Leo's Starting Strength Log

[auditwarrior]

Hi everyone,

I started the program around a month ago. Love it. Used to have back pain and shoulder pain, all went away now. See below link for progress so far.

Shared album - Leo Lin - Google Photos

See below for last two workset of squats yesterday.

Shared album - Leo Lin - Google Photos

Shared album - Leo Lin - Google Photos

[carson]

Welcome. Please give us your age, height, and weight. If possible do the photography from a 45 degree angle and a little further away so we can see your feet. I suspect that your knees are doing most of the work. Your hips are supposed to do the work. If you can go see a coach.

[auditwarrior]

Welcome. Please give us your age, height, and weight. If possible do the photography from a 45 degree angle and a little further away so we can see your feet. I suspect that your knees are doing most of the work. Your hips are supposed to do the work. If you can go see a coach.

Thanks for the feed back!

Age: 27
Height: 6 ft
Weight: 183 lbs

Last night's training was not part of the program. I went down 10 lbs to try to fix my squat form. According to another starting strength trainee, my knee is not forward enough and is practically vertical. My goal for the next training session for squat:
- go wider on my stance because I suspect my stance is too narrow
- get a nice thoracic extension before lifting the weight and also maintaining slightly arched lower back all the way down because I see rounding in both upper back and lower back

I may need to go further down in weight in order to practice better form.

Overhead press felt ok and didn't do deadlift last night, instead did back extension for the first time (FOUND A ROMAN CHAIR).

[peez]

Welcome to the forum, Leo. Glad your pain is gone ... common story around here! Good progress so far.

1) Eat (as in: more, like you mean it). Find Jordan Feigenbaum's "To be a beast article". Sleep. Lift. Repeat.
2) I assume you have read the book. If not, read the book. Several times. If you can, get a coach (SSC only) or visit a seminar.
3) Hard to tell but you might need to get a wider stance and shove your knees out.

Overhead press felt ok and didn't do deadlift last night, instead did back extension for the first time (FOUND A ROMAN CHAIR).

I'd stick with the main four lifts for now ... no need to do any auxiliary stuff after a month of training.

[Nermin]

Leo, welcome aboard. Stay away from my financials. Those charities are all totes legit.

[auditwarrior]

Did my third workout of the week on Saturday. Drop weight by a lot to focus on form on the squat. Really focused on having a wider stance and I think it made a difference. Still would look at the mirror from time to time, but tried to stare at my water bottle placed near the foot of the wall.

I think I need to focus on more thoracic extension on the top and the bottom and also let my knees go forward more. Overall, back angle seems too horizontal.

Made progress on the bench, felt really hard to get to the end of the motion on work set. Tried to focus to get more range in my shoulder (otherwise I felt paid on my wrist and elbow). Also think I have a bar path problem due to the depth issue. Bar path was not straight because my muscle tried weird things to get to the depth.

Re did my last deadlift workout. Felt a bit easier, but think I can maintained a better neutral back. Will tape myself next time for deadlift and bench.

Form for squat:
Shared album - Leo Lin - Google Photos
Shared album - Leo Lin - Google Photos

[auditwarrior]

Another workout in the bag.

Squat 140*3
Press 82.5*3
Chin up assisted with 70 lbs 5*3

Completely drop power clean doing chin up and deadlift alternating. Got help from Nirman on the squat and press. Going to focus on a few things:
1. Have knee break sooner and further out
2. Stare at the foot of the wall instead of mirror
3. Tight back
4. Big breath

Got some good tips on the press as well, closer grip, arch upper back before taking the bar off the rack and tighter glut and abs when swinging forward.

Overall felt good. Squat was easy because I dropped down in weight. Sleep was terrible, had to help my wife with work and she slept around 1 after I slept. Also work up due to a bad pain in the hip. Think hip muscle got really tight due to the wider stance and I form rolled it out and stretched.

Weight is at 182, need to eat more to increase weight.

Squat form: Shared album - Leo Lin - Google Photos

[auditwarrior]

Worked out on Thursday. Took a day longer break because hip still hurt and I like to work out again on weekend. So I can take as long as I need on my workout on Saturday.

Squat went further down to less than a plate due to hip pain. However still focus on the 4 things in my prior post. Dont think I am doing as good of a job as I can on looking at a fixed spot. I have a tendency to look at the mirror. Getting better at moving the knee out quicker, but still can improve. breathing and back tightness are both issues still.

Deadlift felt easy, finally hit my body weight. The app gave me a congratulation note and inform me to start cleans. I will stick to chin up and deadlift rotation instead. really not feeling like doing cleans.

Bench was easy too. But the bar path is a problem, think I move it around too much for some reason. Perhaps my flexibility does not allow me to go as deep as I did. Touching the chest always felt really weird for me. I either experience wrist pain or elbow pain in the bottom position. Perhaps I need to have a better arch on the lower back and chest up more.

[auditwarrior]

Hip pain worsen, so squat was really weak yesterday. However, found a sweet spot for the form. just need to focus on the break of knees and everything else kinda take care of themselves. Going to my chiropractor today to see what's going on with my hip.

Overhead press was good, make progress for another 2.5 lbs. Tried narrower grip again and my elbow didn't like it. So switch to wider grip slightly wider than shoulder width. The last couple reps were hard.

Chins was good too, make progress for another 5 lbs.