I am brand new at lifting heavy weights, so please bear with me.

Squats: When I rest the bar across the back of my neck and my shoulders, it is quite painful. I seem to be getting a bruise on the vertebra that sticks just below the curve of your neck (C7?) Am I doing something wrong, or will I just get used to this?

Also, my forearms are feeling extremely sore, sort of like shinsplints of the forearms. I'm a little worried because they are such small muscles compared to the big ones I'm supposed to be training. Will they eventually strengthen enough, or do I need to back off to avoid injuring them?

Thanks for any insight!

Squats - Yep, you're probably doing soemthign wrong. For one thing, you shouldn't have the bar against your neck at all, it should sit on your traps. Look at this picture of low bar squatting, it should solve all your problems. Basically you need to squeeze your shoulderblades together, the bar shouldnt' be resting against your spine at all, it should be resting on your mucles.

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-squat-with-proper-technique-fix-common-problems/

Forearms - This is a tough one because yes, they wil lprobably strengthen, but also it might mean you're holding your arms at w ierd angle and tweaking the muscle or puttign a lot of pressure on the muscle. When you're holding the bar for squats, your arms really aren't doing a whole lot. Your'e just keeping the bar balanced against your shoulders and using sort of a 3 point pressure to keep it there. But if your forearms are particularly weak for some reason, yeah you should notice soem soreness til htey strengthen.

Also things like deadlifting that use a LOT of grip strength.

I am brand new at lifting heavy weights, so please bear with me.

Squats: When I rest the bar across the back of my neck and my shoulders, it is quite painful. I seem to be getting a bruise on the vertebra that sticks just below the curve of your neck (C7?) Am I doing something wrong, or will I just get used to this?

Also, my forearms are feeling extremely sore, sort of like shinsplints of the forearms. I'm a little worried because they are such small muscles compared to the big ones I'm supposed to be training. Will they eventually strengthen enough, or do I need to back off to avoid injuring them?

Thanks for any insight!

Squats - Yep, you're probably doing soemthign wrong. For one thing, you shouldn't have the bar against your neck at all, it should sit on your traps. Look at this picture of low bar squatting, it should solve all your problems. Basically you need to squeeze your shoulderblades together, the bar shouldnt' be resting against your spine at all, it should be resting on your mucles.

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-squat-with-proper-technique-fix-common-problems/

Forearms - This is a tough one because yes, they wil lprobably strengthen, but also it might mean you're holding your arms at w ierd angle and tweaking the muscle or puttign a lot of pressure on the muscle. When you're holding the bar for squats, your arms really aren't doing a whole lot. Your'e just keeping the bar balanced against your shoulders and using sort of a 3 point pressure to keep it there. But if your forearms are particularly weak for some reason, yeah you should notice soem soreness til htey strengthen.

Also things like deadlifting that use a LOT of grip strength.

Yes, that is what I was trying to say for bar location on the squat. Tameko described it well.

Thank you so much! That was just the info I needed on the squat. I just practiced with my empty bar (which is only 15 lbs) and I was able to keep the bar in the right spot -- just one more thing to focus on!

Re the forearms -- I should have clarified that they are not getting sore from the squats -- it was the bench press and barbell row that did it. But it still could be a form issue, definitely. It's worse on my left (non-dominant) side. Hopefully it will feel better with a couple of days rest, but if anyone has any thoughts, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

For squats you can also drop $20 on a bar pad,well worth the money even when you do have the bar in the right spot as the other ladies described.

