Reply With QuoteGood luck today buddy! Get in there, turn up Rollins Band (or Black Flag) to maximum volume and make it happen. Bad Brains works too. ;-)
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Thanks slowjoe. I think I will be putting up some "form checks" here once I cross into the two plate realm of lifting. Thus far I feel my form is strong and aside from leaning forward on those last two reps last week, I believe I am performing the exercise per Starting Strength standards.
Looking forward to lifting today, 180lbs here I come.
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Good luck today buddy! Get in there, turn up Rollins Band (or Black Flag) to maximum volume and make it happen. Bad Brains works too. ;-)
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Workout #6 - Monday October 04, 2010
Squat - 180lbs 3x5
Press - 85lbs 3x5
Power Cleans - 45lbs 5x3
Squats were pretty tough this weak. I definitely had to push myself to make it happen, though that is the entire goal here... pushing oneself to become better. On my third set I lost my balance on the first rep and went forward a bit on my descent. After saying "whoa there" and bringing it back up I recomposed myself and banged out the last 4 reps - the added adrenaline rush from my woops was nice as well. I think I also heard my girlfriend squeak when she realized I wasn't comfortable with what was going on.
Press... I couldn't remember what weight I did the previous workout so I figured, throw on the base plate and add 5lbs to each side. Ended up being 10lbs increment from last time, but at this point its not a big deal as the exercise itself isn't hard yet.
Power Cleans went great. I've finally felt comfortable enough to do the full movement, ie start from Deadlift position and move from there. It truly helped my form and brought my elbows around to what I would consider proper form/placement. I will start adding weight the next exercise.
Looking forward to Deadlifts, as always. Its a monster exercise and I love it. I will say though, that Squats are definitely a "man's" exercise. Not that women can't perform them, just in the definition of how people will define that phrase, Squats will bust your ass and then some. There also isn't any bailing out on Squats either, once you're under the bar, you're there so you better get your ass back to the top and rack or shit is going down.
Does anyone else experience intense lower back soreness during your exercise? I have no issues the following morning, or even an hour after lifting, but damn is my lower back sore after Squats.
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Yeah, sometimes. Remember that my problem might be different to yours, so be careful. This isn't medical advice. My problem is concentrated on one side or the other at the level of the kidneys.Originally Posted by Zee-man
I usually work through it, but I do notice that if I skip a workout before or after the weekend, I don't have it next workout.
If you have a foam roller in the gym, it's worth working on both sides of the spine. I find that a couple of minutes of that seems to relieve it for a while.
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Awesome, thanks! I may have to stop at Lowes on the way home and buy a PVC pipe. I know its based in the muscle, hence soreness, as opposed to my spinal column.
Usually by my 2nd workset my lower back is tired as hell and I end up sitting on the bench and touching my toes to stretch it. Then for the subsequent exercises it is tired as hell and nagging at me. About half an hour to 1 hour after lifting it subsides.
I'll give the PVC/foam roller a shot, thanks.
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I went through this, too. For the first month I literally had trouble standing around in-between squat sets because my lower back hurt so bad. I'd have to just lie there, on the decline bench, breathe, and wait a few minutes for the soreness to abate. Then hop back in the cage and have it flare up all over again. After the first month, it started occurring less and less and now it only flares up rarely, and it's never as bad as it was before. Just tough it out, and make sure your form is spot-on (of course) ;-) Also, take your fish oil :-D
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I was planning to start eating a can of tuna every day for the fish oil thing... does that sound sufficient, or do I need to go buy some supplements/vitamins to compensate for the fish oil I should be consuming.
Yea, as you described it is basically what I'm experiencing. I imagine its just my back needing to adjust and strengthen.
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I read once, on this forum, that sometimes the muscles in the lower back get stronger faster than the tendons that join them to the bones. As such, the tendons ache real bad initially, and then sporadically, while they catch up. But, as usual, I'm not a doctor and can't tell you for sure this is happening, but that explanation does make sense.
As to the fish oil, I got me a bottle of "Nature Made" fish oil for 15 bucks at the store and it lasts me a month. I take two caps, and eat either one can of sardines a day, as a snack, or smoked, wild-caught pink salmon, if it's available for cheap. I avoid tuna myself, because of what they say about Mercury and all. But again, I'm not a doctor or a scientist, so I can't speak to any mercury that may or may not be in your can of StarKist. HOWEVER, I believe that sardines have more of the beneficial fatty acids than does tuna, so that's a plus ;-)
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Workout #7 - Wednesday October 06, 2010
Squat - 185lbs 3x5 PR
Bench - 110lbs 3x5
Deadlift - 195lbs 1x5
I realized yesterday when confirming my weight to lift that Workout #6 I increased my squat weight by 10lbs accidentally. It is sort of funny because in my mind I was excited to push to 185lbs so I must have jumped ahead to get there for Wednesday.
Squats today went well. I felt stronger unracking the weight and had a bit of knee wobble on my ascent, but otherwise things went well. I can remember back in sophomore year of college unracking 185 just to "feel" it and was like, damn that's heavy. Yesterday was nothing close, so I do note that in the past 4 years I've gotten stronger :P. This is my personal record as I never in my lifting career squatted that weight. Whether or not it was the maximum my body could handle, I do not know, but it's a starting point.
Bench was easy as always, but still linearly progressing without making too big of jumps. Want the rest of my body to catch up to where my Bench was in my nub (nerd term, sorry) lifting years.
Deadlifts went well overall. I went ahead with using chalk for the first time. Seeing as I'm approaching the 200lb mark and with 225 being my personal record, I felt it was a good time to start improving my ability to grip. The chalk was awesome and I'd highly recommend Ader's chalk that can be purchased from Rogue Fitness. The weight was heavy but fun to lift and I always enjoy banging out Dead's as I've said many many times before.
I woke up this morning at 6 am to take my dogs out, rolled out of bed and upon standing up realized how much I felt like shit. My upper back was sore, my legs and knees sore. Thankfully, I got an extra 1.5 hours of sleep between taking the dogs out and getting up for work, so I feel much better now. Still some soreness in the back but nothing like this morning. I'm sure the cold nights aren't helping either, especially since the heat in our house is currently non-functional.
Looking forward to Friday and then two days off to recover.
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If the PVC idea is Wendler-inspired, I'd be careful. PVC might be what is needed to get into muscles that can squat 800lbs or whatever. For the rest of us, Foam Rollers are a good idea to start with. http://www.amazon.com/Altus-Athletic...6464644&sr=8-2 is 14 bucks.
I noticed that comment from Wendler and thought about commenting on it. Wendler is in a slightly different world to us, and he's been there for a while so while his advice is in general good, it isn't ideal for novices like us. He doesn't always understand the starting strength world, imo.
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