Beginner linear progression, explained

A beginner linear progression is the simplest way to get stronger in your first months with a barbell. You do a few lifts for sets of five, three days a week, and put a little more weight on the bar each time a lift comes round again. Most new lifters can keep that going for months. The best-known version is Starting Strength (opens in a new tab), the novice program by Mark Rippetoe. The routine on this site follows its first phase: two alternating workouts built on the squat, the bench press, the overhead press and the deadlift.

It suits a lifter who is new to the barbell, or coming back to it, and who can train on three fixed days a week. If you already add weight once a week or less, you have outgrown it, and the 5/3/1 guide is the better read.

Why it works for beginners

A beginner gets stronger faster than they ever will again. Barbell Medicine puts numbers on it: untrained people gain 15 to 30 percent on a one-rep max in twelve weeks, while well-trained lifters gain about 2 to 6 percent a year (opens in a new tab). Some of that gap is arithmetic. Five pounds is a bigger share of a 135 lb squat than of a 405 lb one.

The program spends that window one session at a time. A beginner recovers from a hard workout quickly enough to be stronger by the next one, 48 to 72 hours later (opens in a new tab), so the next workout can be a little heavier. A program that adds weight once a week would leave some of that progress unused.

The amount of training fits what the research suggests for people new to it. A meta-analysis of 140 studies found that untrained lifters made the largest gains training each muscle group three days a week, at an average of about 60 percent of their max (opens in a new tab). Trained lifters did best at about 80 percent, twice a week. Squatting three days a week at a weight you could lift for more than five reps, a little heavier each time, is close to the first of those.

Sets of five are heavy enough to build strength and, in our view, short enough that your form holds to the last rep. Barbell Logic calls them the sweet spot for increasing both strength and muscle size (opens in a new tab).

The two workouts

There are two workouts, A and B, and you alternate them on three days a week with a rest day between, such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Both start with the squat and end with the deadlift. The press in the middle is what changes: the bench press on A and the overhead press on B. Every lift is three sets of five, except the deadlift, which is one set of five (opens in a new tab).

Three sessions do not split evenly between two workouts, so the order flips each week: A, B, A in the first week, then B, A, B in the second (opens in a new tab). Over any two weeks each press gets three sessions, and the squat and the deadlift get six.

The deadlift gets one set because it is the heaviest lift of the day and it comes after nine work sets of squats, which tire the same muscles. One hard set moves it up and leaves more in the tank for the squat two days later.

The routine builder can add one accessory to each workout: back extensions on A and chin-ups on B. They are off by default. The program itself brings in chin-ups and the power clean in its later phases, which are covered below.

Picking starting weights

The program does not start from a one-rep max. On the first day you warm up from the empty bar in sets of five, adding weight until the bar starts to slow down, and that set becomes your first work weight. The aim is a load you can lift with good form (opens in a new tab), well short of your limit.

The routine builder starts from your maxes instead, because those are what the calculator already has. It estimates the weight you could lift for five reps from your one-rep max, takes 85 percent of that, and rounds it to a weight you can load. A lifter with a 225 lb squat starts at 165 lb. The first week should feel easy. Every session adds weight, so starting light costs you a few sessions at most, while starting too heavy can cut the whole run short.

If you have not tested a max, estimate one from any recent set of three to ten reps. The Epley formula guide explains how far to trust the number.

Adding weight every session

Progress is decided session by session: you add weight every session you make all your reps (opens in a new tab). Each time a lift comes round again, it is a little heavier than last time.

How much depends on the lift. One detailed review of the program gives 5 lb a session on the squat, 10 lb on the deadlift and 2.5 lb on the presses (opens in a new tab), and notes that young men who eat well can often take bigger jumps on the squat early on. The routine builder uses 5 lb (2.5 kg) on the squat, the bench press and the overhead press, and 10 lb (5 kg) on the deadlift, since 5 lb is the smallest jump a standard set of plates allows. When a press stalls on 5 lb jumps, small plates of 1.25 lb a side let you keep going; the builder leaves those to you.

