Dani - Thanks for the rows info - that was very easy to understand and just what I needed to hear! I'm going to channel that on my next Pendlay session.

Fisherlassie - one of my fellow boot camp instructors always tells campers, when we're doing air squats "The more of these you do, the longer you'll be able to go to the bathroom by yourself! Squat for independence!" Have you tried, or looked into, using a foam roller for your butt issue? I have IT band issues, and started foam rolling those. But as my needs have changed, I'm rolling my quads, hammies, and butt now too - it hurts while you're doing it, but is so effective at working out muscle/joint issues.

My craptastic day, which was supposed to be a SL lifting day, went like this:
I went to hot yoga this morning with a friend, hoping it would help my lower back issues (I've had tightness/weakness/pain especially on my right side in the small of my back since Aug. 1 that has made me deload my lifts and prevented me from increasing my weights - it has good days and bad days but has not been 100% in a month)
In the middle of yoga, the muscles in that area totally seized and I was in agony. I made it through, sorta half-doing a few things, but I was in jaw-clenching pain the whole way home/morning. I already had an appointment to see a new chiro who was specifically recommended by a lifting friend, and I made an appointment immediately after that with my amazing physical therapist.

The appointments got me moving fairly easily again, and out of the intense pain. But my PT recommended that I do zero heavy lifting until next week, and no running before sunday. He *never* makes me rest - he's a pro at keeping me training, and has seen me through training for multiple halfs and a full marathon, and he's a former competitive bodybuilder and current triathlete, so he's got a great perspective on these sorts of things. And, he told me that the yoga prolly wasn't the problem -it was the 80 25lb. kettle bell swings I did yesterday. I didn't believe him b/c doing them felt great, but I have to admit that my glutes are just now feeling the DOMS from those kettlbells, and they are obvs connected to the lower back.

So, i'm sorta sidelined through the weekend, which I *HATE*. Tonight was my kickball team's first game, and playing in it was fine (as zero plays came to me and I got tagged out at first on all my kicks - there wasn't much to it). But, like an idiot, I went to the bar after the game and had wings and cheap beer. I don't even like cheap beer. Ugh! I'm frustrated with the pain, and the lack of progress. I was looking forward to lifting tonight, and getting a few sessions in before going out of town next week.

You ladies' DL numbers are amazing - I'm super impressed! Looking forward to crawling my numbers up soon, and trying to remember that a few days rest will serve my higher goals!

Which in my case is not quite half.. sigh.. there is a platform you stand on and the weights counterbalance it.

Wait, but less than half is good right?? That means that you can pull up more than half of your body weight?

Re chiro - I have never been before so we shall see how it goes! YoBecca I have the same pelvic twist type issue as you mention which I think is why I do some sort of weird twist when I squat. I have to correct it even in air squats and the heavier the weight the less I can correct it.

Speaking of heavy weights

I squatted 27.5kg or 61lb today. Pretty pleased with this - it is half my bodyweight!

My OHP was 15kg 33lb - it is 5lb up from last time so happy with that. I suspect the next increase may be a stall as my last couple were HARD. If not the following set would be at oly bar so I would be delighted to manage a full 5x5 of those as I have never yet done that.

And by dead lift was a struggle but I managed 45kg or 99lb, I weigh about 55kg around 120lb! That's like 80% of my bodyweight. I am so happy with that!

And I did 4 assisted pull ups lol - only assisted by 18kg but even so I thought I could have done 10 maybe

Lydia - I would take them up on the trial and just see. Did they have AC??? As for the shoes, deck shoes mimic barefoot shoes and can take a while to adjust to or hurt if you wear them all day right off. You may be able to find some arch support shoe inserts that help relieve the pressure even in a flat shoe. Like Becca said, stretching is a good thing and you can roll your foot on a cold can of soda to get the cooling relief. If you wear flat shoes for lifting, but then switch back to a standard heel-toe-drop shoe, you may not notice the difference and only now noticed it with the deck shoes.

no idea where I'd even start looking for lifting shoes? any uk-ites got any ideas?!

