The main lifts
These are the core barbell lifts the program is built on. Tap any one for a full guide with form cues.
How the program works
The lifts
You alternate two workouts across three training days a week. Workout A is Squat 3x5, Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5. Workout B is Squat 3x5, Bench Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5. Notice the squat is in every single session. '3x5' means three work sets of five reps; the '1x5' deadlift is one heavy set of five after your warm-ups. That's the entire program in its first phase.
Sets across, not ramping
All three work sets are done at the same weight. That's what separates Starting Strength from a ramped 5x5. If your work weight is 185, you do 185 for all three sets of five, not a climbing pyramid. You get there with warm-up sets that jump toward the work weight (say empty bar, then 95, then 135, then 155) kept light enough that they don't cost you anything. The deadlift is warmed up the same way, but you only do a single work set of five.
Add weight every session
This is the engine of the whole thing. Every workout, put a little more on the bar than last time. In practice that's roughly 5 lb on the press and bench, 5 to 10 lb on the squat, and 10 to 15 lb on the deadlift early on, dropping to 5 lb as the weights get heavy. Start lighter than you think you need to. The first couple of weeks should feel easy, because the goal is to bank as many sessions of clean progress as possible before the bar gets genuinely hard.
When you stall: reset
Sooner or later you'll miss reps. Don't panic on the first miss, just try that weight again next session. If you fail to complete all your reps on the same lift for three workouts in a row, reset it: drop the weight by about 10% and build back up 5 lb a session. Coming at the sticking point with a running start usually carries you through it. Repeated resets on the same lift are the honest sign that you're running out of novice gains, not doing something wrong.
Power cleans and chin-ups
After the first few weeks, Workout B's deadlift is usually swapped for Power Clean 5x3. That cuts your deadlift volume down (pulling heavy three times a week gets brutal fast) and adds an explosive pull. Chin-ups get added around the same time, typically 3 sets of as many good reps as you can manage, on one or both days. Beyond that, resist piling on accessories. The program is deliberately bare because the barbell lifts are doing the work.
How long it lasts
Novice linear progression works for exactly as long as you can add weight every session. For most people that's somewhere between three and nine months. When you genuinely can't keep adding weight no matter how you reset, you're not a novice anymore. That's the intended end of the program, not a failure of it. From there you move to an intermediate plan like the Texas Method or a four-day split that progresses week to week instead of session to session.
The weekly layout
- Week 1 · Mon (A) — Squat 3x5, Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
- Week 1 · Wed (B) — Squat 3x5, Bench Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
- Week 1 · Fri (A) — Squat 3x5, Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
- Week 2 · Mon (B) — Squat 3x5, Bench Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
- Week 2 · Wed (A) — Squat 3x5, Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
- Week 2 · Fri (B) — Squat 3x5, Bench Press 3x5, Deadlift 1x5
The program comes from Mark Rippetoe's book Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, which he first published in 2005; FORMA didn't invent it and only lays it out here.