Press, Power Clean and Squat troubles

[speedster101]

I have been doing Starting Strength for a few weeks now, and I am very impressed with my results in the bench press and dead lift, although I am having trouble with the press, power clean, and squat. I have listed my starting weights for the press and power clean which have not been increased at all. I have increased my squat, but with problems coming with it. I have read all of the sections on these lifts many times, and very thoroughly, but I seem to be having struggles with all of these lifts particularly when I do them all on the same day. I would post videos of my attempts at them, but my gym is one of those stupid ones that will not let you have a video camera or cellphone anywhere in the gym. I have searched to see if anyone else has similar problems, but I couldn't find very much. Here are the problems I am having:

press- 60lbs: When I do these, it fells like I should be able to do a lot more weight on the first rep or two, but as I get to the end, it feels like my muscles quit early, and something is locking up preventing me from pushing up. The same also occurs when I even try to do just the bar for 5 reps, and it feels ridiculously hard to push up at the end. I have not upped my weight at all since I started.

Power clean- 75lbs: When I try these with up to 75lbs, I can get my technique working good, with the bar staying on my legs until the jump. When I get to the rack with light weights though, it feels like I am almost pulling the bar down to rack it, because it shoots up high after the jump. However, I have tried these with heavier weights (From 85-95lbs) and I have a lot of trouble keeping contact wit my legs, and I end up digging up my shins. Since there is hardly any thigh contact, maybe just a small bump at the jump, the bar has little upward motion, and it looks like a messed up jump shrug. I really want to do these, so this is starting to get frustrating.

Squat- 135 start- 155 now: This used to be my favorite lift pre- Starting Strength, but I am running into lots of minor difficulties with these. First off is the low bar position that I have switched to after reading SS. I was comfortable with the high bar position before, but the low bar position seems very hard to get into, and seem to dig into the scapula bones that the bar is supposed to sit underneath. I try to keep it in the right spot, but it really hurts, and when it starts to slip my wrist angle changes, and my hands take some of the weight of the bar. I also cannot keep my wrists straight, and have my fingers wrap around the bar. The only way to keep the straight is to have only the bottom part of my palm on the bar, which feels very unstable. The last thing with squats is that my stupid gym has mirrors everywhere, which causes me to get distracted very easily, making me lose focus, and forgetting about some things, mainly the Valsalva maneuver, and keeping my eyes focussed on a point. This also seems to mess up the bottom of my squats, because I have a bad habit of looking how deep I am in the mirror, which is very hard to tell. This makes it look like I am not going deep enough to myself, which makes my upper body want to compensate for by leaning more forward, which the makes my butt not go as low, as it does not feel like below parallel. This may sound weird, but it is very hard to control.

Sorry if this is a bit long winded, just I do not have access to a decent coach, and I tried to include everything due to my inability to make videos. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Mark Rippetoe]

Ah, such helplessness is seldom associated with adult males. It seems as though every line of your post is a statement of a form problem or programming issue that you need to correct, and that is addressed in the book. I kept waiting to hear that you have diverticulitis too. Here are a few selections:

"I have listed my starting weights for the press and power clean which have not been increased at all."

You picked the weights wrong. Lighten them up so that you can make a small increase.

"I seem to be having struggles with all of these lifts particularly when I do them all on the same day."

If you're tired, you're not eating enough. If you're not gaining weight, you're not eating enough.

"My gym is one of those stupid ones that will not let you have a video camera"

Change gyms.


"press- 60lbs: When I do these, it fells like I should be able to do a lot more weight on the first rep or two, but as I get to the end, it feels like my muscles quit early, and something is locking up preventing me from pushing up."

That's the way warmups are supposed to feel. If the last sets are too heavy to do for 3 sets of 5, you picked the wrong weight.

"I have not upped my weight at all since I started."

You fool.

"Power clean- When I try these with up to 75lbs, I can get my technique working good, with the bar staying on my legs until the jump. When I get to the rack with light weights though, it feels like I am almost pulling the bar down to rack it, because it shoots up high after the jump. However, I have tried these with heavier weights (From 85-95lbs) and I have a lot of trouble keeping contact wit my legs, and I end up digging up my shins."

Have you tried 80 lbs.?

"Squat- 135 start- 155 now:"

If you jump even 5 lbs. per workout, 6 workouts has you past 155.

"I was comfortable with the high bar position before, but the low bar position seems very hard to get into, and seem to dig into the scapula bones that the bar is supposed to sit underneath."

Put the bar underneath the scapula bones where it belongs.

"I try to keep it in the right spot, but it really hurts, and when it starts to slip my wrist angle changes, and my hands take some of the weight of the
bar."

Try harder to keep it in the right spot.

"I also cannot keep my wrists straight, and have my fingers wrap around the bar. The only way to keep the straight is to have only the bottom part of my palm on the bar, which feels very unstable."

This is where the bar is supposed to be, on the bottom part of the palm. This is where it is the most stable. If you cannot keep your wrists straight, you have to fix this, for lots of good reasons.

"my stupid gym has mirrors everywhere, which causes me to get distracted very easily, making me lose focus, and forgetting about some things, mainly the Valsalva maneuver, and keeping my eyes focussed on a point."

Are you indentured to this facility? Can you not leave? How is it possible to be this goddamn silly? You are supposed to be looking at the floor anyway.

"This also seems to mess up the bottom of my squats, because I have a bad habit of looking how deep I am in the mirror, which is very hard to tell."

Yes, looking in the mirror is bad. I am sorry that you are apparently not in control of your central nervous system, or precious little else.

"This makes it look like I am not going deep enough to myself, which makes my upper body want to compensate for by leaning more forward, which the makes my butt not go as low, as it does not feel like below parallel. This may sound weird, but it is very hard to control."

Yes, when your upper body leans forward you can't go as deep. Your upper body does not want things -- it just does what you tell it to do, or what you allow it to do. Weird would not be my choice of description.

Unless you're very, very young, it is just wrong of you to even type this shit.

[TexasAg]

I'm setting the over/under at 14.

[speedster101]

Ok sorry about that last post- I was just frustrated and not thinking straight. Sounds like I have some more explaining to do, without my minor gripes. I have tried power cleans with basically every weight in 5lb increments from the bar to 95lbs, and my technique seems to not depend on the weight, but rather if I can get the bar to stay on my thigh until the jump or not. This is very hard for me to get right now, but I guess i'm just going to have to keep practicing. The problem i've had with the press is not that I am starting to high, and taking big jumps, but rather what seems to be my muscular endurance. When I do my first warmup set with the bar, It is VERY light for the first few reps, like it feels for my warmups for the other lifts, but when I get to the fifth rep, it feels hard, like my shoulders have no muscular endurance. I can do up to 85lbs for 2 reps, and then my shoulders just seem to give up on me and I can't keep going. Now that I look back on what I said about squats and mirrors and all that shit I realize I was just being an asshole, and that I should just suck it up and do them, and not worry about mirrors or anything. And even though it looks like I did not increase my squats, I actually just reset them after I realized that I was not going deep enough, and I had horrible technique before.

And just so you know, heres my stats:

Age- 17
Height- 5'11
Weight- 140

Squat- 155
Deadlift- 195
Bench press- 115
I am not sure about the power clean and press yet, because I have not finished proper workouts for either yet.

And again sorry about being an idiot in the last post

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yes, you're very young. And this -- Height- 5'11 Weight- 140 -- is most of your problem. The bar path on the clean is the result of an incorrect pull from the floor. the rest of it is your failure to do the program as written. The GOMAD part is for guys like you. Please take it seriously.