Losthog—2018 First year

Introductions: I’m old and starting out. Yes, it sucks that I started lifting so late in life, but it’s for me not you. My goal is to have a 1200 added S/B/D. I started lifting just to get some exercise in July of 2017. I completed the Jim Stoppani shortcut to size program, did a week of his super set work, then after a week off to let my old ass rest up I decided to do a GVT program called Maximum Hypertrophy written by a guy on BodySpace called befierice. I am down to my last two workouts in this program. It was like being locked in a secret Siberian prision and beaten within a rubber hose most weeks and I’m glad it is over. A day in the plan would be 1-3 exercises for 10 sets of 10 and auxiliary work up to 6-8 more exercises for 6-8 sets of 10. Leg days would be 114k lbs a day.

I grew. I added 15-20lbs of mass. Currently I’m at 240 and 15% bf. And weak.

Max lifts are somewhere close to (never tested them really).

255x 1 squat/ 195 x 2 bench/ ¿315? Not sure on the dead.

#| Edit for 2018 end of year maxes |#
Squat: 405. 08/23/18
Deadlift: 515lbs 12/24/18
Bench: 275 08/20/18
OHP: 195 lbs. 08/21/18

I did rep 185 for 5 sets of 10 on the Romanian Dead.

I will do the Rippietoe Starting strength on Monday. I think I am waisting my time with it, but you never know unless you try.

The plan after that is either the Bridge or 5,3,1. I like the idea of the bridge. Being an older lifter the daily how I feel is important.

My diet is measured I track my protein macros 1+ G protein, carbs I try to keep under 1.5g, fat fills itself.

I was strict keto from May 2017 lost 50+ lbs from 275+ 35% bf down to 223lbs before lifting weights. Got up to 230 12% on keto doing shortcut to size. Then picke the GVT and added carbs to lay down some serious muscle. I did.

Anyway. I’m sure few of you are still reading this so I’m rambling to myself which is fine. If you did make it here please introduce yourself and if you see someplace where you can provide an older guy some advice…go for it.

Keep grinding…

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I made it through Happy New Year.
I’m 53 so a tad older and will start a log too.

Good luck lifting.
Adwice : Visit Markko’s log, It’s long but he knows a thing or two.

I’m doing 5/3/1 and loves it.

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Sounds good man. Look toward working with you moving forward. Keep in touch.

Today was shoulder day. Everything went well lifted 49k lbs today. Three presses in this workout. Military, behind neck, and Bradford. The Bradford press is a torture mechanism I’m learning to love.

Got 285 dead for 10 reps easy today.

Week 33:Bulking Non-keto.
242.6 (-5 )lbs 17.1(+.8)% body fat

End of the year! Started lifting in July and have learned a ton. Just finished my Hypertrophy block. Time to shift gears to a strength block or two.

I will do a linear program until a stall and then either 5,3,1 or Bridge.

Goals for 2018:
Bench: 250x2
Squat: 350x2
Dead: 400x2

Overall goal is to get a 1200 total lift between the big 3 this year. We will see how that goes.

Gonna cut some BF until I get under 15 for two consecutive measuring sessions. Shifting to monthly measurements instead of weekly.

Keep grinding…

Lifts today was a Hypertrophy arm session only 24k lifted. I cut tricep weights in half and dropped the bicep work 5-10 lbs per lift just to keep the elbows from screaming at me from heavy triples on tri work. Was getting 120 on extensions had to back off big time to let the bows get a break before increasing intensity on major lifts coming up.

At the end of this session I did some form work on squat and bench with the bar just to check hand positions, bar travel, and touch on the chest. My shoulders were so tight I couldn’t get into a low bar squat without weight.

Heavy beginnings start tomorrow.

Starting strength

Squat-3x5 210. RPE -6
Bench- 3x5 165 RPE-6
Dead- 3x5 215 RPE -6

Too easy. Using it to deload I guess while I ramp up the intensity. I’ll keep the program as is for now for a week or two just to let the body recover from the super high volume I just came off of…

Welcome! Also check out @The_Myth log. He’s around your age bracket and does pretty well. I saw @mortdk tag me here do hit me up if you want.

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Thx man. Read through some of your log… I’ll be in touch when I need some pointers or just need to release some steam!

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A good 25 per cent of my log is steam release. Another 25 per cent is marsh gas. The rest is training.

