Best beginner strength program

[Durge]

I need a good beginner strength routine that includes assistance exercises. Has to be at least 4 days a week, preferably 5, and no confusing percentages like the 5/3/1. Also no power cleans.

[RW2]

How are percentages confusing?

[Filmbuff81]

Why does it have to be 4 or 5 days per week?

And 5/3/1 is the least confusing program around and if you cannot understand it, you have an incredibly low reading comprehension or have obviously not read the book.

[littlebones6]

^ My thoughts too, 5/3/1 isn't that complex. A bit more complex than SL 5x5 but still, most things are more complex than "add 5 lbs a workout to bench/row/OHP and 10 lbs to squat/dead."

Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength (or one of it's variants if you don't want to do power cleans).

Choose one, be consistent and eats lots.

[MarcusAgrippa]

Starting Strength. On the fourth day that you apparently *have* to do, do some sprinting/sled dragging/farmers walks.

[Homanator]

If you are adamantly against power cleans (can't imagine why), then just do Stronglifts 5x5 ( http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5...ining-program/ ), as for additional work. Pull ups/weighted dips/weighted core work. Maybe do some curls every so often if you want, it won't really help with much strength wise, but muscle balance is always a good thing. If you really must do it four days a week, just train every second day instead of taking the weekend break.

[xRequiem]

babylover ss

also quit being a bitch

[mingzie]

once or twice a week split with big jumps linear progression

phuck SS and SL

[bmontgomery87]

And 5/3/1 is the least confusing program around and if you cannot understand it, you have an incredibly low reading comprehension or have obviously not read the book.

This.
You can find a template that does the math for you.
5x5 and 5/3/1 are both extremely simple and work well.

[mingzie]

i wouldn't recommend 5/3/1 for a beginner, ever.

no point of limiting your gains when linear progression will get you there 100x faster and then some, its as simple as adding 10lb a week to your lifts, and when that gets harder 5lbs, and when that gets harder, 2.5lbs or 5lbs every 2 weeks. milk your LP gains - if your diet, rest and form are on check.. it will be easy. the deloads are also laughable for a beginner because u have nowhere near the absolute strength nor conditioning to tax yourself enough to need a break every 3 weeks.

[tzanghi]

I need a good beginner strength routine that includes assistance exercises. Has to be at least 4 days a week, preferably 5, and no confusing percentages like the 5/3/1. Also no power cleans.

The restrictions you are placing are too great. Do SS and do the power cleans, they'll drive your deadlift up. Add chins after one of the workouts, and if you really want to, split the program upper/lower for 4 days a week. As a beginner, you don't want a lot of assistance moves; you don't need them.

[mingzie]

also i would not rule out more bb'ing oriented programs completely. its a total misconception that you won't gain strength or won't gain strength optimally. you can gain just as much strength on a bodybuilding program - it all depends on how much effort you put into it. its not strange for a PLer to be a hybrid of the two and do push/pull or even once a week splits (see babyslayer). strength and size go hand in hand. there's no need to sacrifice aesthetics for strength or vice versa, especially at the beginner to intermediate level.

going on a bb'ing program is not likely to be detrimental to your strength. u can still utilise linear progression on all of your lifts and include a lot of compounds and assistance work.

focusing on purely a PL'ing program is likely to be relatively less beneficial for hypertrophy and proportion, with no promise of significantly increased strength.

when you get a bit more advanced, then you might want to look into strength programs with assistance. right now your only assistance should be deadlift = deadlift, bench = bench, and squat = squat.

[hammerfelt]

Do StrongLifts. I had great success with it.

[BringtheNoise]

i wouldn't recommend 5/3/1 for a beginner, ever.

no point of limiting your gains when linear progression will get you there 100x faster and then some, its as simple as adding 10lb a week to your lifts, and when that gets harder 5lbs, and when that gets harder, 2.5lbs or 5lbs every 2 weeks. milk your LP gains - if your diet, rest and form are on check.. it will be easy. the deloads are also laughable for a beginner because u have nowhere near the absolute strength nor conditioning to tax yourself enough to need a break every 3 weeks.

There is a 5/3/1 template for beginners....