A Clarification | Mark Rippetoe
Post a video of your squat.
Numbers:
Body weight: about 300lbs
(3 sets of 5)
Squat: 385
Bench: 250
Press: 135
(1 set of 5)
Deadlift: 350lbs…
Body fat percentage: about 35 percent
Height: 5’11”
Where am I at in the book: section on learning the steps to the deadlift.
Alright.
So I purchased the phone app a month ago and been using it for 3 days a week with improvements on everything. Every workout my squat went up 10lbs and my bench and press went up 5lbs. My deadlift reached 390, but it just became stuck and I’m lucky to hit 365 for a good set of 5 on some days.
As far as the first issues go.
I sleep about 8-9 hours a night, except the night going into the 3rd day. I work 4 10 hour shifts with 3 days off. So I’ll workout more in the afternoon for 2 of the days. Those days I feel amazing.
The issue with the 3rd day is, I train before my shift. So sometimes I’ll short myself to 7 and a half hours of sleep. Plus I’m going into the gym relatively “cold.” But it’s the best I can do at this moment.
Food: I’m getting about 5k calories a day. My wife has concerns for how much I am consuming so I know I’m doing something right.
So my question is:
I feel like I’m no longer able to give my 3rd day the attention it desires for the NLP. I’m crunched for time, and I don’t have spotters as it’s an empty gym at 4am. I still want to train and give the hour I have the best hour I can give. I don’t feel comfortable adding 10 pounds to my squat on my 3rd day. Literally today I irritated the hell out of my back on 350lb squat and I only got 2 reps before I felt like my back was going to have some major issues with a
Pulled muscle.
Should I set aside my 3rd day for assistance work (e.g pull-ups, power cleans, lat pulls, etc.) and if so, any recommendations on how I should set it up?
If I had a say, I want to improve my deadlift on the 3rd day. I feel like I’m leaving it behind and it needs to be a lot better than it is right now. My technique is trash as I have a lot of upper back rounding. I’m making a road trip in a month to visit a starting strength gym to really hammer the problem with the technique. The only time I feel like I have the deadlift correct is when I use a “vert pull” but even then, it has a bad chin angle for me.
Thanks.
A Clarification | Mark Rippetoe
Post a video of your squat.
Squat form check for starting strength. 385lbs - YouTube
Hopefully this work. This was my 385 last Wednesday. The first two reps I did watch myself in the mirror. That’s a hard habit to break.
Yeah. Two inches high. Explains the numbers, in part. Short fingers probably explains the rest.
Making sure I understand you correctly, lower the bar on my back about 2 inches for the squat?
And yes, my fingers are a little on the shorter side compared to most.
Your squat is two inches above parallel.
I will work on that. Thank you.