Any suggestions for a 4 day a week workout for 58 yr old male in average shape. Main goal is strength.
At your age I would mainly try to sustain muscle mass and auto regulate your strength work. Conjugate your strength work and Bodybuilding for the rest. Dont think because you dont hit the numbers of YouTube lifters the program isn’t working. Try both speed work and rep work on dynamic days to see what you can handle/what you like best. Box Squat and use a trap bar if you can. If your goal is strength and not a PLing total these will do that and reduce strain on knees and lower back. Work those hammies and stretch those hips. Do some form of conditioning. It helps with overall fitness and recovery and will make day to day life easier. Dont hide behind a curtain of I’m a strength guy, I dont need that. You will regret it. If you run, stretch those hips again. If you’re skinny, eat. If youre fat diet. You’ll feel better both ways. Dont be one dimensional. If you need an actual layout of the 4 day conjugate split, Use google or this website.
Might I add that if you’re going conjugate to look for conjugate that is geared towards your needs. As in Westside training is conjugate for
Geared powerlifting. So if you want to be doing good morning variations 60% of max effort lower days then go for it but for raw strength there are better options. Brian alsruhe (YouTube personality and Alpha on this forum) has a great program layout for conjugate which is more strongman oriented
Also Christian thibs has a great article
On conjugate that might be perfect for you and your age on his website thibarmy in blog section. It’s more
Geared towards strength plus some volume.
Matt Wenning is another great source for raw conjugate training.
Hope this helps and I agree with everything second poster said on bodyweight. If youre fat diet if
You’re skinny eat like crazy.
Good morning,
Thank you for your reply! If I follow the 4 day a week split schedule does it matter which exercises I pick for the various body parts - biceps for example? Would you say that the main thing is the split and not particularly which exercises I choose?
Regards,
Keith
This is going to be a really stupid question but is “conjugate” another word for “split workouts”?
As a 68 year old in pretty good shape, allow me to offer a few suggestions that piggyback with the excellent comments from the previous posters:
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Don’t get injured! I know it sounds puzzling, but use everything at your disposal to minimize injuries: warm up, use spotters if available, use the safety bars, rack the weights, clear the exercise area etc., and do your exercises properly; if something hurts, STOP; don’t power through it.
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Warm up with whatever method you like, and dominate the weight you are about to lift; make sure know you can lift it before trying. In this sense, I agree with JoeMo regarding auto regulation.
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Don’t look back on what you used to lift; that ship sailed. Find your strength levels now and try to maintain them for a few sessions; after that, increase the weight in smaller doses than recommended. For example, some programs say after reaching certain levels, increase by five or ten pounds; I disagree for guys like us. A few pounds is enough, if only for your mental outlook in saying, 'I got this."
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Find a program you like and stick with it until you don’t like it anymore. MarcB84 is spot on; do some research. For example, if you’re interested in “Conjugate Method”, type it in on this site and you’ll find this among many:
Nonlinear Periodization for Size and Strength -
If you see a workout done by a college aged guy, don’t do that; try one from the bald guy who looks closer to our age!
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Move; if you like to walk, then walk; if you like to run, then run, but if you don’t like to walk, then walk!
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If you want strength, and you pick biceps as an example, do you really want strength? Maybe you want hypertrophy.
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Work on your weaknesses.
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Expand the rep ranges; for example, don’t think you have to get 5 reps for a set to be a success; think maybe 3 to 5. This way, if you only get 3, you’ve hit your target for the day, but don’t increase weight until you can dominate 5.
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Regarding diet, you already know what to eat and what’s not good. As a start, this might help; limit sweets and those foods that are white: i.e. bread, pasta, pizza, potatoes etc.
Keep reading, do what you like, ask questions, look forward to your next workout, keep everything in moderation and have fun doing it.
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Best source I found for explaining the conjugate method in a simple manner is The Periodization Bible written by Dave Tate in an article on this site. Like other posters have stated, Westside gears their style towards Geared lifting. Find lifts that YOU like and make you feel strong and build from there.
I should also suggest Joe Defrancos training for the washed up meathead which is also on this site
I gotta say good on the people who replied to this gentleman. Honest dude who doesn’t know a ton about popularized training programs, posting in the wrong forum and everyone was respectful to both the OP and other posts. Almost broke the internet.
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Standard conjugate periodization is this
Monday max effort lower
Wednesday max effort upper
Friday dynamic or repetition lower
Saturday dynamic or repition upper(basically these days you focus on speed and more volume)
The normal thing on max effort is work up to a 1rm on a lift variation, however some are programmed 3rm, 5rm and even 8rm.
Lift variation might look like this using lower body max effort as example:
Week 1 paused squat 1 second pause at bottoms
Week 2 deadlift block pull below knees
Week 3 squat from pins
Week 4 deadlift paused at shins
These areexamples and you have to target weaknesses of the lifts themselves.
Dynamic effort days you perform competition style deads and squats at 8-10x3 with waves % of 1rm. I’ve seen it be different but 50,55,60,65% is typical for raw. And you have band resistance on top of that I think it’s 20% of 1rm in band resistance at the top. However thibs article explains this and he uses repition method here for just volume training.
There are other elements of conjugate but that’s the back bone of it.
Since this is Paul carters forum lol I’d be remised to not say the super soldier protocol might fit you perfectly as well since it’s ficused on guys who’re not competing and just want to get/stay strong and add muscle in the process.
I hope this helps some.
Thank you very much! I appreciate all that information and the tone that you spent writing it!
Thank you for all of that information! It’s very helpful. I have been working out in one degree or another for most of my life but I just want to get the most out of it now.
No problem I would link you to articles but they’d be deleted lol however what I pointed to in previous posts are pretty easy to find
Thanks again. I think I’m gonna go with 4 day split routine.