Often, new strength trainees don't know where to begin. After years of directing future gym rats to existing training templates, Ken Gack imparts his thirty years of experience to develop something better. The Russians developed the periodization approach to strength training over five decades ago. It has been a staple to strength training programs since that time. With the explosion in popularity of powerlifting over the last decade, more advanced approaches have begun to edge out periodized based approaches in popularity and performance. One of the advantages of periodized approaches is the structure they bring to strength training. This is particularly valuable for newer lifters. This structure, however, can become so rigid that it dampens potential strength gains. The power of contemporary strength programming is that it provides flexibility to maximize a person's strengths and strengthen their weaknesses. The newer methodologies this book focuses on have taken more lifters to world powerlifting championships than any other approach. This book seeks to use a basic periodized foundation and incorporate newer methodologies to give it flexibility that enhances its strength training effect. About the Author Ken Gack 'the Ripper' has spent over three decades under the bar, with over two of those decades on the powerlifting platform. In this time, he has competed in over fifty powerlifting competitions and has coached powerlifters and strength athletes for over a decade. He has racked up a long list of accomplishments in the sport of powerlifting including being a former International Powerlifting Federation World Champion and has competed in the world championships ten times. He has also competed in the Arnold Sports Festival, one of the biggest sporting events in the world, three times, including one appearance in Europe. He is a six-time USA Powerlifting National Champion, a member of the Washington State Powerlifting Hall of Fame, has held USA Powerlifting State and American records in the squat, bench press, deadlift and total. He has coached dozens of powerlifters in competition at the local, state, national, and world level and has developed an extensive on-line library of strength training and lifting articles and materials. Ken has established his own unique style of strength training through lifting and studying under some of the best coaches in the world, decades of personal competition experience, and planning and coaching his lifters through hundreds of thousands of sets of training. He has distilled this experience and approach into the Beginner's Strength System described in this book.