Restarting strength

[boot29342342]

My first thread on this forum asked for help with my squat problem:

http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=41874

"Background: I am a woman, mid-thirties, been lifting for about four months. Height 5'9", weight 148 lb, squat 140~150 lb, bench 110 lb, press 70 lb, clean 85 lb, and deadlift 170 lb (all but the DL are working weights for sets across; I've had to dial back squat weight as I keep hitting a wall). Oh, I can do 5 sets of 5 chin-ups--pretty proud of that one!

The problem: I have worked my way up to squatting my body weight twice now and had to back off. The first time, I felt a pain in my lower back. Now, I am experiencing some intermittent pain in my knees and soreness in the front of my hips. I know that this *could* be due to my knees traveling forward at the bottom of the movement, as explained in the squat chapter of SS. But I just can't figure out a way to attain below-parallel depth while keeping the bar path vertical without my knees traveling forward somewhat. Thoughts?

Before re-reading the squat chapter, I thought that my hip tendons were hurting due to insufficient recovery, and I am taking a rest week right now to take care of that. I am eating a fair amount, 2400 kcal/day, with 150 g of protein a day. Lots of cultured dairy and whey protein powder as well as some milk--cannot stomach too much uncultured milk, unfortunately, due to a bit of lactose intolerance.

Another relevant bit of information: I have had lower back problems pretty much all my life, and I had arthroscopic surgery for a meniscus tear in my right knee 15 years ago. My knee gets a little sore now and then but doesn't generally bother me. I am flexible, which means I get injured easily."

I forgot to add here that in addition to my many injuries and chronic lower back pain, I had a partial hamstring tear in my right leg in a yoga class about five or six years ago, and I separated my left shoulder in a fall about eleven years ago. These old injuries sometimes remind of themselves during my lifts.

I am currently taking a rest break from lifting to allow my tendons and knees to recover. Doing absolutely nothing more strenuous than eating 2400 calories a day and walking with the dog. When it is time to lift again, the plan is to cut back on the squat weight until I fix my form issue, and I am bringing my two yoga bricks with me because I do not think there is a Terribly Useful Block Of Wood anywhere in my gym.

Oh, and comments are welcome on my log if anyone has any.

[boot29342342]

Rest week continues. Notes to self: disrupted sleep continues. I have had intermittent insomnia my whole adult life, so this is nothing new. But one of the reasons I took the rest week is because I noticed that I was not sleeping well, which I took as a sign of possible overtraining. The other sign was that I couldn't stop fidgeting, but that might have been an increase in NEAT because I am eating a bit more. Then again, I am fidgety in general, so that is hardly conclusive proof of overtraining. But I would rather be safe than sorry. Hip tendons are still a bit sore, and the knees are also a bit sore. I hope this passes by next Tuesday, when I plan to resume lifting.

[boot29342342]

Rest week continues--only four days left till Tuesday, when I resume training. Sleep is fine now.

I just ordered some lifting shoes finally--been using Chucks, and they were an improvement on training in socks, but I decided I could use some stability. Got me some Rogues. It's a good thing I am tall and can order a man sized shoe to go with my Man Hands.

Also ordered some 1.25 lb fractionals for my upper body lifts.

And, I finally cracked the Science of Flexibility--it looks like a much, much more useful book than the stupid Supple Leopard. It actually has references and an index, for one thing, and is not laced cover to cover with CF Koolaid. I look forward to reading the whole thing once I'm finished with Mean Ol' Mr. Gravity.

[boot29342342]

First day back after rest week. Tried out my new Rogue Do-Wins. They are solid as far as balance goes, but unfortunately just a tad too small for me. I hope the suede stretches overtime.

SQ: 1x10x45, 1x5x65, 1x5x85, 1x5x115, 3x5x125 <- deloaded weight to practice on form, with TUBOW.
PR: 2x5x45, 1x5x60, 1x5x65, 1x5x75, 1x5x70. This was a mess! Barely completed the last two sets. Form is still a struggle.
DL: 1x5x135, 1x5x175. I think 175 might be a personal best, however puny that is in absolute terms (1.2 bodyweight)

Afternoon note: well isn't that interesting. My upper hamstring tendons do not hurt one bit, and my knees feel fine for now, too.

m3

[boot29342342]

SQ: 1x10x45, 1x5x75, 1x5x95, 1x5x115, 3x5x125. Form deload continues + TUBOW.

BP: 2x5x45, 2x5x85, 1x4x112.5, 1x4x110, 1x5x105.

This was an attempt to do 112.5 with new fractionals and it failed. And then I failed on 110, which was my previous work weight. My upper body lifts are not doing too well after rest week--I am hoping this is all it is and that I am going to be able to be able to return to at least 3x5x110.

CL: 1x3x30, 5x3x80.

I discovered a girl bar! It's the same diameter as a regular Oly bar, just shorter. And it weighs 30 lb so I can use it with 25 lb bumper plates. The working weight is 5 lb lighter than my previous weight, but at least I am able to use the right starting height (the 5 and 10 lb bumper plates at my gym are a smaller diameter)

P.S. Okay, not ALL of my upper body lifts are regressing--chins are just fine.

