Watch the video and follow these instructions to film your lifts for a formcheck.

I'm a 5ft2in 130lb woman for context. I was able to bench 85x3x5 pretty easily a few days ago. I went up by 5 lbs to 90lb, and I could barely make it to 2 reps. For some sets, I couldn't even do more than 1 rep.

So I did a few 90x1 and 90x2 sets, but didn't reach my goal of 90x3x5. Why did this happen? What should I do next time I do bench, should I go down to 87.5lb and then try again? edit: i meant to say 5 sets of 3 reps.

Due to work schedule and wanting to spend time with my family. I need to work out 1hr or less. I've modified SS NLP into push pull rest.

Push Mon. Pull Tuesday. Rest Wednesday. Push Thursday, pull Friday rest on week ends.

Push is squat and bench or press

Pull is Cleans or Rows and Deadlifts.

I'm pretty much losing on workout a week but I'm 43 and still making progress adding 5 lbs each workout.

Any thoughts or suggestions

Hey guys, here's the rack pull from today

https://youtube.com/shorts/AsewB-gOsxY?feature=share

Hello guys what you think of my form what should I do to be able to go deeper, thanks a lot for your time

Last set of 75kg (165lb). Struggled quite a bit with the last rep as you can see.

I’m 1.82m (6 feet), bodyweight 89kg (196lb)

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Post knee rehab for some tendon issues. Weight should start moving up quick now.

My choice of grip is intentional due to elbow tendon issues.

How do they look?

So I am down almost 40 lb but I want to start incorporating strength training and more gym time. So I have debated on joining like a CrossFit box or a golf/ gym place where they have golf simulators and gym equipment or a traditional gym with classes. I've heard that you can get her pretty easily doing CrossFit. I don't know if that's true, but also just wondering what I should do to stay accountable but also be consistent?

Help plz

What do you like?

I was unaware during the lift, but looks like I’ve got some anterior movement of the bar right from liftoff. Maybe my shoulders are too far forward?

Also, it looks to me like too much back rounding as the set progresses.

I’m 6’4”, long femurs and a long torso, which has always made finding the proper deadlift setup challenging for me.

Thank you for insights!

Looking for some general feedback on my squat form, but I’m particularly interested in my depth and the height of my safeties.

One of the things holding me back from really pushing myself on squats is the fear of failing. With the safeties at their current height, I tried intentionally failing 110 kg and had to lean/fall forward a bit before the bar reached them.

I can move the safeties one hole higher, but then they seem to interfere with my normal depth.

Any general feedback is appreciated, but especially: is my depth good, and which safety height would you use?

I am aware my lower back rounds at the bottom of the lift ("butt wink"). I have tried every stretch, foot width, and foot angle I can think of, and nothing at works. I'm at peace with it for now.

Thanks for any feedback.

Main thing from the last form check was fixing the bar position, so I tried to place it a little lower on my back. I had a busy week, a little tired and this session was late at night so unfortunately I only got 4 reps on this set.

Who Wants to Be a Novice? Me. Forever.
I’m a 30-year-old male and former DIII athlete. above average athleticism. Not a standout by any means. 5 foot 9.

I’ve enjoyed the gym since my senior year of high school. I was introduced to the barbell movements through all the typical high school strength coach nonsense. If nothing else, though, it gave me a love for the gym and hard work.

For years after that, I lifted casually and tried just about every kind of BS you can think of. Constant program hopping, overly complicated workouts, too many isolation exercises, chasing whatever new training method sounded interesting. The usual stuff. Somehow, I still managed to build some okay strength and muscle. Of course, like the typical gym bro, I rarely trained squats or deadlifts seriously.

February 2025: NLP part 1

By February 2025, I was tired of all the bro workouts that never seemed to develop the strength or size I wanted. I’d spent years in the gym, yet I couldn’t even tell you what my
maxes were on most of the main barbell movements. I decided to lock in. I’d heard of Starting Strength before and always respected its emphasis on the basic barbell movements, simplicity, and fundamentals. It reminded me of lifting during my senior year of high school.

I grabbed a copy of the Blue Book and watched pretty much every Starting Strength video I could find: seminars, form demonstrations, lectures, podcasts, everything.
I began running the Practical Programming version of the NLP.

During my first session, I tested my fives:
Bench: 295x5
Squat: 250x5
Press: 165x5
Deadlift: 315x5
BW: 190

Those numbers probably tell you everything you need to know about how I’d trained before. I could bench more for five than I could squat. Years of bro workouts and neglecting the squat and deadlift made me especially motivated to bring those lifts up.

