Okay will do!
Shrugs are just because the other guy wanted to do them. I am trap dominant – mine got bigger this year just from doing deadlifts – so they’re entirely pointless for me.
Hey Alisa. Bummer that you are having a rough go of it. I will second (or third, or fourth) the recommendation for Vitamin D. I started supplementing with it on Labor Day, and have been having a much better fall/winter this year than last.
Cal gives good advice – fake a confident, goddess-like attitude and others will believe you and finally YOU will believe you.
I’d also take a step back and rethink some of your paradigms. Yes, when you go home there will be family pressures to eat and act like they do. But you are now an adult not a kid, and the fact that you need to eat certain foods and go to the gym for your own legitimate reasons should be negotiable with the fam. Its hard to begin to break away from the “child” role and claim a new status, but its time.
How frustrating to be told to back down on weights to work on form. But, from my perspective you are twenty years ahead of me on the learning curve. All that lovely time to learn and then get stronger. Lucky duck. Its all in how you look at it.
I got the vitamin D! Sunshine in a bottle.
You’re right about family. I can be prudent about food (really, it’s feasible to keep from overeating; it’s protein that’s hard, in a family that’s less aggressively carnivorous than most of us.) But yeah, I have to get used to disagreeing with my folks and expecting to be taken seriously.
As for form, I’m happy to take the correction. It’s the lost time that bothers me, but I figure I still have a couple years before I’m past my physical peak. (More than a couple if you look at the women on this forum.)
squats (slow, no box, perfect form, as low as it goes)
10@45, 10@65, 10@85, 5@95, 5@115, fail@135
Although this was a fail, I went down the right way – I just didn’t come up. This is better than what usually happens, which is that I get scared and lead with my knees when the weight’s heavy. In a way a good fail is better than a bad lift.
good mornings: 10@45, 10@65, 10@75, 10@85
db press: 10@25, 8@30, 5@35, fail@40’s.
stairmill: 21 min. 12 bike sprints.
Nice going, your squats are better than mine! Can you try an intermediate weight (125 maybe)?
I’ll do that.
Also. I have a sharp pain in what I can only call my groin – where my butt meets my inner thigh and, um, groin. Only on one side. It’s from really deep squatting (the thighs-to-calves variety.) What do you call this?
I’m planning on doing my usual routine: keep lifting and hope it goes away. That sound good?
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
In a way a good fail is better than a bad lift.
[/quote]
I’m learning this as well.
I’d rest that pulled muscle a bit more than just going about my “usual routine”. After it feels better, try some hip flexor stretches before deep squatting.
bench: 10@45, 10@65, 5@85, 5@95, 5@105, 4@110, 2@115
squat: 5@45, 8@65, 10@85, 8@95, 5@115, 5@125
deadlift: 10@65, 10@85, 10@105, 10@135, 5@155
not a bad day. PL guy said my squat form was good. Butt pain was just a twinge.
Alisa- I’m sorry to hear the winter is getting you down too.
As for the butt pain, it sounds like the insertion of either some of your abdominals (from holding your core tight) or your adductors are bothering you. It’s probably just from improving your form and using some muscles that your body had been trying to work around.
As for the sex- everything gets better when you just decide “I don’t care if I embarrass myself, I’m still going try to converse with the guy I think is cute.” What is that song “I try, though I’m so painfully shy…”? Yeah.
I had no idea that abdominals inserted in the posterior chain. learn something new every day.
alisa, try rolling the general area around on a tennis ball. then pull up an anatomy chart, take a looksee, and whatever ties into that area gets similar attention with the tennis ball. i find this much more productive after a long hot shower.
hows the vitamin D goin for ya?
So far so good on the Vitamin D. I haven’t had any of those grindingly awful days so far.
Yeah, the psoas are attached to the front of the spine. Hence, if you’re like me and sit down all day, they get supertight and it’s hard to avoid butt wink during squats (and a multitude of other sins).
Alysa - you shouldn’t push through pain. Soreness, yes, but sharp pain - never. It sounds as though your mechanics are a bit off (can you post a squat video?) and something’s pulling where it shouldn’t. Like CBear says, stretching, foam rolling/ball rolling and massage (if you can find someone you trust enough to handle that area) is good.
Well, we have a GIRL in the club now. She’s a lot of fun. New to lifting, but something of a natural: first time squatting ever, she whips out 5x5@85 with lovely, lovely form.
light stuff before anyone got there:
20 hypers @25 behind the head
squats: 10@45, 10@75
deadlifts:
10@65, 5@115, 5@135, 5@155, 5@175, 5@195
the top set, says PL Guy, was good form. Yay. Next time I can do 205 with a clear conscience. 195 felt almost absurdly easy.
leg press:
10@315, 10@405 (iffy depth) 10@225, 10@315 (good depth.)
I was scared of the whole stack crashing down on my head until they showed me there was a safety.
standing OH press:
10@45, 5@65, 3/3/1/3/2@75
powercleans:
5@65, 5@85, 2/3/5@95, fail@105
maybe if I didn’t do these last I’d progress…
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
leg press:
10@315, 10@405 (iffy depth) 10@225, 10@315 (good depth.)
I was scared of the whole stack crashing down on my head until they showed me there was a safety.
[/quote]
i must have done these wrong in the past. my head was nowhere near the press itself.
congrats on the pr and the form, woman!
Thanks!
(The leg press thing – no, of course it’s not near your head. Imagine if you were supporting 400 pounds, though, with nothing to catch them if you failed the lift. I was too scared to go to a full ROM at first, in case it all came crashing down on top of me; but, of course, the good engineers of Hammerstrength don’t design machines like that.)
yay for another female lifter…maybe you are spreading the vibe around! 
That’s some serious weight on the deadlifts, so good form on those is a real accomplishment.
hows your VIT D regimen going? How many do you take a day?
One a day. They’re doing a decent job, I think. I can’t tell, since it’s subjective, whether it’s real or not, but I’m trying to fix the physiological variables.
Not a terribly ambitious day: so much butt pain. Was weaker than I have been in the past; it’s up and down some from day to day.
bench: 10@45, 5@85, 5@95, 5@105, 2/1/2@110
squat: 10@65, 8@85, 5@115, 5@115, 2/3@125
deadlift: 10@65, 6@105, 5@135, 5@155, 5@175
pullups: 3/1/2/1, 8 negatives.
Learned some hip flexor stretches.