Common Muscular Weaknesses

The only time I get shoulder & elbow pain squatting is when I'm going too heavy on volume and my form is breaking down. Otherwise I don't notice it.

Deep intentional diaphragmatic breathing is developed through a sub-practice of yoga known as pranayama. We know now through experiment that this practice can calm the mind, destress the practitioner, and oxygenate the blood.Pranayama is said to elongate and clarify the breath.

Symptoms of underdeveloped breath include a scattered mind, trembling of the extremities, and shallow or ragged breathing. See as a primer clavicle breathing [0] vs diaphragmatic breathing [1].

You may find that deep breathing requires a specific orientation of the body. Yoga postures are in part designed to facilitate deep breathing. You may observe that your body automatically adjusts when attempting deep breaths. These adjustments _tend_ to be the same movements that encourage good posture and correct imbalances.

With much practice it becomes clear that the body is deeply and mysteriously connected to itself and to the breath in non-obvious ways. So flexing your foot or rotating your ankle may have a direct effect on the breath. Releasing the soft palette or raising the eyebrows may align the lower back. It's along these lines of connectivity that prana flows. Yoga is the process of removing the internal blockages that allow this perception, and this internal chain-reaction-like connectivity.

Turns out that deep breathing more or less requires good posture. You can fix your posture via deep breathing, and you can fix your breathing through correct posture. If you have a handle on one, you have a handle on the other.

When the breath does not flow easily, you will learn to identify the error of posture causing the blockage, and will through asana practice have the awareness and strength to correct it yourself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shallow_breathing [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaphragmatic_breathing

You sound like you want an argument. I'm not interested. I am proud to say I am a relative newcomer to proper strength training. I can say that your arguments do not agree with anything I've come across yet, but hey, if it works for you, go for it.

Crunches are overemphasized and should take a back seat to exercises which train your real core muscles. Most people don't need them. They need a stronger posterior chain, obliques(and all the little core muscles), back extensions and training on proper breathing.

As a Starting Strength Coach (there are around 130 of us), I I can confirm that a few of the comments accurately sum up the objections (rather misunderstandings) of the program that H1Supreme highlighted.

The powerclean is an important part of the novice program to build explosive power - the ability to display strength, quickly. It can be substituted by another lift, or a light deadlift day, if the trainee's injury status or age make it an unwise cost/benefit equation. But this is considered a trade-off and isn't ideal.

Yes, the powerclean is technical. So is the squat. And the press. And the bench, to a much lesser degree. Which segues into the issue mentioned in the second point. Elbow pain in the squat. As accurately described by "yepguy," this is indeed a technical error. Here's how to fix it: https://startingstrength.com/training/preventing-elbow-pain-...

A few other thoughts: pwthornton, kettle-bell cleans and snatches are not a substitute for barbell cleans and snatches. What we're chasing is adequate training stress to facilitate an adaptation. One of the primary drivers of that stress is load - weight on the bar. Kettle-bells are too light (comparatively) to create meaningful enough stress to facilitate the stress, recovery, adaptation cycle in the context of training (goal oriented exercise). More reading on the topic: https://startingstrength.com/article/training_vs_exercise

anarchodev, Rippetoe and Starting Strength are more interested in getting regular, everyday people strong than high school football players. Yes, it's a great way for getting young men big and strong (I gained 65lbs), but it's also a way to improve quality of life for octogenarians, for example. The low-bar squat is in the program versus the high bar squat because it uses more muscle mass, which means more weight on the bar can be used. Weight on the bar is the primary consideration in strength training - more of it is what's needed to get stronger. Here is a piece that analyzes the squat in detail: https://startingstrength.com/article/analysis_of_the_squat

ubercore and DataWorker, for the purposes of strength training - low bar works better. It can be applied to any body type. Shorter torso = more horizontal back angle at the bottom of the squat, and vice versa. Goal is to load the hips, which are a more robust joint than the knees and are surrounded by more muscle mass. Low-bar is not one-size-fits-all, its a model for the squat that can be applied to nearly anyone, with rare exception.

michaelgrafl the nature of goblet squats and front squats require a sub-maximal load when compared to the low bar back squat. They may be suitable for an exercise program, but they are not suitable for an efficient strength training program, and most certainly not for a novice. See comment above about training stress.

I have a ton of respect for this community and would love to interact with you guys. Let me know if I can be helpful in any way.

Best, Ray Gillenwater