46 YO New Liifter, Recovery, Etc.

I’ve been doing Beginning Strength 5x5 for about 18 months. I’ve never lifted before in my life. Last year I finally had my T levels checked and I came back low normal T - 4 pts above the lowest in the range 254 250/1100. Since then I’ve gotten on HRT. I feel awesome and I’m progressing again adding plates etc.

My current workout is M-W-F. I’m wondering, how many of you are having issues with recovery if you workout daily? I tried it before T replacement last year and I stalled and needed to de-load frequently. I’m wondering if now that my T levels are normalized I can handle working out daily. I suspect I’ve been low normal my whole life so I have some catching up to do.

How many of you that are over 40 lift daily? How is your recovery?

3%,

Hello and welcome. I am about your age and I lift anywhere from 3-5 days per week, I find it’s not the frequency that impacts my recovery, but the volume/intensity issues.
Like a lot of people I will get a bug in my ass about “not doing enough” and then adding days/sets/exercises in an attempt to feel more productive, but I tend to get my best results when I get more rest and control my volume. When I do too much I invariably hurt myself and end up sidelined for a bit.
Honestly if you are making gains on 3 days a week I would stay on that schedule until progress stalls, getting results with less work/time commitment is an awesome thing.

I guess the thing is that I feel like I need to catch up. I’m going to wait till I have a full 6 weeks on HRT and see how I feel to crank up volume. Its strange to realize that all this time it was my lack of Total T that was the issue, my Free T has always been decent. I should easily be 50% larger than I am given the weight Ive moved over the last 18 months…sigh

[quote]threepercenter wrote:
I guess the thing is that I feel like I need to catch up. [/quote]

Stop feeling like that :slight_smile:

I haven’t been injured since I quit worrying about catching up…get your plan written down and stick with it…baby steps…

I’m 42 and work out 4 days a week…5/3/1 with a de-load week DEFINITELY needed every 4th week mainly to stay sane.

Set some goals…make them doable and then do them…GETTING HYOOGE is not a goal nor is WORKOUT EVERY DAY YO ! :slight_smile:

For me it’s all about recovery. I know my body well enough now to know when I’m pushing the limit. 3 to 4x per week and like Brian said, it depends on volume and intensity. I’ve had to go to the extreme of way too much volume/intensity and then back off from there until I find the sweet spot on recovery/strength gains. I’m 53 and never had my T tested and no interest in doing so. I’m sure its much lower than it use to be, but I’m slowly making gains and hitting PR’s so I guess it’s OK.
Prilepins Table is a good guide for volume/intensity. The data is based on Oly lifters but can be tweaked for your basic compound lifts.

What’s your workout right now? Did the doc say you have to wait 6 weeks before expecting anything to happen?

Thanks for all the replies. I’m a neophyte, never lifted before and have never had the body comp that I would consider primal. I’ve always been skinny-fat. I work out in my garage, I have a cage, oly bar and benches. I do sit-ups before every workout as a way to warm up, a few stretches then I launch into back squats, overhead presses or bench presses and dead lifts or barbell rows. I then do pull-ups or dips when done. I basically do no cardio work whatsoever. I was running eod when I started stalling last time. Everything is 5x5 with warmups.

I’m in decent shape, calipers say my body fat is in the 9% range now, but I believe I’m more like 12-15%. This is down from being in the mid 20s a year ago. I eat very cleanly, only source of carbs are ethanol based on the weekends and veggies and healthy starches during the week. I easily eat 1g/lb body weight in protein.

Doc said it would be a month until I started really feeling stronger. That’s in a week or so.

3x week is fine if the days are based on heavy compound lifts, which Starting Strength is. Just add in a day or 2 of sprints or prowler work. Say Tuesday and Saturday.

Trust me you will “feel” just fine. The sprints will actually make you stronger and fitter.

You can thank me later :slight_smile:

Fisch

Pullups and dips in good form . . . good bodyfat . . . sounds like you’ve been doing well.

Any good articles out there re: sprint modalities? dr. google has come up with a few, but they all vary a bit in protocol.

Welcome aboard and good luck with your goals.

What’s your username about?

Roughly three percent of the population fought for liberty at any given time during the American war for Independence. With a colonial population of 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 only about 250,000 men served during the war with never more than 90,000 men serving at any given time.

Historians have estimated that approximately 40-45% of the colonists supported the rebellion while 15-20% of the population of the thirteen colonies remained loyal to the British Crown. The remaining 35-45% attempted to remain neutral.

The handle is about being one of the three percent, when the time comes I will stand for the Republic.