Definitely not standard.

What're you wearing on your feet, specifically what're the footbeds in them like - raised or flat? Are you curlign your toes/scrunching them as you lift?

(no clue about lifting but got some knowledge on feet!)

Anyone wear these shoes?

Risto Sports Olympic

They are only $1 more than the Rogue Do-Wins, but they got a much better review. (On that one site). The style of the risto is much uglier than the rogue imo...

How long have you had the Ironworks? I remember having some foot issues during the first two or three sessions w/ them as my feet got used to them.

I'm making sure to lift my toes to keep the weight on my heels. I have flat feet and tried using some raised insoles today which seemed to make it even worse.

I used to get similar pains skiing in rental boots and after intense ergo rows.

I used them for a few weeks earlier this year, so I'm assuming they're fully broken in :x They fit perfectly btw.

It's not a major problem anyway, today was just especially painful so I thought I'd see if anyone had any similar experiences.

Anyone gotten bruises on their arms from squatting?

I have pretty poor shoulder flexibility and tend to keep my arms pretty far out to support the barbell. Think of a crucifixion or some poor guy carrying water in buckets suspended from sticks, with my hands near the pins on the cage. The bar rests on my traps along with my triceps, then touches my hands. I've gotten some pretty nasty bruising on my arms now that I'm doing a decent amount of weight. Is there something I should be doing differently to avoid this? Or do I just toughen up and eventually I'll get used to it?

I get a pretty sweet like bar rash on my back/shoulders area from time to time, but bruising your arms? I don't even see how your triceps are getting involved, are you rotating your arms for some reason?

Thought more about it, you must have the bar low on your back and your elbows at a funny angle. Try moving the bar higher on your back.

Yeah, I have a basic idea of feet from tons of trouble with my own ski boots. I assume a heavy downforce is quite similar to skiing in that respect, and correct arch support might help. Thing is, skiing and feet pain is generally multiplied by people being back/front seat, and I have no clue what ironworks shoes are anyway. Seeing a podiatrist about custom footbeds might be an idea, it was a revelation for me after a year's skiing in discomfort.

When I was doing 3x5 squats and the weights started getting really heavy, I'd take up to 10 minutes between sets.

are you warming up first with just bodyweight and then slowly increasing the weight? What you describe absolutely doesn't sound safe to me.

I think the bar is a bit too low. I still have a mark on my back a day later from where it was. The pins are at a weird place and I either need to put the bar really low (where I just get under it and stand up a lot when I lift it), or it's a tad high, where sometimes I've had to tip-toe it. I've moved to the lower position and I'm pretty sure I'm getting it too low on my back. I know when I started, I had it way too high (I hurt the vertebrae on my neck at first). I'm probably from the other extreme now.

I'll try with a slightly higher position and report back. My shoulders are terribly inflexible, so it's very hard for me to keep my arms anything other than straight out.

Of course this would just be your speculation as someone who "never" benches, right?

/trollz

But really, where do you draw the line at proper form? Incidental form errors are simply that, but to be aware of your ass coming off and continually doing it is lol.

I don't get how the ass coming off the bench even helps someone finish the rep?

I've let myself get way too fat since I got in a long term relationship like three years ago. I was a good athlete, still have good hand-eye coordination and all that, but I have a big gut now. I'm 5'8, 235.

I've been researching and planning out dietary changes and am all set to make that start happening beginning this Monday, which is also the day I've chosen to return to the gym and start working out religiously again. I was an athlete in high school, so I'm used to the gym grind, just haven't done it in a while.

Here's my question: wtf should I be doing when I go back? My two primary concerns (which are related obv) are weight loss and physical health. I'd of course like to regain some tone in my upper and lower body as well. If you were me, what would your cycle of workouts (can be general or specific if you'd like) look like?

I'm pretty well set on what I'm doing for my diet after reading a bunch of threads here and talking to a couple nutritionists. If anyone can help out with the workout phase to optimize what I should be doing, I'd appreciate it.

FWIW, I have access to a NYSC gym/pool and also a good sized public park with a track. I also have access to an indoor basketball court, so if there are some things I could do with those facilities in mind, that'd be great too.

I didn't think this merited a thread, because I figure there'd be a lot of them and very cluttered...I'm also asking a pretty basic (beginner) question even though I wrote 600 words on it.

Thanks in advance.

Do Starting Strength. There are links in the FAQ.

SS + diet for non-really obese people. For really obese people, just getting not really obese should be the most important issue. Though I'm unsure where people go from just fat to lol obese.

It usually involves meeting the bar with your chest and putting an extra bit of hip heave into it.

Does anyone else have knees that crack and pop at the bottom of squats from time to time

Yeah, mine do. Strangely enough, my knee that doesn't hurt is the one that pops.

My knees don't pop during squats but do pop the rest of the day whenever I put any torque on them. Then they are fine until I squat again.

Also, and this is weird, when they pop sometimes the inside of my knee feels cold. I dunno how to explain it better than that, it's weird.

Not only this but they pop at random moments during the day. I can also crack my elbows by straightening them out a few times a day. I also crack my knuckles regularly. I wonder if any of this is bad?

There was a doctor who did some study on this by only cracking his joints on one half of his body. I think it won an Ignoble award. Don't remember the results though.

How much does running effect my lifting? say I'm doing 20/25 miles a week, anything I should change about my lifting (doing starting strength)?

(my lifts went up for the first month and a half but now they seem to be stalling, geuss I am just not eating enough (weight is staying the same), extra running (plus other physical stuff) does seem to consume a pretty heavy amount of calories.

How do I figure out maintenance calories without the time-consuming trial and error method? I've found about a dozen formulas that give me a crazy range. What do you guys use?

20-25 miles / week is basically incompatible with SS and actually making progress. I suggest cutting down heavy days to 2 and see what happens. Keep the light day light and low volume so you can recover.