Reset

I had to reset my notion of "starting off easy". I was getting some soreness in my right shoulder. Not a sharp pain but a dull soreness. Throw in the weather turning colder with my not having any sweats for outdoor workouts and you have a great time to take a few weeks off.

I got some sweats and my shoulder feels fine so back to square one:

• Squats: 6x20
• Bench press: 8x0
• Barbell curls: 8x0

More like square -1. I'm going to keep it here for at least two weeks and maybe as long as four. Once I'm sure all is well I will go back to stepping it up. Very slowly, though. Like no increases until after a couple of weeks each time.

I did notice something interesting this time, though. I wasn't happy with the way I was doing squats and offloading weight from the bar allowed me to work on my form a bit. Long story short: I need to not drop down so much. I was trying to go all the way down, like I used to. Turns out I'm not like I used to be. So I end up going down around parallel or maybe a bit below. It's what's comfortable for me now. Perhaps I'll go lower when I am naturally ready for it. Perhaps not. I'll do a better job of listening to my body and not trying to force things.

P.S. Do people still say you shouldn't squat below parallel? There is nothing wrong with going all the way down, as long as you keep the tension on your legs and don't rest at the bottom. That puts the tension on your connective tissue which can lead to injury.