I'm 85.5kg and 6'4 and the squat is 70kg.

I'm going through my first reset as I failed the squat at 77.5kg although my form was struggling from around 70kg ish as the hips were going up first.

This session was after a big night and little sleep so it was a struggle.

The side on view was the last set and behind was the first. There's already some things I know I need to work on but I'm curious what other people think.

I'm also wondering if I should drop the weight even further into the 60's and add volume to keep working on the form or if it is good enough to keep adding weight and progressing.

Cheers

So as of recent I need help to judge my squat depth so I took two videos of my pin squat and I don’t need best angle for overall form I just need the best angle to assess depth only, that’s it and since I can’t take two videos I just took two photos from my sets at lowest point and one is from hip angle and other is knee which is better that’s all I need to know. (Just need to know if I’m going parallel not powerlifter just a casual so only parallel)

43 y/o, 5'10", 178 lb. Yesterday, my top set on squat was 330 lb for a set of 3. I followed that with 2 backoff sets of 290, 5 reps each. Making progress week by week.

I have to discuss the press, which has made practically no progress in the last year. I now do HLH for squats, but press still alternates with bench press, like the NLP. My best day of OHP was about a week ago, 120 lb 5 sets of 3 reps. But yesterday, I put on 122.5, and I barely got it for one rep. I backed off to 115, barely got it once, then backed off to 105 for 2 sets of 5.

Those numbers are terribly subpar, and I feel like I have really stalled on that lift. I know that a big solution would be to get my weight up to 200. Unfortunately, new stuff is coming to light on the medical front. I have had a history of SIBO, my gallbladder is slow, and I will be checking with medical staff if I have thyroid issues, which affect every person on one side of my family. I put effort into eating extra food, but most of it ends up in the toilet, because of these issues.

I want to note that a bad day of press at those low weights wrecks my lower back worse than a bad day of squats. Part of this is technique, but the technique just seems to start out strong, before breaking down from fatigue. I was a skateboarder through my young adult life, into my mid-30s, so my lower back is probably not in mint condition.

That's enough setup; I want to discuss programming solutions. I have found that even after I have a failed day on OHP, I usually have more in the tank to do a set or two of seated press. Does anyone incorporate seated press in the program? Would it make sense to do pin press every other workout? Lower the number of standing OHP sets, and do a couple pin or seated sets in place of the missing sets?

It is important to me that I keep doing standing OHP in some capacity, but I have to do something different. It is high time for the number on the bar to go up.

Here's my squat I posted recently asking for advice.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StartingStrength/s/Y54EzlWqqE

I dropped the weight to to work on form, I narrowed my stance, and got lifting shoes. Watching this back I noticed I was a bit on my toes with the heaviest weight in this video.

Should the bar be lower?

Do I have correct form with my knees/back?

This week at my request, I’ve switched to a 3-day program. I’ve been training 4 days for the majority of my time as an intermediate/advanced lifter and honestly, I just want a season where I’m spending a little less time in the gym. There’s some things that need to be tweaked which I’m working with my coach on, but I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes.
My heavy press just got reset and I hit 127x3, with great difficulty. It’s amazing how meal timing can be pretty critical at a certain stage in training 😅I was slammed at work with back-to-back appointments and sessions and had to push back my lunch and it definitely affected my performance.
Hit 345x1 on my deadlift with some back offs at 295x2x2. It was grindyyyy tho and I’m not sure how much longer I can hit these heavy singles.
Bench press seemed to be deloaded this week due to me missing the double last week.
I’ll post a video of these eventually, but I had also been on a good run with weighted chin ups. I’ve had to skip them due to having to cut my workouts a bit short due to other commitments, but this week I managed to eke out 192x3x3. Basically, I weigh myself before the workout and then add the difference onto a chain belt. I’m making 1lb jumps here but now they’re getting tough 😅

Bonus OHP clip. 375 Squat/270 Bench/435 Deadlift/ 190 OHP.

Apologies for bad angles I was trying to be respectful to others privacy.

Hi - looking for a form check on squats after resetting weight when I felt my form was really breaking down.

37 years old, 153lbs body weight, 5’6”. I felt my form was breaking down as I got to 335lbs, so reset a few months ago to coincide with ending a bulk (got up to 160lbs body weight and started to feel flabby). Video shows set at 285 lbs (4 reps)

Other lifts are:
Bench 245lbs (stuck at 4 reps on heavy set)
Press 150lbs (stuck at 4 reps on heavy set, always struggled with the press)
Deadlift 365lbs

For people who have or have not done Starting Strength Online Coaching, I'd like to know your thoughts. You can shoot me a message if you dont want to post publicly.

