My final results from Starting Strength LP

I just finished up Starting Strength LP and I thought I'd post my final results since I made pretty good progress. Originally I posted this under "Training Logs", but decided that it should have gone here instead. Here's a little background info about me. I'm a 48 year old male who's been lifting weights on and off most of my life, although I never did a linear progression (just mainly bodybuilding bullshit), so I thought that maybe SSLP would work for me. I was also a runner prior to my starting this program, but I stopped running when I began. This is why my bodyweight was so low when I started. Also, I managed to get 36 weeks (9 months) out of the program, but the last few months it was heavily modified because all my lifts didn't stall at the same time, so I had to accommodate. My squat was the first to stall and in the 25th week I added a light day on the squat on Wednesday. In the 31st week I added a medium day to the squat on Friday (so it was basically intermediate programming for the squat at that point). All my other lifts were still progressing and I milked every last pound I could by decreasing my jumps by a half pound at a time, until I got down to 1 lb jumps.

I really tried to follow the program exactly as it's written. I didn't change a thing and I never missed a workout. I read the book and watched most of the videos in order to make sure my form was correct. I video recorded all of my sets to make sure my form was on point (like getting squat depth). The only problem I had was with the Power Clean...I tried for 4 months to get the technique down, and I could never get over 135lbs. It just would not progress. Finally, I gave up and substituted the Barbell Row....but I didn't feel good about doing it. I figured maybe I'm just too damn old for it anyway. Maybe if I had a coach I would have been able to get the form down.

I also made sure my nutrition was good and ate a lot of brown rice, pinto beans, chicken, potatoes, salad, eggs, oatmeal, etc. I didn't do GOMAD because I knew I would gain weight when I stopped running. I cooked in bulk, so I would have meals for the whole week. I also took Creatine monohydrate (5gr/day). I gained a lot of mass, and not that much bodyfat. I was really lean when I started because of the running and was probably around 10%, and now I measured with calipers and I'm at 20%.

I'd like to give a shout out to Mark Rippitoe for putting together such a great program, with a great book, and great videos. I just wish I had this info when I was in my 20's. I'm very happy with my results, and I'm really surprised it lasted so long for me. Maybe because I have been so active earlier in my life. Let me add also that I've been accused of using steroids.

I'm currently doing Andy Baker's Garage Gym Warrior program and I'll post the results I get from that when I finish. Let me know what you think.


Age: 48
Height: 5'-9"
Bodyweight: 167lbs-215lbs (48 lb gain)
Duration: 36 weeks (9 months)
Squat: 195-375 (180 lb gain 5RM), 425 1RM
Deadlift: 195-395 (200 lb gain 5RM), 445 1RM
Bench: 145-235 (90 lb gain 5RM), 260 1RM
Press: 95-173.5 (78.5 lb gain 5RM), 200 1RM

It's so refreshing to see someone get down to business and do the program as written. Unfortunately - this is extremely rare. Well done sir

Thanks for the thumbs up Ryan!

This is a fantastic testimonial. I went and crunched some numbers with an online estimator, and it looks like you put on about thirty pounds of lean mass in nine months at age 48, which anyone in a gym or on the internet will tell you is impossible, but here we are. You must feel awesome at 215 and 20% body fat. Congratulations on doing the program almost-as-written and getting the results you deserve. I wish the rest of us had half as much sense. Good luck in your future training, hope to hear more good news.