Reply With QuoteI think you should buy the starting strength book and read it and then read it again before attempting to lift any weight at all. Do you have a power rack and a bench? If not you're never going to get anywhere.
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Unsure of what to do
Age 14, H/W 5'11 170lbs.
So for the past few weeks İ've had this idea of wanting to get really strong.. With the help of curiosity and google, I managed to find out about Starting Strength. I've looked through the program and watched How to videos that Art of Manliness put up for the barbell exercises. A few months back my dad got me second hand weight plates (70kg all up) a barbell which weighs about 10 kilos so it's not an olympic one and dumbells. So I tried doing all the lifts as explained in the videos with just the bar and not sure if I should start adding weight and try to get heavy without a strength coach to improve my form and see what I'm doing wrong. Do I start with bodyweight exercises and then move onto try adding weight to the bar?
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I think you should buy the starting strength book and read it and then read it again before attempting to lift any weight at all. Do you have a power rack and a bench? If not you're never going to get anywhere.
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Man Up "Little" brother
Originally Posted by BenBoskovski
You will need access to a squat rack, bench, plates and a 45Lb bar. If you don't have these things or cannot arrange your life as to have access to them, you're not going to be very successful at the Starting Strength Program. That being said, if there is a golds gym or an LA fitness with lifting platforms and barbells you should be able to make progress on the starting strength, novice, linear progression program.
That being said, You're 14 years old! Don't let being really zealous to get strong lead you to make a reckless decision (like breaking your body with bad form.) Get a summer Job mowing grass or working at SubWay and save up a couple hundred dollars. Shell out the dough and get one of the SS coaches on this forum with experience coaching youths to coach you. It sounds like your dad is trying to be supportive. Set some goals, Develop a plan to achieve the, then go to him like and man and ask him to help. (That help may take the form of rides back and forth to your new job or just purchasing the Starting strength Book on Amazon for you.) BTW, the book is $15 brand new. This might be a great and inexpensive way to show that you are serious about it. Even if he says "No" at least you will have shown him that you are trying to move and function like a man in an adult world.
Where there is a will, there is a way. But you've got to have the will. So, not to sound like an asshole here but, "Man the Eff up little brother!!"(I am 5' 11" 33 Y/O and weight 230Lbs hence little) You can do it.
In the mean time, do what you can with what you have. Begin practicing form on the squat, press and deadlift with the gear your dad bought you(hint hint: possibly another way to show your serious). You can find some excellent resource videos on YouTube. Tons by Mark Rippetoe himself as well as other SSC's (Starting Strength Coaches). Also, look Alan Thrall of Untamed Strength. He bases most of his new how-to vids on the Starting Strength and has been getting coached by SSC Austin Baraki for the past year or so now. Watch them, practice the form and it'll give you a head start on learning the material before you get the book. Also, if you have an iPhone, look into the SS podcast. Full of great info.
Happy Training,
~Dan
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buy the book or at least download it illegally then buy a few copies years later when you have money to make up for it. then read it cover to cover several times
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That is stealing from Rip, it would be better to steal it from a bookstore so Rip still gets his cut, grab some porno mags while you are at it. Ohh and use a gun when you do the robbery.
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Soooo... probably not the best advice to give to a 14 year old. I recognize that you were joking but teens are susceptible to bad advice.
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Hey thanks for your awesome reply! I'm already on a Starting Strength video spree working from the first videos to the latest. I'll also look up Alan Thrall. About the book, there's a free pdf online which I began reading but it's the 2nd edition. Do you still prefer me getting the latest edition on amazon?
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