There are many well known gyms on James Island, but few that claim the distinction of being a Starting Strength coach. Starting Strength is a dynamic, comprehensive training regimen combining barbell exercises, long ranges of motion and progressive overload to help you adapt and increase strength. Here’s a basic rundown of Starting Strength’s features and advantages.
Safe, Flexible & Effective
Starting Strength is easily adapted to the fitness needs of novices, experienced lifters, exercise enthusiasts and older individuals just wanting to get in great shape. It represents the distillation of decades of wisdom gleaned through the work and training of competitive powerlifter turned Olympic weightlifting coach turned gym owner Mark Rippetoe.
Starting Strength consists of three basic phases, each one spanning whatever amount of time you require to burst through a given plateau. Each phase calls for three days per week of workouts, with Workout A and Workout B falling on alternating days.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday (or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday), you do Workout A, Workout B and Workout A, respectively. The following week, you do Workout B, Workout A and Workout B, etc.
The Principal of Progressive Overload
Starting Strength specifically calls for participants to complete the Holy Grail of weightlifting: bench press, overhead press, squat and deadlift. Each exercise recruits a wide array of primary and secondary muscle groups (including your core), letting you target your entire body to build sheer, raw power.
Starting Strength’s four basic compound exercises receive enhanced efficacy through progressive overload, an old, tried and true bodybuilding principal. With progressive overload, you consistently lift higher amounts of pounds to challenge and grow muscular definition, size and strength. Dending on your age and fitness level, you add 2.5 to 10 or more pounds to each exercise at each session.
By Phase 3, you incorporate other exercises and higher barbell weight in goal-specific increments to stay on target. Each phase can span weeks or months, so you and your coach can tailor workouts and phases to your body type, genetics, exercise experience and goals.
Visit CoxBarbell.com, the online home of Cox Barbell, one of the few private personal training gyms on James Island and South Carolina’s first and only Starting Strength coach.
