9/4 log

Went to the MN State fair and ate (not all of each of these, but a lot of a lot of them): Australian Fried Potatoes, Pizza on a Stick, Mini Doughnuts, Sweet Corn Ice Cream, Corn Dog, Cream Soda, Flowering Onion, Root Beer, Honey Lemonade, Fried Sunnies, Northwoods Salad, Snowcone, Hot Fudge Sundae, Funnel Cake.

But I did make it to the gym afterwards to do foam rolling and work on my post game and shooting. I was able to move surprisingly well for the ~45 minutes I was shooting around.

Hey bro you did get a salad in there.

WW -

Although my g/f ate most of that. The rest of yesterday I just ate some vegetables, an apple, and protein powder.

9/6 log

Press
45x2x5
50x5
65x3
80x2
95x4
95x3
95x4

Man, I really wanted to get this weight up today. I think my form looks okay. I guess I'm just too weak or mentally weak or something.

LBBS
45x5x2
70x5
110x3
145x2
185x5
185x5
185x5

I think these look good. It'd be great if someone(s) can confirm.

DL
135x5
135x4
140x3
200x2
240x5

Yikes. I was hoping my form would be a lot better on this. The last time I attempted 240 this was my form: 240x5.

Has my form even improved? It'd be great for someone to confirm I should stick at 240 1 or 2 more times to tighten up my form. Or if my form is good enough to try for 245 next time.

I do think DLs were harder than normal as we did Press first and so Squats happened right before DLs, which I hadn't done before. It definitely made a difference imo.

General question: I was rereading parts of SS and Rippetoe definitely makes it seem like the beginner or novice can just go up weight each lifting day. Why am I having more trouble than what seems to be expected. My friend says it's b/c I don't just do what SS says - incorporating Power Cleans and not doing anything but the 5 core lifts (so no core work or pullthroughs or cardio of any kind). Would that make a huge difference?

Press like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDulY9AJc_c or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMadQMOf7gY

Pausing in between reps makes it harder. Take a big breath and really explode through a few reps and then take a breath at the top if needed and bang out last two reps. Focus on speed while squeezing the bar and tighten your ass/abz and get mad at it if you need to. When it feels like it won't lock out just get your head under the bar and pushhhhhh.

I seriously think your DL form issues are mostly just that, form issues, and not glute/hamstring weakness. My friend has the exact same form problem and he can do 13-14 GHRs. Confirmed not too weak.

There is little tension in your hamstrings. You let your butt slide upwards before the bar comes off the ground. What worked for my friend was following Rip's setup to the letter, focus on feeling the tension in your hamstrings and pulling back back back through your heals off the floor. Feeeel the power coming your your hamstrings and glutes off the floor, those are the primary initial movers, NOT your back.

I dunno, SM could be right. The most recent set at 240 looked hard and there was some back rounding and the hips rose before the weight did.

Squats - looked good for the most part. Shove that right knee out.

Weird typos in that post. Heals? Your your? Hrm.

I assumed you had your eyes closed while typing, channeling the in-the-moment feeeeeeling when you pull a heavy weight off the floor.

She's hot. I'm gonna marry her.

Oh wait...

I'm a pretty flawless touch typist, so that couldn't be it. The channeling part sounds more correct

lololol

Apparently Kara has another suitor in "nitroAhmed". I'm gonna assume you flexed your traps and scared him away.

hahahaha, you should see some of the messages she gets, it's funny....sometimes.

I'm gonna go hit some heavy shrugs now.

*shrug*

9/9

foam rolling/mobility

squat
45x5x2
75x5
110x3
150x2
190x5x3 (PR)

Probably not perfect form. But probably not horrific either. Forgot batteries for my camera so will have to take video next time at 195lbs.

Bench
45x5x2
75x5
110x3
140x2
157.5x5x3 (PR)

I was worried I was gonna stall out like last time but I didn't. I keep thinking at some point maybe I should try for a 5lbs increase instead of 2.5. Mentally it is tough only going up 2.5 lbs in a week and still failing it. But I guess that's not a very good reason for adding double the weight on instead, just so I feel like it was okay failing it, lol.

Pullthroughs & side ab planks
37.5 x 10 20x5 (alternating sides)
67.5 x 10 20x4 (alternating sides)
67.5 x 10 20x3 (alternating sides)
72.5 x 10

g/f did

squats
24x5x3
50x3
70x2
90x5x3

Her grip is much improved but now she's starting to bend over with her upper body much like me. I think we're both gonna have to "lead with our shoulders" on heavy weights, weird.

bench
24x5x3
45x3
60x2
67.5x3
67.5x1
57.5x7

She was having issues with her left arm hurting or something b/c the reps she completed seemed smooth and easy but then she'd all of a sudden lose it.

