This was originally an email reply to Sebastian's post on 'Starting Strength' by Mark Rippletoe. Sebastian invited me to post it up on the Community Site.

It was essentially a primer to the "auto-regulatory" style of weights training that is used by advanced lifters. 

Despite the previous statement, auto-regulation can be used by anyone with a moderate level of experience in the gym (>6 months) to great effect.

So a summary: