Testimonial On Unfucking Yourself
"Yes, if you squat wrong it fucks things up. If you squat correctly, those same fucked-up things will unfuck themselves." - Rippetoe.
Some basic history... discovered SS & bought the necessary material from you a couple of years ago, got my lifts up to where I was feeling like a confident novice (squat 340, deadlift 415, bench 255, press 165, cleaned 155 at 220lb bodyweight). I allowed some severe personal/marriage problems to stop me training for a minute, now I'm restarting a novice SS program & in a few weeks I've gotten myself back in the groove (squat 220, deadlift 220, bench 155, press 120, clean 120). Nothing spectacular yet BUT...
During the months I wasn't training, I developed some irritating & often painful lower back & hip tightness. I also started noticing some kind of "tendinitis" sensation in the area of my hip flexors, which would be constant, and sometimes irritating enough to keep me awake at night.
When I started training again recently (gingerly & with some concern about potential pain & injury for the first few training sessions), I looked back at some old training videos, and noticed that my old squat was all over the fucking shop (particularly bar too high, knees shooting forward at the bottom). I wondered if this had something to do with this constant hip/glute/lower back irritation I had been suffering during my layoff. I've re-studied SS book & DVD and I have been working VERY hard at correcting those problems, with some success, and it feels like a miracle cure. The pain & aggravation I had been suffering has been almost completely alleviated.
In fact, after the first few training sessions back, I could tell if I'd nailed my squat form because I'd perform the lift, rack the bar & feel like ALL tension or pain had gone from my hip area the moment I stepped away from the bar. If I'd fucked the lift by reverting to my old form, I would have felt like I fucked own my hips & ass too.
A few weeks down the track & I don't suffer ANY of that familiar hip/ass discomfort. I have successfully unfucked myself.
So Rip this is mostly a note of thanks, for continuing to offer us your deep knowledge amid a sea of misinformation & gibberish, for helping to improve people's quality of life, and for showing us, step by invigorating step, how to fairly comprehensively unfuck ourselves. It has certainly worked for me.
I also have a question. At the racetrack the other day, I had a conversation with a guy who had evidently had some "success" in Upper Body Building, i.e. had probably never even put a barbell on his back, let alone try to squat it, and probably did 5 days per week of chest/tris. I was extremely uncomfortable during this conversation. He enthusiastically talked about going into the gym & "one day just totally mixing things up" because it "keeps your muscles guessing" and other stupid bullshit that almost forced me to spit coffee on his face. But it made me curious... in your experience with advanced programming, does a rational version of that idea ever have any validity regarding strength training? Is there ever a time in an advanced trainee's progression where, for example, a random one-off variation in training can assist progress, or is planned & steady progression the most efficient method?