Would you start again?

AthenaErr

I am enjoying lifting and have 4 weeks of stage 1 under my belt. BUT: I have knee imbalance which means I couldnt get down to parallel in squats at first. Its getting better but Im still not at 90 degrees,. Dr says the knee issue will improve with increased leg strength so lifting is the right thing to be doing.

I also checked out some form videos today on stronglifts and realised I have been doing the deadlift all wrong.

All this makes me wonder should I start over (my weights are still a bit teeny tiny compared to what I see on here)? Or should I keep going trying to improve my form as I go? Or even, should I re-do the 30DS (I had lots of success with this) while working on squats then lift only once I can actually do a squat? Feeling a little useless - Im not losing weight which is ok (I know I know just find it hard to stop losing), but now I feel maybe I am just doing it all wrong and my strength gains are not what I thought...

jenniet04

I wouldn't necessarily start over. If your weights are too heavy for you to get proper form, then just cut them back a bit and really work on form. If you feel the weights are OK and you can still work on form, then just keep going. You can always add more workouts at the end if you want. You could do 10-12 of each workout A and B instead of just 8 before you move on to Stage 2. There are no hard and fast rules, just go with what you feel is right.

AthenaErr

That sounds sensible - thanks - I was suddenly all intimidated by the idea that there are right and wrong ways and that if I do it wrong everyone will be secretly tittering away :laugh:

suelegal

What I did personally was just move back down to where I could control my form. I was doing pushups at 24" but totally wrong so I went back up to 36" and mastered the form. Now I'm back down, form is correct and I'm working on getting deeper. Same with lunges. I went back to body weight because I kept falling off the lunge. I am still only using 17 lb dbs but much better form, and I'm working on getting deeper with those too. Squats are the same way. The only thing I do heavy and pretty is deadlifts.

You can only do what you can do, not what everyone else does. Each one builds strength no matter what weight you're doing! I love that you said you were thinking everyone was secretly tittering away. I felt that way too, I was very self conscious about how little weight I was using but the women in this group are so awesome! And it will get better, right?

karensoxfan

I agree to scale back on the weight if you need to do that to improve your form. I don't think I squatted quite parallel at the beginning either, but now (at least on body weight alone) I can squat *kitten*-to-grass (with a bar, I stay at or just below parallel).

I would also consider extending stage 1. I wish I had done this, but I didn't think about it until I was re-reading the book in stage 3, where he says beginners may want to do each of the stage 1 workouts 12 times instead of 8. I was eager and only did the stage 1 workouts 8 times each, but if I had it to do over, I might reconsider doing them each 12 times.

Good luck!