Here's a recent Rippetoe video on the overhead press (there is a whole series of them and they're all good) I found it pretty helpful, and it specifically addresses the ideal grip. It's shorter than a lot of the other videos I found.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnBmiBqp-AI

Workout B today (first one!)

Squat 5x5x50lbs
OHP 5x5x45
Deadlift 5x5x65

Couldn't go to the gym on Tues as we were out all day and didn't get home until after 9. We did walk all day though, so that is something. Took the kid to Legoland Discovery Centre and an aquarium.

On to today...

Pull ups 2x2, 1x1

Squats - major deload to work on form. 5x5 at 95 lbs. Added 2 sets since I dropped weight so much. They felt really good though. Concentrated on pushing my knees\legs out and was able to get really low. I think I know what proper depth feels like now. I will add 10 lbs each workout until I hit my new working weight.

Bench - 3x5 at 70 lbs. Good, but hard.

Bent over rows - 3x5 at 75 lbs. Ok. Hard-ish.

Shrugs - 3x8 at 55 lbs

Skull crushers - 3x8 at 35 lbs. Shaky.

Barbell curls - 3x8 at 40 lbs. Still challenging. I don't know if I can jump up to 45 yet. Might try adding reps.

Hyperextensions - 3x10 with 20 lbs. Finally really felt these in my lower back.

Cable crunches - 3x12 at 50 lbs. Never feel like I progress on these, so added 2 reps per set. Hard, but did them.

Jackie0Marie wrote: »

maybe add some other workouts to help build strength that may help me improve. Any tips?

tbh, if you're pressing half of your deadlift weight then imo you're doing pretty well there. not that i'm very knowledgeable, but.

for ohp, one simple thing first from my experience. which is that staying honest and doing my rows made a huge difference to my ohp comfort/ability level. so, making your ohp all about me and my rows . . . i would say do rows. i like to do a few sets of 8 at about 60% of my work weight on workout b days, just to warm up my lats and rear delts to get them into the game for my press.

second thing is more complex and i could be talking nonsense. just got this one from my first-ever training session last week (and next session coming up tomorrow whoohoo!). how to explain. what he said to me was straightforward enough: engage your lats. i.e. once you have your grip and the bar is unracked and in front of you, do this first before you actually press.

in some way that doesn't make sense when i try to explain it, i think of it as making it feel like my delts are pulling the bar down, while my lats are fighting my delts and pushing it up. or maybe the other way round - tbh i don't know. but i'm trying to generate and store a huge amount of isometric energy between my up versus down muscles, and centre it all in my shoulders. then the press itself is just a matter of releasing that energy. anotehr way you can try picturing it (i'm still fumbling around to find the one that really turns on the lightbulb for me), is pretending that the starting position for my press is as if i'm hanging from the barbell at the top of a strong pullup rep.

he also called it 'make a shelf'. now, that personally . . . that i got based on my own experiments i'd already been doing. he can call it that, but what i call it to myself is 'pretend some mad scientist amputated you at the armpits and you're just a torso sitting on a shelf in cold storage somewhere. now use what you've still got left to press with, and press.' my idea is to artificially shorten my kinetic 'chain' so that the 'floor' that my ohp is pushing off from isn't the floor. it's about my sixth rib.

interesting thing is: doing stuff like this seems to mean the most likely part of my body to cramp in a press is my quads. so obviously, it's not really like the rest of my body is just lollygagging around when i press.

long-*kitten* response, but i have this morbid love of the overhead press no matter how little progress i'm making wrt the weight. so if nothing else, thanks for the chance to ramble.

canadianlbs wrote: »

in some way that doesn't make sense when i try to explain it, i think of it as making it feel like my delts are pulling the bar down, while my lats are fighting my delts and pushing it up. or maybe the other way round - tbh i don't know. but i'm trying to generate and store a huge amount of isometric energy between my up versus down muscles, and centre it all in my shoulders. then the press itself is just a matter of releasing that energy. anotehr way you can try picturing it (i'm still fumbling around to find the one that really turns on the lightbulb for me), is pretending that the starting position for my press is as if i'm hanging from the barbell at the top of a strong pullup rep.

