Progressive overload playbook
Simple progressive overload still rules — squat, bench and deadlift a barbell and push small adds (think +5 lbs per session) like the Starting Strength approach to drive steady gains. (x.com)
Starting Strength’s Novice Linear Progression is prescribed as three full‑body workouts per week on nonconsecutive days (for example Mon/Wed/Fri), with the program explicitly instructing lifters to add weight to a lift every time they complete the prescribed work. (startingstrength.com (startingstrength.com)) Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength book — first published in 2005 — documents the novice program and appears in a 3rd edition released November 11, 2011 that the Aasgaard Company still distributes. (Internet Archive (ia800305.us.archive.org)) The official Starting Strength guidance notes many healthy men can add roughly 10 lb to the squat in the first 2–3 sessions and 15–20 lb to early deadlifts, after which session‑to‑session increases typically settle into ~5‑lb jumps. (startingstrength.com (startingstrength.com)) Popular linear‑progression apps and programs mirror that scale: StrongLifts documents automatic 5‑lb increases on completed lifts (and larger deadlift jumps), while fractional/micro plates — commonly 0.25–1.25 kg (0.5–2.5 lb) — are recommended by coaches and blogs when 2.5–5 lb jumps stop being viable. (StrongLifts support (support.stronglifts.com); ReshapeApp (reshapeapp.ai)) Coaches and program repositories routinely advise a specific next step after the novice phase: graduates commonly transition from the novice linear progression into intermediate templates such as the Texas Method or Madcow once session‑to‑session added weight becomes inconsistent. (Lift Vault (liftvault.com)) Strength‑training analysts caution the 5‑lb‑per‑workout model isn’t universal — experienced trainees often progress by percentages (0.5–2% per session) or microloads because adding 5 lb can be too large once an athlete’s 1RM rises, increasing failure and stall risk. (T Nation (t-nation.com))
