Sync and Spouse Training Log(s)

[Vale]

I'm looking forward to following your wife's progress, because I'm an "older" (i.e. worrying about things like osteoporosis! I'm 48) female beginner with similar goals and height, although I'm heavier.

I had to shop around with for a gym, and chose one that had a power rack. That's where we do our deadlifts. We don't drop the weights, but just put them back down after a deadlift, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Like you, I find it more difficult to get form right when putting the bar down rather than picking it up. One thing I found that helped a lot was to stop trying to do it quietly! (It meant I was doing it too slowly, particularly the bottom). There's always somebody in the gym making more noise than us!

I've had some great advice on this forum. Good luck to both of you. I hope you enjoy it!

[synchronicity]

I'm looking forward to following your wife's progress, because I'm an "older" (i.e. worrying about things like osteoporosis! I'm 48) female beginner with similar goals and height, although I'm heavier.

I had to shop around with for a gym, and chose one that had a power rack. That's where we do our deadlifts. We don't drop the weights, but just put them back down after a deadlift, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Like you, I find it more difficult to get form right when putting the bar down rather than picking it up. One thing I found that helped a lot was to stop trying to do it quietly! (It meant I was doing it too slowly, particularly the bottom). There's always somebody in the gym making more noise than us!

I've had some great advice on this forum. Good luck to both of you. I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for the comments re: deadlifts. We're gonna go today (we SHOULD go tomorrow to really be doing the program, 3x/week rather than "every other day" , but schedule-wise today fits better so for now it's today), see if we can do deads. This gym is convenient and does have 2 racks, so it can work as a temporary fix. BTW, hearing from you is motivation to keep ourselves doing this rather than slacking off.

And yeah, last time the guy next to us doing partial squats (half-squats at best) was making a ton more noise than us!

[synchronicity]

More stuff, because apparently I like the sound of my own...typing-

A) today my wife weighed herself, was at 153 and a little freaked. IIRC, when one starts ANY exercise program, it's not uncommon to have weight go up a couple pounds almost immediately from muscles retaining more water.
2) speaking of weighing, the strength training is just a part of some general routines I'm trying to establish in my life. One is to weigh myself first thing every AM after voiding, get weight and body fat (I've got one of those types of scales. I know the bf% can vary substantially day to day), and write it down/enter it into a spreadsheet. I don't care about day-to-day variation but do want to track stuff over time.
c) I've also measured myself recently (boy, THAT was depressing) and will do so 1x/month. Too much noise-to-signal if done more often. FWIW, the navy body fat calculator puts me at 39%.
iv) I'm also researching various helpful exercises. I'm doing the shoulder thing with a 5' metal conduit bar (under $3 from Home Depot!). Need to figure out some other things to do.
Lastish - cleaning up my diet. In the past this has meant going to a sorta low-carbish thing that is mainly a lot of seafood and salads. I like fish and shellfish more than beef or pork, so they're my main protein sources with some chicken and the occasional steak thrown in. Salads - I make good ones, my wife likes 'em, and lord knows I need more veggies. Add some chicken or shrimp on top and it's a decent meal. Oh, also do egg burritos - basically scrambled eggs with red/yellow/orange peppers, mushrooms, green onions, cilantro, sriracha chili sauce, some SW seasoning, and today some bacon ends (BACON!!!). I can eat it straight or put a lot in a corn tortilla with some tomatillo salsa.

Yeah, I cook a lot. It's how I landed my wife.

[synchronicity]

Workout the third.

Darnit. So NDTDP...
Me
Squat: 15 5x2, 25x5, 35x5, 45x2, 55 5x3
near the end of the second work set I really tried to focus on hip drive up rather than using my legs, and definitely noticed the difference. I think my prior squats have been way too much leg and not enough hip and butt to get out of the hole. I'm still going deep enough (yay!), and knees seem to be staying apart far enough. They may still be going forward to far over toes, not sure. In rereading the book afterward (as IT peeps say: "RTFM!") I'm wondering if my back angle is going to horizontal on the way up.
Press: same weights/reps as the squat. I get a twinge on my left wrist/forearm sometimes on the press, I'm pretty sure this happens if my elbows drift behind the bar instead of staying in front. Getting better at pulling the bar in a vertical path down rather than "curve in front of my face". The fact that I'm pressing as much as I squat shouts "NOOB".

Oh yeah, still NO WAY I can start resting the bar on my delts. It "floats" in front of me.

I'll get to deads in a minute.

Wife:
Squat: 10 5x2, 15x5, 20x3, 25x2, 30 5x3
Form issues (left end of bar still forward of right even when I try to get her centered). Her back angle, ironically, may be better than mine, can't tell for sure. Her knees appear to be going forward further than mine. Another thing - on at least one set I'm almost certain the bar was too low. She may still be "carrying" the bar partially with her arms (although wrists seemed fairly straight and she didn't wrap her thumbs around the bar.
My shoulder flexibility still sucks but is improving a tiny bit.
Press: 10x5, 15x5.
And so much for that. We were running low on time (got to the gym too late), but mainly she just didn't get the proper motion. I tried to explain it, but she kept pushing the bar up and away from her, so her end position had the bar above and in *front* of her head, rather than straight over the back of her head. I kept saying "vertical bar path, pretend you're trying to push the bar up through your chin, but obviously have to get your head out of the way". she watched me and my (bad but at least vaguely accurate) form. It just didn't sink in. For some reason, she can't visualize it.

