Torso foward lean during squats

[Mark Rippetoe]

I'd have to see you under the bar. I don't have the proportions memorized, although it sounds like you might be the other way.

[Bloodninja666]

A somewhat related question:

What qualifies as long legs and a short torso? As an example, I am 6' with a 34 inch inseam. Are my legs long for my height?

If you are a true 34, yes you are long-legged.

[JoeM]

Ouch! This talk of people gravitating towards endurance sports because they lack coordination and kinesthetic sense hits too damn close to home! OK, so if I'm willing to admit that i fit the bill, what's the prognosis? Something you guys mentioned that really worries me, is that you have to give lots of cues EVERY WORKOUT -- this implies something much more demoralizing -- not that I'm just going to be a slow learner, but that I may not be able to learn it... . SLOW learning I can handle, but NO learning? Really? Does this fit your experience?

What I've noticed (and I've only been at Starting Strength sporadically for the last 6 months) is that my awareness of my back position has definitely improved with lots of help from tips and tricks in Ripp's books and close observation and feedback from my training partner. My *form* on the other hand seems to need exactly the sort of continuous feedback you describe -- I can get it really well one day and do everything wrong the next workout - knees too far forward, butt coming up before my chest, or other form faults) the very next workout. It's been a little maddening and I haven't moved the weight up much because I keep wanting to get the form right before getting too heavy (my workout partner and I agree on this point -- I'm sure I'd be doing really shitty squats with much more weight if I were doing this alone).

I keep thinking I'm getting a better "feel" for this stuff as time goes on, but am I fooling myself and doomed to only be competent when the main requisite is bull-headedly pushing through the pain (i.e, endurance sports)?

Oh, yeah, and I am pretty damned untrained -- never had any real upper-body strength and I've already exceeded 40 years on the planet, so I'm playing all-around catch up, here, which may contribute as much as inborn clumsiness to my struggles.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The bad news in that some people are poor athletes, and don't learn this stuff well. The good news is that you're not going to get any worse.