Advice for a Very Large Man....

So, I have a buddy who told me that he would like to start lifting and was interested in power lifting. Having only been lifting for a short while I feel very unqualified to advise him on how to start.

He is quite large, I would guess 400 to 450lbs, 5’8 and 30 years old. For being a guy that doesn’t train he is relatively strong, which I guess happens from moving such a large body around. His starting point is very different than what mine was. My problem was being weak his is obviously being heavy and possibly being weak.

What I’m wondering is what advice would you give? Thanks.

400-450 @ 5’8? Have him work on his conditioning and look into his diet first and foremost. Secondly, he’s a beginner, and like any other beginner, all he needs is the basics.

Train like a powerlifter and get the conditioning in. If he’s worried about his strength going down, simply tell him he’ll be much more competitive at a lower weight class and have a great starting point to build off of due to the higher weight he’s had to carry around.

At that height and weight, I would advise he starts by using an exercise bike or perhaps some aerobics in a pool or something in order to get his weight down alot (like 100-150lbs). Obviously nutrition is key.

Strongly doubt he has the mobility to even squat or DL an empty bar so don’t see how he can get into PL for quite some time.

Get his weight down first and then comeback to PL.

[quote]apocolypse wrote:
At that height and weight, I would advise he starts by using an exercise bike or perhaps some aerobics in a pool or something in order to get his weight down alot (like 100-150lbs). Obviously nutrition is key.

Strongly doubt he has the mobility to even squat or DL an empty bar so don’t see how he can get into PL for quite some time.

Get his weight down first and then comeback to PL.[/quote]

Plenty of big people out there that have the mobility to squat. I saw a kid that was about 386 squat 635 in the warmup room like it was a joke (raw).

I found out that he is actuall 380, still heavy but not as heavy as I thought. He is pretty mobile for a big guy and I am pretty sure he has the mobility to squat and DL.

[quote]Re.po wrote:
I found out that he is actuall 380, still heavy but not as heavy as I thought. He is pretty mobile for a big guy and I am pretty sure he has the mobility to squat and DL.[/quote]

What are his goals? Does he want to lose weight? How much/ what timescale?

Not really sure what you are asking. If he is happy at his weight and wants to PL and has the mobility then just get started on a standard template. You haven’t mentioned any weight loss goals in which case it’s not relevant and he can train like any other beginner. If he is also trying to lose 100lbs in the next 6-12 months or whatever, then yeah this will impact on advice.

Wanting to get into PL’ing is fine and all and he can still do that but his weight is a serious life threat at this point and needs to be his main priority.

[quote]apocolypse wrote:

[quote]Re.po wrote:
I found out that he is actuall 380, still heavy but not as heavy as I thought. He is pretty mobile for a big guy and I am pretty sure he has the mobility to squat and DL.[/quote]

What are his goals? Does he want to lose weight? How much/ what timescale?

Not really sure what you are asking. If he is happy at his weight and wants to PL and has the mobility then just get started on a standard template. You haven’t mentioned any weight loss goals in which case it’s not relevant and he can train like any other beginner. If he is also trying to lose 100lbs in the next 6-12 months or whatever, then yeah this will impact on advice.[/quote]

good point. His goal is to lose weight aswell, I would say even a higher goal than PL. I think PL may be a way to help him keep motivated. I’ve found my self much more motivated to train since I have been training for powerlifting, it gives me something tangible to strive for instead of “trying to get in better shape”, which is hard to quantify. He has seen the doctor recently as he felt that the weight was a serious health concern… now I’m not sure if this is bad or good, but the doctor told him he is in perfect health, blood pressure, cholesterol, everything is fine, he’s just fat. I think he has come to a realization though that things most likely won’t last that way and the the weight keeps him from doing things he would like to do.

Let Jeff Lewis be his idol

^how the fuck do they judge his depth.

[quote]cparker wrote:
Wanting to get into PL’ing is fine and all and he can still do that but his weight is a serious life threat at this point and needs to be his main priority.[/quote]

Wow you can know this without seeing his medical files or having any sort of clue about what his lifestyle and risk factors are? Where did you acquire this skill?

Sounds like the dude is built to be a powerlifter. I laughed when somebody recommended he lose weight and go down a weight class to be more competitive at powerlifting…this was when he was thought to be 4+ bills. you do realize the superheavy weights start at 308 right? LOL Don’t know that many people cutting 100+ pounds for a meet.

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]cparker wrote:
Wanting to get into PL’ing is fine and all and he can still do that but his weight is a serious life threat at this point and needs to be his main priority.[/quote]

Wow you can know this without seeing his medical files or having any sort of clue about what his lifestyle and risk factors are? Where did you acquire this skill?

Sounds like the dude is built to be a powerlifter. I laughed when somebody recommended he lose weight and go down a weight class to be more competitive at powerlifting…this was when he was thought to be 4+ bills. you do realize the superheavy weights start at 308 right? LOL Don’t know that many people cutting 100+ pounds for a meet.[/quote]

I could find an average build guy who is 100 years old. I bet you would have a harder time to find a 60-year-old in the 5’10, 380 pound territory. Is that enough about the risk factors involved? Right now he is build for nothing else but for heart attack, and you think it would be wiser to add than lose weight, did I understand you?

