How should I prepare to do Starting Strength?

I 100% agree with lalochezia's last paragraph. Slow, steady, and don't get into any feedback loop about exercise-related anxiety. How should I look for a good trainer and a good gym? If you've been in my situation, what worked and didn't work for you? I did bodyweight stuff for a while before I ever went to a gym, and I think it was great for building a base of strength. You can do unweighted squats at home, you can replace bench press with pushups or knee-style pushups, and you can deadlift something heavy-ish around the house, like a couple gallon jugs of water or milk. You can do these TODAY! You can do them TONIGHT! You do not need to wait! This is a thing you can accomplish RIGHT AWAY That being said, a good trainer should be able to help you at whatever level you're at. I would just emphasize to the trainer that you've read SS, that you're interested in building strength with good enough form to prevent injury, and that you're completely new to weightlifting. Really emphasize the completely new aspect; a friend of mine injured his knee with just the weight of the bar, so don't be afraid to keep the weights real real light as long as you're doing it consistently. ALSO: I found that what worked for me was making the gym a social situation. That is totally helpful to some people, but it is 100% unhelpful to me. There are many things about exercise that I have discovered are Bad Demons to me: - encouraging words from well-meaning people - paying attention to goals and numbers - comparing my progress to the progress of others or being in any way competitive A lot of people come to gym situations with a background in team sports, and find the above things to help motivate them. But they are poison to my soul, and all of the benefits I have received from exercise have been from solitude, quietness, and focusing on each moment rather than an endpoint. These things may make noise; that's the point. If anything you're going to do is going to get you kicked out, you want it to be now. Yeah, to piggyback on this, Planet Fitness is notorious for allowing very little noise at their gyms. In NYC, I had good luck with both the Y and with a grimy dark gym that was largely used by dudes who looked like sullen bouncers. You might try the Y in Woburn, and see how their weight room looks! I also, coincidentally, just went to Danvers's Boston North Fitness Center, and to Choice Fitness in Haverhill ($15 and $10 day passes for each, respectively, while visiting family in northern MA). Both were very nice with plenty of weights and a couple of squat racks and no one yelling at me when my deadlifts did a big CLANK. If you can't find anything closer, it looks like Boston North Fitness Center is only like 25 minutes away from you!

I *highly* recommend, if you have some $$, to go to a gym where a http://startingstrength.org/index.php/site/coaches is based and do some sessions. Not-naturally-athletic people ususally have poor http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Proprioperception; you can't see and feel what you are doing with new movements, and it is quite difficult, even with videos, to change things well by yourself. My coach did wonders for me; if you're particularly interested in SS, then go to the source. If you are serious about getting stronger, you will need to change your diet up ; that's another post;some good advice above. Some links for more of a deep dive- http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki. http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/forum.php. One thing finally; it is easy to become obsessed with perfect form, perfect efficiency and perfect diet; lots of the literature out there is aimed at proto-athletes or a CEO mindset where every minute is important. For most mortals, developing good habits and self-discipline over the first few months is MUCH more important than perfect form. In other words, don't try and "hack" this to give a quick short term fix, don't beat yourself up over lack of progress (but do work hard on getting better), try to do the exercises regularly, don't rush things - a great way to get injured, and try as hard as possible to stick to reasonable eating habits.

I found that what worked for me was making the gym a social situation. You join a couple of easy classes and just keep showing up for a couple of months. Chat a bit but don't spend a lot of energy at it. Once you're comfortable with the environment you'll have a good idea about what kind of trainer you'll respond to. For flexibility I do gentle yoga, for endurance zumba works. For general warm up I spend time on the rowing machine. For cool down I do treadmill for 10 or 20 minutes. Bring music. Your goals are better formulated after you've incorporated gym time into your regular schedule. Now you can start working up the strength training because the gym becomes another room in your house.

Boy, this is a broad question. It's hard to know what you'll need. Here's the thing, though: just get started as best you can. When you run into trouble, debug the issue and keep going. Step one: get a place to work out. Find a few gyms near home or work, drop by, and ask to see their squat rack. As you know from the book, a Smith machine is unacceptable; you need a power rack or squat rack. Make sure the gym allows deadlifts. Ask to do a trial workout, and then during that trial workout your goal is to be the worst version of yourself that you will ever be. For SS, this means, at a minimum: failing a squat and letting it fall a few inches to the safety rails (this should be faked—don't overload the bar in order to fail), deadlifting and dropping the bar a few inches from the ground on its way down, and doing power cleans. These things may make noise; that's the point. If anything you're going to do is going to get you kicked out, you want it to be now. Step two: start doing the program. Bring your workout notebook, and just do as best you can. If you can, videotape your work sets according to http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showthread.php?t=20249, so you can review your form. While you're at it, reread the book from cover to cover and reread specific sections when you can't remember exactly what correct form is. Step three: make sure you're eating plenty of chicken, steak, pork, eggs, yogurt, and milk. Eat those things first then fill in the rest of your appetite with starches. Try to cut down on deep-fried stuff and sweets. If you're truly unable to cook, start with http://www.silverhydra.com/2011/10/meat-slop/. Step four: pay attention to your body. You almost certainly lack https://vimeo.com/22011422, hamstring flexibility, and mobility in the ankles, hips, and shoulders. Don't freak out about this. Just pay attention, do some research, and look into anything that looks wrong in your form checks. If going to a yoga class (say, twice a week) is easier for you than trying to find and fix these issues yourself, do that. Feel free to (m)email any specific questions.

