skinny, middle-aged, & computer-slouched

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I am starting this log at the beginning of Week 5 on Stronglifts 5x5. It is partly as a notebook for myself and partly to share with others. Since I’ve started lifting again, I have been looking online for information about form, nutrition, difficulty, and experiences of other people at my age and with my body type. Maybe this journal will be useful for someone else looking for the same.

When I started lifting weights 3 months ago, I weighed 58.5kg (129lb), which is extremely thin for my height of 180cm. I am 38 years old and I have been between 57 and 60kg for the past 20 years. I have a very big appetite, I eat everything - meats, fish, cake, salad, curry, eggs, ice cream, whatever - but my weight stays completely stable. People used to tell me as a teenager that I would get fat in my 30s, but it never happened.

I began lifting because I have a stressful thing happening in my life and the stress was causing a big shock to my body. I felt weak and brittle. Because of age and a sedentary work environment, I began to be able to feel my skeleton moving. I used to lift weights in high school while playing various sports, but weight lifting is semi-ridiculed in my current social circles, so I’ve never really thought of taking it up again. Moreover, I’m a feminist and the chauvinism of the locker room has never appealed to me.

But I wanted to feel stronger in my body again and lifting weights is a good way to do that. I spent 10 weeks doing smaller exercises to:

* feel comfortable in the gym again
* strengthen my core a bit (especially my back) and stabilizing muscles
* rebuild some strength in my tendons/ between my moving bones
* start to gain a little weight

By the end of that, I weighed 65kg - close to my maximum-ever weight. I felt much better and had gotten stronger. Then I came across Stronglifts (again).

(I saw Stronglifts earlier but was intimidated by the compound movements. I didn’t feel ready for dealing with the squat rack, adding weights each workout, etc. But after 10 weeks of things like dumbbell bench press, 3 point rows, raised deadlifts, dumbbell romanian deadlifts, chin-ups, planks, and so on, I was much more ready when it came up in another Google Search.)

So 4 weeks ago I started Stronglifts. It is meant to be very easy for a few weeks and then increasingly become difficult. So I am starting this log at the beginning of when I reckon things might start to get difficult for me. Since I am so light, I will approach my bodyweight early. Since my limbs are long and wrists are skinny, I am sure I will struggle soon (err.. I am already struggling!). Since I am oldish and paranoid, and don't want to ruin the good thing I've got going, I will be extremely cautious about possible injuries.

Hopefully that explains where I’m coming from and you can determine whether my experiences will be relevant to you at all. For myself, I am curious how long I will keep this up - both the lifting and this journal - and where it might go. Somehow, I am already more dedicated and patient than I was 20-25 years ago. But you gotta have goals and mine are to get my weight up to 75kg, drop my body fat from 15% to about 10%, and get my lifts up to respectable proportions of my body weight.

And finally, where am I now, after week 4:

180cm / 66kg
Squat: 57.5kg
Bench Press: 42.5kg
Row: 40kg
Overhead Press: 32.5kg (stalled here: 5/5/5/5/3)
Deadlift: 65kg

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Monday
Squat: 60kg
Bench: 45kg
Row: 42.5kg

Wednesday
Squat: 62.5kg
Press: 32.5kg
Deadlift: 70kg

I overcame my stall on the overhead press, which surprised me. The third set was really shaky, but on the 4th and 5th sets I flexed my stomach and ass as hard as I could, really focusing on that core, and the lift became easier. Will give it a go, but I don't see how my shaky arms can do 35kg.

My hip joints felt weird in a bad way at the bottom of my squat today, almost as though all the weight was being carried by those joints. I'm not sure if I need to adjust my stance or just do more stretching or what.

And today was the first time the deadlift felt kind of heavy to me, but 5 was still no problem.

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Friday
Squat: 55kg
Bench: 47.5kg
Row: 45kg

Monday
Squat: 57.5kg
Press: 35kg (5/5/2/3/3)
Deadlift: 75kg
Chin-ups: 3x5 (+3.75kg)

The very first squat rep at 65kg on Friday felt horrible and my hip groin hated me. I immediately backed off and dropped the weight to 55kg and was able to finish but it really didn't feel good. I probably shouldn't have done it.