Your forearms will get sore from doing rows and deads, prolly benches. on benches, make certain your hands are placed in line with your shoulders and try to pull the bar apart as you lower and raise the bar. This will engage your rotator cuff, also make certain on benches and OHP to do the FULL ROM, if you stop short you will injure your tendons! For rows (most likely the culprit in forearm pain) grip is slightly past your shoulders and do the opposite of the bench. i.e. try to push the bar together as you lift it off the floor. Make certain to lower it to the floor. Do the drummer, typist stretch after. My big problem was curling my wrists at the end of the lift. DO NOT DO THIS!!! I have to reaally really watch myself to make sure i'm not doing it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q98C0HLJHtQ

yeah. I would say that if it's super sore, like you can't hold objects, you should go straight to the doc. If almost that sore for more than 2 weeks then same and if it was that sore but getting better maybe add braces until the pain goes away. Also icing after is a good idea.

While we're talking about which muscles hurt - the very top front of my legs, where my thighs meet the rest of my body, there's a strip across the front of both, maybe only an inch wide that hurts - the pain is only there when I'd doing my squats. It doesn't go down the front of my quads or anything, just a band across both thighs (so imagine when you sit down wearing jeans, the spot where your jeans crease that was really popular for a while for the wash to be lightened there? that spot). Am I doing something wrong?

While we're talking about which muscles hurt - the very top front of my legs, where my thighs meet the rest of my body, there's a strip across the front of both, maybe only an inch wide that hurts - the pain is only there when I'd doing my squats. It doesn't go down the front of my quads or anything, just a band across both thighs (so imagine when you sit down wearing jeans, the spot where your jeans crease that was really popular for a while for the wash to be lightened there? that spot). Am I doing something wrong?

I'm having the same problem and for a while I thought I might have pulled a muscle. Yesterday I deloaded my squats (150 > 85) and tweaked my stance a bit (narrower stance with less of an extreme angle for my feet) and it went right away, so I think tameko2 is onto something there.

It was sore as hell all night though, and stiff for a good part of the morning.

Sounds like a plan.

I have to deload back to 45 for barbell rows til I figure out form. I can NOT get it. I watch videos, I try to watch in the mirror before I add weight.... something is not right.

Break it into two parts. Or maybe 3.

1 is just get into position - and this is a bit odd as it depends a bit on how long your torso and on the proportion of your legs and so on. this was what we fiddled with last night and I finally felt like these went good. I was positioning as though it was a deadlift and while it is FAIRLY similar, its different enough that you have to shift around a bit to figure out the right place to stand.

2 is grip - when your hands are hanging straight down, your wrists are neutral right? not bent. Now when you wrap your hands around the bar, if your wrists bend you're putting the bar too far up into your palm. Place it in the crease of your fingers where they meetyour palm.

3 is to maintain a strong back, EXPLOSIVELY pull the bar upward, touch your chest, and put it back down. Basically there are 2 points in this pull which are the hardest parts, at the bottom when tis on the floor and at the top close to your chest. As far as I can tell, failing at this pull tends to be that you wont' be able to touch your chest. But you can mitigate the part with getting it off the ground by giving a good OOMPH to that initial pull in.

The video that Glen Pendlay has up is good.

I use 2 plates under either side to get the bar up to a good height

I did them inside the squat rack, and I adjusted the bar just above the ground, so I wouldn't have to stack weights on each side to get the barbell high enough off the ground. Maybe I just need to move the bar even higher? I am only 5' 2.5", so I do have short arms.

^^^^ LOVE this idea!! Anything that's on the floor I probably wont be able to reach with comfort till I hit the 45's!!

I've been trying to keep my back flat, and good question about the wrists, I hadn't really watched - spent more time trying to figure out why everything else was going so wrong....

^^^^^^^ this made me laugh out loud.. I can imagine half of our heads while we lift.. Is my back right? Wait my feet,.. nooo we're supposed to pull it apart.. wait a minute.. that was press.. Deadlift is chest up.. no my chins up.. did I just shrug... wait... where are my traps again?? Am I supposed to lower my head back down when I OHP?? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I can't stop laughing now!!

sounds alot like a bellydancing class! lol.

I like the keeping the bar in the crease of fingers idea, also don't look up at any point. look at the floor in front of you either at your toes or slightly in front to keep your back parallel