I set my phone on top of a barbell so it has better height.

Ended up biking a lot today. Lifting, I made progress in all lifts.

Squats:
45x5x1
95x5x1
135x5x1
160x5x3

Bench:
45x5x1
75x5x1
95x5x1
110x5x3

Deadlift:
135x5x1
185x5x1 This was good, but I might switch to increasing by 5 lbs instead of 10 now.

Bottom line:

MrWookie: 3812 food calories, -939 biking calories, -??? lifting calories, 260 g protein, lol
MrsWookie: 2735 food calories (not a good day), -190 crutch-using calories?, 212 g protein

A little tight today, but not sore. Slower on my bike, as expected.

MrWookie: 2997 food calories, -596 biking calories, 166 g protein
MrsWookie: 1835 food calories, 97.8 g protein

costs like 7 bucks: http://www.amazon.com/Octopus-Portab...s=phone+tripod

OK, I didn't report in yesterday, but that doesn't mean I failed. In fact, I progressed on all lifts:

Squats:
45x5
135x5
150x5
165x5x3

Press:
45x5
55x5
65x5x3

Deadlift:
135x5
195x5

I know I said I might switch to a 5 lb increase, but I was feeling pretty good yesterday. 195 seemed fine.

I ended up biking both to and from lifting.

Bottom line for 8/17:

MrWookie: 3466 food calories, -728 biking calories, -??? lifting calories, 186 g protein
MrsWookie: 1855 food calories, 111 g protein

Bottom line for 8/18:

MrWookie: 3014 food calories, -581 biking calories, 241 g protein (lol, lots of chicken and eggs today)
MrsWookie: 1884 food calories, 104 g protein

That's weird. I didn't see any video in that last post. Must have forgotten to post the link.

Blah blah blah. Gonna do my best to take some tomorrow

Must have gone to the BtM school of videoing/picturing/posting. No ban this time but hopefully Aidan is paying attention for the future.

I probably won't have the numbers for the missus until tomorrow. For me:

2948 cal food, -581 biking calories, 235 g protein

Aidan sees everything...



Honestly though, its staggering how often a spate of video posting in a log leads to form development or even breakthroughs (eg monte, Stuckinarutt, snitch), if for no other reason than self-analysis.

gl wookie

yea videos help so much - these guys are good at tearing them apart (in a good way) but as Aidan says, it's good just to look at yourself, afterall, the parts of your body you're exercising you can't even see, so a video helps

OK guys. I took videos of squats and DLs, but it's kinda late, so I'll post them in the morning or thereabouts.

Lifting again, and I'm happy to report more progress on all lifts.

MrWookie:

Squats:
45x5
135x5
160x5
170x5x3

Bench:
45x5
75x5
105x5
115x5x3

Deadlift:
135x3
205x5 This was getting pretty tough, as I guess you'll see in the eventual video, so I was thinking again of cutting back to 5 lb progressions starting next time, but then again, the siren's song of DLing more than my body weight next time sounds so sweet.

MrsWookie is back in action! She's still wrapping her ankle, and she can't really jog, but she tried doing some body weight squats last night, and it worked. So, time to lift.

Goblet squats:
15x5
20x5
25x5
30x5
35x5
40x5
45x5x3

This is kind of a lol number of sets (I wasn't monitoring her), but we'll be cutting down the number of warm up sets next time. We'll also be putting her under the bar proper.

Dumbbell benchpress:
15(each)x5
20x5
25x5x3

She's earned the bar here, too.

Romanian deadlift:
20x3
30x3
40x3
50x3
60x3
70x3
75x3 This is where I started monitoring
85x3
95x5

This completely crushes where she had been on the RDLs, so she'll probably be sore tomorrow. I was a bit more of a stickler with her on form and range of motion this time, and her form and range of motion improved substantially. I should have been more of a stickler previously. She'll probably be doing proper deadlifts at 135 by the end of the month.

Bottom line for MrWookie on the day: 3045 food calories, -335 biking calories, -??? lifting calories, 208 g protein

MrsWookie 8/19: 2314 food calories (it was a bad day), 101 g protein
MrsWookie 8/20: 1790 food calories, 96 walking calories (warm up), 125 g protein

OK, we stayed up late to take measurements, and while I'll record them later, it looks like weight lifting has been a massive win for me. For the missus, it looks like I may be an erratic measurer, but it looks like a solid win for her thus far.

I would move to smaller progression increments sooner rather than later, especially on a cut. You'll stall anyway and as a novice it's more likely that going into near max (at that specific point in time) territory will compromise form.

