I started Starting Strength [SS] right before wrapping up my black belt training at 23 years old. I wasn't new to weight training, but I was new to the kind of focused, goal-oriented endeavor of barbell training introduced in Starting Strength. The only other program I performed with a degree of consistency was Jim Stoppani's Shortcut To Size program, when I was 20. I thought that program was amazing at the time (I gained nearly 20 pounds and was very lean at 160) but I injured my shoulder mid-program on a 185 pound bench press. After my shoulder injury, I never worked out consistently for over a month at a time, and my diet was never great. My form for all major lifts was abominable, which is why I sustained multiple tweaks and injuries thought my time lifting before SS.

I discovered SS when I was 23 and researching lifting through various websites. The website that referenced SS was called "A Workout Routine", and I decided to give it a shot. At this point I had become more familiar with the major lifts through trial and error (I had pulled hamstrings, shoulder pains, and pulled my hip adductors doing lifts incorrectly) and had looked into various accounts of correct form on a fairly superficial level. I was unable to do true squats or deadlifts in the gym I started the program in, but with the amount of Taekwondo training I was doing, I found it difficult to keep up with recovery in SS and my joints were not feeling optimal. Due to these influences and a need to practice even more, I did SS for a month with great results on Bench Press and Press, but quit within a month of my Black Belt testing. Two months later, I began the program again with equipment that allowed for squats and deadlifts, and my numbers soared. I had gotten to 205X5X3 on bench before I quit the first time, but in 4 months I worked up to 240X5X3, my squat got to 280X5X3, and my deadlift was at 340X5. I weighed 175, 25 pounds heavier than when I began, and still fairly lean. I imagine that I would have made many more gains if I had optimal access to food and gained more weight, but that isn't how it worked out for me.

I began to have knee pain during squatting due to forward dips with the bar on the way out of the hole and not having my feet pointed correctly. It took a while for my knees to heal but in the meantime I focused on increasing my deadlift since I was able to train it with a fresher back and hamstrings. So instead of moving to an intermediate program, I continued the novice program and got what I could out of it for deadlift. I had been training with sets of 3 reps on my Press to drive gains for a substantial amount of time, and began squeezing what I could out of my bench with sets of 5. After a month of this training, my bench halted at 245 for a set of 5, and I got to deadlift 355 lbs for 5 reps before I stopped making progress at 360 lbs.

I'd been having financial problems and decided it would be responsible for me to drop my gym membership and begin calisthenic and cardio-oriented training, which ruined months of hard-earned progress with little benefit to my body's function. I had to redo much of my novice phase (although I progressed more with it the second time and got to remaster lifting techniques). Now I've progressed to a training split routine. I attempted the Texas Method a few times, but concluded that it requires more experience than what I have to guide progress. I bought Programming For Strength a long time ago, and am using one of the programs used as an example (upper/lower split, bench and press twice a week). I've benched 255 for 5 reps at 165 lbs, my squat is back to where it was pre-injury, and my deadlift (which got weaker due to not training squat) is feeling great. I currently weigh 170.

Starting Strength has changed my approach to barbell training and -I must admit this cliched testimonial phrase with all seriousness- it has changed my life. It's kept me sane the past 1.5 years, and now I am working toward a personal training certification with my experience doing SS and learning from Rip's books at my core. It's where it all began for me, and it's taken my superficial knowledge of lifting to greater heights and guided my journey to being stronger. Would 10/10 recommend to a friend.

I'd tell anyone who's starting to do SS to do a few things. First, buy the SS books and read them. Secondly, implement the techniques the books hold. I haven't gotten information pertaining to barbell training that's better than SS in any of my PT books so far.