After resting for the weekend and looking up groin pain, squats, and hip flexors, I made a couple of changes on Monday. First I stretched a lot and also tried to roll on my adductors. I did extra warm up sets. And I narrowed my stance to just inside shoulder width, keeping my feet parallel and only going down to parallel, and changed to high bar. (Previously I had a wider stance with toes out, was well below parallel, and had low bar). This helped a little but I was still feeling my hip flexor starting to tell me it wasn't happy.

Then I started squatting slower. Perhaps this improved my form? I could keep the tension lower down, in my quads, instead of yanking on my hip flexor. Anyways, the slower I squatted the better I felt, and by the end everything felt pretty good. I didn't have difficulty bringing my foot forward while walking, etc. that had come on Friday. I feel like I won't be able to generate as much power going slowly, but if it's keeping my form steady and and my hips safe, I'll take it.

Shoulder press was very difficult today. My excuses are: kids, so I don't get as much sleep as I need to, burning the candle at both ends; and I also lost a bit of weight over the weekend.

Deadlift today was the first time that I felt like I was just saying, "Here goes nothing" and trying to stand. I see how it requires a lot of trust on your own body and frankly I'm shocked that my back isn't giving out! A couple months ago I was throwing out my back leaning over to pull my two year old out of his car seat. Today's weight was three of my daughter, which she will be happy to hear. (She thinks I am strong because I can deadlift her off the floor, lol, if she only knew what actual strong people do).

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Wednesday
Squat: 60kg
Bench: 50kg
Row: 47.5kg

Squat felt OK. Mostly was able to keep the hip flexor from going full ****, but it was never 100% comfortable. The straight feet was causing a bit of strain on my knees so i angled the feet out again which relieved them (still relatively narrow stance). Once again, it felt fine if I kept the movement slow and steady versus trying to spring or explode upwards. Maybe my knees collapse when I go too fast and I keep them out better when I'm slow?

I've always sucked at the bench press but it continues just fine. It feels kind of heavy and my arms shake but I always try and go further on my last set of 5 if I can and today it was 8. The RM numbers say I might start to fail 5x5 at 55kg, but I'd like to get to 60 before stalling.

The row is something I never ever did when I was younger and I have no clue what to think about it. Today was fine, but I kind of felt as though I might be pulling it up more with my arms than my back? And so maybe my form is starting to break down. It might be worth a voluntary drop in weight to get my back more in the movement?

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Saturday
Squat: 62.5kg
Press: 35kg (5/3/5/3/3)
Deadlift: 80kg
Chin-ups: 5/5/4 (+5kg)

I drank a bit last night and felt kind of bad going in. But squats felt much better than the last time I was at 62.5kg, so I think the de-load did me some good. Overhead press was not good again. Warmed up with 3x70kg on the deadlift and then did 5 or 6 at 80kg (I lost my count and did one extra just in case). It felt really heavy on the first one where I was pulling more than pushing my hips... one I shifted the emphasis to my hips (after the first rep) it felt more manageable.

Weight was up to 67.1... trying to bulk extra diligently over the next few days to see if I can push myself up to 10kg gain in 4 months (for a 17% gain in body weight with not much visible fat gain)

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Monday
Squat: 65kg
Bench: 52.5kg
Row: 50kg
followed by 35 pushups, plank, side plank, and some roll outs

Starting week 7, and the workout was pretty easy. My family is away and I am able to eat a lot, sleep in a bit, and take my time with stretching and warmups.

I didn't feel the strain on my hip flexors from the squatting at all today, but my lower back/ upper butt would ache deep inside one one side every time I racked the bar. Maybe it is a weakness in my core/ abs? I'm beginning to think that I might have strained my hip flexors wearing tight jeans and riding a bike! I know it sounds stupid, but I have outgrown all my pants, but you still need something to wear so you just squeeze in. That's what I did and my hips felt really tired and uncomfortable after I rode my bike around. The injury came on a day later. (I've since bought 5 new pairs of pants, 2 sizes up!)

Bench press was a little more of a struggle, which is good because it means I am just coming up to the limits of my body for 5x5.

Row was easy when I held my core tight and pulled when I felt a wave of strength. But if I didn't time it quite right it was a bit harder and I started feeling an ache in the front of my shoulder. I like being at 50kg because the 15kg plates bring the bar up a bit higher which feels more comfortable.

I am half a pound away from 20lbs of gains in 4 months, weighing in at 67.4kg. There's been visibly no net change in my gut (so most of the fat I'm consuming is probably going there) whereas my legs, posterior chain, chest, and shoulders have not taken on much fat.

