I used to eat some burpees for every meal, whats a burp-out lol?

Anyways, I did it! I went the gym and lifted heavy things. I'm so happy and proud.
Here's how it went:

Warm up with body weight squats, just a few because I was afraid that if I did too many I wouldn't be able to try with weights.

Then I used the assisted (where if I fall, the weight will drop slowly and I can hook it onto a safety catch) squat rack with the 45lb bar. These were still really hard!
Squat 45lbs (assisted) 5,5,4,5,5 I think my form was really good too, though I lost it a few times when I was pushing back up.

I almost went straight for the assisted rack again for the bench press, but then I thought, I really want to try the free weights just to see if I could do it.. and I could!
Bench Press 45lbs 5,5,5,5,5 The program said to bump it up to 50lbs next week, but I'm going to stick with the bar for a bit. I'm not in any hurry here

Then came the barbell row, I tried at the 65lbs they suggest and could only get 2, so I lowered it to just the bar and finished strong.

Barbell Row, 65lbs 2, 45lbs, 5, 5, 5, 5

And that's how day one went. I'm sore all over, but it's a good sore and I now know that I can in fact lift heavy things

Hello everyone. I am a newbie and haven't introduced myself although I have been stalking the Group for a while.

I have completed 6 SL workouts so far.

Today was Workout B:

Squat 70#
OHP 55#
DL 110#

It's starting to get harder but I haven't struggled a whole lot getting all 5 sets but I know it's coming.

Next workout I am going to record my squats because by knees are killing me and others have said that your knees should not hurt on SL. I don't have proper shoes yet so I did it in socks today hoping that would help but it didn't...

threnjen wrote: »

I need to look up some of the accessory exercises that I see people talk about. I never really know what else to do along with my SL routine.

come and hang out with us in the pullup-project thread? picking out some accessories towards that goal and working on them could be a good way of using the extra time you'll have while you're not able to follow sl. hope it gets better soon.

SJKirk51912 wrote: »

Next workout I am going to record my squats because by knees are killing me and others have said that your knees should not hurt on SL. I don't have proper shoes yet so I did it in socks today hoping that would help but it didn't...

i got horrible prepatellar (on top of kneecap) pain when i was at about the weight that you're at; had to take a week or two off.

http://www.knee-pain-explained.com/quadricep-stretches.html

check to see whether stretching and rolling the snot out of your quad muscles helps you any. for me, i got convinced that this was the best path for me to follow because for a while after i did any serious quad stretch the pain would be less. i now stretch them fanatically even between sets on squats, and it seems to be holding the problem off unless i get lazy.

in the standing stretch, i just have one extra tip: once you've got your ankle up against your bum, experiment a little with different hip positions/alignments on that side. i found that it's real easy to do a real basic form of that stretch and move on without really hitting the muscles that much. when i started holding the pose and then sort of rolling my hip joint forward or sideways or even downwards on that side, the difference was huge. especially pushing that joint just a little bit downwards; oh wow. i discovered pockets of tightness that way which i didn't even know about because they were so bad i was not 'feeling' it.

if this doesn't help, you might want to keep looking. i have a form suggestion as well which helped me, but i'll hold it in case none of this feels like it's relevant to your own case.

canadianlbs wrote: »

come and hang out with us in the pullup-project thread? picking out some accessories towards that goal and working on them could be a good way of using the extra time you'll have while you're not able to follow sl. hope it gets better soon.

Righto! Will do.

Ankle is better, woot! I think I just hyperextended something so it was very minor. No pain whatsoever on Tues or Wed so I went ahead and did my lifts today. Well I guess tomorrow will tell me if it was REALLY better but I think it's fine.

Squats - 6x5@repeat 65lbs. Went ahead and did a repeat since I have not lifted since Sat. Did an extra set because my form on first three sets was AWFUL. I didn't really hit my groove until set 4. Not sure what was up.
I am really really having trouble with pain in my hip joint. Right side, where my leg meets my groin, on the inside. I haven't even done squats since Sat but still it started instantly hurting. I'm warming up with cardio 10-15min and doing some stretches, but I can't figure out what is up. Form problem? Just weak? Ugh

OHP - pretty bad at this today. 3x6, 1x4, 1x5 at 45lbs which is all I can ever do I could barely hit the 6 reps and as you can see, I failed to hit five on my set 4. I'm just going to keep doing this weight for a long time until I can hit 5x8.

