I Coached at 3 Starting Strength Gyms—Here’s What They Got Wrong

What I’ve Learned After Years of Coaching the Starting Strength Method

I’ve been immersed in the Starting Strength methodology for years. I opened two of the three Starting Strength gyms that previously existed in Oklahoma and coached at all three. I helped open the original in Westmoore in 2021, that has since gone bankrupt. I opened and ran the Quail Springs location in 2023 now known as Starting Strength OKC, which has since changed ownership. And I ran the Tulsa location for several months when they were having a difficult time retaining coaches. Over that time, I’ve guided several hundred lifters past the novice linear progression and watched them gain strength, confidence, and control over their physical lives.

I still believe in the Starting Strength method. It works. I use it daily in my gym and programming. But after years of hands-on coaching, I’ve come to see the limitations of the system—especially when it’s applied rigidly or without nuance. In this article, I want to share what I’ve learned about the Starting Strength approach: what works, where it falls short, and how to apply it more effectively for real people in the real world.

Commitment Is Everything

The Starting Strength program is only as effective as your commitment to it. It’s demanding by design. It requires full buy-in: consistent training, excellent sleep, and plenty of food. That last piece—nutrition—can be especially hard for most people to accept.

Many clients want to get stronger without making major lifestyle changes. That’s understandable. But this program isn’t forgiving. If you train hard without adequate recovery—especially without eating in a calorie surplus—you will eventually stall, or worse, get injured. The method works, but only if you work it completely.

For most novice lifters, the fastest path to progress involves eating a lot and gaining weight. The trade-off? You will also gain fat. And despite what some in the Starting Strength community may tell you, that fat gain doesn’t convert to permanent strength. When you eventually cut weight, your lifts will drop.

I’ve seen this firsthand. One of my clients in his early 20s followed the program perfectly. His squat rose into the 400s, his deadlift surpassed 500 pounds—and his bodyweight ballooned from the low 200s to 265. When he leaned back down to a more comfortable weight, his lifts dropped significantly. A year later, he struggled to squat in the low 300s. This isn’t a knock on the program—it’s a reality of the physiology it depends on.

Life Happens, and the Program Doesn’t Care

Another issue is the program’s lack of flexibility. The philosophy behind Starting Strength suggests that adaptation is king—that if you can’t keep progressing, it’s because you’re not doing something right. This mindset has permeated the franchise model as well.

But people have lives. They take holidays, go on vacations, attend weddings, raise kids, and get sick. Most clients don’t want to feel like they’ve failed just because they missed a few workouts. The program’s rigid expectations can make training feel like a burden instead of a tool for improving life.

Training should serve you, not dominate you. If the program doesn’t allow room for life to happen, people eventually burn out and quit. When they do, they’re often written off as not being committed enough. But in reality, they’re the people we most need to reach—people trying to build strength for the long haul.

This inconsistency breaks the original promise of the franchise: a standardized, high-quality training experience across all gyms. Instead, lifters end up as guinea pigs for coaches still learning how to program. That’s a problem—especially when those clients are paying a premium for expert guidance.

A good coach should already have deep experience with intermediate and advanced programming. They should know what works because they’ve done it themselves—and they should be strong. A coach who hasn’t walked the road themselves won’t be able to guide someone else through it with confidence.

Lack of Adaptability

One of the most frustrating aspects of my time in the Starting Strength franchise was the rigid, dogmatic interpretation of the method—often at the expense of the lifter’s needs. As a staff coach, I worked under two other coaches and always tried to ensure that clients started from a place of learning and safety rather than being pushed into lifting heavy weights on day one.

I’ll never forget coaching an introductory session with a 74-year-old woman who had never lifted before. I had her begin with a rack pull—a partial deadlift from an elevated position. It’s a useful tool that allows the lifter to learn how to set their back properly and reduces the stress of the movement by shortening the range of motion.

The head coach observed the session, noticed she wasn’t deadlifting from the floor, and immediately began arguing with me—in front of the client—about why she wasn’t doing a “real” deadlift. It was a bizarre and eye-opening moment. Here was a clearly frail, uncertain woman, nervous about lifting, and instead of encouraging a thoughtful introduction to the barbell, the coach insisted that she do more. Needless to say, the gym lost that potential member, and as a result that woman did not become a stronger, better version of herself.

That kind of rigid thinking doesn’t help people. It intimidates them. And worse, it leads to poor coaching practices. When coaches are trained to prioritize dogma over judgment, it lowers the quality of instruction across the board.

Evolving the Method

Starting Strength is a powerful system. It teaches lifters how to move well, train hard, and take control of their strength. But like any system, it has limits—and those limits matter.

I still use the Starting Strength framework. But I’ve learned how to adapt it, how to individualize it, and how to guide people through the phases of strength training that come after the novice stage. Most importantly, I’ve learned how to meet people where they are, instead of demanding their conformity to a program.

If you want to build real strength—at any age, with any background—you need a plan, a coach, and a program that evolves with you. That’s what we offer at Traditional Strength.

Want to talk about how strength training can fit your life—not take it over? 

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