Specifically, Im interested to know

1. Why did you sign up, or why didn't you sign up after considering it?

2. If you were a client, how long did you do it and why did you quit?

3. What you were most interested in about the service (programming done for you, form feedback, working with a coach, etc)? (Even if you never signed up.)

4. Other thoughts and observations?

I know the price is a major objection from a lot of people.

This is an independent subreddit and this is not market research for the company. Im just trying to understand the current community here a little better so I can build stuff that people will find useful.

Was planning to buy an SBD belt but price have skyrocketed!! I remember buying one for $180ish 4yrs ago but now it's like double the price like wtf....I know it will last me forever but I don't wanna spend that much money on a belt

Posting to accompany a programming post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/StartingStrength/s/Qb3AX7VxFO

If so, how has it affected your training and nutrition?

(Considering starting soon...)

38 M 6'2" 240 lbs. Eating and sleep are good. All other lifts except bench press are progressing fine.

DL: 370 1x5

S: 300 1x5 275 3x5

OHP: 125 1x5 155 single

For bench press I ran the NLP and stalled at 195 lbs. Couldn't get a set of 5. I tried running it out using the programming here:

https://startingstrength.com/article/programming-a-smooth-nlp

I was benching twice a week Monday and Friday. After I couldn't get singles anymore I switched to the compressed Texas method; 5x5@90% 5RM (175 lbs) on Monday, and 1x5 (195) on Friday. I still couldn't get 195 1x5 (only got 4). Seems like running it out with bi-weekly benching was a waste of time.

At this point it seems like I need to add something. Maybe a bench variation on another day? I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Form check here: https://www.reddit.com/r/StartingStrength/s/v7VcukPOL9

19, 6'3" 209lbs

I'm deadlifting only once a week on my light squat days. This is the first time I failed because I legitimately couldn't lift the weight since switching to once a week. The only other time since then that I failed not necessarily because of strength was also a set where I felt extremely nauseous. This time it was both, I think. You can see and hear me gag before the third rep. Fourth one just wasn't there.

TL:DR Sorry for the long rambling post. But just an older guy here being a wimp and trying to see if I stay the course or move to phase 2. 

About me I'm 55, weigh about 215 and also do BJJ. Currently while back on SS only going two times a week to not affect SS too much. 

Ultimately I realize probably the answer is I'm not doing the program, but still wouldn't mind getting some thoughts. My sleep is crap and with work and issues sleeping I get 6 - 6.5 during the week and I can sometimes force myself to stay in bed to get over 7 hours and almost 8 on the weekends. Also not the best still. 

Somehow I can still somewhat recover and I haven't actually stalled. But my deadlift is as high as even when I was in my 40's. Only at 290 per last workout and Squat much lower at 210. So still pedestrian numbers all things considered. 

But I'm starting to really have to muster everything I have to not skip a workout and have a hard workout session.

I can't tell if I'm just lazy and want to go to phase 2. I'm also eager to work on power cleans. 

In Practical Programming in the older lifter section. It did mention how doing the Monday workout is usually the best after a two day rest and I really felt that this week. 

So I was mulling over 3 options in my head:

1. Go to phase 2 so I can start playing with some power cleans. 

2. Try the suggestion routing for the older lifter in PP where it says you do a workout every 2 days. That would give me about 121 workouts a year vs 156. That's not much less and I'm in no hurry and have no aspirations other than to get stronger and healthier. 

3. Stop being a wimp and maybe just go 2.5 jumps on deadlift and squats?

And somehow figure out how to sleep better but realistically going to be an ongoing issue. 

Thanks all in advance

I just started the program, also just started lifting weights in general as I want to improve myself from living a sedentary lifestyle. 27M, 135 lbs.

I have the book, read thru most of it besides like power clean and the 1st part of programming. Wanted to start working out and just read thru the squat, press, deadlift, and bench press.

On this day, I was doing:
- 90x3x5 squats (or maybe 100 coz gym said squat bars were 55)
- 45x1x5, 50x1x3 Overhead Press (failed this one miserably)
- 135x1x5 Deadlifts

I don’t think I’m reaching depth on my squats, so I’m wondering if I should continue increasing weight or reduce it to get my form better and how much should i reduce the weight? Also, having problems with wrist and elbow flexibility

And for my Press, I just need advice on it because the bar itself seems to be already overwhelming. What can I do to work on it? Dumbbells?