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Thursday
Squat: 67.5kg
Press: 35kg
Deadlift: 85kg
Chin-ups: 5 BW pull ups then 5/4 (+5kg)

Squat felt great! Because my lower back had been feeling wonky after racking the bar last time, today I focused on getting my butt back and out rather than having it point down like I'm a dog taking a dump. No back problems, no hip flexor problems. The weight just felt fine, whereas a couple weeks ago it felt really heavy. I think the better my form gets, the lighter the weight feels. Still narrow stance, toes out, going slow, and only to a bit below parallel.

After 2 failures where I wasn't even close, I can't believe I did 5x5 of the OHP. In fact, on the very first set I was thinking to myself that "when I fail today it will be a mental failure because I'm just thinking failure.." but suddenly I'd done 4 sets and then I got my mind into the game because I didn't want to come up short! The main change I made was to my pacing, I was doing the set much quicker than I had been, which meant I still had a bit of energy on the 5th rep which was a struggle every set, but always went up today. Next time: 37.5kg and I can tell right now that theres on bloody way that's happening!

Deadlift was really tough for me, but I did it. It's the first time where after the set was over I just felt wiped out. I can't believe I still have 20kg to add before I even get to novice level! I'm warming up at 70kg and then jumping to the full weight.. not really sure if I should be warming up differently, but it seems to be working alright.

Finally, I reached my intermediate goal of gaining 10kg in 4 months. I weighed in at 68.5kg. My ultimate goal for later this year is just 75kg because I don't want to change my body that much, after which point I'll probably try and get rid of a little fat and just kind of work on getting that 75kg frame to be a good mixture of strength, flexible, and aerobic .

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Week 7: Day 3
Squat: 70kg
Bench: 55kg
Row: 52.5kg
followed by pushups, plank, dips

Heading into week 8, I feel like everything is pretty hard now, there are no easy sets any more (except maybe with squats, which have benefitted from dropping down to get my form right). Not much to say except I really need to rest well for the next 4 weeks because I will spend most of my time at my max for everything.

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Week 8: Day 1
Squat: 72.5kg
Press: 37.5kg (3/3/3/3/2)
Deadlift: 80kg

It was a pretty pathetic day, really but I feel fine about it. Squats went well. Someone said I'm not standing quite straight at the top and so possibly not giving my back a rest between reps, so I'll look out for that. I don't see a problem with squats up until about 80kg.

I didn't expect much out of the OHP and I didn't accomplish much. BUT I did see the path forward. If I can get 3 reps up now then next time I am going for 4 reps, and then it's one more step to 5. Somehow failing so badly wasn't as demoralizing as I thought it would be

My lower back (or upper hips in my back) was tight and achy. I thought I would work up to my 90kg, but in the end I did 1x5 of 60, 70, and 80kg for a warmup and then when I pulled on 90kg it just didn't move, or my body just said no. Maybe I overdid the warming up or maybe I psyched myself out of it. But I'm kind of glad because right now my back feels good and I did lift some weight. I would be dropping down soon anyways to get my form tighter, so maybe that's what I have done but earlier than expected. I'd rather be lifting on Wednesday than hurt.

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Week 8: Day 2
Squat: 75kg
Bench: 57.5kg (5/3/3/4/3)
DB Row: 27.5kg

My lower back/ upper hips felt more injured than sore - I couldn't move quickly, jump, anything really - so I took 2 days rest. That lumbar region felt bad every time I took the weight off, but I did all 5 sets.

I felt weak on bench from the moment I started. During warmup sets, 40kg today felt like 50kg a couple days ago. I failed at 57.5kg (and through the first couple sets my lumbar region was aching).

I feel as though it is the barbell row and deadlift that have been most damaging to my lower back (although I'm not sure why.. I've had people watching my form and they seem to think it is OK) so today I traded in barbell rows for dumbbell rows. With the extra support I could keep my back out of the lift. I know Mehdi disapproves, but I actually felt myself using more muscles in order to keep my stance stable and strong and was able to focus more on pulling with my back.