Deadlift - Yay! my favorite! New weight of 125 and I did 12-14, I lost count. That first one was tough though!! I am pretty nervous about 135, but also excited because if I hit 135 I will be lifting more than my body weight!
I can see now how people are complaining about their grip, it was REALLY hard to hold onto the bar. It feels like the skin of my hands is going to rip right off. 135 sounds so scary now. Big girl plates!!

SJKirk51912 wrote: »

Thank you! That prepattellar (which I have never heard of, but googled it) is excatly where the pain is coming from.

i'm crossing my fingers for you, then. if this is your issue, then the basic idea behind it is that your quads are far too powerful, and they're putting a hurt on your knees because of the way that they stretch right over the kneecap and push down on it. stretching and rolling 'weakens' them so they can't do as much harm.

as far as form, i don't know if anyone would have been able to see the factor that was messing me up just by watching my reps. i was tracking correctly over my feet, and not letting my knees go past them. but in order to give my kneecaps a break, i basically had to find a way to keep my quads 'out of' the lift, and the best way that i've found to do that is to plant my feet really hard and then shove outwards throughout the whole length of my legs and especially my thighs.

the force in the lift needs to feel like it's coming from my outer thigh muscles and travelling down the outer sides of my legs, entering the floor through the outer edges of my footsoles. people will talk about 'trying to split the floor apart with your feet' and it's the right thing to look for, but i still found a way of applying that wrong. i now place my feet hip-width apart but parallel to one another, pointing straight forwards instead. and the feeling i try to reach for when it comes to that 'push outwards' thing is: while i'm squatting down, i try to make it like i'm in some narrow chimney, and all i've got to help control the speed of my descent is by shoving my thighs against the walls of the chimney to slow myself down. i couldn't believe how this actually does take a lot of the 'weight' of the lift off my knees.

ymmv, and sorry for wall of text in the daily-update thread.

SJKirk51912 wrote: »

lotsa stuff about knees

going into all this again this afternoon made me more honest and conscientious myself when i went to do my own workout today. and it really paid off, so thanks.

general note: i figured out (probably) what my glute problem was. piriformis stretching! i honestly, really, should have known this by now. but i've been neglecting that stretch; they've been tight as heck, and it's no wonder my glutes couldn't really show up for the game in my squats. fixed that for me in tonight's workout.

workout a:

double-cable pulldowns: i usually do this whenever, but this time around the gym was crowded so i did them first while third in line for the rack. also, it felt like my shoulders were tight or something and ready to give me aggravation for squats if not warmed up first. this is turning into a lot of volume and a fair bit of time, but worth it. 3x5x27.5, 3x5@30. all sets were 5 reps, and every set actually happened twice: once overhand and once underhand. plus, the '3' denotes close grip, mid-grip and wide as i could reach them. i really feel that i am getting stronger with this, as 30lb would have been out of reach for sure, a few weeks ago. hardest part is the last inch or two before touching the chest, but i really did try to get each rep there, and then hold it a few seconds and release slowly. lots of work, but i'm motivated now there are other pullup fans here.

squats: whooohoo. pr again! and also, the weight i was doing way back in june when i wobbled and caved in and did something bad to one knee. so kind of a bogeyman weight in my mind. none of that going on here tonight; i was solid. 2x5@45, 1x5@65, 6x5@85. after the piriformis stretching, my glutes are back in town and i really felt them, particularly in that snap at the top of the lift to lock the rep out. the extra set was an accident; somebody else asked to work in when i was halfway through and i kind of lost track of where i was while we were working that out. anyway: if i can match this same weight next time i'm going to mark down this goal for october as a success.

