Syndesmosis

Hey Dan, thanks for the AMA. If you come back, I hope you'll consider my question. Thanks!

I don't have a major in biology (I'm close from taking courses out of interest), and I don't have any research experience. However, I'd like to shoot for a Master's in something like microbiology. Do you have any suggestions for nontraditional aspiring scientists who want to break into the game or further their science education?

Since no one else has answered you yet, I'll offer some advice. You shouldn't work out every day. If you're training and not just exercising, then your frequency will depend on how hard you train. If you're doing an upper/lower split, you may train upper 3 times and lower 2 times on a lighter/moderate week, whereas you may only do each twice on a moderate/heavy. When you go for max effort, you'll probably do each once. A lot of it depends on your training goals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoZWgTrZLd8

Check this video from Candito on how to squat.

Some cues: elbows tucked down, shoulder blades pinched tight and down, chest up. You may be leaning forward too much, so focus on keeping the weight over mid foot. When you're in the hole, focus on opening up your hips and putting the weight on the outside of your foot.

Pause squats and front squats will help, too.

Oh, and another question: what's your warm up look like? I experiment with my warm up sets a lot and I've found that 3-4, sometimes 5 for super heavy days, work best for me. It's different for everyone, but maybe adding in another set could help, even if it's just a rep or two.

Given his age and where he's at in the game right now, it's not very likely that he would compete in Olympic weight lifting. Most of the guys there are relatively young and have been training for many years to be where they are now. Especially with his shoulders being the way they are now, that would probably preclude any likelihood of posting Olympic-level weights, even if he could otherwise train full time.