Just Doing the Program

[Rick Harlan]

I never touched a barbell before 8/24/16. I turned 48 the year before, and was starting to feel it. So, I joined a gym to "get in shape", and maybe get the "T" levels back to where they used to be. About the time I was getting bored of pulling on levers and pulleys, I found one of Sully's articles online and decided I needed to cross over the barbell side of the gym. I didn't immediately find anyone to show me how to lift real weights, since the Nautilus was doing what it was invented for, keeping a geek off the barbells.

So, I self-coached using YouTube. Unfortunately, I still hadn't connected with Starting Strength, but I was extremely lucky that I randomly landed on Untamed Strength, from which I learned to lift with basically correct form. I had no concept of programming, except that I remembered the story of Milo of Croton from childhood. Eventually, I learned about SL 5x5. This was enough thanks to the Novice Effect, and that the weight I was lifting was non-fatiguing. About the time that this was running out of steam, I finally learned about Starting Strength and bought the book (around late February/early March of this year), and then I was off to the races.

While I made a lot of progress, the program I was doing is better named "Starting and Stopping Strength", due to extremely disorganized training. However, it did get me from a squat of 135 to 240 over 7 months. As Rip says, this program works even when you do it wrong. I finally got to work with real coaches at Sully and Kurisko's squat camp last month, and was inspired to finally get my act together and really do the program.

So, my plan is to get my act together and just DTP: get into the gym the same three days every week (not two or four or every third day); do 3x5 across, not a bunch of drop sets because I missed the 5th rep, and want to make up the volume; eat a caloric surplus, without going overboard (I really like whole milk), and finally start doing the dang power cleans and chin-ups (deadlifts make me feel strong and chin-ups do the opposite).

Personal data: a "chubby, middle-aged computer programmer" (hence the screen name), age 49, 5' 11", 205#.

Monday's lifts:
Squat: 45x10, 95x5, 135x3, 165x2, 185x1, 200x5x3 (reset to 185 early this month after learning my low-bar position was basically high-bar)
Press: 45x5, 65x3, 85x2, 90x1, 100x5,5,4
Deadlift: 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 255x1, 280x5

[Rick Harlan]

Tonight was a rough workout. I made all my reps squatting and benching, but never felt like my form was good ( on a couple, I felt myself going onto my toes, then over corrected to almost falling backwards). I started getting biceps and shoulder pain which I haven't had in a month or more.
I haven't bench pressed in a long time, since I'm too introverted to ask a stranger for a spot, or to have friends who lift. But my theme here is doing the program, and the program says bench on alternate days. I made a guess that 135 would be safe, but challenging. The arm pain delivered on that second criterion.
The power clean was all fun and games until... I've practiced a couple of times with an empty bar, but I don't have any idea of a working weight. I got up to 115 and missed (stopped about mid chest). I gave it another try, jumping as hard as I could. It flew up to my shoulders and tried to take me down backwards. I might be too old to power clean after all.

Squat: 45x5x2; 95x4; 145x3; 185x2; 205x5x3
BP: 45x5; 65x3; 85x3; 105x3; 125x2; 135x5x3
PC: 65x3; 95x3; 115x0,1

[Rick Harlan]

I'm baffled. Out of no where my lifts have gone down the drain. On Friday's squats, I got my reps done, but finished with such horrendous pain in my biceps and shoulders (at least it's symmetrical now) that I could only sit in the locker room and moan until it abated enough for me to press. Not surprisingly, it did not go well. I skipped the chin-ups and went home. I did nothing on the weekend and Monday came and went. I'll get back to it on Wednesday (can't make it up tonight due to Trick-or-treat activities). I can't understand what changed since the summer when everything was going so well, other than "cleaning up" my diet. If that's it, then I think I'll just just live with being fat.

[hondotbt]

welcome to the forum, hope your pain abates and you can keep on training.

[Charlie Davies]

Twins! Welcome aboard.

Your biceps/shoulder pain after squatting, that interferes with press/bench, probably requires adjusting your hand/elbow/shoulder position in the low-bar squat. It's a pretty common problem.

Search this forum for various things to try, there have been many threads about this.

[Rick Harlan]

welcome to the forum, hope your pain abates and you can keep on training.

Twins! Welcome aboard.

Your biceps/shoulder pain after squatting, that interferes with press/bench, probably requires adjusting your hand/elbow/shoulder position in the low-bar squat. It's a pretty common problem.

Search this forum for various things to try, there have been many threads about this.

Thank you both for your welcome.

cwd, I found a few things in the repetitive questions section. I think you're right about my hand, etc. position. I need to keep working on shoulder flexibility so I can get my grip in closer.

[Charlie Davies]

One thing I've done that bothered my shoulder/elbows was unconsciously pulling *down* on the bar when the squats got difficult.

Another was having the bar off-center on my back by about an inch.
Both were not obvious until they were pointed out to me, or I noticed them on video afterwards.

There are lots of other things to try though, including grip width, thumbs around vs. not, wrists straight vs. not, etc.