horrible gym day

warmed up for squats when i got under 215 it didn't feel too heavy but I did something on the ascent that made my shoulders feel like they rolled under the bar and hurt so I stopped. tried another set but same feeling so I stopped before I hurt myself.

bench
1 x 5 x 155
2 x 5 x 145
-- form felt OK but I just felt ****ty

deadlift
this was just a mess. tried 245 got one didn't feel good so dropped to 225 got 2 wasn't feeling it so i left like a little vagina

At least you went man. Chin up. A ****ty gym day is a whole lot better than sitting on the couch all day, at least you went. And next time will probably be better. Cha posted a good tnation link to Yugo one day on the topic of ****ty days.
Gogogo

Yeah. I've had a string of 2342345324 ****ty gym days, *sigh*, .

Fri, Feb 24th
decided to go today for de-stressing

squats:
2 x 5 x 45
5 x 85
3 x 120
2 x 160
1 x 185

-- now my RIGHT shoulder is giving me problems. when I made my ascent in the first rep same problem as last time a few weeks ago but only in my right shoulder. I tried a few 135 reps messing around with grip/placement but all of them bothered me a little when I made my ascent motion in the rep so I decided to just skip it today.


PRESS
3 x 5 x 45
4 x 65
1 x 85
1 x 5 x 95
1 x 5 x 105
1 x 5 x 100
-- I guess felt OK. I'm still scared I'm going to hurt my back doing this but I'm keeping abs tight and back stiff (not hyper-extended).

ROWS
2 x 5 x 95

-- no clue if im doing these right. just randomly decided to do them for my back/shoulder - I never really thought how they beat up the arms a bit too.
going to study form and some vids and probably start doing these every squat+press day

Also, I'm not sure if the scale at the gym is off (sliding-scale thing) but it says I'm 168.5 right now. I really wasn't expecting to weigh this much, I don't think I've been eating enough lately and I missed a bit of gym.

Any way, I decided to go back on 1/2GOMAD for a while at least. Maybe stuffing my face and 1/2gomad will help reduce all these little annoying pains I've been having.

Blast your pecs and front delts with the lacrosse ball against a wall imo.

Monday, Feb 27th

SQUATS
2 x 5 x 185
2 x 5 x 205

-- first set of 185 right shoulder really bugging me. not as bad as last time but still bad.
then on the second set I moved the bar lower on my back and it hurt a ton less. both sets after that bar lower and hurt less tho still bugging me - is it possible that the bar being a bit higher did something to injure my shoulder?
weight felt super light, even 205 was fairly easy on the 4th set - but shoulder was hurting too much to try more weight.

This is 2nd set of 185 - hard to see where the bar position is here, but this is lower than the first set.


BENCH
5 x 135
5 x 150
2 x 5 x 155

DEADLIFT
5 x 135
2 x 185
1 x 205
5 x 225
1 x 225


PLEASE TELL ME HOW THESE ARE.

Hips start too low on DL.

http://startingstrength.com/resource...468#post182468

edit: was writing this while you posted HalfSlant. I think this is the same thing - correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks so much.

Re: Deadlifts.

I just re-watched the SS DVD on Deadlifts and I think I finally figured it out. Practicing with a broomstick and a mirror and it seems like my problem has been this...

I don't have the bar over the center of my foot, instead I probably have it a good 3/4ths up to the front, this is making me move farther to get my shins to touch the bar, when I do this I have to make up a good bit of distance by lifting ass first to keep the bar on my chins on the way up.
In the mirror with broom my form looks good now, just a straight pull up. The angle of my back isn't as horizontal but I don't think that's a bad thing.


Does this sound right? Also does my back look like it's kept tight on the way up?

Wed, Feb 29th

SQUAT
2 x 5 x 45
5 x 85
3 x 115
2 x 155 (pain)
3 x 155 (pain)

-- right shoulder, pain. son o a bitch.
It hurt too much to even try and do sets with 155. I was trying very hard to make sure bar position was good, stance good, depth good, trying to make sure chest rose at same time as hips.. I can't tell what the problem is, how this started and if it's going to just go away if I let it heal or if it's a problem with form.

WHAT DO I DOOOOO!?!?!! I really want to squat, I hate taking any more time off than I have. Do I have to switch to front-squats or something?
Shoulders do not hurt when I am pressing. It's something about when they are squeezed together under weight for the squat that makes my muscle tweek or something and it hurts, actually I'm not sure if it's muscle or joint pain.

I have been foam rolling, lacrosse-ball rolling my pecks and around the scapula and stretching.


PRESS
3 x 5 x 45
3 x 65
2 x 85
3 x 5 x 105

-- felt good. i think form was better, took a video but didn't angle the camera right so not worth posting.

DEADLIFT
2 x 135
5 x 135
2 x 185
2 x 225

-- just doing these to practice form. let me know what you think

Dls look better.

Fri, March 2nd

SQUATS
2 x 5 x 45
5 x 85
3 x 115
2 x 155
3 x 5 x 205

1st set (side angle)


2nd set (back angle)


-- right shoulder still bothering me, not as much as last workout but still hurting. I've been rolling and added in those shoulder dislocations with the broom-stick which feel like they help.
I was thinking I may have been setting the bar wrong on my back (too low?) but I'm still not sure. I tried resting it a little bit higher today.
Still trying to keep shoulders up, and I'm not sure if I'm like over extending my upper back or w/e. Do you guys notice anything in the 2nd vid?


