Develop Your Own Community to Become a Stronger and Better Lifter

by Wade Stokes | December 23, 2025

There are many of us who
do Starting Strength outside of a Starting Strength gym, on our own,
or with a few companions who have also fallen into this maddening and
addictive Program. In Europe, where I live, it is even harder than in
the US to follow Starting Strength on your own. Europe holds one
affiliated Starting Strength gym in Brussels Barbell, a gym in
Belgium led by SSC Coach Steve Ross. The directory for coaches
currently shows five coaches in Europe, including two in Belgium
(Steve and Francesco de Caro), one in the UK (Byron Johnston), one in
France (Carl Raghavan, the traveling coach who could be anywhere),
and one in Portugal (Pedro Pereira).

Since I started
following Starting Strength three years ago while living in Tallinn,
Estonia, the books and website and camps and online coaches have
helped me learn and get stronger, but by far the biggest contributor
to my success is the community of friends and fellow lifters that I
have developed along the way. Allow me to explain how I have built up
my community, and maybe those of you far from the nearest Starting
Strength gym might be able to pick up some tips that will help you
build your own community to get even stronger.

Step
One: Educate yourself

To build a community,
you first need to build up your own knowledge. I got started in
lifting because at 57 years old, my lower back was giving me fits
despite all the cardio and swimming I was doing. My friend Jason
introduced me to squats and deadlifts and gave some initial coaching,
and my lower back pain disappeared. Intrigued, I started prowling the
web and found Starting Strength. 

Then, I went a little
crazy in my deep dive into the Program. I bought the three main
books, watched I think all the online videos, and listened to the
back catalogue of podcasts. I went to a squat, press, and deadlift
camp at Brussels Barbell led by Steve Ross, and he agreed to be my
online coach after. I even combined a trip back to Dallas for a
high-school reunion with a pilgrimage to Wichita Falls to attend the
Seminar. I was hooked, and I became an evangelist for anyone who
wanted to fix their lower back and get strong.

Then,
start with friends. Preferably those who lift

Two of my closest
friends in Tallinn are David and Jason. We have had a shared history
in Estonia since the 1990s and have been to each other’s weddings.
Our ages are from 50 to 61.

Jason has been
powerlifting for over a decade, and he was the one who first
introduced me to squats and deadlifts. David had never done barbell
training before a couple of years ago, but problems with a hip and a
knee had been ruining his sleep and keeping him from going all out in
downhill skiing, his true passion.

David started lifting
because he saw how much better my quality of life was after I
started. And, I think he just got tired of me praising squats and
deadlifts and Starting Strength every chance I could get. So, he
started with a little coaching from Jason and I, and he quickly
realized that lifting could give him better sleep and enable him to
ski faster than his teenage boys for at least another decade.

Lure
your friends deeper into Starting Strength

What finally cemented
our little Community was when we decided to take a guy’s trip to
Brussels to attend a Squat, Press, and Deadlift camp at Brussels
Barbell. A full day of lifting followed by a gourmet meal was enough
to entice us all away from wives and children for a weekend. Jason
even promised to learn conventional deadlifts at the event, having
pulled “sumo” only for the previous decade.

Before the trip, we had
even gotten some swag to wear in Brussels. Inspired by the wild boars
that roam Estonia’s forests, we named ourselves the “Wild Boar
Barbell Club” and even bought T-shirts and hoodies with a logo
designed and bought from the lowest bidder on a job tasks website.

Since that trip to
Brussels, we have been lifting now together for around two years. We
live in different parts of Tallinn, and most of the time we don’t
even work out together. However, through a group chat and shared
photos and videos, we provide each other support and advice.

We post important sets,
including PR attempts. And we support each other on our
accomplishments. We encourage each other both to go bigger as well as
hold each other back from doing stupid shit.

Coaching and form checks
work because we all went to the camp in Brussels and can speak the
same language. A year ago, I had started developing a little knee
slide, and David reminded me about the video on TUBOW. And a couple of us have
needed Nick Delgadillo’s article on how to avoid elbow pain from
squatting which I can attest works
like a miracle.

As middle-aged guys with
families, life often intervenes in our lifting. We might have a week
or two or three in the year without lifting. I have found that some
of the best advice from my friends is the practical support around
how to restart a “mini” Novice Linear Progression after a few
weeks off. In addition, we also help each other out on transitions to
new training plans, for example transitioning from three to two days
a week, increasing weights every other week versus every week, or
choosing among variants of a four-day split. We quote the books at
each other in these discussions and arguments – unfortunately, in
almost all cases, Rip is right and we are wrong. Or we have just
misread the books.

Most importantly, we
call each other out on squat depth. Everybody’s form can
deteriorate over time, and sometimes you need your friends to lay
down the law and tell you that the five-rep PR you posted doesn’t
count because the last two reps were too high. Your Community is only
a Community if they call you out and keep you honest.

