My mother is a 43 year old overweight individual who has been sedentary the majority of her life. Her entire family growing up was unhealthy and she has never been at a healthy weight in her adult life. Although shes come a long way (dropping 80ish pounds over the years) she’s still having problems with losing weight. She also was just diagnosed with “pre arthritis” which I think was the doctors way of telling her if she doesn’t start doing something more she will get it soon.

I put her on a LP style training program starting last week (MF squat, bench/press and bent row and W deadlift and press/bench). We worked on the form and most of her stuff is pretty good, but her squat needs some work, especially because her upper body dips forward driving out of the whole because her core is so weak. She began complaining on Monday saying that her knees have begun hurting since we started after 3 squat sessions. She also admitted to doing her bench/presses with shoulder pain that she had prior to beginning the LP, but has told me it seems to be getting worse (she’s had the shoulder pain for a few years now). I really don’t know what I should do. She’s finally committed to working with me but if she’s getting hurt I need to change something up obviously. Sub exercises? Work on form? Any advice would be great.

Also, she’s a vegetarian and has been since she was 12. Besides eggs (2 at a time maximum) and whey protein she doesn’t consume any real protein sources and gives me a hard time. How would you go about approaching this? I told her she needs to eat at least 100g a day- I know that may be a tad low, but it’s a compromise. She probably ate 30g or less a day for the last 2 decades. What have you ever done for vegetarian trainees or what would you do in this situation?

I’d love to hear your feedback if you get a chance. Thanks!

Justin: “Good point, but I only want to talk to Mark.”

Mark: “My good friend Kelly Starret.”

Justin: (I wish he was my good friend. I even made him a special video.)

I laughed pretty hard, Paul.

–Justin