How's your diet? Reasonable caloric surplus with enough protein? (120+ grams)

I would imagine it's a form issue. If you have long arms, that's not helping you any in the bench press either. Makes it a lot tougher.

Smiley is right. I am really neglecting assisted chins in my program and have done so for months. This is a bad thing. I really wish I had paid better attention to that, but at least I didn't skip DL workouts. My lat strength is vastly underdeveloped compared to the rest of my muscle groups (perhaps beating out only my biceps strength) which is a real problem for baseball athletes, especially pitchers.

As a side note, before you bench press or press, giving your antagonist muscles a stretch by hanging from the chin-up bar can help much in the same way weakening the hip flexors helps before a squat. I've wanted to mention that somewhere in the forum and this seems like as good of a place as any to do so.

i try to eat pretty healthy. no mcdonald's or anything. on many days, when i cook with my gf, we go vegetarian. protein is a problem obv, so when we go out, i usually order steak or something. i eat a lot of eggs for breakfast (2-3 per serving several times a week).

since starting SS (she's doing it with me) we supplement with protein shakes before and after a workout. still, i think i fall pretty short of 120g.

Why does weakening your hip flexors help your squat? I mean I do it but I don't know why other than someone told me to.

I'm thinking about some cardio activity on 2 days off between Saturday SS and Tuesday. I really like the biking HIIT classes (yes really) - do you think it's ok to include these on Sundays, and back off if recovery is affected? FWIW they're 45 mins, 10 mins warm-up, 4 mins pulse 85-95%, 3 mins 70%, repeat for 4 peaks total.

Something about temporarily weakening the corresponding antagonist muscle group helps, blah, can't find it using Google. It's out there, though. Kinda busy ATM so I can't go Internet sleuthing for it.

Should be fine. Biking is nice because it lacks a pronounced eccentric phase of the exercise, so you should suffer little to no DOMS.

In your case, McDonalds might be a good thing.

Anyway, start tracking your food intake using FitDay or something similar. 120g/day protein and a 300-400 calorie/day surplus should be the bare minimum for someone of your size looking to progress on his lifts.

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. It looks like I'll be facing my old nemesis again. Next week I'll start light, trying to get my form back and go from there. I don't have a video camera but I'll try to track one down and post my form.

Kyleb, you're right about chin/pull ups. I started working them in about 2.5 weeks ago and feel like I'm getting a way better workout.

how do you track caloric surplus? i can track how much i eat, but i have no idea how much i burn overall.

sylar,

please don't skip the carbs pre-/post-workout either, like 90% do.

I think Lyle has recommendations to estimate BMR, but there are calculators everywhere. Google "Basal Metabolic Rate" and fill in the blanks. Be sure to account for training hard in the gym, any other exercise you do (walking a lot to/from work, manual labor), and so forth.

i have long forearms and grip the bar fine, just somewhat wide. i'm pretty sure everyone new to low bar squatting (except for weird flexible Freaks) feels like they are uniquely disproportionate or inflexible.

i don't actually. the protein drink is actually BioTest Surge Recovery. it's half protein, half carbs. i am almost finished with it though. open to purchase suggestions.

kc, sorry for hijacking this thread briefly.

Just drink some chocolate milk

READ THE AARR HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

diediedie biotest monkey

sylar,

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/mus...-recovery.html.

lol

Actually Aragon wrote a great article about Biotest Surge Recovery compared to chocolate milk on Lyle's site.

Surge Workout Fuel is pretty good IMO. I probably won't buy another tub, but I definitely feel it has positive effects - mostly focusing on intra-workout recovery. In the future I'll just be drinking chocolate milk and taking some BCAAs.

kitarist,

Short answer. Tight hip-flexors = weak glutes

This isn't entirely accurate. The program is a squat program foremost due to its numerous effects, and to a lesser degree the DL is an expression of increased hip power. You can look into the reset guidelines for each lift (IE You can reset press 18k times as long as squat/DL are fine) for confirmation of this.

Regardless, chins are important and many people (Rip) are changing the back exercises to a larger rotation of exercises to address the issue about how chins rool.

my gf and I are trying to learn power cleans. Should we just look on youtube for form videos or go to a trainer? I'm kind of paranoid about getting injured as the lift looks complicated. Also I read somewhere you need different plates. Is that true?

kedu,

Trainers and videos can be a valuable resource; unfortunately, 95% of both are horrible.
I'd suggest starting with the SS book which covers power cleans in depth, as well as the DVD. There are several good videos and cues you'll find browsing this forum.

You do not require different plates (esp. in the beginning), but bumper plates help as you can drop the bar easily.

Thats why your bench is meh? (For you not me)

No, my bench sucks because I don't train it enough, my acromion process is ****ed up, and my form blows.

While we're on the topic how are you meant to use/intergrate the assistence and auxilliary exercises in SS the book? It doesn't give a great deal of info unless i missed it. Says might be useful for intermediates unless i'm tripping but i can't remember it saying how you would go about adding them into your workout. Do you add whatever takes your fancy after your mainlifts, different day or for a few weeks? I probably misread the bugger but i wants to do me some dips goddamn it!!!