I've been lifting in a pair of Nike runners and recently found a pair of Merrell glove-type shoes on sale which I now wear everywhere. They're not really pure "barefoot" shoes, even though I wear them barefoot and they fit very snugly, but they offer a large amount of support. My feet love them because they have a rather roomy toe box. You might try those if they sell them in the UK. I've been a Nike girl for years and was pleasantly surprised at how well the Merrells are built. Would never pay full price for them though cause I'm a cheapskate.

Here are the ones I have:
http://www.zappos.com/merrell-barefoot-crush-glove-black?ef_id=Ufbj5wAABGUbbgqQ:20130906134126:s&zfcTest=fcl:3

Not sure what the comparable UK model would be, but they sell Merrells in the UK also.

First full week of lifting after my break! Today was *heavy* day for Texas.

Squats - 1x5 @170 (after a bunch of warmup sets). I really concentrated on going slow and low. The first 4 were pretty good, but the last one I don't think was quite to parallel.
OHP - 1x1 @95. :bigsmile: This equals my PR from a couple months ago, when I was doing Stronglifts for 3 months straight. Then I got a little burned out, deloaded a couple times and switched programs, so this is first time I've tried that weight since. No, I actually attempted it a while back after failing a 100lb attempt, but my muscles were already too fried.
Power Cleans - 5x3 @ 80 lbs. Getting more comfortable doing these.

Also, I started the You Are Your Own Gym phone app 10-week program yesterday. I also go the "Body by You" book from the library. Same premise and exercises, but the programs are somewhat different. Plus it's easier to have the phone tell me what to do than have to set my own timers and have to think about what exercise I'm supposed to do next.

I cut down on calories during my break, and haven't gone all the way back up to 1850. I wasn't shrinking the way I wanted to at that amount. I feel like I can eat most of what I want at about 1650. After logging for several months straight, it gets easier to see where small cuts here and there add up to a few hundred a day.

OHP - 1x1 @95. :bigsmile:

Wow. You're totally my hero!

First full week of lifting after my break! Today was *heavy* day for Texas.

Squats - 1x5 @170 (after a bunch of warmup sets). I really concentrated on going slow and low. The first 4 were pretty good, but the last one I don't think was quite to parallel.
OHP - 1x1 @95. :bigsmile: This equals my PR from a couple months ago, when I was doing Stronglifts for 3 months straight. Then I got a little burned out, deloaded a couple times and switched programs, so this is first time I've tried that weight since. No, I actually attempted it a while back after failing a 100lb attempt, but my muscles were already too fried.
Power Cleans - 5x3 @ 80 lbs. Getting more comfortable doing these.

Also, I started the You Are Your Own Gym phone app 10-week program yesterday. I also go the "Body by You" book from the library. Same premise and exercises, but the programs are somewhat different. Plus it's easier to have the phone tell me what to do than have to set my own timers and have to think about what exercise I'm supposed to do next.

I cut down on calories during my break, and haven't gone all the way back up to 1850. I wasn't shrinking the way I wanted to at that amount. I feel like I can eat most of what I want at about 1650. After logging for several months straight, it gets easier to see where small cuts here and there add up to a few hundred a day.

Holy yikes! 95 OHP and 170 squat!!! You are officially my new hero.

I've been off SL for about 3.5 months. I'm finishing Phase 4 of Nia Shanks' (s)hero right now. I like it, and my body needed a break from SL, but I'm finding I miss getting under the bar regularly. So next month I'm switching to Nia's Beautiful Badass minimalist program, which is remarkable similar to SL but only squatting once per week.

I'm loving the lifting progress, but frustrated with the lack of fat loss. Part of it is that I just cannot force myself to log food anymore. I"m totally burned out on that after doing it for a year with minimum progress. I think I may just try to focus on getting stronger, eating healthy, and feeling good. Screw the stuipd scale and the stupid measuring tape----the point is to be fit and healthy, right?