he also called it 'make a shelf'. now, that personally . . . that i got based on my own experiments i'd already been doing. he can call it that, but what i call it to myself is 'pretend some mad scientist amputated you at the armpits and you're just a torso sitting on a shelf in cold storage somewhere. now use what you've still got left to press with, and press.' my idea is to artificially shorten my kinetic 'chain' so that the 'floor' that my ohp is pushing off from isn't the floor. it's about my sixth rib.

interesting thing is: doing stuff like this seems to mean the most likely part of my body to cramp in a press is my quads. so obviously, it's not really like the rest of my body is just lollygagging around when i press.

long-*kitten* response, but i have this morbid love of the overhead press no matter how little progress i'm making wrt the weight. so if nothing else, thanks for the chance to ramble.

Haha, I'll simplify the relation for you right here and now. Engaging lats = pressing shoudler blades together = expanding chest = more stable base to press off of. (And also better leverage to recruit the pecs into the lift which makes a huge difference down the line.)

Physiotherapist (different one from my usual one who is on vacation, whom I liked a lot better tbh!) gave me this trick which is basically "chest up" yesterday about the posture, but actually called it a sternum lift. And it friggin works at fixing like, everything. From not feeling certain stretches to keeping my head upright. It's just a tiny swivel of the chest, really, but my, why do they not teach that to kindergarten kids?! Seriously!

Did SL workout B today:

Squats 5x5 @ 55#
Overhead Press 5x5 @ 30#
Deadlift 1x5 @ 95# and 1x5 @ 105#

I've been doing two deadlift sets so I can practice form. Also, I tried using the ez bar instead of dumbbells for the press, and I like it much better.

My 12yo daughter was giving me sarcastic encouragement during my last set of squats and I almost fell over from laughing. Sheesh.

krokador wrote: »

also better leverage to recruit the pecs into the lift which makes a huge difference down the line.)

omg this. how could i have forgotten all about this? ^^^^ THIS ^^^^.

And it friggin works at fixing like, everything.

except breakfast in bed but, yeah. i actually kind of know what you mean.

i felt yesterday's non-sl 'barbell club' session more than i had expected i would. was also confused, becasue what i did yesterday was part of both of the sl workouts (deadlift and bench). still and all, last night had no squatting in it so i dragged myself and my rekindled ambitions/work ethic into the gym.

squats: 60 pounds. it's not a lot of weight, but i feel like this makes it official: i'm definitely involved in a total reboot for the stronglifts programme. with my new and improved form, even just 60 was a bit touch and go for the full five sets of five. mind you, i started at 45 and went up in 5-lb increments, making sure that i did at least two sets at each jump. so i did do a fair bit of volume at least. and i think my form has improved. i'm not getting the biofeedback that means buttwink out of my spine anymore. biggest difference (in my mind is a much much tighter upper back, and a much much more chest-up position to start. my upper back is actually stupidly weak. so it could be that this is the weakest link in the chain atm, but i'm more fine than i know how to say with just staying where the weakest link can be trained.

ohp: think i ended at 40 with this. same thing: started with just the 30lb bar, added 5lb per time and did at least three sets each jump. i'm not sure if i did all 5 sets at the weight i stopped at, but if not it was four. had to do it all without the rack, since a) rack was taken and b) fixed width so the shortie bar isn't very (at all) safe on those pins. i'm fine with 40 this time, partly because there was just not no way nope not nohow i was ever going to get higher than that. and partly because i was doing the reps really slowwwwly, so as to (again) actually notice my form.

annnnnndd some deadlifting. i should have done rows, and i kinda-sorta did do some rows, but with weight too low to say much about. what i did instead was roumanian deadlifts in between ohp sets, without changing the bar. tried to keep enough focus on pulling the bar in and keeping it right up against my legs the whole way, that hopefully my back/lats gets a pass on the rows.

oh yeah. and mr trainer guy has me doing band pull-aparts any time i'm not doing an actual set. i'm all about it, actually. so i started out with 3x10 of those mixed in with 10's of broomstick dislocations, and i have to say. if you do broomstick dislocations s-l-l-o-o-o-o-w-l-y to really track your control, they're not a waltz for all of the muscles that do it either.

i need a nap so badly.

