I frequently encounter people who tell me about their failed attempts at completing a novice strength program like Starting Strength or StrongLifts. They were expecting to make progress for 4-6 months but instead hit a plateau within 4-8 weeks of training. In this post, I will explain why that is and offer some advice on how you can adjust your programming to make more sustained progress on a novice strength program.

A good strength training program will incorporate four basic movement patterns: a hinge, a squat, an upper body pull and an upper body push. Of these, priority is given to those exercises that utilize a full range of motion, admit of incremental loading, lack artificial limiters, and have the greatest carry over to daily life.

Strength is an adaptation. It is the body’s response to certain stressors that we place on it. When the stress is sufficient, the body responds and adapts. When the stress is insufficient or excessive, the desired adaptation does not occur. Programming is all about identifying the appropriate dose of stress to apply to trigger the desired adaptation.

…the stress of a one-rep max is too great to recover from. It does not constitute a good training stimulus, but a performance. In other words, it tells us how strong we are, but it does not make us stronger. The appropriate dose for strength training must be something that the body can quickly recover from and adapt to.