Over the two weeks the builder prints, that lifter's squat goes from 165 lb in the first session to 190 lb in the sixth. Rest 3 to 5 minutes between heavy work sets (opens in a new tab). Sessions get longer as the weights climb, mostly because the warm-ups do.

Warming up

The warm-up sets are where you practice the lift at a weight where form is easy, and they should never be hard. The builder prints them for every lift. The squat and both presses start with two sets of five on the empty bar. Then come sets at about 40, 60 and 80 percent of the work weight, for five, three and two reps. The deadlift skips the empty bar and starts at the first of those.

A set that would land on the empty bar, or repeat the weight before it, is left out, so a light lift gets a shorter warm-up. The builder shows the plates for each set, as it does for the work sets.

When you miss reps

Sooner or later a lift stalls. You get five, five and three instead of three fives. Miss once and you try the same weight next time. The usual rule is that after three sessions in a row without all your reps, you drop that lift by 10 percent and work back up (opens in a new tab). The reset is per lift, so a stalled bench press does not reset your squat.

Before you reset, check your sleep, your food and your form. In our view, in the first months a missed rep is more often about one of those than about the weight. Barbell Medicine adds life stress to the list, and judges a stall over three to four weeks against how you have been lifting for the six to eight weeks before, after accounting for sleep, protein and stress (opens in a new tab).

The routine builder shows the reset weight for each lift under "Keeping it going", worked out from the last weight it prints, so the number is there before you need it.

When it stops working

Every linear progression ends. The program stretches the run in phases. Once pulling heavy three times a week is too much, the power clean takes the deadlift's place on one workout, and later the squat gets a light day (opens in a new tab) while deadlifts, cleans and chin-ups take turns in the last slot. That can add months. The builder stays with the first phase, where a beginner starts.

You know you are done when resets stop working. You drop a lift, build back to the old weight and stall in the same place again, on more than one lift. Adding weight every session now asks for more than you can recover from in two days, and it is time for a program that adds weight once a cycle.

That is what 5/3/1 does. It works from a training max set below your best, runs in four-week cycles, and adds 5 or 10 lb a cycle. The calculator recommends it once your lifts average Intermediate or better, and the 5/3/1 routine builder takes the maxes you have already entered.

Barbell Medicine argues that progression should be reactive at every stage (opens in a new tab). For this program that means acting on what the bar tells you: if your last few sessions on a lift were all grinders, take the reset, or make the switch, without waiting for the third miss.

Common questions

How long does a beginner linear progression last? Usually a few months, and longer if you eat and sleep well. The program's first phase is often two to three weeks, and the phases after it stretch the run by changing the pulling work and adding a light squat day.

Is squatting three times a week too much? Not for a beginner at these weights. A large meta-analysis found that untrained lifters made their biggest strength gains training each muscle group three days a week. The squat weight is also only a little heavier each time, so the stress builds slowly.

I already lift. Should I still start here? If you can still add weight to your lifts every session, yes. The calculator on this site compares your lifts with the strength standards and recommends this routine when they average Novice or below, and 5/3/1 above that.

Do I need the accessories? No. The squat, the two presses and the deadlift are the program. The routine builder can add back extensions to Workout A and chin-ups to Workout B for some extra back work, and they are off by default.

Sources

1. The Novice Program, from Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe (opens in a new tab), the program's official site
2. Novice Linear Progression Program Explained (opens in a new tab), Barbell Logic
3. The Death of the Novice-Intermediate-Advanced Framework (opens in a new tab), Barbell Medicine, 2026
4. A review of the program for powerlifters (opens in a new tab), PowerliftingToWin
5. A free spreadsheet of the program's three phases (opens in a new tab), Lift Vault, 2026
6. A meta-analysis to determine the dose response for strength development (opens in a new tab), Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2003, on PubMed

Related

• The 5/3/1 program, explained
• What a training max is, and how to set yours
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