So, we stopped, and she'll have to read that chapter in SS.

Deads are at the apartment, AGAIN. We verified that we can do deads there, so that's something. Anyway
Me: 1x5 40, 1x5 60. Same as last time. Still don't really like my form, just have a sucky awareness of my back, as SS notes many people do. Should really do more things in there to try and build that up. Also, since the most weight I can do here is 60 lbs, that kinda kills the "progressive" part of progressive training. (*grumble*)
Wife did 1x5 40 again. I can't really help her worth a darn, other than "watch videos of people doing it correctly, and read the book".

Now comes the question - do we spend over $100 and join the gym, or do we hold off for a few months, work on form at limited weight, and then get all the equipment we need once we get a house? I'm leaning towards the former because darn it, I WANT to train and how often does THAT feeling happen?

Well, one week in the books. We should now take two days off and next workout on Wednesday. Problem is if we do, we can't work out together (unless I finagle a day off, which is a possibility. This is the slow time of the year at the job). We'll see.

[synchronicity]

So, I did not go to local globo-gym last night, and our free 7 day pass has passed into the past. Which means we're limited to our 5kg technique bar and 50 lb of weights. And no bench or rack.

Well, something is better than nothing. So, time to get my weights out and do...well, something. First important lesson - I still have CRAPPY SHOULDER FLEXIBILITY, especially in my left shoulder. Last squatted Sunday and haven't done the "long bar overhead and back" shoulder stretch thingy since Monday. I REALLY need to do 3 sets of 10 of that EVERY day for now. Tried to do a warm squat set and my left shoulder was screaming "NO". So again, I'm an idiot.

Anyway, after working the shoulders, here goes:
Squat: 20x5, 40x5 - and then stopped because I can't really squat safely without a damn rack.

Only good news - I feel much better about my squat form (for now, I've got some coaching lined up for Tuesday that'll tell me the zillion flaws there), but my back angle seems ok, I'm trying to focus my drive up with the hips than the legs, my knees don't seem to be going too far beyond my toes (I should get the famous block of wood to check), and depth continues to be good. But again, this is my own view and trying to incorporate what I read, so, ya know.

Press: 20 5x2, 40x5, 60 5x3
Don't like the way my left arm feels when I press. Need to make sure I lock out up top over the back of my head, and make sure I'm just snapping my torso, NOT bending my knees or spine. As the book says many people don't have much sensitivity to their back positioning, and I'm an example.

Deadlift 60x5

Can we just say that I don't have a clue what I'm doing here on the lift? I can get the starting position fine and then "drag" the bar up my shins, but lord knows what my back is doing.

Wife was at work so nothing for her today. We'll do something half-assed over the weekend, then we're both off work Tuesday. Looking forward to that.

[synchronicity]

As an aside - my 7 year old daughter was watching me and wanted to try for herself. I had her try a press, first with a 5' long, 2.5 lb metal conduit bar (home depot purchase awhile back to start squatting with), then she tried the 5 kg bar. She managed x2 and then x3 with that one. Also said she wanted to try the bar with 5lb on each side, we had her lift it off the ground, moved to shoulder height with me holding on, as I started to release she said it was too heavy to even try, so back down it went.

Yes, I want to encourage her (safely, of course) as well.

[synchronicity]

Not a lifting day, but did the following:
3 sets of ten of the shoulder flexibility exercises: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoGtrEcsqPQ I need to do these every day, because as previously noted, my shoulder flexibility sucks: http://www.brianmac.co.uk/flextest4.htm (doing that test I score 24 to 26. Yeah, that's REAL BAD)
Lower back lifts, or "supermans" or whatever you want to call them. Rip references them in SS (3rd edition p.43) and in this article: http://startingstrength.com/index.ph...ctive_hip_2/P3 As suspected, my kinesthetic sense of my lower back sucks worse than my shoulder flexibility.
Have I mentioned that my diet still sucks and I'm doing nothing cardio-ish. Not that I want to do HIIT or whatever that would interfere with any lifting, but I should at least get my @ss up and walk around a little bit.
If anyone is reading this and has any other suggestions for random little exercises that will assist lifts, feel free to chime in. Meanwhile I'll keep searching the forums for more info.

[NBrockman]

Something I find helpful is doing a few reps of squats without the bar several times a day, just standing in the living room or kitchen or whatever. As Rip says, the bar is a "confounding variable." Taking the bar away really helps to dial in on what the body is actually doing.

[Vale]

You've probably already seen it, but there's a video here that gives some ideas for sensing your lower back position. http://startingstrength.com/index.ph...sition_control

[synchronicity]

Something I find helpful is doing a few reps of squats without the bar several times a day, just standing in the living room or kitchen or whatever. As Rip says, the bar is a "confounding variable." Taking the bar away really helps to dial in on what the body is actually doing.

I do that occasionally, but will make it a habit. Thanks for the tip.

You've probably already seen it, but there's a video here that gives some ideas for sensing your lower back position. http://startingstrength.com/index.ph...sition_control

Hadn't seen it yet (been working through the videos). Thanks! LOL @ the audio cue for guys (and bet he's heard on more than one occasion from some smirking teenager "I don't need to move at all to do that!") FWIW, I did spend some time trying to get that lower back awareness and am slowly getting there.