While you may find many variations of this program, one thing remains true.

It uses a no-nonsense approach to lifting and gets results quickly. 

The program is laid out on the fundamentals of strength training and it can be broken down into 3  simple phases:

• Phase 1: setting the foundation and learning the 4 exercises.
• Phase 2: Use the skills learned to increase strength.
• Phase 3: This is when exercises get introduced, here you'll start using chin ups and uses a linear progression principle.

The linear periodization used in Starting Strength is used in other programs like Greyskull LP. 

Here's the spreadsheet:

Starting Strength Program

This spreadsheet contains the calculator to help you decide the weight and keep a record of progress of the program. 

If you don't know if you should use the Starting Strength or Texas Method, check out the video below:

There's 2 simple workouts to Starting Strength, labelled as A and B.

These are alternated throughout the program and you'll train 3 times per week. 

There's one day on, one day off, allowing for recovery between workouts. 

So an example can be like Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with the other days being off days.

Always take 5-10 minutes to warm up.

Perform some light cardio for at least 5 minutes, until you feel warm or break a sweat. 

Then perform a few light sets of the muscles you're about to exercise.

Do at least 3-4 warm up sets before your actual workout, and then follow the program's workouts. 

You can do 1-2 warm up sets before a specific exercise, which is especially useful if you're a beginner. 

Starting Strength is designed for beginners and people who are considered to be untrained. 

It's definitely not made for intermediates or advanced trainees as the progression is fairly quickly, and it's applied to every exercise and every workout. 

The general consensus is that even if you're doing other strength programs, you should invest into reading the book for Starting Strength. 

Because that's where it all started from. 

Many programs that are designed for strength training and beginners will take the foundational principles from Starting Strength. 

For example, with StrongLifts, it uses a simpler approach but it has more volume and is more geared towards experienced lifters. 

Another one is GreySkull which has high volume training like AMRAP (as many reps as possible), less deadlifts and 2 lifts for every other day. 

Sometimes you'll find more people leaning towards StrongLifts because it has more resources online, and the creator is much more internet savvy than Starting Strength.