I tried it roughly a year ago, and read the book, watched the videos, read all the commentary on the books, and wound up with a torn rotator cuff and chronic tendonitis for my troubles, and courted nerve damage by not using a bar-pad for squats (an arm went numb for an hour). You don't generally hear these kinds of stories on the various fitness forums, as folks typically drop out of the iron-pumping game when they're sidelined for a year or more with a nagging injury. Barbell training is not for the uncoached and out of shape beginner, as a small mistake in form can cause long-term injury. It is possible to do it on your own, but the consequences of failure are severe (and expensive, I forked over around grand in medical bills for my trouble). I would strongly suggest that you will need a personal trainer to go through the technique with you and perform corrections on the fly, and asses your condition as you progress. Once you make significant progress, then you can go solo, with occasional checkups. If I were to do it over again, I would begin with bodyweight exercises and resistance bands, then move to dumbells. Some professional athletes (like American Football quarterback Tom Brady) base their entire strength regimen on resistance bands - you don't need to pump iron to get and stay strong. Since I actually am doing it over again, as soon as I get the go-ahead from the ortho, I'll start the Convict Conditioning program, and move from there to a resistance band program.

Back when I did SS, the best prep I did was a squat stretch where you squat down quite low, brace your elbows against the insides of your knees, and push your palms together. The first row of images in a google search all look about right. My partner and I would do three thirty-second stretches like that before we did our squats for the first couple months.

I was a good high school athlete and continue to run distance races and play soccer at a reasonably high level into my early 30s. Starting Strength has been a big part of my training routine for the last few years-I don't directly do the program any more, but circle around through variations. I recommend signing up for ten sessions with a personal trainer-tell them exactly what you told us. You want someone who will evaluate your current physical condition, give you a plan to get you into good enough physical condition to successfully execute Starting Strength, and train you to perform the Starting Strength lifts. Be wary of someone who is trying to shoehorn you into their own plan. It will be hard for you to evaluate what makes a good trainer, but, at your level you'll be looking for someone who is honest and likable and professional and listens to your concerns-that shouldn't be too hard to find, this kind of knowledge isn't too specialized for a personal trainer, so it's more about a personality fit and their general professionalism and work ethic and you should be able to evaluate that part of it at least. For me, even coming from an athletic background, this was invaluable: I have a (known and rehabbed) torn ligament in my left knee that had created a strength imbalance, and I have particularly stiff hips. These issues affected my ability to successfully execute squats and deadlifts, so it was (and is) important to pay special attention to these areas as part of my regular routine. You will have some special circumstances yourself that the trainer will help you to identify. Good luck!

I did the same thing as you (but older). The program will totally help with the back pain as long as you don't create a new injury by doing the lifts wrong with heavy weight. Random observations: Some people will say to get coaching first so you learn it the right way from the start, but in my case it helps more (and is more cost effective) to try to learn it on my own at first (low weights). Scrupulously follow every word in the book about form, criticizing yourself as much as possible. When it starts to actually feel heavy, like you might not make it, then get a check-out from a coach. Possibly go back down in weight and adjust. Doing it correctly is the most important. The book tells you, and it's not a joke, that it is a mistake to get impatient and move up in weight too quickly. One handy thing I still wish I had is little perfect-height jackstands for loading and unloading deadlifts just above the floor. I do it on the floor and it's a PITA. I wouldn't worry too much about stretching, but don't skip the warmup sets. Like Rip writes, the best stretching for squats is... squats (at a lower weight) If you feel too sore from the last time - do it anyway. It actually makes the soreness go away as you do the warmup sets. This is the only exercise program I've ever done that eventually I started to like and look forward to. A little light soreness from deadlifts and squats actually feels good. If in doubt, your butt isn't going back far enough on the squats. And your knees aren't vertical.

If you're going to start Starting Strength, you're going to be changing a lot of habits. Hitting the weights 3x/week, eating enough to keep your body going, and also changing your muscle:fat ratio is going to require changing your habits. Figure out what better foods you like. Eat more vegetables and whole grains, and healthy sources of a shit-ton of protein. Figure out what nerdy food blog to follow and learn about healthy cooking and eating ad enthusiastically as you dive into SS. Take a 30-minute walk every day after dinner. It's good recovery (you will be sore and tired from SS), and it's fat-burning. It's all about building yourself an environment that will help you succeed at this stuff. Diet/exercise programs are difficult for people when they are hoops that they have to jump through. They're a lot easier for people when they're incorporated into their daily routine, when they're things to enjoy and embrace rather than obligations.