Workout A today. ON A WEEKEND, GUYS! I'm normally a slacker on weekends, so this is kind of huge for me. Also, my fractionals (1.25 lb plates) came from Rogue Fitness on Friday so I was excited to use them.

Squats 5x5x52.5 lbs
Bench 47.5 lbs
Rows 45 lbs

I backed down the weight I was doing on my rows and I felt SO much better about my form than I did last tI'm (at 65 lbs). I just did the bar and used a couple boxes to rest it on so it was at a similar height as it would be if I had big plates on it. Felt pretty good.

@jessiefrancine - Thanks, I love Rippetoe videos. I tend to watch them when I'm at work and procrastinate.
@canadianlbs - Thank you for your input! I am definitely working on engaging all muscles and energy to get that bar up. What you said makes a lot of sense.

squats 65. warmup sets of 2x5 each at 45, 50, 55, 60 so i'd hold onto my form.

ohp: 50. kind of . . . i mixed it up a lot between ohp and rows, so after a while i kind of lost track. i was concentrating a lot more on just making more sure of my form so didn't do many sets of the full 5. quite of few of them were only triples, but i think there were more sets than just five, overall.

rows: just like squats. work weight of 65, with minimum two warmup sets at each 5lb increment until i hit that weight. started at 50 with these.

still not a kosher sl workout but i'm not complaining. think it was probably supposed to be workout b, but i skipped rows on saturday and badly wanted to get some in. i'm finding that rows work very well for me as a setup/prehab for ohp, so i did that more or less in superset form. deadlifts on top of all that was just like 'pfftt . . . yeah, right.'

Lifted last night. Still working up from my deload after being sick

Squat 5x5x130lbs
OHP 5x5x60lbs
Deadlift 1x5x190lbs

Leg superset 3x8
Bulgarian split squat
Front squat
Hip thruster
Romanian deadlift

Done and done and done lol

OHP 3 day
50 lbs x 3, 55 lbs x 3, 65 lbs x 4
5x8 45lbs OHP superset with assisted pullups 5x8
EMOTM x 5 Dumbbell rows 25 lbs x8 each side
EMOTM x 5 hanging cleans 45 lbs x5
Opening doors is hard for me today. Definitely succeeded in working my lats and traps.
I am thinking about going for a run but I am also thinking about not going for a run… It probably won’t happen, maybe a walk instead. My gluts and hamstrings are feeling yesterday pretty hard so I will need to get up and loosen them up a bit somehow.

Went back to the gym to hit this fun torture session: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/dtp-week-1-day-1.html (minus the abs, and I forgot the first set of calf raises. I still felt the burn, trust me)

Leg press + calf raises (weight x LP reps / CR reps)
45 x 50/0, 45s rest
70 x 40/30, 60s rest
90 x 30/20, 75s rest
135 x 20/10, 90s rest
180 x 10/10, 105s rest
205 x 10/10, 120s rest
180 x 20/10, 105s rest
160 x 30/20, 90s rest
115 x 40/30, 75s rest
90 x 50/40

In restrospect I could've handled a little more weight (moreso out of the gate, at least), but I'm pretty sure I'll feel this one tomorrow. It was actually harder on my calves than on my legs. Had to pause a few sets lol.

Then I spent 30 minutes or so mobilizing my shoulder/chest/upper back and doing my rehab exercises and I can say I have HUGE knots in my triceps on BOTH side so ow ow ow. yup.

I'm getting close to being able to handle free weights for upper body! FINALLY! Can,t say trynig out all those workout protocols wasn't fun, but I like my workout programs structured and not all over the place, tyvm.

One Tuesday...
Squats 135 - felt tired, but got through all of the sets fine. I think I'll stay at this weight for my Thurs workout, as my form wasn't 100%.

After a successful 85 lbs last week, went up to 90 lbs and only completed the reps on the second set. I knew it would happen, though. Progressive OVERload builds strength, and boy was I overloaded.

Rows 100 - No problem. I must have a stronger back than I realize because I always dread this exercise. Still not at my previous top weight after a few de-loads, but getting close.