See our Membership page for more info.

The Starting Strength Gym model revolves around small group training sessions to ensure that each trainee gets dedicated coaching and programming. The group format brings the cost of coaching down to make training with a coach three times a week more affordable. Sign up for a timeslot that works best for you. Get a guaranteed space in the gym at your designated training time. Show up, warm up, squat, press or bench, and deadlift. Finish by checking in with your coach to plan your next training session and log it in your digital logbook.

To train with a coach 3x/week, yes. This ensures you have a guaranteed space in the gym at a time that’s convenient for you. If your schedule does not permit training on a consistent schedule, 3x/week, you may want to consider Private Coaching once per week.

Yes, Starting Strength Gym members are committed trainees that train on a set schedule, only missing sessions due to travel, injury, illness, or another unavoidable reason. The process of training differs from exercise because it is planned in advance to achieve a pre-defined outcome. That plan is referred to as programming, and programming needs to be completed on a consistent schedule for it to be effective. Trainees commit to either a M/W/F schedule or a T/Th/Sa - at the same time each day to ensure that there’s adequate time for recovery.

For day one, you’ll simply need shorts or pants that don’t impinge your range of motion - so that you can perform a full depth squat. If you wear shorts, wear long socks to cover your shins for the deadlift. You’ll also need a 100% cotton t-shirt and hard-soled shoes.

Our small group training sessions are on a fixed schedule, but please let us know if you prefer another time-slot. If we get enough inquiries, we may add more availability.

Review the Become a Coach page and then use the form there to tell us about your experience and goals.

Our training process is rigorous, and everyone goes through all the steps because our method is deep, broad, and specific. Your experience may serve you well but have a look at “The Process” on the Become a Coach page.

Our coaches are the best trained, best paid coaches in the industry. We maintain strict standards, and constantly reexamine them, so you’ll always be coaching the most effective training program in existence.

Starting Strength is for everyone. Even if you’re detrained, sedentary, and/or unathletic, you have a baseline of strength that can be established and built upon.

Most everyone can do Starting Strength, or a modified version depending on your specific situation. Fill out the contact form and tell us about yourself so we can provide you with more detailed feedback.

Starting weights are dependent upon the baseline that your coach will help you establish during your introductory session. Older or sedentary trainees may start by squatting something as light as a broomstick. Athletic trainees, or those with barbell experience, may squat hundreds of pounds on their first day. The goal is to find a baseline where you can safely perform the lifts and progress from there.

On day one you will learn to squat, press, and deadlift in line with the Starting Strength model. You’ll establish a strength baseline for each of the lifts. From there, you’ll sign into the digital logbook app and work with your coach to plan your programming for the next training session. For trainees that have been coached by a Starting Strength Coach before, you can join a group training session on day one, based on the schedule you signed up for. You’ll arrive at the gym, change into your lifting shoes, grab a rack, we’ll assign you a lifting partner, and then you can start your warm up. Let your coach know when you’re ready for your last warm-up and each of your work-sets.

Training differs from exercising in that it is the most direct route towards achieving a goal. Training is the carefully planned and executed process of intentionally becoming physically better than you are now. Exercising is merely performing physical activity for its own sake, in an unplanned way, with no thought about an ultimate goal. At best, it may improve your overall health; at worst it can be unproductive, or even dangerous. Since we are all limited in the amount of time we can dedicate to fitness, training is a far better use of time than exercising.

See our How it Works page to learn more.