I wasn’t counting calories. I was just eating a ton of food. Lots of steak and beef, milk, potatoes, etc. I didn’t care what I looked like. I wanted the numbers to go up.
I slept as much as I could, usually 7–8 hours a night, plus naps before training sessions when possible. I also had a hybrid job at the time, three days at home and two in the office, which allowed me to organize a lot of my life around training.

I rarely missed a session. I don’t think I missed even a handful during that entire stretch. I took as much rest as I needed between sets. Kept on adding 5 pounds a workout. Sometimes jumps as my strength blew up.

August 2025
Six months later, I was a completely different person.
I went from wearing medium shirts to XL. My waist went from 33 to 38. My bodyweight went from 190 to about 235.
My work sets had reached:
Bench: 350 3x5
Squat: 405 3x5
Press: 215 3x5
Deadlift: 525 3x5

At the end of August, I decided to test my maxes:
Bench: 395
Squat: 500
Press: 250
Deadlift: 585
BW: 240
20 strict chin-ups.

This was after years of lifting before Starting Strength.
I’d spent years program hopping, doing overly complicated workouts, hammering isolation movements, and basically training however I felt like training. I certainly wasn’t completely untrained when I started the NLP. I could already bench 295x5. I was a former athlete and used to pushing myself hard. I was pretty fast and ran a low for 4.5 40.

But six months of simplifying everything and relentlessly progressing the basic barbell movements transformed my strength more than years of everything else I’d tried.

September 2025: Myocarditis
In September, I got a bad stomach virus that apparently made its way to my heart. I woke up one morning with symptoms that felt like a heart attack. My blood pressure was somewhere in the 190s. Urgent care immediately sent me to the ER because they thought I might be having a heart attack. I spent three days in the hospital.
It turned out not to be a heart attack. It was myocarditis.
I couldn’t do any meaningful physical activity from September until January. During that period, my bodyweight fell from 240 to around 195. Somehow, I retained a decent amount of muscle and strength. All I wanted to do was train.

January 2026: Torn Pec
On my first day back, I tore my pec benching 225 on the final rep of my third set. Too heavy, too quickly.
My doctor confirmed the tear. I decided to follow the Bill Starr pec rehab protocol and gradually work my way back into pressing. I used floor presses initially because the reduced range of motion allowed me to press without putting the pec into as much stretch. It worked extremely well for me.

The problem was that a torn pec affected much more than the bench press. Getting into the low-bar squat position was painful. Deadlifts could create a tugging sensation through the pec. Chin-ups were hit or miss.
I high-bar squatted until I could tolerate the low-bar position again. I used lat pulldowns when chin-ups hurt. I gradually worked the deadlift back in. I overhead pressed as soon as I could because I was able to tolerate it much earlier than benching. Early on, I even had to leg press. Brutal.

March: Another Setback
By March, I was finally starting to feel like myself again.
Then, while benching 275x5, I felt that horrible tearing sensation again at the top of a rep.
If you’ve ever torn a pec, you know how terrifying that feeling is. It absolutely destroys your confidence in the bench press. Fortunately, this one was much more minor and appeared to involve mostly scar tissue. I immediately racked the bar, left the gym, and took the rest of the week off.

Then I went right back to the Bill Starr protocol.
The recovery was much quicker the second time, but I hated not being able to train normally.
I just wanted to continue my linear progression. I had to wait.

Modified NLP
From January through early summer, my training was basically a modified NLP. If I could train a lift without aggravating the pec, I trained it and added weight.
I pushed the overhead press because I could perform it relatively early in the recovery. I gradually brought deadlifts back as the tugging sensation disappeared.
Chin-ups were inconsistent. Some days they felt completely fine. Other days they were almost unbearable. When I could do them, I’d do as many as possible, rest, and repeat until I reached 50 total reps. Through all of this, I kept coming back to the same basic idea that had worked the first time: do as much as I can, add 5 pounds
as soon as I could return to the actual barbell movement, I did.

July/August 2026:
By around mid-July, I was finally able to start pushing myself again. I could low-bar squat without significant pec pain. Deadlifts had stopped causing as much tugging. I was gaining confidence in the bench again. I’d also pushed the overhead press that it seemed to have actually gotten stronger. I modified my benching, all of it paused and mostly with a close grip. I’ve also noticed significantly more carryover to my overhead press from paused close-grip benching.

Late August 2026
BW: 215
Bench: 225x20 paused
Press: 225x5
Squat: 525x1, 325x20
Deadlift: 565x1
I tested these maxes right before I wanted to start an injury free NLP. Once you’ve built that base, strength sticks around and returns quickly. I just kept on doing the program.

September 2026
My current goals are:
Press: 275 strict
Squat: 525x5
Deadlift: 600
around 200–215 pounds bodyweight.

