Mike's SS Log

[mikeylikey]

#39 9/13/10

Sq: 245x5,5,5 ties PR; 185x10
BP: 167.5x5,5,7 *PR
DL: 270x5
Chins 8,7,4
Curls 45x10,10,10

Squats were pretty hard. I think I need some better shoes than the $10 skate shoes I got at WalMart; I noticed that I'm grasping at the ground with my toes a lot and my knees are caving in. Then again maybe I just need to work a little harder at squatting correctly. Regardless, tonight I noticed that just thinking about shoving knees out helped the weight past the sticking point. Need to remember that.

Deadlift felt very strong; almost easy - well, as easy as a near-PR set of 5 can feel.

Haven't used a belt since coming back from Florida in late July.

Chins, curls, blegh. My arms are weak.

Need to eat better, especially more protein. I've been getting less than 1g/lb/day, and setting PRs. Just think if I was eating right.


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EDIT: In the event anyone actually looks at this old log, I ended up only lifting a few times over the next several months. Fast-forward to April 2011, and I decided to start over and give DTFP another try, you can see that log here: http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=23259
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[mikeylikey]

#40 9/16/10

Sq: 250x5,4,5 (last set belted); 185x10
Pr: 117.5x5,5,4 agh

Bad day, didn't get nearly enough to eat, tried to work out at 7pm after having last eaten at noon, and not that much. Would have absolutely had 3x5 on squats and presses had I taken the time to eat first, but was in a hurry. Oh well. That reminds me, time to go eat right now.

[mikeylikey]

#41 9/19/10

Sq: 250x5,5,5 (last 2 sets belted) *PR; 185x10
BP: 170x5,5,2 fail, see below

My right arm is killing me, I'm going to have to stop squatting till I get it sorted out. Been off power cleans for 3 weeks so I know that's not it. Pretty much any kind of activity aggravates it. I gave in an threw on the nylon belt that my gym provides, made my last two sets easier and SEEMED like it helped me keep the bar in position much better, but my arm was already hurting so bad from the first set it's hard to say. PR anyway, so yay.

Would have nailed the bench too, but my arm was in such excruciating pain I just couldn't get thru the last set. Weight was easy though. I've gained a lot of upper body strength doing JP's reset protocol (2x5 + 1xfailure)

had to pack it in after that, arm hurt too bad. booo.

[BlazeKING]

Hey Mike, good progress man..I am basically identical at the moment to your lifts and experiencing some elbow pain..and i'm 26..lol

Watch it with the elbow..it screwed up my lifting last winter and I had to stop for a long time. And then when it was getting better, I was drunk and arm wrestled a dude (won) and re-aggravated it. It really sucked.

I am guessing you are left handed because the opposite arm is usually the one that gets this elbow pain. The issue is flexibility. The instigator is heavy back squats. The solution, at least what worked for me before to help was shoulder dislocations. Basically, get a towel and grip both ends and bring it from the front of your body to the back, over your head. Do this many times and every day. Chin ups, powercleans even bench press and heavy squats can aggravate it. Squats will be tricky, when the pain was bad for me I had to turn to front squats. And not being able to do the bench sucked too. Pain meds did nothing.

As my squat is now close to a new PR for me, 245..I am feeling the pressure of the elbow pain coming again in my left elbow. I hope these shoulder and elbow exercises will keep it away for a while.

Good luck man...Oh yeah I heard heat treatment works better than cold for it.

In the meantime til you get it figured out, overhead presses and deadlifts did not cause elbow pain for me and neither did front squats so you should try those if the pain persists.

[mikeylikey]

Thanks for the encouragement Blaze. It seems like a lot of people go through this.

I know what you mean about seeming like anything will aggravate it. I almost cried after a little too vigorous high-five this weekend.

An update: after my last workout I could barely lift a glass of water, so I decided that I just need to quit squatting altogether for a while. What's weird about the elbow pain is that it usually starts hurting with squats, but just a dull pain, but after that doing anything with the right arm brings on excruciating pain.

Rips advice to someone else with this problem was to do lots of chinups and take lots of vitamin I. So that's what I'm doing. I decided since I can't squat or press for a while I'm just going to take the time off from SS and go on a quick diet, as I ate kinda sloppy there for awhile and put some fat I could really do without. I'm not talking about getting abz, just getting comfortable again in my 34 pants. So I'll be chinning every day until the arm no longer feels any soreness whatsoever after the chins, and then for another few days after that, just to be sure.

So for the last three days, I've gone on a three mile run (just because I like it). Followed by chins and leg press (trying to keep the legs somewhat in shape and avoid the uber soreness I had after my last layoff). The arm gets a little sore after the chins, but it's not constantly sore all day, so progress I guess.

My last squat session I did 250#, and my last two sets I used a belt, and it seemed like I was able to keep the arm in a much more favorable position with the belt on. But of course it was already hurt.

What's funny is, for convenience I'm going to my work gym, and the leg press only goes up to 395#, so I have to round up all of those rubber 5# weights that sit on top of the stack - I can fit another 50# on there with that, so 445# total, and it's EASY. When I stopped using that gym 4 months ago to do SS, I remember thinking 250 was hard.


************************************************** ************************************************** *************
EDIT: In the event anyone actually looks at this old log, I ended up only lifting a few times over the next several months. Fast-forward to April 2011, and I decided to start over and give DTFP another try, you can see that log here: http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=23259
************************************************** ************************************************** **************

[BlazeKING]

Nice on those leg presses! It's cool that back squats will transfer to leg presses but not so much in reverse lol. I remember doing those when I was inflamed as well with elbow pain.


No offense to Rip but chins aggravated my elbow like hell and did not fix the problem. If it's the same issue as what you have and I bet it is, I don't think that is the right route to go, at least until you get the flexibility fixed and the pain fixed. Just to update, I've been doing shoulder dislocations and barbell curls and the pain has been subsiding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33P5AI27eiU


I just got done with 245x5 and very little pain today.

I would say the way to get healed fast is to definitely stop doing the exercises straining your elbow, get some heat on it..do the flexibility exercises and I think you will be back to lifting in very little time.