I’m on week 5 of the Starting Strength Novice program and am hitting a wall. Last Wednesday on my last rep of squats I let my shoulders relax as I came up and the bar started to slide down my back. I was squatting 230 for three sets of five for those unfamiliar with the program. I basically put most of the weight on my shoulders and arms as I rushed to rack it before it fell ( late at night and didn’t want to risk waking anyone by dropping it) my Bench right after suffered as well. The deadlift wasn’t bad.
This caused pain in my shoulders, triceps, and elbows. Due to having a drill weekend I didn’t lift Friday and when I lifted Monday I had to increase my squat by only 2 pounds instead of five and it was a serious struggle. The first working set I did three reps of 235 and then had to drop down to 232.
Tonight I went to 235 and my shoulders are hurting pretty bad, elbows and triceps are aching but not as bad. Working on overhead press of 110 now and it’s a serious grind. Supposed to deadlift 250 next. I am running on fumes though. I know I’m not eating and sleeping enough but school and SGM academy and family obligations prevent from correcting that.
You also sound like you took a strain/sprain to the shoulders. Take a couple days rest with Tylenol and Motrin for pain, ice where it’s sore and just give the muscles time to rest some. If it still hurts after a couple days, you might have some ligament damage. A chiropractor would be your best friend.
Are you sure you did everything correctly in technique? Injuries are caused by heavy weight combined with improper technique. Take less weight, but do it right. Better yet, find a coach who will monitor your progress, select training complexes for the result.
So by the time I finished my deadlifts the shoulders stopped hurting and this morning there is just a little ache in my left shoulder. I think my form is pretty good, I normally record my working sets so I can’t check my form, I didn’t do so last night though.
I think a big part is hand placement, I’ve been having my hands pretty far out on the bar but I think that’s what led to the injury, by not having the muscles bunched up enough under the bar. So last night I tried getting my hands in closer and that helped with keeping the bar still but was putting tension on the joints.
Find a good trainer to supervise your mechanics. You can be at least 20 times in great shape, but if you do the exercises incorrectly, you will only harm yourself. Verified by personal experience.
“I think a big part is hand placement, I’ve been having my hands pretty far out on the bar but I think that’s what led to the injury, by not having the muscles bunched up enough under the bar”
The grip on the squat was actually just discussed in the last Starting Strength podcast.
“I know I’m not eating and sleeping enough”
Too many other variables that effect progress are not listed here to truly say why you are hitting a wall. I’m not a Starting Strength coach, but am very familiar with the program. This might be a good place to start with trying to figure this out, but you really shouldn’t be stalling already at only 5 weeks into the NLP.
Was that Radio episode #79, posted just a day ago?
So I’m 37, 5’10", 188 pounds (roughly), 20 years combat arms. I never really lifted weights my entire life until I met my wife 6 years ago and we got memberships to the local Golds. We did that 5 days a week for about two years and then after we moved, getting to the gym was a bit more difficult and our frequency dropped from 5 days a week to 3 to 4. Then I deployed and during the deployment I for a while I was hitting the gym twice a day 6 days a week, really overdoing it. I came home from the deployment and my little boy was born and I started back to school, all within two weeks, so I stopped working out. Last spring we canceled our gym memberships as we weren’t using them and instead bought a home gym. I used it on and off until when Covid hit, it was then I really started working out again in earnest.
What I was doing was hitting each major muscle group each night, lifting for 4 nights, and occasionally doing some cardio, no real plan or goal, just lift whatever felt heavy without sacrificing form. Two weeks before I started the Starting Strength program I went for one rep max’s, 235 on both bench and high bar squat, and 330 on trap bar deadlift. I spent the next week at low weights practicing the low bar squat and the traditional deadlift in preparation for the program (got up to 265 before my grip failed). I’m doing the variation of the program where A Mondays are Squat, Bench, Chin-up, Wednesday is Squat, Overhead Press, and Deadlift, and Friday is Squat, Bench, and Pull-up. B week just has the press and bench swapping.
My initial working sets were 180 for Squat and Bench, 85 for the Press, and 210 for Deadlift. I initially could do a set of 10, and two sets of 7 for chin-up and 10,9,7 for the pull-up.
I workout at night a few hours after dinner, I clean up and get the wife and boy ready for bed, once they are in bed is when I’ll change and start my workout. The only supplements I take are the L-Tyrosine and Creatine in Will’s bomb-proof coffee, Mens one a day, and 48 grams of protein after each workout.
So I was able to squat 2 reps at 240 tonight, dropped down to 237, and dropped the bar on the bottom of the first rep. I think I need to take some time and let things heal and then either go back to high bar or just spend more time at the lower weight really locking the low bar position in. My bench is suffering too, just did my last warmup set at 190 and almost dropped the bar on my chest. I’m going to rest for a few minutes and try for 215 but I’m not too confident about it right now. I’m really bummed that, I was making some real progress and then this happened. I was hoping to make the 1,000 pound mark, combined one rep max of squat, bench, and deadlift by the end of the year.
I don’t know the episode #, but yes, the one that just dropped this past Thursday or Friday.