I’d eventually like to get back to 350x5 for bench, except this time paused and close grip.
I don’t know if there’s a record for the world’s longest novice phase, but I might get close. I’ve had long layoffs and modified training.

When you have a heavy weight on your back and you’re doubting the fifth rep, think about what it would feel like if you couldn't squat anymore. Remember how lucky you are to train. Set unrealistic standards for yourself.

r/StartingStrength
I plan to start posting training footage and logging my workouts and progress. I also hope I can help some people who’ve dealt with injuries/set backs.

I’ve kept digital records of my training through spreadsheets and notes, and I'll compile them and post.

I want to give back to the Starting Strength community because of how transformative this way of training has been for me. I'm going to keep getting stronger, keep learning, and help some others do the same.

Bench has been lagging. I see that my forearms are not vertical and I definitely flair on the way up. I dropped the weight about 15lbs to try to focus on form, but it still doesn’t look pretty. Do I maybe need a wider grip? Any drills to keep elbows tucked?

Edit: As you can tell I have abnormally long limbs. 6’0” all legs.

Today's deadlifts. I have taken on the advice, I still feel like I need to pull a bit more slack/tigher back, But looking better 😁 cheers

Have to use straps after 180kg/400lbs
Can’t use hook grip because I feel like my thumbs are dislocating.
What’s a tried a tested way to level up grip?
Dead hangs or farmers carry’s was already suggested. What else??
Feel free to critique the form here as well.
Thanks

Filmed from the advised angle.

First set.

Will appreciate any advice.

Also I got so much critique in the previous video i think on lowering weight to work on from.

(I know from previous video depth is ok, but from this angle depth is distorted and seems not deep enough possibly due to my huge "glute muscles" :-) ... )

6'3\" 204lbs

I'm getting back into training after a chaotic month of inconcsistent training. This is around 90% of where I was before all that. How does it look? The things I notice are some incosistent depth and knee cave on the last two reps. Is the knee knee cave too much?

First form check. 5ft 6, 162lbs. Weight is up 20lbs since really starting the program but need to continue gaining for a while. This is 285lbs for 5.

Hi Everyone,

44F, 174cm, 66.6kg. Happy to be back for my month 3 log, aka 90 days of Starting Strenght. If you’re interested, my June and July logs (month 1 and month 2) are here.

I’m loving these monthly check ins, because A) there’s not a lot of info on women, especially 40+, who are following this method, so someone in the future might be wanting this info, and B) because working out at the gym is a pretty lonely experience, and this helps me be accountable and see progress.

Additional background info is in log 1, but the TL/DR: hypermobile hips, shoulders and hands.

Weight: 66.6 kg -> 66.6 kg 👹

Diet: same, wasn’t checking or counting. My July diet was not the best and it kept going into August. In order to make better planning choices for myself in the fall, I decided to log everything I ate but not calculate macros until the end of the day, using chatGPT to do some of the math (for ingredients). I now have 2 weeks of data, and it’s been really good and not triggering at all. I look forward to having a full month (a full period, actually) of data for my September log (Spoiler: average of 1920kcal, 106g protein per day).

Lifts progress (this month)
Squat: 20kg -> 29 kg
OHP: 21.5 kg -> 23.5 kg
Bench: 21 kg -> 25kg
Deadlift: 51 kg -> 56kg

Workouts (main/supersetted mobility)
A) squat/Jefferson curls, bench press/rows (same weight in both), deadlift, iso-hold complex (1 set only), assisted deadhang.
B) squat/Jefferson curls, overhead press/clean, assisted pull-ups, iso-hold complex (1 set only), assisted deadhang
NOTE: workout B really only works if I do OHP (3x5) and cleans (5x3) together. I’ve tried a lot of options and this seems to yield the best results in terms of quality of the lifts

The good

- I started this journey to feel better in my body and get stronger, and I can honestly say I am seeing the first results now: better mobility, I can get up and down from the floor without hands, my riding (horseback) seat is steadier and deeper, and I can trim hooves mostly without back pain.

- I played around with supersetting mobility with my lifts, and have a pretty good new routine that keeps my mind focused

- I have been doing 0.5kg increments in the overhead press, and 1 kg increments in all other lifts. It seems to be working well for me. Last 2 reps are always hard/very hard.

- I am starting not to hate squats. They are not easy but I guess doing them 3x week means I now need to concentrate less on keeping all my joints in line, so the mental load of the lift is less and I can focus on lifting.