Pullthroughs & side ab planks
7.5 x 10 15x5 (alternating sides)
22.5 x 10 15x4 (alternating sides)
22.5 x 10 15x3 (alternating sides)
22.5 x 10

9/11 log

SMR/mobility

LBBS
45X5X2
75X5
115X3
155X2
195X5
195X5
195X5 (PR)

Hmm, so way way better than the last time I ever tired 195. And I actually succeeded in the lift. However, I'm not sure my knees are out enough and I still seem to have trouble with bending over more than is necessary in the "hole" and am not exploding up much.

Any advice?

OHP
45x5x2
50x5
65x3
80x2
95x4
95x3
85x6

As you can see I'm taking Carl Sagan's advice and trying to do any breathing at the top and go faster. However my results aren't much better. Hopefully instead of trying a last set of 95, doing 6 reps of 85 will make me do better next time.

DL
135x5
135x4
145x3
205x2
245x5 (PR)

So my last rep seemed perhaps quite bad.

The rest I think there was some back flexion but it didn't seem like my lower back at least. I took Soulman's advice and was trying to follow Ripp's setup to the letter. But my butt starts so, so high, maybe too high? All my warmups felt great at least.

My g/f did:

LBBS
24x5x3
55x3
80x2
95x5x3 (PR)

OHP
18x5x3
24x3
34x2
41.5x5x3 (PR)

DL
45x5x2
65x3
95x2
115x5 (PR)

Like a boss imo.

DL - your butt starts way too high. Your low back is doing way too much of the work. If you can ever get your form fixed you'll be able to lift a lot more weight.

squat - looks to be improving - you're looking more stable & solid. I cant comment on the knees - I cant see them well enough. If you think they're caving, do more lacrosse ball rolling and hip mobility stuff imo. I'm having some issues like that with my left leg and that seems to be helping me.

I'll let others comment on the press.

congrats to gf on all those PRs!

you can try doing a few supine bridges between sets of DL maybe this will activate your butt more. or consider doing sumo DL which are more from the hips.

who is that voice in your videos?

i think you need to relax when doing DL. to me it looks like you are thinking a ton while doing it. think about it before starting, but then when you get going just do it, maybe have 1 cue you think about the whole time through. be careful with the DL, maybe take a break from it, cause each time you do the lift it looks like you lead with your low back. drop the weight or get someone on here to give you some exercises, drills or cues so you stop leading witht he low back. IMO.

Probably my girlfriend who is recording.

Thanks for the helpful advice.

Here is my pull from a month ago at 240: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5TGGhMIOHg.

I went way down in weight and added back up. Here is my 240 pull from earlier in the week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J78QC2ys5A4.

And of course here is my 245 pull from today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNos_cBBCXs

Maybe 2 months ago I was trying to pull 250 at Cha50's house and he said my form was ridiculously bad, so I reset then too.

I really want to figure out what is wrong b/c I've tried resetting multiple times, I've tried not thinking too hard. I guess I could try just staying at 245 and tweak Ripp's setup a bit (maybe get a bit further away from the bar, but only a bit?).

to me it looks like you're making progress. in the first two videos you started off by leading with your hips. in the last one you're not doing that but you're not keeping your back angle. are you keeping your lats tight? also, that seemed like a long time in between reps. when I take too long in between reps my glutes and hamstrings get fatigued.

also, I would advise against moving farther from the bar. I just fixed my form today because the last few weeks I was too far away and was too weak getting the bar off the floor.

Squat - depth is iffy. Still doesn't look very solid, but improving. Impossible to see your knees.

DL - well your butt is a bit too high, but on the plus side your lower back looked really good for the first three reps at least. You're taking way too long betwen reps, this is 5x1 and not 1x5.

My depth should be fine. My g/f watches it (and lower back flexion as well) and I can't go much below parallel without quite a bit of lower back flexion, so I've been trying to go to parallel or just below but not much more. I imagine a few reps out of all my reps may be a tad high, but I doubt they're more than just a bit high. What stuff helps with depth? I have to admit my depth hasn't improved much which I assume means something is still tight.

I do SMR kind of everywhere already and do mobility stuff. I guess I can attempt to do it more frequently. Is there anything I can do for my hamstrings or inner hips? I get the outside of my legs and butt area pretty well right now. My whatever (some acronym for it that you know Cha) in my "upper butt" is still likely my sorest area for rolling/ART, I guess I can hit that longer/harder.

How do I get my butt lower without getting further away from the bar? What lowers my butt is moving my knees further forward I think. I'm not really sure how to get it lower from the starting position I used yesterday.

If that's true then it's a really big improvement imo. Seems I'm on the right track. I'm not sure how tight my lats were. I was trying to follow the setup Soulman linked to in the form thread which I assume is what he was also recommending for me to follow "to the letter": http://startingstrength.com/resource...0063#post70063.

Yeah, I do realize that. I was really trying hard to double-check my setup each rep but I think it was also just very heavy for me. I will for sure try to go faster next time, maybe it will actually be easier for me.