Coming Out of The Closet...

Bigger Stronger Leaner Over 35 Lifter
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No, not that, not that there’s anything wrong with that…

I’ve been posting for a while in other people’s threads, lobbing smarty-pants comments into DCA’s thread, etc., so I figure I should start a thread, and offer up a target in case anyone cares to tell me where to go, and what to do with myself.

I’ll throw some pics up, and some stats. But I’m a lousy record keeper (except in my noggin), and lazy as hell. Really, what I’d like to do in this thread is rant -like about how weak I’d be if I had never found this forum, because today at the gym, two bigger bodybuilding-type dudes asked me if I was doing squats (I was doing millies), and I had a lousy friggin’ 135 lbs on the bar!!! This is what is “expected” from older guys (even though I look younger than 48) who are only 5’ 8", 180ish. Unbelievable.

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Squat markings.

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When you be single, youse gotz to try to keep the abz…

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Did I mention I’m technology challenged?

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So, first pic worked, others didn’t even though I did the exact same thing. I gives up.

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Sneaky - starting past midnight, you.

Looking forward to seeing your log.

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If you think expectations are low for old(er) men, you should see how low they go for old(er) women. I remember the smirk on a guys face when I put 45s on the bar to warm up for squat. It went something like “Oh, you’re trying out the big wheels are you?”

I’m looking forward to following along. btw, you can’t make a statment about abs without photo evidence.

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What O said.

Nice arm.

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[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
If you think expectations are low for old(er) men, you should see how low they go for old(er) women. I remember the smirk on a guys face when I put 45s on the bar to warm up for squat. It went something like “Oh, you’re trying out the big wheels are you?”

I’m looking forward to following along. btw, you can’t make a statement about abs without photo evidence.[/quote]

Reminds me of my daughter in high school. Someone loaded all the weight they could on a leg press. No plates left and the guys were trying to push it. A couple could, a bunch of failures. So she walks up, sits down, pushes it out, does a few calf raises at full extension and gets up.

Stephen M (Ethesis): Heather has a picture of her from her rifle team commander days.

But yeah, some people need some respect.

Back when I was still competing in martial arts, and working on my hip check o soto gari, I drove over to the rec center were I could put over 240 lbs on an adductor and abductor machine. Unfortunately the timing often meant I was lifting in pants and a button down shirt rather than athletic gear. I’d get some snickers, would sit down and rack up the weight, and then my next several machines were all stack maxes plus plates. That would quiet everyone down.

I sympathize with dealing with smirks. Now that I’ve lost all the color in my hair …

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So my browbeating worked, Punnyguy. Good. Glad you’re here. You often have very good insight to share.

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[quote]kpsnap wrote:
So my browbeating worked, Punnyguy. Good. Glad you’re here. You often have very good insight to share.

[/quote]

Men can not resist when their brows are beat by a good looking Snapper…ask us anything, we’ll do it.
Just sayin’

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Looking forward to following your training punnyguy. Please don’t be able to out-deadlift me! Everyone on here seems to be able to deadlift more than me.

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You started a log! Good on you, punnyguy.

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You should have stayed a moving target. Nice bi, I mean bicep development, considering the title of thread.

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You’ve made a horrible mistake, but your not the first. Trust me. I was once like you. GODSPEED.

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It took me a while to figure out the proper photoshop technique for smoothing out jiggly folds of cellulose.

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Yeah, I photoshop all my pics too.

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So, my overall goal is to walk into the gym on my 50th birthday, and do the 1000 lb thing between bench, squat, and deadlift. After that, I’m going to send in my AARP application, hah! (I’ll continue lifting of course.)

I have no aspirations to compete, I guess I’ve just had my fill from my young(er) days.

My minimum(s) for the respective lifts are 315 squat, 405 deadlift (already there as of last week), and none for the bench (I’ve done 225 from pins in the power rack months ago). The squat is the toughest for me, due to long legs, short torso.

I have, and have read, the 5/3/1 e-book, which taught me the most important lesson of all when it comes to strength training -major in the majors!!! So, I rotate the 4 major lifts, but I don’t follow the rep/set scheme, because it does not fit my personality/mentality.

I probably lift about 5 times every 2 weeks. Since my squat is so sucky, I will do 2 squat sessions for every one deadlift session. I bench for show right now, so I am doing the incline bench instead of the flat bench. e.g. squat, incline bench, squat, military, deadlift, incline, squat etc…

edit to add: I lift w/o belt, wraps. Chalk for hands on deadlifts. Vaseline on shins for deadlifts (no more bloody shins!), vaseline on back for squats (still get scrapes, just not as bad).

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Squats: For depth, I squat to the safety bars in the generic squat rack you see in all the commercial gyms; when I use the power rack, the 4th hole up (in the cheapie racks that have about 3? inches between each hole) is pretty much the exact same depth). I’m pretty sure it’s at least to parallel.

Workout tonight:

bar x some
95 x 5
135 x 5
175 x 3 (paused off of safety bars)
205 x 2 (paused)
225 x 2 (paused)
245 x 1 (paused)
265 x 1 (paused)
275 x 1,1,1,1 (paused, tap & go, paused, tap & go)
255 x 3 (tap & go)
255 x 3 (tap & go)

Then I put 315 on the bar, do some “functional” (heh) balancing on one leg, alternating; put 405 on the bar, walk forwards and backwards, side to side, for about a minute; put 295 on the bar, do some shruggy type things (got the idea reading about the Hise Shrug) combined with abdominal vacuum combined with calf raise.

Some GHRs on the lat pulldown, back extensions no weight, one leg at a time.

Neck extensions with neck harness.