Couple Questions

[AndyE]

Hi
First off let me say thanks for writing Starting Strength. I tried doing squats a few years ago, but because of bad advise I hurt my back doing them and gave them up. After reading your book I found 3 things wrong with my form. I didn't arc my lower back right, use my hips to lift or keep the bar over mid foot. Been working on my form for a couple weeks with my younger brother.

My first question concerns pain in my thigh from squats. From looking around the forum I think it is my IT Band acting up. The pain is in halfway between the front and outside of my thigh. I plan to hit up a massage place this weekend to get it worked on. What I am concerned about is that the pain started on wed. during my warm up with the bar. I pushed through and got up to my workout weight with 80 pounds on the bar (weak I know but hey I just started). Tonight during my first set with just the bar the pain was so bad I had to stop right away. Could this be happening because I have been inactive for a few years or did I jump the weight too fast and screw something up? I started my work sets with 50 pounds because anything lower felt too light. I stayed there for the first week to work on form. Started the second week with 80 because my form looked ok.

My second question concerns my diet. I have a sodium imbalance and I cannot eat fast food or processed food. If I do I have vertigo and will be unable to train. Then there is the cost to get that much food. This is making it very hard for me to get the required amount of food. I know this means I am going to stall quicker than if I followed your program. Should I add weight slower to give my body more time for recovery or should I keep adding 5 pounds to everything and just deal with having to back off and deload more often? I'm not training for anything so I don't care if it takes me longer to get strong. I estimate that I am getting around 3500 calories a day. On the weekends I get more but only cause I have more time to cook.

Thanks for your time and I apologize if these questions have been asked before.

[MikeC1]

How much do you weigh?

Do you have a job, and do you cook your own food?

[AndyE]

I am around 190, 6 ft 2 in, and 30 years old. Yes I do to both.

[MikeC1]

At 190, it's really difficult to injure yourself by squatting 80 lbs, so either your body is temporarily resisting the new physical activity, or there is something wrong in your leg. You should think about using a foam roller and baseball on it, and if it doesn't clear up in the next few weeks, you might want to get it checked out.

About your food question, at 190 lbs you won't need that much food to begin with. 3500 is plenty for now. There are a lot of very cheap ways to get in healthy food, you just have to be creative. If you think you need more protein in your diet, buying protein powder in bulk can last you a long time, and would be very cheap when you stretch the cost out over how long it lasts.

[AndyE]

Got a cheap foam roller from wally world and it helped. Still have a little tightness in the thighs but I was able to do the squats today, even upped the weight. Thanks for the help even though I got kicked into to repetitive part of the forum.