December 29, 2025
EOY Edition
On Starting Strength
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Building Your Gym –
Rip and Rusty discuss how to equip a personal gym. -
Develop Your Own Community to Become a Stronger and Better Lifter by Wade Stokes –
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… -
Forearm Position in the Bench –
Rusty explains how the position of the forearm/elbow is selected for strength development while avoiding impingement at the shoulder. -
Numbers by Andrew Gogerty –
Numbers are strange. We treat them as logical and objective, but most of us have an emotional relationship with them we rarely admit to. We like roundness, symmetry, familiarity… -
Mental Toughness by Mark A Chidley –
Since following the Starting Strength program starting in June of 2015, I’ve had some interesting connective experiences to my day-to-day work that led to further reflections I’d like to share here… - Weekend Archives:
Training and the Artificial Joint by John Petrizzo –
This article is intended to serve as a guide for those of you who may be considering having a joint replaced, are training with an artificial joint, or are responsible for the training… - Weekend Archives:
New Year’s Resolutions and Your Lazy Ass by Mark Rippetoe –
The “New Year’s Resolution” must be one of the most ridiculous of human customs. You identify a problem you’re having, and then you wait until January 1 of the next year to address it…
In the Trenches
Jacquie sets a 1 rep 250lb squat PR at Starting Strength Boston. She’s in her 60s (but is 35 of anyone asks). [photo courtesy of Michael Shammas]
Get Involved
Best of the Week
Slightly Torn Pec
Robert D
33 5’5″ ~190
Squat 500
Bench 330
Press 225
Deadlift 525
Not an SSC, but I work at one of the gyms
I slightly tore my pec going for 335, there’s no physical deformity so I doubt its tendon related and I’m confident its just muscle belly. I have some light bruising around the armpit where I felt the tear, and some yellowy color along the outside edge of the pec going down
I can do all of the other lifts without any real issue, just some tenderness on press
It happened a few days ago and I did 95x10x5 today to start rehabbing it.
Now my question is less related to the Starr Rehab method and more directed at the application:
I looked at my grip (with video) after the fact, and saw that it was a bit wide, my grip was slightly outside being perpendicular at the bottom
My question is: should I use that same slightly wide grip to rehab it? or should I bring my grip in a bit (like I’m planning to in the future) for rehab?
My concern is the range of motion will be different and I’ll end up with scar tissue by rehabbing it with too close of a grip. I know closer grip means longer range of motion, but the stretch at the bottom is different hence my confusion
Mark Rippetoe
Use the correct grip (the Book) to rehab the tear, and keep that as your form going forward. There is a reason we recommend this grip width.
Robert D
Thanks Rip, I’d imagine my grip has just creeped outwards over time. That answer is what I expected, just wanted to confirm
Best of the Forum
are my numbers good enough to compete?
sirlinx
So I just finished my LP with the only lift still going up being the deadlift, but because squatting 3x a week made me very tired and unable to process work (I work in front of a computer all day and my mind was not all there, feeling much better now that I’ve moved on) I decided to move on from my LP altogether. I’m mostly wondering because I’m starting to want to compete, there’s a competition in the end of the year for just deadlifts, but I always thought my numbers were still poor especially when compared to things I see online. I just wanted to see where I was at and searched for strength standards online and came across two tables (one from SS), both tables are telling me I’m either late intermediate or pre advanced, which I find hard to believe since Monday of last week I was still running my LP. Now I ran a calculator to get my PR’s, this is because I’ve never actually tried to lift singles and see what my PR was before, so I will post my actual working numbers as well as the calculator’s estimation. Are these good numbers to start competing?
I’m 42
165cm – 5’5
bodyweight 75kg – 165 lbs
actual working numbers:
squat – 3×5 141kg / 310.2 lbs
press – 3×5 60kg / 132 lbs
bench – 3×12 71kg / 156.2 lbs (I was benching mostly for hypertrophy because I benched at home alone and not at the gym)
deadlift – 5 reps of 152kg / 334.4 lbs
calculator estimations for PR:
squat – 159kg / 349.8 lbs
press – 68kg / 149.60 lbs
bench – 102kg / 224.4
deadlift – 171 kg 376.2 lbs
Mark Rippetoe
I don’t understand your question. If you want to go to a meet, it doesn’t matter what your numbers are because you are going to get beaten the first few times you enter. Competition motivates your training, and if you wait until you know you’ll win to enter a meet, you’re not a competitor.
sirlinx
I don’t have any aspirations of winning, I just want to get some experience. But I don’t want to get laughed at either. I have no idea if these numbers are good enough to start competing because I’m the only guy who trains for strength in my gym so there’s nothing to compare them to.
Mark Rippetoe
Then go to a meet and watch. Nobody laughs at anybody who has the balls to enter the meet.
Credit : Source Post
