Dear Mr. Rippetoes,

I am a Starting Strength practitioner in Vietnam. Perhaps unlike in the United States, in Vietnam, the sport of powerlifting is still something quite new and was just introduced to the country in recent years. Hence there will be even fewer people who know about Starting Strength and Strength lifting (Squat, overhead press, conventional deadlift). According to my observations, the practitioners of powerlifting and strength lifting in Vietnam are still a quite minority. Since in Vietnam most people go to the gym to do exercises with the machines and have the strong belief that abs are cools and squat, deadlift are bad for the back and knee. Furthermore, most gyms lack the necessary equipment for Strength lifting. In order to give you an idea, the majority of gyms in Vietnam or in Hanoi where I live, the gyms will be like somewhat like Planet Fitness gym but on a smaller scale and not as modern. (I have never been to the US and have never been to planet fitness.) I mean, most gyms here have almost no squat rack and some might have a platform for deadlift.
I still remember that I knew Starting Strength because at that time of 2018 when I moved to a new gym in Hanoi and that new gym had a platform deadlift that my old gym didn't have. So like most people, at first I also think that deadlift and squats are not good for knees and back and I was afraid of practicing but the sport. Then, out of curiosity and because I wanted to be healthier, I went online and found out about Alan Thrall, Stronglifts and to Starting Strength. I also tried doing training program of Stronglifts by recording myself and watching form checks videos on various forums online to learn from other people and to improve my posture. But a short time of practicing Stronglift 5 * 5, I developed some knee tendinitis. I think it's because the volume of squats is too heavy to recover from 5 sets 5 sets for three sessions a week. Then I stopped squatting for about 5 months while doing only deadlift. When I switched to Starting Strength, despite being a self-taught and mostly study videos online, I found that I no longer had knee pain. (Thank you Mr.Rip). I never have back pain with the deadlifting as I was always doing the starting strength 5 steps set up for the deadlift. I think Starting Strength is the best strength training program available for beginners. A little bit of information about me when I started starting Strength training was that I was male, 26 years old and had never been lifting weights before.
I really want to say thank you for enlightening me so many things. When I started starting strength I really felt a noticeable change in my body. And not only physically, I have been suffering depression before and strengthlifting has not lift me physically but also mentally. Remember when I first learned about starting strength, I was somewhat quite suspicious. When I first saw the videos "Why you should not be running" video from Mr.Rip, I was quite skeptical, thinking to myself what is this man saying? All media says that running is good for strength and health but he is suggesting the opposite. But then, when I learned more about starting strength philosophy, I listened to Jordan Feigenbaum's lecture as well as reading about articles on Starting Strength website (Jonathon Sullivan, Bill Starr, Jim Steel…) I then understood that running is not effective in strengthening your legs as the squat. And squat is by far the Best training exercise for cardiovascular system and Central Nervous System. Thank you for enlightening me to the effect of these exercises Mr.Rippetoes. Frankly, I can’t thank you enough.

I also read Mr.Jonathon Sullivan article “Barbell is big medicine” and when I finished it I felt like I had found a true youth fountain. I also liked the other many other articles such as "Choose the less traveled path" by Bill star. I also read the life changing stories of many other people practicing starting strength. I find great stories and thoughts so I always think I need to write something even if my story has nothing special like many other people on this forum who have to go through cancer treatment or accidents. I want to write something to thank you and let you know your stories and knowledge have positive effect on people. To finish I want to quote Mr.Rippetoes “Physical strength is the most important thing in life”.

Duong Nguyen