The best part is that by the time I rode my bike home, my back felt pretty good (and has continued for some hours.. let's see in the morning!). I am seeing a few things that I don't like about SL for someone like me:
* increasing the weight every time is OK for a while, but before I reach weight levels where I fail 5x5, the strain is causing me injury on some lifts. I think the weight is progressing too quickly now for my support muscles. I feel like I would rather do something like 5x5 one day and then the next day go for 5x7 and then maybe 5x9 and then increase weight. So I would increase only once every 3 or 4 times.
* it is kind of inflexible (which is great for simplicity, etc but I don't think it is realistic) and that can get annoying ("I used to do something that a lot of people do, then I started squatting heavy and that's all you have to do"). Mehdi thinks his dad should be squatting and deadlifting heavy. OK, I'm sure there is something true in there, but I really doubt his elderly father should follow the same 5x5 program that a 20 year old does. Saying that he should just seems intuitively wrong.

Anyways, it's been really good up until now, and I will probably keep most of it in tact, but I don't see how I can continue following it to the word without putting myself out of action.

UPDATE
The morning after my lower back was absent from any pain (unlike previous workouts where I would be OK during the night but wake up with a bad back). I found myself sleeping on my stomach (which is unusual) so maybe I did a good long stretch or something. At any rate, this gives my idea positive reinforcement, so I will probably continue to replace bent over lifts with something less stressful on the back; but I will continue to squat as long as I don't f anything up because I feel like I am getting a lot of benefit from squatting

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Week 8: Day 3
Squat: 75kg
OHP: wtf did I do? barx5, 30kgx5, 17.5kg dumbbell press x 8, 37.5kgx3, 35kgx3, 35kgx5, 35kgx3, barx13
Deadlift: 80kg
Pull-up: 3x5

My weight was up to my max, about 68.6kg, and I had 3 days of rest, but this workout capped off a pretty weak week.

I didn't increase my squats at all but just kept the same and tried to work on controlling my pelvis while keeping my chest up. It was a little harder than the previous time at 75kg but I only felt the lumbar pressure/ache after one or two of the sets, which was a huge improvement. I will keep at 75kg until I feel like I am doing it with excellent form with no pain in my lower back because at that point I can be reasonably confident my core is strong enough to move on to 77.5kg. Fighting my ego (and the whole linear progression plan) here but I can see that it is personally a road to ruin to move on before I am ready at these weights that are heavy for my body.

OHP was a mess today, I have no idea what I was thinking, but I just dove in and started doing all different weights and also mixing in dumbbell instead of barbell. I just kept focusing on good form and lifting until I felt tired from the volume.

After vowing to substitute something for the deadlift, I decided that I actually want to deadlift, but I just need to work with/ around my lower back. So today I tried sumo deadlift (or at least, just a much wider stance) and it definitely did move the lift from my back to my legs, while shortening the pull. There was no fallout in my back afterwards and my legs instantly felt kind of blasted afterwards (in a good way). So I think I will just continue on with sumo and hopefully my posterior chain won't feel too neglected. When I look up into the mirror, I notice my shoulders rounding and I am finding it difficult to pull them back straight AND lean over.. something to look out for, I guess.

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Week 9: Day 1
Squat: 75kg
Bench: 57.5kg
DB Row: 27.5kg (5x6)

A pretty good day:

Squat felt fine on my lower back (yet somehow a little bit more effort required of my legs - maybe this means I am doing it properly and not straining my lower back under the weight). After 3 days of 75kg, I'll move up to 77.5kg next time.

Bench was heavy - I failed at 57.5 last time - but I did it and felt pretty good about myself. Happy to move up to 60kg, which has been a minor mental goal for me (2x20kg plates). When I got up after my last set I looked in the mirror and my face was beet red, so I am clearly breathing badly or straining a lot to do it.

I added a rep to each set for the DB row because the next increment is 30kg. I will try that when I am doing 5x8 at 27.5.

With all the water I was drinking, I saw 70kg on the scale for the first time in my life at the end of the workout.

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Week 9: Day 1
Squat: 77.5kg
OHP: 37.5kg (3/4/4/3/2)
Deadlift: 80kg
Pullups: 3x5

I f'd up my back on a warmup set of deadlifts (I must have started rounding or something, but I could feel something in my left lower back pop, like a guitar string breaking). So that sucks, and it hurts as I am sitting now. And it also means I didn't do the working set, just left it at the 80kg warmup.

OHP was a weak mess... I'm reloading to 32.5kg next time, which is welcome.

Squats felt good. I had to slow myself down a bit or my hips were hurting, so I was back to very slow, inches at a time, but it kept my form good and my back didn't really give me any trouble (until deadlifts... I was quite tired by the end of the workout).