Don’t
be afraid to reach out wider for advice

In one of his 61
articles on the website, Starting Strength Coach Carl Raghavan
mentioned that he was in Tallinn, Estonia. I cold called him and
ended up meeting him the next day for a beer and a few burgers. I
learned so much from that conversation. Just talking with a Starting
Strength coach in a social setting gets you invaluable great advice.
I only hope my advice on my favorite spots in Tallinn made it worth
his while. (Though I still think I owe him for the burgers – next
time, Carl.) 

While I am currently
lifting light while recovering from shoulder surgery, I have gotten
the online help of Starting Strength Coach Pedro Pereira, who works
out of a gym on the Algarve coast in Portugal. How did this
connection happen? I met Pedro at Brussels Barbell, where he did his
apprenticeship before earning his coaching certification in Wichita
Falls. The connections in your Community will always increase if you
just reach out.

How
to widen your Community

Carl Raghavan’s
favorite gym in Tallinn is Sparta, which is a real barbell mecca in
the Baltics. However, I go to a gym near my flat called MyFitness
that is more convenient for me. In some ways, though, I feel like I
am spreading the Starting Strength gospel more by working out in a
more conventional commercial gym.

When Jason and David and
I manage to work out together, and when we are all at a good point in
our programming, we can wow normal gym-goers. Seeing three older guys
repping 150kg (330lb) and over squats when the 25-year-olds can’t
break 100kg (220lb) raises both eyebrows and furtive questions about
how we are able to do that.

Also, we wear the swag.
From the Seminar, I brought back three green T-shirts emblazoned with
Rip’s mug and the tagline “I am the science.” Even in the
Baltics, gym-goers know Rip, and conversations start from that.

At my local gym, I never
pass up the opportunity to talk about Starting Strength, and some of
these conversations have turned into longer-term gym relationships –
even a little form checks or coaching here and there. 

Your
Community will grow organically

It’s worth calling out
here a few of the key people in our little Community. From a
conversation on the T-shirts, we met a German lifter at our gym in
Tallinn. Dieter, a 2.05m (6’9”) amateur basketball player, had
heard about Starting Strength and even visited Brussels Barbell once
for a form check. To get ready for his masters league here in
Tallinn, Dieter has been using Steve Ross as an online coach. With
Dieter in the gym, it’s always fun to see a heavy squat unfolding
from a body that size. Gargantuan. We also can rely on him for form
checks and advice when we are working out together as we all speak
the same language now. Again, you must call out squat depth on your
mates – it’s the primary rule.

Gary is another American
in Tallinn who has so far resisted the call to join officially the
Wild Boar Barbell Club. However, Gary has needed some additional
strength for his masters hockey. While his bench was good for his
body weight, Gary felt like he needed more strength in his hips and
thighs to improve his skating. I have managed to get Gary into squats
and deadlifts. One great thing about attending the Starting Strength
seminar is you learn how to coach each lift and get practical
experience in coaching on the platform, even if you are not going for
the coaching certification. So, I felt comfortable enough to coach
Gary on the basics of how to do the lifts. And, I meet up with him
for workouts every so often so I can give form checks as best I can.
In the three or four months since he started lifting, Gary has
noticed a remarkable change in his skating and with his lower back
pain.

While Gary and Dieter
are the auxiliary members in our little Community, a few of the
younger guys at the gym have shown enough interest in what we are
doing that I am positive that our Community will grow even wider.

Don’t
forget to inspire the next generation

Both my kids played
sports growing up. My daughter even started working out in gyms and
running on her own near the end of high school. In her first two
years at university, my daughter ran half-marathons and marathons.

However, she had seen me
lifting and saw the impact that had on my life. One of my proudest
moments was when told me two years ago that she had joined her
university’s Olympic lifting team, and that she was planning to
compete at the Scottish University Games the following spring. My
family has another lifter! Now I just need to lure my son into the
“family business.”

Your Community will
become an important part of your life

Over the past three
years, I have been lucky enough to lift in different gyms around the
world. While in Chicago to support my daughter running the marathon
this year, I traded Starting Strength arcana with another follower in
a hotel’s basement gym that surprisingly had a squat rack. Perhaps
my craziest gym of late was an open-air gym above a bar in the
Galápagos
Islands, where the walk from the squat rack to the bar was maybe ten
meters. David has told me stories about the old school gym in New
Hampshire where he goes on his summer vacations where the Word of Rip
is known. Even if there are no Starting Strength gyms near you, there
will be a barbell gym with people who have heard of the Program. My
green T-shirt is the most traveled item of clothing I have because
Rip’s mug sparks conversations all over the globe.

David, Jason, and I
would be friends all the same even if we weren’t lifting. But lifting
has bonded us more than any other activity we have done together, and
we are building a Community in Tallinn around it. In our middle age,
we are staving off death together, one gym session at a time.

Learn the method, lure
your friends in, and build your own Starting Strength Community, no
matter where you live or how far from a Starting Strength gym you
are. Your strength and your lifting will only improve.