizes, without so much knowing what they’re doing. Some of the people I’ve seen really have no idea where or how to start working out. I feel that with this site, I will be able to educate those people for the better and maybe give them a pointer or two on how to effectively train and get stronger.

Right now, this website is still in its primary stages of development, so a lot of content is missing. Hopefully, within the next few weeks, I will have the majority of the sections up and running for everyone to see.