OK, I failed to post the videos, but it'll be a priority tomorrow before I lift.

Bottom line:

MrWookie: 2818 food calories, -426 biking calories, 200 g protein
MrsWookie: 1734 food calories, 115 g protein (she acknowledges that this is low)

Squats. This was the second of my work sets:



Not actually sure what I'd have to be ashamed of here.

deadlifts:



Pretty obvious upper back rounding. Guess I've got to show off my boobs more.

Lifting Day!

MrWookie:

Squats:
45x5
135x5
165x5
175x5x3

Press
45x5
55x5
65x5
75x5x3 This was tough. I'm considering buying the washers and switching to 2.5 lb progressions on press.

Deadlift:
135x3
215x5

Achievement unlocked: I deadlifted in excess of body weight.

MrsWookie:

Goblet Squats:
15x5
25x5
35x5
20x5 (feeling tight, wanting to go lower)
35x5
40x5

At this point, we attempted proper squats with the bar. This was not successful. The missus was having some trouble getting her arms in a position to grip the bar with it on the right spot on her traps. She did a few reps with the bar, but it wasn't successful. So, some tips on increasing shoulder mobility might be appreciated.

Back to goblet squats:
45x5
50x5x3

Dumbbell press:
10 (each)x5
15x5
20x3
20x2 She was getting the as-yet unexplained pain in her forearm, so she backed off on weight.
15x5x3

Romanian deadlifts:
45x3
55x3
65x3
75x3 (at this point we had a chat about not doing so many extraneous warm up sets)
95x3
105x3x2 (we had a miscommunication about doing 5 for the work set instead of the 3s she'd been doing for warm ups, so she ended up doing 2 minimally interrupted sets of 3)

MrWookie: 3311 food calories, -524 biking calories, -??? lifting calories, 237 g protein
MrsWookie: 2332 food calories, -96 walking warm up calories, -??? lifting calories, 180 g protein

Also, any tips of getting an overhead press of something between 30 and 40 lbs in a gym? I know about the washers if you're using a regular bar, but those are for a bar. It might help MrsWookie to have a 35 total lb press session before moving to 40 and then 45.

Wookie,

Could be the camera angle, but your squats look a tad high. They are not quite at parallel. Hip crease needs to drop beneath the knee.

For deadlift, stick your butt back and down and your upper back rounding will take of itself for at least the start of the rep. Your starting position doesn't give you enough room to start off with a neutral back position. It looks like you also need to focus on pulling in your scapulae and tightening your lats. You might want to try a few starter reps. As you lower your hips, pull on the bar, but don't actually lift the bar off the ground. Just do this a few times and video yourself so you can see the position your anthropometry requires for you to be in a good starting position with a neutral back. That's the point where you should actually initiate a full pull.

Imo.

Agree with fakeb on the DL.

The squats are a bit high, but the overall lack of tightness pretty much everywhere is a problem. Your upper back isn't tight/strong enough, which is leading to the bar bending you over in the hole. The lack of lower back/core tightness is causing lower back flexion/rounding. Deep breath at the top of every rep, tight upper back, screw your obliques in and down, then squat.

^^^I agree with that.

You start the squat with your upper back rounded, and you're looking too far down imo. I'm guessing both are a component of you trying to initiate the forward lean required to keep the bar centered over your midfoot in a lbbs. But the forward lean should come from the hip hinge, not from actually bending your back over.

Before you initiate the squat, pull your scapulae back and slightly up and your elbows back and in. This will create the shelf the bar needs to sit on and the proper T-spine position that will prevent you from falling forward. Take a deep breath, squat. Feel your hips move backwards and your hamstrings stretch. I personally feel as though I'm bending from the hips forward rather than pushing my hips backwards, but proprioception gonna proprioception.

Some links that I found to be very helpful. Hard to recall who originally posted these. Usually it's cha.

Teaching the hip hinge

Lift big by bracing, not arching

not awful lifts for a beginner.

Do you own SS? Read the DL chapter again. Mainly you just need to pull yourself into better position.

Squats, let's start with two simple things. Start and finish each rep standing tall, knees locked, chest up. And then tighten everything, especially abs and upper back. Tightening abs means brace like you're about to get punched.

Don't try to fix everything at once. Work on a couple things, ingrain those, then reassess.

I have been making a perhaps feeble but at least conscious effort to do most of that. Deep breath, tighten abs and lower back, squat. I haven't focused on my upper back, so that's the obvious target to work on.

For sure. Like KC said, not terrible for a beginner. It will all come together as you accumulate experience.