bench: not so great today, but i don't mind too much. 2x5@45, 1x5@65, 1x3@65, 3x5@60. i deloaded back to last time's weight (60) after realising 65 was just too heavy for me to be safe. there was a lunatic in the gym with biceps that kind of horribly huge they look really troubling. i really really really wanted him to curl in the squat rack because was so That Kind Of Guy. but he didn't; he came and curled 15 reps of 100 pounds or something so close to my bench that i couldn't get properly set or feel safe the whole time. it was hard to get his attention too; i honestly wanted to ask him 'how do you ever take your eyes off yourself in the mirror long enough to earn a living?' but instead i just said dude - can you give me a few extra inches of space when i finally did manage to flag him down. not a great lift this time, but there was the morphodite factor and anyway 60 was my october goal on this one, so i'm cool.

rows: i am giving up on the pendlay rows. i'm not going to try them again; it's just too difficult for me to get set up right and then find the right form and then keep the form right. i did warmups and i think one set of 65 in pendlay format, then moved to the dual-pulley machine and did 6x5@35 with a bar, which translates to a repeat of last time's 70 pounds.

accessory:

planks: 2x60 sec front (much easier), 1x45 side. i've been sloppy about planks for a week (i.e. haven't done them). so it was good for me to look back on my october goals and be reminded i'd said these were in the programme. and nice to find that the week off didn't do any harm. i was way less exhausted after each one than even 3 weeks ago.

assisted pullup: 1x5@60lb assist (neutral close grip, and medium wide), 1x5@50lb assist (same). i don't think i did them both over- and underhand, but i'm not going to fuss about it. also one full s-l-o-w negative pullup in the smith machine, unassisted.

i'm really happy about the pullups. when i first got introduced to that assist machine, pre-sl, i weighed 135 and the best assist weight i ever got to was 80, i think. today i weighed 130 and my assist was only 50. so i am definitely getting stronger and better at this.

tired now. sleepy.

Squat - repeated 5x5 @ 65 lbs to work on form. My butt wiggles back and forth a bit on the way up. The weight doesn't FEEL too heavy, I can get through the sets okay, but I'm guessing the wiggling butt thing has to do with the weight.

Row - 5x5 @ 55 lbs

Bench Press - 5x5 @ 55 lbs - struggled with this one a bit, so will probably repeat next time.

Crazy how I can actually notice the gains in strength in such a short period of time. At the start I could barely move the 45 lb bar. I had to ask for help to move it on and off the rack. Now I'm feeling pretty bad*** moving it around with relative ease. Now if I could just get it over my head...damn OHP.

threnjen wrote: »

I am really really having trouble with pain in my hip joint. Right side, where my leg meets my groin, on the inside. I haven't even done squats since Sat but still it started instantly hurting.

i knew there was something i wanted to come back to here. i'm NOT a medical person in any sense, but i have rheumatoid arthritis and have actually had some phases where it was affecting one hip.

. so i'm in a position to know that if something is 'wrong' with the hip joint itself, the pain will 'refer' itself outwards and be experienced by the victim in front of the groin. pretty much exactly where the seam of your undies would run, if you wear anything other than granny panties. i mention it because i remember how i argued with the rheumatologist forever because the pain didn't feel all that 'deep' and i thought she was just full of *kitten* (in my defence, she so frequently is). i kept insisting and insisting that it was some kind of a soft-tissue thing, i.e. ligaments, muscles, some kind of a sprain. but when they had me on the table and shot dyed novocaine into the actual capsule around the joint while letting me watch on the screen, i drank the kool aid because that convinced me.

you may have an impingement due to the structure of your personal hips/pelvic socket, so slight changes in foot/thigh alignment during the squats lead you to finding a way around this. but if you really can't seem to find a solution, just don't keep assuming you'd be fine if you could just get something 'right'. let a doctor take a look if it goes to that point. hips are nothing to mess with; they can really lay a good hurt on you.

I was feeling really tired and dragged out last night so I moved squats to today and did that and bench.
Squat 160 X 3 175 X 3 and 195 X 4
Bench 75 X 3 85 X 3 and 95 X 3

Accesories
Straightleg deadlifts, burpees. 5 x10
Then I was going to do 2 of my bench day Accesories but I was done after all the deadlifts, I might do some upper body work tomorrow, but probably not lol.