Press and Squat, flexibility and pain issues

[YS*]

Hi Rip,

I've seen your DVD and read the SS book.

I'm after a cutting period that was definitely too long and now I'm an anorexic chick.

I've started the SS program 2 weeks ago, and started eating 2500-3000 calories per day, I don't have a lot of muscle mass on me, and I suffer from pain in my wrists, I use wrist wraps for some of the exercises, it gives me stability but it ruin my flexibility in that area, so when holding the bar on squats it's difficult to keep my hand straight on the bar.

I have pain when i'm doing LB squat somewhere at the external side of my shoulder. This happens when I'm trying to pull my elbows out to stabilize the squat bar. How can I improve my flexibility in that area?

I can't stabilize the bar on my back and keep my self vertical, I need to bend my self a bit in order to keep the bar on the back, this prevents me from dealing with the important guidelines in the squat and I'm massing with shit because of my shoulder, as soon as I get my hands up and my elbows out, I feel pain in the area I've mentioned.

I warm up before I start, trying to stretch the area but it's difficult to stretch that area, even now when I get my hand up it hearts, a thing that also prevents me from adding weight and doing proper squats, after a while it gets really hard to squeeze the bar into my shoulder blades at they get tired from trying to fight the pain and still keep them tight.

another major issue, is when I'm doing PressI have pain in my elbows, I can't hold the bar on the front of my shoulders, so I keep it on my chest (due to lack of flexibility), but before I unrack it, I can't keep my forearms vertical which is a crucial thing when doing Press. I hold the bar, get under it, get my elbows out (like you've explained in the DVD) but I can't get my forearms to a vertical position, they are bent to the inside like that - \ /, I'm trying to fight it but I can get them to be almost vertical (not enough) and my elbows are really sore after I practice and during the sets.

when I straight me arms I have "clicks" coming from my elbows and I feel soreness from the inside of my elbow.

I will try to take a video and post it here tomorrow, I'm still recovering from yesterdays practice which was bad, and I can feel how bad it was in my joints.

Thanks Rip!

[Mark Rippetoe]

Sounds like you have some grip problems on both the press and the squat. Video would help.