Starting Strength is good for athletes, Stronglifts for powerlifters or weightlifters and Powerlifting AI for individuals who want to go pro right from the start. Choose wisely between these so that you stick with your training for a long time. This is the main factor for success.

 

 

Before we go into the details of powerlifting programs for beginners, let me ask you a couple of questions:

 

 

These questions are essential for your personal success and failure. Research shows that people who write down their goals and reflect on them are more likely to make them a reality. When was the last time you did this? Can you even remember? If you can not it is the time to get a pen and paper and start. Many people go about their lives like this:

 

 

This will confuse you on a daily basis. What you want changes hundreds of times a day. Between family, friends and work it can become challenging to decide what you actually want when you juggle all the different balls. Making what you want the center of attention will lead you to spread your resources thin and scatter your time between too many activities. The results will be frustration and misery. Something interesting will happen when you flip the running order of these questions on their head:

 

 

This way you will focus on your life goals. Your thoughts and actions will become more connected and success will follow. If you want to know how this works on a psychological level read Daniel Kahneman's thinking fast and slow. Simon Sinek's Ted talk on the golden circle will change your life. 

 

It all starts with better habits and rituals which will make you do more in less time. A great way of making these changes is to keep a journal. I have been using the self journal from best self for two years now. Since then my marriage and salary have dramatically improved. You can check it out via this link.

 

 

Powerlifting is the sport of the total. Your total consists of three lifts. These three lifts are the bench press, squat, and deadlift. For each lift, you get three attempts to establish your best weight. The best attempt for each lift is counted towards your total. Based on your total you will be ranked against your competitors.

 

A big difference in lifting weights in the gym is that you will be judged. Three referees will observe your performance from different angles. They decide whether your actions comply with the standards of the federation you are competing in. Two out of three have to agree for your attempt to qualify. You need at least one qualifying attempt for each lift to make it on the board. Otherwise, you will be disqualified.

 

Your total usually splits into 40/40/20. Your squat and deadlift contribute 40 percent each while the bench press adds up to 20 percent. Keep a good pair of legs at the ready if you want to go far in powerlifting. 

 

To make it to a meet beginners often ask what kind of program they should go on. Here are some examples. 

 

What most beginners programs have in common is the concept of linear progression. This basically means that you will increase the weight you use for each exercise in each session. Beginner programs usually have no inbuilt recovery cycle as you do not accumulate enough fatigue to warrant one. This might seem like a lot of jargon to you. Bottom line is a good beginner program starts you at very low weight and increase each workout. If it already has a deload inbuilt without you failing any reps, it is possibly not a beginner program.

 

Starting Strength is one of the two most popular programs you can find for beginners to do without a coach. This program has been designed by Mark Rippetoe and is laid out in detail in his book with the same title. Starting Strength works with sets of fives on the following exercises: 

 

 

It is mainly aimed at the collegiate and high school football players to start them on their strength journey. 

 

The pros of starting Strength are that it is relatively simple and written by a highly acclaimed Strength coach. It has the necessary underbelly to be taken seriously and is easy to follow, once you understand the instructions. 

 

The cons of the starting Strength program are that it is no inbuilt autoregulation and the instructions can be convoluted. Autoregulation means that you automatically push yourself on good days and regulate the volume down on bad days. This also regulates for different athletes. The basic starting Strength template does not allow for that. Everybody is treated the same which means it is more likely for you specifically to under or overtrain on Starting Strength. Rippetoe also has a writing style which can sometimes be hard to follow. 

 

Stronglifts 5x5 is the other famous beginner program on the market. Stronglifts has you train three days a week. The exercises you perform are:

 

 

With this, it has a slightly bigger bias towards powerlifting than starting Strength. You also work with sets of fives. 

 

The strengths of Stronglifts are its simple app and instructions. You will always know whether you are progressing well and what to do next on the program. The downsides of the program are the lack of auto-regulation and the tendency to pay too little attention to form and theory. While Mark Rippetoe overplays the importance of proper technique and building blocks of strength a little Mehdi does not pay enough attention to it. Mark writes for the trainer giving too much technical context which can confuse a beginner. Mehdi gives too little context in the technical department which leaves beginners exposed to teeing up their technique poorly for y wards to come. 

 

A good fix is to download the app for Stronglifts and get starting Strength as a book. This way you will start easy and can go deeper at the same time in the literature.

 

Powerlifting to win is a website which analyses and compares most of the standard programs out there solely based on the fact whether they make you successful for powerlifting. Mark Rippetoe gets more credit from this website than Mehdi with his Stronglifts program. However due to their lack of autoregulation both programs are deemed suboptimal to get the best out of you for powerlifting. Therefore powerlifting to win offers their program on the website which is based on sets of five without deloads but adds autoregulation into the mix. To me, the program looks solid if you are really committed and know your own limits ( so if you are an adult use this if you are a teenager use starting Strength or Stronglifts). 

 

All the programs I mentioned before are free. Powerlifting AI comes in at a cost of $27 a month. For this, you will be coached if some of the most respected strength coaches in the world. Your templates will be auto-generated and tailored to your input. If you can afford it, I would definitely recommend you to get onto this. 

 

There are many more options than I have outlined here. All of these here I have tried myself and can vouch for. If you stick to them they all make you stronger. You will just set a certain nuance where you emphasize your training by holding one of these variations.