5’8 at almost 400 pounds, dam. Wish you the best helping him out. I would start with what he eats and doing some conditioning.

[quote]Wrah wrote:

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]cparker wrote:
Wanting to get into PL’ing is fine and all and he can still do that but his weight is a serious life threat at this point and needs to be his main priority.[/quote]

Wow you can know this without seeing his medical files or having any sort of clue about what his lifestyle and risk factors are? Where did you acquire this skill?

Sounds like the dude is built to be a powerlifter. I laughed when somebody recommended he lose weight and go down a weight class to be more competitive at powerlifting…this was when he was thought to be 4+ bills. you do realize the superheavy weights start at 308 right? LOL Don’t know that many people cutting 100+ pounds for a meet.[/quote]

I could find an average build guy who is 100 years old. I bet you would have a harder time to find a 60-year-old in the 5’10, 380 pound territory. Is that enough about the risk factors involved? Right now he is build for nothing else but for heart attack, and you think it would be wiser to add than lose weight, did I understand you?[/quote]

In 4 sentences, you managed to spew out so many logical fallacies that I’m not even sure where to begin in addressing them.

But let’s start with the obvious. Of course you can find more AVERAGE build men because they are the AVERAGE, you dingbat. There aren’t a lot of 380 pound guys walking around PERIOD, so of course there aren’t many in the 60 year old category. Do you understand the logic here? What if I told you I could find many more people in a morgue who were average build (you know, since its the AVERAGE there are way more of them)…could hten I conclude that people of average build are more likely to die?

Please don’t dumb this board down with stupid logical fallacies.

[quote]Wrah wrote:
and you think it would be wiser to add than lose weight, did I understand you?[/quote]

No you didn’t, because you are illiterate and incapable of logical thought. Please quote where I stated he should ADD weight…I believe that logical fallacy is called “STRAWMAN ARGUMENT”

I really hope you were just trolling me and aren’t actually that dumb.

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]Wrah wrote:

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]cparker wrote:
Wanting to get into PL’ing is fine and all and he can still do that but his weight is a serious life threat at this point and needs to be his main priority.[/quote]

Wow you can know this without seeing his medical files or having any sort of clue about what his lifestyle and risk factors are? Where did you acquire this skill?

Sounds like the dude is built to be a powerlifter. I laughed when somebody recommended he lose weight and go down a weight class to be more competitive at powerlifting…this was when he was thought to be 4+ bills. you do realize the superheavy weights start at 308 right? LOL Don’t know that many people cutting 100+ pounds for a meet.[/quote]

I could find an average build guy who is 100 years old. I bet you would have a harder time to find a 60-year-old in the 5’10, 380 pound territory. Is that enough about the risk factors involved? Right now he is build for nothing else but for heart attack, and you think it would be wiser to add than lose weight, did I understand you?[/quote]

In 4 sentences, you managed to spew out so many logical fallacies that I’m not even sure where to begin in addressing them.

But let’s start with the obvious. Of course you can find more AVERAGE build men because they are the AVERAGE, you dingbat. There aren’t a lot of 380 pound guys walking around PERIOD, so of course there aren’t many in the 60 year old category. Do you understand the logic here? What if I told you I could find many more people in a morgue who were average build (you know, since its the AVERAGE there are way more of them)…could hten I conclude that people of average build are more likely to die?

Please don’t dumb this board down with stupid logical fallacies. [/quote]

Still, 400 pound people are way more common than 100-year-old people, or do you really think that a 400 pound person is a 1 in a million specimen?

Just ease into it, like anyone not retarded would do with any beginner.

Everyone worth a damn needs to teach beginners at some point, might as well start now

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]Wrah wrote:
and you think it would be wiser to add than lose weight, did I understand you?[/quote]

No you didn’t, because you are illiterate and incapable of logical thought. Please quote where I stated he should ADD weight…I believe that logical fallacy is called “STRAWMAN ARGUMENT”

I really hope you were just trolling me and aren’t actually that dumb.[/quote]

What’s so magical about 380 pounds though? If you think he is now excellent for powerlifting, why wouldn’t he be even better at 500 pounds?

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]cparker wrote:
Wanting to get into PL’ing is fine and all and he can still do that but his weight is a serious life threat at this point and needs to be his main priority.[/quote]

Wow you can know this without seeing his medical files or having any sort of clue about what his lifestyle and risk factors are? Where did you acquire this skill?

Sounds like the dude is built to be a powerlifter. I laughed when somebody recommended he lose weight and go down a weight class to be more competitive at powerlifting…this was when he was thought to be 4+ bills. you do realize the superheavy weights start at 308 right? LOL Don’t know that many people cutting 100+ pounds for a meet.[/quote]

I was saying he should go down if he is looking to lose weight which is what I took from the OP’s post. It was one way to handle the psychological aspects of losing large amounts of weight. If he’s only going 400/300/500 (which chances are he’s not even doing that) then he’s going to be more competitive with those theoretical numbers in the 220/242 range then he is in the SHW. Remember, this is not a competitive SHW, this is a random guy who hasn’t gone to the gym much and is (again from how I interpreted the OP) looking to lose weight and get a bit more healthy as well as begin competing in powerlifting.