Chins: 5x5

[boot29342342]

Sleep: about 6.5 hrs; Food prev. day: 2785 calories (370 of those in beer form). Had a nice cup of hot black coffee right before lifting, and I think it made a difference. Also, timed my rest breaks at 5 min between working sets. The breaks I normally take are considerably shorter, probably on the order of 2-3 min at most. I am a hare not a tortoise.

SQ: 1x10x45, 1x5x85, 1x5x105, 1x5x125, 3x5x135. Still with TUBOW. Felt a little more wobbly at the knees with this weight, and my right upper quad tendon is tender now. Needless to say, I foam rolled the fuck out of my quads and will take some ibuprofen later.

PR: 2x5x45, 1x5x65, 3x5x70. This felt pretty good and I was reasonably confident of my form for a change.

DL: 1x5x135, 1x5x175.

[boot29342342]

Sleep: 6.5 hrs (horrible, too--barely managed to fall asleep). Food the day before: 2350 kcal, 144 g protein. Milk/prote shake and hot coffee before gym, and 7 min warm-up on a stationary bike.

SQ: 1x10x45, 1x5x85, 1x5x95, 1x5x115, 3x5x130. Took the weight down a notch because my right knee and right hip tendon were hurting all weekend; knee was almost debilitating.

BP: 2x5x45, 2x5x85, 1x3x112.5, 1x4x110, 1x5x105 -- all work sets were awful. Very hard, and obviously I failed on my second 112.5 lb attempt in a row (cf. log from Aug 15). I am indeed regressing on BP, and this after a rest week.

CL: 1x3x30, 1x3x80, 4x5x85. This is the only thing that went reasonably well today. The cleans felt light and form seemed intuitive. I am going to try for 90 next week.

Other programming notes: the thinking is to do some light squats next time, DL only once a week and do chins and back extensions instead of cleans on Fri. So for the non-squat, non-pressing stuff, I will be doing cleans Tuesdays, DL Thursdays, and back/chins on Saturday.

[boot29342342]

Food yesterday: 2400, 153 g of protein. Had coffee before heading to the gym, warmed up on exercise bike for 7 min.

SQ: 1x10x45, 1x5x85, 1x5x105, 3x5x130. With TUBOW (or rather the friendly bit of squat foam I found that is just the right height).

PR: 2x5x45, 1x5x55, 3x5x70. Form felt pretty good--I think I might finally have this and can increase by 2.5 lb next time.

DL: 1x5x135, 1x5x180 <-- a personal best! It took me a while to work up to this, too. I do think the cleans are helping.

Saw a guy using a hack slide backwards (with his face smooshed into the headrest). He looked like a right idiot.

[boot29342342]

Food the night before: 2500 kcal, 170 g protein (Jeebus). 7 hours of sleep. Coffee and the usual warm-up.

SQ: 1x10x45, 1x5x85, 1x5x105, 1x5x115, 3x5x130. With TUBOW, although I don't think I need it anymore. I feel like I've got the drill down finally. Hip tendons feel good, and I really feel the squats in my hamstrings on the way up now. Also, my butt is sore, which is hilarious.

BP: 1x10x45 (got distracted and fucked up count, meant to do 5 reps for first warmup), 1x5x45, 1x5x80, 1x3x95, 1x1x105, 3x5x110. This felt relatively solid and doable, but my shoulders were kind of tweaky on some reps, especially the left one (the one I injured years ago).

Back extensions: 3x10x45

Chins: bw 3, 4, 5, 4, 3. This kind of sucked. I can do five sets of five when I am fresh, at home, in the evening. But I am beginning to understand why I was making such slow progress on chins before, when I mostly did them at the gym after squatting and upper body lifts. And I wonder how long I have actually had it in me to do a five-rep set but never managed it at the gym because I was ass-tired.

[boot29342342]

Food the day before: 2400 kcal, 179 g of protein--yaaar!
Slept poorly, kept waking up for the past 4 hrs. I haven't had a decent 8-hour night in weeks, it seems.
The usual general warm-up and preparations.

SQ: 1x10x45, 1x5x95, 1x5x110, 1x5x120, 3x5x135 <--slowly but surely returning to my pre-TUBOW weights. (Though still with TUBOW)

Press: 2x5x45, 1x5x55, 3x5x72.5 <-- at this weight for this many sets and reps, that's a PR. For some reason, I thought I had managed three sets of five at 75, but looking back through my notebook, I haven't ever managed more than one set. Clearly, five pounds was too big a jump for me from 70, and I am an idiot for not using small fractionals sooner.

Clean: 1x3x45, 1x3x80, 1x3x90, 1x1x90, 2x3x85. 90 is a PR, but I was delusional and thought I could make a 5 lb jump here. I couldn't complete the second set at 90--it was flying up to my nipples or so and flopping down sadly. 85 was not too bad, though.

Note to self: Tobo, use fucking 1.25 lb fractionals for smaller/faster lifts.