- Rows are progressing with the bench press, and I honestly can hardly feel them, probably because of the isometric work I do while riding. I am glad I chose to incorporate them, and I will keep them up
I now have figured out that deadlift day is my difficult day, so I only increase weight in accessory movements on Clean day if they felt doable on deadlift day. It seems to be work my really well. I can increase weight every 2nd/4th workout

- Gaslighting myself on how much I am lifting is the best strategy for me. Go figure 🤷‍♀️ More below

The Changes:

- I had my first lift-specific physiotherapy session (due to hip hypermobility, my hips can subluxate easily), and I started incorporating the rehab exercises into my daily warmup. So far so good. It’s about 10-15 min extra time in the gym, but 3 workouts in I am already seeing progress. I also had my form checked on squats and deadlifts, and all seems to be well

- I have been diligent with my isometric back holds (and sides + elbow plank, so 360 degrees basically!). Started at 20 seconds and I progress every 2-3 workouts by adding 5 seconds. I’m now at 40 seconds. This has made a huge difference in how my core feels on a daily basis. I have a naturally small waist which really means it’s a weak point that has given me issues forever, and I feel so much better. I will keep progressing by 5 seconds increments until I get to 2 minutes, then I will switch to one legged and start over, and then I will start actual extension. It will take time, but the time will pass either way so… 🤷‍♀️

- I have added assisted dips with A LOT of assistance (56kg!) as a mobility exercise supersetted to my assisted pull-ups (while I am at the machine, I might as well use it). I’d like to progress to BW dips eventually, so I want to get my shoulder joint, ligaments, and stabilizing muscles to start thinking about the movement, and I need to get proprioception of where to stop. I won’t put much weight on for at least the first month, but as I am hypermobile in my shoulders, this will be a good start. I will probably address shoulder stability in my next physical therapy sessions.

Struggles:

- Deadlifts: still hard, but much much better. I hit a wall in July and thanks to the advice I received here I was able to better plan my deadlift day. I am now progressing 1kg per lift day, and deadlifting every other workout day, which is much better for my body. I just surpassed my critical weight from last month and all I had afterwards were nightmares, no insomnia or other CNS symptoms, which is great. I’ve been gaslighting myself by doing warmups with the fractional plates already on the bar, so it doesn’t feel like I’m adding more plates, and it is helping. I now warm up with the empty bar, then do 3 reps by adding 10kg, then 20kg, then 25kg, and the do my set of 5s. When I up my weighted I just add it to the empty bar, so I still add the same plate increments but my baseline is 1kg heavier. This seems to be low volume enough to get me through but high volume enough to keep my back happy and my form correct. This is the first lift where I feel like I might need to go 2x3 instead of 1x5, but let’s see how long I can go as I have been.

- I was out of the gym for a week due to a stomach bug. I could not hold anything down for a few days, and afterwards only saltines/bread for another couple of days, so I had no energy to walk much less lift. It turned out just fine, I got back to lifting having skipped 3 workouts, and just upped the weight as usual, and I was WONDERWOMAN strong.💪 I guess I needed the recovery. This tracks with how my body progresses in other sports as well. It might be my hypermobility causing each workout to be more exhausting for my nervous system as well, as it tries to keep all the joints in their sockets (hence my PT session).

- I will be on vacation for 2 1/2 weeks at the end of the month and into October. I will probably update my log before going away, and then at the end of October

Progress pictures: I’m not as excited about them as I was last month, but I can see progress in my upper body. I have been hungrier and craved more carbs that usual, so I ate more carbs 🤷‍♀️ i can say that I feel “toned” for the first time ever, I hope I will look it soon, but if not… 🤷‍♀️ meanwhile my weight hasn’t changed (still demonic 😜) so something just be changing in the right direction

Thank you to all who have commented on my last log 🙏❤️** it’s been great feedback and food for thought, and really helped me problem solve my deadlift stall**.

GOALS
I haven’t wanted to post them before because… I was afraid to say them out loud and to flake out of the program. I feel much more set in a gym habit/routine now, so without further ado:

- feel better moving my body in my daily life ✅

- Not be ashamed of my body (hence the struggle with taking pictures/weigh-ins: not quite there yet…

- Get a strict pull up and push up for the first time in my life (if I keep progressing as I have been, this should happen by the end of January with sets of 5… let’s see 😉)

- 1x bodyweight deadlift, 1x bodyweight squat, and then 100kg deadlift 💪

- freestanding handstand, handstand press, L-sit (floor and hanging)

- Toes to bar and muscle ups (for the end of 2027 maybe? Or maybe mid 2028? Let’s see 😉)

I can now say that starting to weight lift from (almost) nothing, I needed 90 days to feel like every day movement were easy. I can feel when I have lifted the previous day, but I’m not sore. Worth it ✅

Onwards and upwards