Can't get below paralell yet

[SkinnyWimp]

Coach Rippetoe,

I'm into my 4th week of Novice program, progress is going well with squats (added 10lbs/workout every workout the first 3 weeks, first workout of week 4 I added 5 lbs). I've read SS 1st Ed, and refer to it often. I've got PP on order.

I filmed my workout yesterday and realized that my squats are only parallel at best. The heavier weight of my work sets (now at 175lbs) helps me get a bit lower than the warmup sets, but still not below parallel.

I understand that doing squats will improve flexibility. Should I have gotten there yet though? Does the progress I've made so far count or should I do more work (rigourous stretching) to get flexible, then back off the weight a bit?

If this matters, I'm 38, 5'6", 150lbs, prolly around 20% fat. The video is analog - I can borrow some digital equipment to enable video post if that is required.

Thanks. And thanks for writing the books and these forum posts. I screwed up my shoulders at age 16 because I didn't know how to bench press properly. The BP chapter has cleared up a lot of confusion I've always had about proper technique.

-SW

[Mark Rippetoe]

A lot of money -- maybe $350 -- says that all you need to do is shove your knees out to the sides at the bottom to get depth.

[win]

For what it's worth, the stretch illustrated on page 14 of Starting Strength (fig. 2-8) helped me a lot. And I'm 44.