Hoping a couple days of rest clears things up; but will need to take deadlifts slower, I just must not be getting the form of it right to have so many problems at such a low weight.

Day after update:
My back got progressively worse until I could barely walk by night. Occasional spasms. Didn't get any worse overnight (a relief) but by noon it was hurting a lot again. Now, the following night, it still hurts when I move into the wrong position or lift anything, but is better than 24 hours ago. So larger trend is positive: I think I'll heal well enough to lift some weights in a couple days, but I feel as though I should take a few months away from deadlifts and work on building up my core strength and maybe flexibility (not sure how to go about this). Obviously I have weakness in my back and deadlifting would be great to strengthen, but it also seems like I have preliminary work to do and maybe I've been rushing things.

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I went to the gym twice after my back went out and lifted cautiously at 75% and it was fine.

But then I went on vacation with my family and then afterwards on to India for a week, where I ate something bad and lost 3kg!

Now, my back feels great with all the rest; I can finally almost eat a normal meal again; and will head back to the gym on Wednesday.

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Last of food poisoning gone from my body, recovered from jet lag, and spent enough time with family to get back into routine...

the 5x5 app told me to de-load by 30%. Even though I hadn't entered in 2 workouts from before leaving, I went along with it and I'm glad I did because it was hard and I am sore in the muscles today. I lost a lot of strength! But glad to be back in and feeling good to build it back up.

Week 1, Day 1
SQ: 52.5kg
BP: 40kg
Row: 17.5kg
20 pushups

It actually isn't that hard, I did 5 sets of 8 reps for just about everything, but it did make me pretty sore. I'm still nervous about what happened to my back before and I am trying to avoid too much stress through rows or deadlifts. So I am sticking with one arm rows and will look for other effective ways of doing rows that aren't bent over. As for deadlifts? I don't know and I am going to gym today. I don't know if I should return to deadlifts but keep it really light, or do other things like romanian deadlifts, or rack pulls, or something where I'm not doing the full range of motion.

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Week 1, Day 2
SQ: 55kg
OP: 25kg
RDL: 55kg

Squat and overhead press easy enough - did 5 sets of 7. Curious if I will hit the same walls I was up against before the break, food poisoning, deload, etc.

I watched some videos online and focused on Elliot H's 'corrective deadlift' and Allan whatever's advice to stick with romanian deadlift before going into deadlift. So for now I am setting bar up on rack and trying to really keep form tight on romanian deadlift and gradually work on hamstring flexibility. At least it's doing something helpful to my back instead of ignoring it. I'll probably work in some rack pulls here, but I just want to make sure to avoid doing what I did to my back before.

Week 2, Day 1
SQ: 57.5kg
BP: 42.5kg
ROW: 51kg seated cable row, 36kg seated row machine, 20kg one arm row (5 sets of 2 of the 3)

I took some video of my squat for first time and was surprised to see that my lower back seems hyperextended. I'm not sure what to do as correction, or if it needs correcting? My chest is up and knees are out (a little forward) and everything feels good.

Since I'm avoiding barbell row for back reasons, I threw together a kind of random substitute, which actually felt good. I like 1-arm row because it forces my abs to stay tight, the cable row was the most effective on targeting my back, the row machine was closest to what the barbell felt like. It is a pretty random routine though and I probably need to figure out something more consistent that will approximate the barbell row that I am leaving aside.

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Week 2, Day 2
SQ: 60kg
OHP: 27.5 (5 sets of 7)
RDL: 55kg
Pullups: 5, Chinups: 6

Looks like Stronglifts app was updated to have a 1kg per step instead of 2.5kg. Although I agree that 2.5kg was too much of a jump for me, it is the smallest step possible at my gym. I guess I could just do something like 5x5, 5x6, 5x7 and then step up 2.5kg, but I'll go up to 30 before I start that.

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Week 2, Day 3
SQ: 62.5kg
BP: 45kg
ROW: 51kg seated cable row, 41kg seated row machine, 20kg one arm row (10/5/5 superset no rest, 3 sets)

Week 3, Day 1
got stomach flu or some weird virus that floored me for 30 hours, probably from snacking during my kids birthday party. Lost a kilo

Week 3, Day 2
SQ: 65kg
OHP: 30kg
RDL: 60kg
Pullups: 5, Chinups: 2x5

Still kind of nauseous, or just feel gross in my stomach, but trying to force myself back into a normal diet.

Workout was fine though - weak knees on squat warmups, but they felt better once there was heavier weight on them.

