Disproportionate strength

[ctester]

Hello Coach. Was refered from BrandX forum to you.Great Q&A and many thanks for your time taking all these questions.

Age - 35
Weight - 155lbs
BF% - probably 17%
Height 5'6"
Squat - 160 lb
Bench - 189 lb
DL - 189 lb
Press -94 lb
Row - 136 lb

I have been lifting weights off and on for 7 years now. Started with compound lifts, 5x5, etc 6 months ago. Started the SS program and stalling on Squats week 5 now. (hip flexors seem to take a beating).

Q1. As you can see my lifts relative to strength standards in PP vary depending on lift. Do I just keep just linear progression along this disproportionate line and does this correct itself or any other suggestion? How long should I stay on

Q2. I never seem to recover well from squat - I feel sore in hipflexor whenever I start the squating with an empty bar which warms up after a while. Almost seems like a lactic acid build-up. The only time it does not happen so much is when I have not squated in a week or so. Should I still squat 3xweek? recovery not improving so far.

Thanks
Carl

[Mark Rippetoe]

A disproportionate strength distribution most usually reflects a disproportionate approach to training, i.e. the basic lifts. I notice that you're not doing cleans, and you mention that you've been training for several years before having started this program. This means almost surely that you've been benching longer than anything else so it's not surprising that your bench would be disproportionately strong. It might be prudent for you to stop benching a while and devote some time to getting your squat and deadlift caught up. And you might as well break down and learn how to clean while your busy Doing The Right Thing.

Sore hip flexors obviously have nothing to do with lactate, and you need to read more to learn why. They always involve bad form, and you need to review the millions of videos posted on this forum to see what I've commented on about form problems, and then compare theirs to yours.

[ctester]

Thank you for the quick response. Will lay off the bench for a while. As for the hipflexor fatigue, which you attributed to form, I spent couple of days looking at form corrections posts on the message board. I think fall into the knee too forward category. My questions is how do I stop that from happeninng and what flexibility work can be done to help too. Thanks again.

Carl

[Mark Rippetoe]

It's covered in the book.