Closing-In Edition – Starting Strength Weekly Report November 11, 2025

JoKnight

I am a total newbie at Starting Strength, I will give you some background regarding myself:

56 years old, female, 5’6″ currently at 161 lbs body weight, however I am quite weak and ‘de-conditioned’ as I have barely ever done any exercise in the past, apart form a couple of 6 months ‘stints’ at the gym lifting (last 9 years ago) and then gave up.

I also have a history of being a ‘victim of the western medical system’, having been ‘asleep’ I had a gastric bypass operation 17 years ago, believed the doctors when they said that as long as I popped my multivitamins every day then I’ll be ok (yeah right!!!)

I started ‘waking up’ approximately 10 years ago and the Covid ‘plandemic’ helped me ‘fully wake up’ (I am the one standing in the covid jab queue who helped you push a few ‘old ladies’ off the queue that day ), so I had the gastric bypass reversed a year ago, now my body can absorb all the nutrients I give it

I eat (and have been eating this way for the past 10 years) a very heavily animal based diet, it is very rare a plant goes past my lips and this is usually raw sauerkraut or kimchi and sometimes some onion or carrot in the meal. I don’t eat any sugar at all or fruit really. I usually eat around 95-130 gr protein and calories wise it varies on the amount of fat I eat with my food but as low as 1500kcal when I eat barely any fat as I am ‘sedentary’ to 2500kcal if I have more fat (usually raw butter, raw beef suet and whatever fat the fish/meat I eat has, I eat only organic and wild fish/grass fed ruminants, no pork, rarely some pasture raised chicken), lots of eggs and since starting lifting I have incorporated a cup of raw milk most days, beef collagen, creatine, on training days I train in the morning and the only thing I have before my training is coffee with collagen/creatine/heavy cream and a teaspoon of raw honey for the little carbs to give me a boost, sometimes I add a tablespoon of MCT oil if I feel I need it) I then eat minimum 50 gr of protein after the workout.

the bypass gave me ‘severe osteoporosis’ with a T score of -4 hence why I found Starting Strength as I suffered 2 moderate thoracic spine compression fractures approximately 14 weeks ago so I knew then I am not strong ‘at all’ and need to remedy this so I now concentrate on specific supplements and have approached a starting strength coach to have online coaching.

I have been under the wing of Chris Reis at SS Cincinnati for the past 8 weeks, I found him on YouTube!!! when I saw him I ‘immediately’ knew he would be the perfect coach for me so I emailed the SS Cincinnati gym and arranged for him to be my coach. I’m so happy I did this, he’s such a good coach!

I am lucky I could do all exercises as my range of motion is good, he started me on very light weights (15 kg for squat, 25 for deadlift, 7 kg for the press and 13kg for the bench press), we added approximately 1kg per workout then I run into a problem with my left SI joint just 2 and a half weeks ago, so we upped the online coaching and he is supervising every one of my sessions (I train 3 days a week), we went down with the weights and now the SI joint is improving/getting stronger so we will slowly re-up the weights

On my squat I reached 28kg, on deadlift 45 kg, but my SI joint was so painful I then started not being able to lift the deadlift, so that’s when he started supervising each of my workout and reduce the weight back down making sure my form is correct before we go up slowly half a kilo to one kilo so now am back down to 19kg for the squat and 27kg for the deadlift (press and bench press did not ‘suffer’ and now they are up to 23kg for the bench and 17kg for the press.

Anyway so sorry this is not a short summary is it???

I often hear you say how important it is to be ‘heavy’ enough with the body weight, that most people are not heavy enough, but so far although I have not listened to all podcasts..I only ever heard examples from men

As a 56yr old female who is very new and de-contioned, what body weight ‘roughly’ should I aim to be?? 5’6″ height by the way and have you got a daily ‘protein’ recommendation at all??

I am currently at 161lbs with a high fat percentage, my ‘hume health body pod’ (if it’s any good LOL don’t know) tells me I am at 26.2% body fat and my visceral fat is normal at 9, most fat is on my arms actually, my ‘lean mass’ is 68.6%

I don’t track my food daily, I eat to satiety and perhaps every 8 weeks I ‘check in and track’ for a few days.

thank you so much for your time and opinion

Mark Rippetoe

You want to be whatever bodyweight you are at about 20% bodyfat and good strength numbers: SQ 185, PR 65, DL 245, BP 95. There is no such thing as an “ideal bodyweight” for a 5’6″ 56-year-old female.

Ariel

In the podcast, QA episode from 8 Sep (Tulsa , and Elk meat), there was a mention of using RDLs for treating pain in the upper Hamstrings with women that have long legs and a shorter upper body. While I am not a woman, I do match the other criteria (long legs, short torso and recurring pain in the upper part of my hamstrings). The pain is, according to my physiotherapist, connected to the nerve that runs down the side of the leg all the way down to the toes (I think it’s called the peroneal nerve ).

I get this pain every once in a while, usually it is connected to higher load or volume of deadlifts. when it starts it is very hard to get rid of, radiating down to the knees and even lower at times. It’s protocolary bad when I have to sit for an extended period of time, and it’s terrible when I need to drive for more than 30 minutes.

questions :

Is the pain I am describing, what was talked about in the podcast (round the 24th minute) ?

Will RDLs be a good way to go considering the doms will more than likely be very uncomfortable and hurt my gains?

If yes, are sets of 8 the way to go, the point is not to get better at RDLs just to elevate the pain. what % of 5 rm deadlift should I use?

Mark Rippetoe

This is sciatic nerve pain, or “sciatica.” Your physiotherapist needs to be replaced.

Sciatica is effectively treated with a vicious piriformis massage, something your “physiotherapist” should know how to do. See my previous advice.

Ariel

“Sciatica is effectively treated with a vicious piriformis massage” – this is how I treated it in the past, it’s effective, but painful. dry needling actually works better for me, don’t know abut others, but is also not a pleasant treatment.
Thought I’d ask if RDLs are a better option. Sorry to hear it’s back to Sodom’s bed (table)

Mark Rippetoe

Sorry, RDLs won’t help it at all.