Next OHP I will do 5x6 and then 5x7 and then increase to 32.5kg (to mimic 31kg, 32kg, 33kg steps that I don't have plates for).

I had one bad Romanian deadlift today, but no after effects ... once I get to 70kg I might pause and work on getting the bar down to the floor so I can get back into a proper deadlift again. But I'd rather do RDLs than nothing, so if I'm gonna just injure myself I'll stick with rack pulls and RDLs.

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Week 3, Day 3
SQ: 67.5kg
BP: 47.5kg
ROW: 45kg

Week 4, Day 1
SQ: 70kg
OHP: 31kg (actually 6x5 @ 30kg to simulate 5x5 @ 31kg)
RDL: 65kg
Bodyweight: 66.1kg

Week 4, Day 2
SQ: 72.5kg
BP: 50kg
ROW: 47.5kg (A:Seated row machine 45x5, B: Cable row on ball 60x12, C: 1-arm row 22.5x5) AB,AC,AB,AC,AB (60s rest)

My squats have been feeling so strong - no weird back feelings at all - except for one bad rep in my last set today, where I must have let my stomach loosen up a bit and tweaked my back. Damn! Luckily it feels only like a slightly pulled muscle and is pretty easy to rest it in everyday movements by using my abs more. Before my de-load, I was feeling a lot of pressure in my lower back when the weight came off beginning at about 60kg.

I think the biggest change this time around has been focusing more on the shrug and having my upper back supporting the weight more which seems to be relieving my lower back. And this has been primarily by trying to avoid using the pad. I don't have much fat/ muscle to scrunch up and pad the barbell, so I can only stand up to 60kg without padding, but if I do it in warmup sets I carry it through into the working sets.

Having trouble getting the weight back that I lost during the 2 bouts of stomach illness, but luckily rest seemed to heal wounds and strength I had is coming back quite well.

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Week 4, Day 3
SQ: 75kg
OHP: 32kg - failed 5/5/5/5/4 (actually 7/7/7/7/6 @ 30kg to simulate 5x5 @ 32kg... I don't count the first 2 reps)
RDL: 70kg
Bodyweight: 66.4kg

Squat felt good again, but it's feeling heavy. I have to really concentrate and my heart really works.
OHP was OK, but a little weak.. I couldn't get the 7th rep of last set.
RDL was not heavy, but I find it hard to keep form and feel my posture in the right place. It feels kind of numb and sloppy.

In all exercises, even though the weight isn't particularly heavy, I am at a transitional point where my form begins to break down. In younger days I would just muscle through it, but these days I would injure myself by ignoring form and just charging through. So I'm not sure whether to be cautious, not to automatically push the weight up but only do it when I am confident that I accomplished the 5x5 with strength and form. I mean, maybe it's a stupid question with an obvious answer: yes, what's the hurry? If it's breaking down my form this week then next week's weights will be too heavy on top of poor form!

So maybe the key now is to recognize this transitional point where missteps can set me back several weeks and to proceed more slowly and cautiously. I'd like to get the squat up to 80kg before pausing; BP and OHP can continue naturally since I'm not injuring myself; but the DL part just needs to slow down.. maybe higher reps with the low weights, slower motions, etc; rows have been feeling really good on my back since I switched away from pendlay.

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Although I haven't posted in a long time, I've been going to the gym regularly since my last post.
I'm still adjusting SL to accommodate my earlier back injury (so I'm not increasing weights on back lifts) but it's feeling great.

BW: 67.5kg

SQ: 90kg (I only increase weight once per week now)
BP: 60kg
OHP: 36kg
DL: 65kg
ROW: 40kg

I have some shoulder pain (right at bone in back at top you can feel with fingertips) which I feel primarily at the bottom of chin-ups or when I am pulling and I lazily let the weight hang from my shoulders (rather than using my upper back). When my lower back was playing up, I never thought I would get my squat up to 90kg with 100kg in my sights, but using proper form and building up strength in supporting muscles really paid off, so I'm hoping that I'll solve my shoulder pain in a similar way.

One thing I have appreciated about lifting weights that are heavy for my body is that it gives me very clear signals when some part of my motion and form is out of balance. When I did yoga, I found it difficult to know if I was doing it right (without an instructor to guide me). But with lifting at my limits,especially with a body that doesn't leave much room for error, I think I'm making more progress than I did with yoga in terms of body knowledge and control.