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Shoes! Shoes?
When I first started lifting, I lifted in flats, but a month or two in -- I might have been reading in the forums (this was 2013) -- I bit the bullet and bought some Wei-Rui's. Budget Chinese shoes, but they made a huge difference and lasted 7 years until the velcro died.
At SS Austin, we try to get people into lifting shoes as early as possible. We keep some shoes around to show people the difference, and if the sizing works, they might lift in a pair for that day. Our go to recommendations are Adidas Powerlifts as a good entry level shoe and Rogue Do-Wins for those with wide feet. Right now those can be found for about $100.
Shout out to other lifters -- how have y'all spread the gospel of lifting shoes? What shoes have you recommended?
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Motivation
At the front of Starting Strength gyms is a TV that posts the top five lifters for the Squat, Bench, Press and Deadlift at that particular gym and also across all gyms in the country. I'm always surprised at how often I find lifters staring at the board and finding it motivating instead of soul crushing. Lifters actively talk about wanting to make it up there and how the number 5 position is only x pounds more than they're currently lifting. It's really fun to watch lifters set goals for themselves and of course, even better when they reach them and make new goals.
Currently, the oldest gyms dominate the boards (Austin, Dallas, Denver, Houston), but we're looking forward to see Boise, Boston, OKC, and Plano get on the boards as well. Get hustlin' guys. There are more gyms in the pipeline.
One sad thing is that if you are a gym member on the boards, when you go on staff, they take you off. Ask me how I know.
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Simple and Effective
Monica has been lifting with us at Starting Strength Austin for 8 weeks. In that time, she's made phenomenal progress on her lifts and is already seeing changes in how her clothes fit.
Simple linear progression on a few compound lifts --
| Lift |
Starting weight |
End Weight |
|---|
| Squat |
85 |
165 |
| Press |
45 |
85 |
| Bench |
70 |
110 |
| Deadlift |
130 |
235 |
My favorite part is that she got lifting shoes right away. 
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Gym social
This weekend, Starting Strength Austin members met up at Deep Eddy to hang out as the weather here has turned temperate -- only the 80s! Do you see the sweatshirts and flannels?!
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The apprentices must find the coaches
This is me and Adam Oliver. We carpooled to WFAC for the October Starting Strength Seminar. Adam coaches under Andrew Lewis, opening SS Indianapolis. One of the coolest things about Adam was hearing his near term plans to drive within a multi-hour radius of his home town in Ohio to meet up with other SS coaches and apprentices. I agree with Adam that seeing different SS coaches coach is part of the learning process. I didn't travel as much while an apprentice because quite a few SS coaches have led sessions at Starting Strength Austin over the past 2.5 years, but all of those opportunities were important.
Keep an eye on Adam, he's good a good thing going.
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Day of the Deadlift
In keeping with gym tradition, we hosted the Dia de los Muertos Deadlift Challenge again this year. We had about two dozen lifters show up and set individual PRs. Here are fun shots of our lifters Chip and Brian (These aren't their max lifts, just their best angles.) --
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Improving quality of life
Our lifter Lara again. She’s a mechanical engineer who designs/redesigns labs and classrooms at UT. Recently, she had to run around campus with a ladder, and she reported that getting it set up was noticeably easier now.
One thing I've always said is that 3 months of training for strength improves the quality of life for women in a way that's different from the guys. Lara's been lifting with us for just over 3 months, and here we are. Regular tasks in her job are less burdensome and less dangerous for her and others.
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The gym schedule this week.
Thanksgiving: closed
Friday: 10am-2pm, coaches will be there, members may drop in without signing up for a slot.
Saturday: regular class schedule & BodySpec DXA truck visiting.
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First woman to 315
On Friday, Heather squatted 315 for a single. She’s our first woman to do so. She came to Starting Strength Austin with no athletic background 6 months ago. Simple novice linear progression, incremental programming changes by Mark Diffley, and consistent hard work produced this impressive achievement. A big congratulations to her.
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Just the Tip Tuesdays
On Tuesdays, our intrepid coach Aaron Fredericks posts a tip on all things gym. Check them out here -- Login • Instagram
He documents his workouts and antics at Login • Instagram, arguably the more entertaining of the two.
This guy has great pearls of wisdom-ish:
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