Hi I’ve been on a progressive overload schedule, much like SL: 5x3, low volume deadlift and hardly any accesory work (basically only pull-ups and pendlay rows)
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My current stats: 33 y/o, 93kg (205lb), 176cm (~5 9"), 140/90/180 (ca. 308/198/396 lbs) . With a waistline of 105 (over 41") centimeters, coming from 110 (over 43"). Working hard on this one. Luckily I don’t really look fat. No floppy arms or legs, ‘just’ the belly of the beast.
Schedule pretty much Push/Pull: Bench/Squat Mon/Thur, Deadlift + back Tue/Fri. Cycle to work everyday (only 10k in total, low intensity) and 1-2x per week interval training on a spinning bike.
Recovery is fine at the moment, except for one thing: the outside of both my calves are sore. Probably due to squatting. I really reallllyyyy don’t want to give up these, how do I deal with this? Deload a bunch and work up from there? Do I need to incorporate the dreaded foam rolling for half an hour?
Anecdotally - I was having this issue as well. It improved after watching Dr. Baraki’s squat technique videos, and then correcting my foot position.
In short. I moved my feet out about half a step each. I noticed after that I had been driving more pressure to one side of my mid foot than the other. While not as dramatic as exaggerated in the video, it was still happening… When they were moved out, it shifted the driving point to the true mid-foot and the extra calf tension dissipated.
Maybe. I’d try to find a squat variant that doesn’t exacerbate the problem. And make sure you’re wearing weightlifting shoes and keep your knees out, so you don’t pronate while you squat.