Again, please keep in mind, I am not an exercise physiologist, Dr, or Starting Strength coach, just a 47 year old former power lifter with experience with this programming. I am 5’11’’, 265lbs and have been involved in strength training, using similar programs, since I was in high school. I have been training inconsistently over the last 15 years, with occasional years between training. COVID got me training again, as I have all the equipment I need at home. I am not using the exact program at the moment, but am training Squat, press, and chins every other day. Been doing this for about the last 2 months. I am about to reduce volume as I am starting to slow a little in recovery. I am doing 3 sets of 5 on the 2 lifts, and as many sets as I need to to finish 15 reps on the chins. Last session was 405 squat for 3x5, 225 press for 3x5, and chins 5,4,4,2. I have used Starting Strength programs to train both of my kids. Daughter doesn’t train anymore, but when she was playing field,hockey in high school, I got her to a deadlift of 250, at a body weight of about 105. My son is 5’10, 245lbs, 16 yo. Squats 425, deadlifts 460, presses 225, and still has a lot of room to go.
I have no idea what you did to your shoulder, but sounds like it would be worth getting it checked out. My bet is your grip is a problem. You may need to make it a point to try to lift your elbows to the rear some to help create the shelf for the bar, but make sure you don’t lift so much that it pushes your posture forward. Crazy as it sounds, the type of shirt you wear may contribute to this as well. Synthetic materials become slick under the bar, especially when sweating. Cotton shirts actually help grip the bar.
The other factor you did not mention is how physical your day job is, or how much you do exercise wise outside of the weight room.
Does your bar have knurling in the center or is it smooth, where it rests on your back/shoulders? Not a huge deal, but knurling helps.
Do you use chalk? Can you have someone rub chalk across your back shoulders where the bar rests?
Those would help, but ideally you need to focus on the supporting grip. Try to lift the elbows to the rear and set your grip wide/narrow enough that your forearms are vertical under the bar. Also, try to keep the bar in a vertical movement path, directly above the arches of your feet. If you are losing the bar at the bottom of the movement, you MIGHT be trying to keep your back too stright/vertical.
All just thoughts that might help. Nothing replaces good, in person and coaching.
Synthetic Nike and LuLu Lemon workout shirts, no chalk, center knurling on the Rogue Ohio Power Bar. I’m currently doing school remotely so except for chasing after my son, pretty sedentary lifestyle at the moment. I have a Dark Iron lifting belt that I use just for working sets of squats, I tried using it for deadlifts but it didn’t feel right. Recently ordered a weighted dip belt so I can start loading on my pull-ups and chin-ups. I’m going to dig into Rip’s articles or just buy the books, and get more info while I let my shoulders/triceps recover and then I’ll get back into it. Not going to completely stop working out though, still going to keep working on my deadlift but will drop my squat and bench down to around 180 just to keep the movements solid.
If I don’t notice an improvement after two weeks of taking it easy then I’ll contact my Dr. otherwise, I’ll repeat the last two weeks of the program that I did successfully and go from there.
Read the books, study the lifts videos on his website. In the books, you will likely find the answers for why you stalled already. Will Brink mentioned earlier that Rippetoe usually spells this stuff out, and he does.
Thank you, I’ve been listening to the podcasts and watching the videos for a while now, I don’t feel like I’m really stalling as just dealing with an injury, my bar speed on squat and overhead press was starting to slow prior to the injury but I have some one pound plates I was going to start using soon to keep from stalling. I’m going to order the books tonight.
Its ok to take a break when flirting with injury plus less than ideal sleep and nutrition. Erring on the side of undertraining means you don’t progress as fast as theoretically possible. Over training can have far greater consequences!
Your deadlift and OH press seem low compared to your squat. What is your bench at?
On hand placement I tend to end up so my thumbs are just at the ring marks on the bar while keep a neutral wrist position. My hands are on top of the bar and my knuckles are perpendicular to my forearms and not inline with the bar. Thumbs are on top of the bar.
The closer you can get your hands to your shoulders and the higher your elbows the tighter the shelf for the bar will be. I think this is essential for a low bar squat.
The SS progression will stall pretty quick if you aren’t resting and eating enough, or if you went too high with your initial numbers. I also found that I needed to have longer rest times between sets the further I got down the line. Just going from a 2:00 min rest between sets to a 3:00 can make a difference. I don’t see guys at the gym with a 315 squat doing sets every 1:00.
I also suggest doing a deload on your lifts that are stalling. All lifts will not progress the same. This is normal. Doing a deload seems like taking a step back and it is, but its necessary for continued improvement. Think of your workouts as contributing to the cumulative effect of training and not individual feats of performance.
So what I did was deload my squat and bench as the pain was effecting both. I then did five rounds of 20x5 chin-ups with a min rest between sets. This has really helped with the pain. I’ve been staying at 160 for my squat and 180 for bench.
So just before the injury, My Bench was at 205 for 3x5.
Currently my deadlift is 275 for a set of 5
Overhead press is at 122.5 for 5x3
Now that I’m feeling better, I’m going to start ramping my squat and bench back up so by next week I’ll be squatting 225, and benching 205. At least that’s the plan, perhaps I’ll do a longer ramp up to get back to the weight I was at when the injury occurred.
as you get older, you’ll find that you can’t add much weight at all, unless you reduce the number of reps and only train a muscle group once per week. I use 4 reps, 3, 2 , 1, 4, going up in weight for each of the first 4 sets, and then back down to starting weight for the last 4 reps. If you can’t do that, you’re starting too heavy. I can usually add 5 lbs per week with legs, and 2.5 lbs per week for some of the arm stuff. The others, it’s every couple of weeks. do this for a while and you can tell 2-3 days in advance when you’re catching a cold or the flu, cause your performance falls way off.