BENCH
2 x 5 x 45
5 x 65
3 x 95
2 x 135
1 x 3 x 160
1 x 5 x 155
1 x 4 x 155

-- I think form is OK but I'm definitely losing tightness taking it out of the rack - I just don't have a spotter so IDK what to do.
No idea why the weight was too heavy today, we'll see what happens next time.


DEADLIFT
5 x 45
5 x 135
2 x 160
1 x 185
4 x 1 x 235



I think my overall form is better but those last reps looked sloppy, right?
guy walking up infront of my phone kinda pissed me off, moved it and tried to do another rep but I was done... doing single rep sets instead of one set with 5 reps takes more out of me - and I ****ing HATE the stupid octagon weights in this ******ed gym.

squats - It might be a good idea for your shoulders to do high bar squats. Your shoulders might feel better if you widen your hands a bit too.

bench - Get your middle/upper back stronger - that will help your back stay tight when you bench. Pull, pull, pull.

DL - your back looks like it loses some tightness as soon as the weight comes ff the floor. Try to stay tight during the whole pull.

squat: bar position looks good. head might be pointing too far towards the ground.

**** my stupid shoulders.

Sun, March 4th

SQUATS
2 x 5 x 45
5 x 85
3 x 120
2 x 160
1 x 210 (pain)
and then a bunch of random 1-5 rep sets with 95-135lbs to try and figure out if I'm doing anything wrong.
I sent my vids to Rippetoe and he said he doesn't see anything horribly wrong with form (brag?) but that I didn't describe the pain well enough. I'm bad at articulating these kinds of things but I'm going to try.

Do I have to quit low-bar squatting for a while? :'(


PRESS
3 x 5 x 45
3 x 65
4 x 85 (oops.. 2 reps too many)
1 x 4 x 115
1 x 2 x 115
2 x 5 x 105

again, shoulder does not bother me at all when pressing. it's only when squatting and it's like the back of shoulder joint / scapula. I guess it feels like when I hit the bottom something in my shoulder gives a little and the pressure from the weight starts hurting it.

switch to high bar.. all the cool kids are doing it

this ^. It will be a lot easier on your shoulders.

This will sound extra stupid coming from me, but seriously, don't do a movement if it hurts you.

no pain no gain, you sallys.

I hate to give up low-bar squats, since they seem like the better of the squats for me to do and I finally got good form - but if the pain doesn't go away soon I'll probably take your advice and switch over

reviewing my vids: is it possible that my ass lifting faster than my chest is the problem? I'm noticing on some reps my ass goes up and my chest lags behind to get up - it looks like im trying to force the chest to catch up by like arching back a bit more.

it looks like I'm lifting my ass and keeping my chest low by flexing middle-back and then making chest follow. on some reps.

Wednesday, March 8th

SQUATS
2 x 5 x 45
5 x 85
3 x 120
2 x 160
1 x 5 x 210
1 x 5 x 215
1 x 6 x 215

-- raised the bar a little on my back (rippetoe told me I could try raising the bar a little).
first two sets higher than the last set - shoulder was giving the first signs of pain but in the end (esp last set) it felt pretty good. boom.
I'm still not putting neck in neutral position (looking out/slightly down). I'm looking straight out and when I go up I'm pulling to keep head up which may be adding to the shoulder problems... gotta fix that next gym visit.

2nd Set (back angle):


3rd Set (side angle):



BENCH
1 x 10 x 45
5 x 65
3 x 95
2 x 130
3 x 5 x 160

-- felt a lot better. fairly easy altho my 5th rep in the 1st, 2nd and maybe even 3rd set seemed sloppy - my elbows started tracking outward.
I think I'm getting a lot better at keeping shoulders tight for a base but I have a feeling my setup still has a ton of work.
I'm actually trying to mimic HalfSlant's setup but I don't think I'm close.

set 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IM3MpsGyvI
set 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCWAEL6_Qs
set 3:



DEADLIFT
5 x 45
5 x 135
3 x 165
2 x 185
5 x 1 x 230
2 x 1 x 230

-- Form is getting better but I have a feeling a few of these are not passable with the bending of the back. I'm trying hard to keep it all tight but obviously having trouble - should I lower weight? Get a belt?

Working set:


Another attempt:

Squats look good to me. Didn't watch bench.

DL (1st vid anyway) your lower back seems like it's rounded to start with almost. You should really get it tight and straight to begin with and then really keep it there by tightening/flexing your lats and keeping your core really solid.

Rip has a video where he says how to set your lower back. Here it is: http://startingstrength.com/index.ph...sition_control. It's way too long but at some point he actually has a very helpful thing you can do on a mat to set your lower back.

Before doing that I spent months thinking I was getting my lower back set and not actually doing it. Even now if my g/f mentions she doesn't think my lower back is set/straight I will do some of those to make sure I'm setting it properly b4 my pull.

Thanks

I have a problem with Rip's "drop your dick down in between your knees"... it's already down there

A+

You don't have a huge erection when you go to pull DLs?

Hmmmm, weird.