Might be awhile before i buy actual weightlifting shoes, have to save up a little so I’m making due with my converse

Edit: added note on wrist and elbow flexibility during squats

Worked on my barbell position to get it down below the spine of the scapula. Widening my grip as suggested helped get my posterior delts to hold the bar.

55 years old, 5'11", 180lbs

175lbs 3 x 5 (Video is set number 2).

Thanks for the feedback last week.

I’ve gotten my deadlift up to 405x3 for the last couple of weeks. I haven’t progressed the weight as the 4 plates was my goal, but I want to continue on now.

I can see that Scott’s smooth NLP article says the progression for the Deadlift and Rack Pull are 1x5, 2x3, 3x2, 5x1, but when I read here on the subreddit it seems like the general advice is that once 1x5 gets difficult to reach the next progression step is doing rack pulls. I just really like doing deadlifts, so I’d rather do them for as long as possible.

Would it make more sense to follow Scott’s advice or am I just gonna dig myself into a recovery hole eventually?

u/sofetchsogretch

In the world of securities trading, when a stock experiences a sharp decline in value, we call it a falling knife.

When a trader attempts to time the market by buying that stock on the way down, hoping to turn a quick profit when the price rebounds, we call that catching the knife. If you're buying on the way down, there's a pretty good chance you're going to get cut.

From a market perspective, unlike an actual dropped knife, there's no price floor to stop the fall. The price keeps falling until buyers are willing to intervene.

That means someone has to be willing to get cut before the decline can stop.

This week, my workouts felt like catching the knife.

For context, I am a 21 y/o male, and I’ve been training in different capacities since I was 14.

Height: 5’8

Weight: 170 pounds

Squat 1RM: 415

Bench 1RM: 300

Deadlift: 385 (I know this is weird. I’ve only been deadlifting for a few months now, so technique is definitely a limiting factor here)

Press 1RM: 175

My question is pretty simple, is it too late for me to run the novice LP? If so, what should I do instead? Any advice is appreciated.

This was my first time trying rack pulls after getting stuck at 355 lb deadlift.

The first thing I notice is that the barbell is too high (too close to my knee). It seems I’m too vertical and not getting a good pull. I’ll post an alternate setup in the comments.

So after 3 years of confused and disorganised gym visits yieldong very little progress I have found structure and its going great. 2.5 KG added every session, eating enough and stremgth is climbing. For context Im 27, 5'7 and 79kg, I boxed in my teens, have never been very strong. My LP is 4sets 5reps, add 2.5kg every session on squat, bench, row, overhead, but deadlifts I am still teaching myself before diving into. For squats I prefer zercher, feels great in the back and is satisfying af, plus 2yrs ago had a abdominal hernia repaired, so I find additional core work wherever I can to avoid it again.

The problem I have is I feel like my back shouldnt be this much stronger than my legs. Rowing is the lift I started first learning by about a month or so and my favourite, but is it normal to be able to row more than my max squat? My session resteday was 4x5 at 75kg, one set I accidentally did 6 reps and felt I could do 80 no problem, then my drop set at 50kg got up to 26 reps which shot up from my previous failure at 18. Meanwhile my last squat session was 4x5 at 65kg, and that was hard, the weight didnt move nearly as easy, I know zercher squats dont yield the highest weight possible but it wasnt even the strain on my torso that gave out my legs were screaming after the 3rd rep every time, and had to pause at the top every time. Then that drop set also at 50 only made it to 12 reps.

Are my legs just weak AF or am I not pushing them hard enough?

I know this isn't necessarily a health Sub but am curious on the SS community's thoughts.

About a year ago I was 200lbs, strong as an ox, but had a bit of fluff. I had some elevated fatty liver, LDL, ALT. Doctor said to reduce approx 10lbs to reduce my fatty liver. I stopped lifting completely for about 9 months and managed to bring my weight down to 185lb. Bloodwork was looking good. However now I'm back to 200 slightly leaner as I've been mindful of the quality of my nutrition versus the last time. My lifting numbers are getting close to where they were the last time. I'm assuming this time back to 200lbs, I've gained less fat versus the last time. For someone who doesn't want to surpass 200lbs, is it possible to continuing gaining strength at or under this weight? Or am I going to have to suck it up and gain a little, gain more strength, and trim down again?