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That’s a good starting point.
Focus on technique the first couple of weeks, the weights will soon enoug catch up to you.

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Rest day. Blah… I’ve had 6 days off the last 56. It’s hard to not go do something. I see a push-ups in my future for rest days.

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Starting strength 2 (b)

Squat. 3x5- 215 RPE 6
Press 3x5- 80. RPE 6
Power clean 3x5- 115 RPE 6

This program is very easy right now. I’m hoping that I am getting enough volume to grow…we will see.

My son started this program awhile back. He was squatting tonight and got such a massive full body pump it opened a few cuts on him that had scabs. He noticed he was bleeding when benching.

Love your avatar picture. In for progress

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You may be getting enough volume to grow for now. I’ll be honest, I’m sceptical you’ll get much growth out of three sets of five across three exercises, especially at such low RPE. You’ll get technique practice for sure and possibly strength, though.

Not trying to rain on your parade at all.

Just from my experience, here are a few things I’ve found:

  • of your work sets on the main lift, at least one should be over seven RPE unless you’re deliberately backing off. If you’re doing straight sets, you’d hope for something like 8-9 RPE on the last set, with the RPE of sets leading up gradually increasing. If you’re working up to a top set everything before the top set is fine under six RPE, but your top set should definitely be eight RPE through to 9-10 RPE;
  • if you want growth out of your main lift, sets of 10 or more are money. Five and under won’t really cut it unless you do a buttload of sets with short rests (kind of like clusters);
  • assistance is damn important for growth. Treat it as such. Light, high reps working on feeling your muscles grow is key. Don’t go super light, just light enough to feel the muscle more than the effort at first. Some parts will require waaay more work than others, especially in terms of frequency. Upper back, middle back, shoulders, arms for instance. Twice a week may be a minimum, but three to four days may be necessary. Legs can need a bit less, but that’s not always true. Rule of thumb: if it grows easily it’ll just grow almost no matter what work you do. If you aren’t seeing growth, throw frequency and volume at it until it does;

Hopefully that can help a bit.

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Thanks for that. The program I just finished was a high rep GVT program.

For example my last chest workout

Flat Bench 10x10-140
Flys. 8x10-60
Incline 8x10. - 95
Low cable cross 8x10-50
Decline bench 8-10- 115
Pull overs 6-10 35
Flat bench flys 6-10 -35
Cable cross over - 8x10 - 30
Chest dips - 10 sets to failure
Push-ups – 6 sets to failure

Each body part had a day Legs, chest, back, arms, abs x2. 8 days on, rest, 11, 13, 11, 6 done.

I thought going to a lower volume strength block would be good after coming off that brutal Hypertrophy block would be good. I’ve done a 12 week Hyper block before the GVT block. And never trained for strength.

Not sure I picked the right program but I’ll ride it out to see what it has. I may need to add some auxiliary work. Just trying to do the program as written to let it work…

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I did gain a lot of mass during game that phase of training adding 15 or so lbs of mostly muscle added 20lbs and went from 13% bf to 16%.

If you follow the SS protocol, you’ll be adding 30 pounds per week to your squat until it gets hard and then you drop it to 15 pounds per week. That means that you will be at your previous max of 255 in less than ten days. Think of that ten days as a bit of a deload and to tweak your form. I’d highly recommend posting a squat video for a form check before you get to 255.

For background information, I was squatting 265 in SS when I went to a SS Coach and I was nowhere close to parallel, was dive bombing into the hole, wasn’t driving my knees out. Basically, an injury waiting to happen. We reset to 225 and I continued on.

BP and DL were the same story.

Starting too low is an oxymoron. It’s like Wendler says - start low, progress slow. I’m sure you could hit amrap sets right now if you wanted to boost the volume, but when you get up to RPE of 9, you’re going to be glad you’re doing fives.

In my experience, you will get some hypertrophy towards the end of the LP, but most of the initial strength gains are CNS. This is actually a good thing because if and when you switch to intermediate programming, you’ll be able to use heavier weights.

My original LP got me up to a 295x1 squat, 225x1 BP, a 155x1 OHP and a 315x1 DL. I went from 180 or so to 197 on that LP, at 6’1" and was 53 yo when I finished it. I use several different methods to inaccurately calculate body fat and figure I went from 15% to 18% during the LP.

The key to maximizing the LP will be to prolong it as long as possible. If you don’t have the book, _Starting Strength; Barbell Training _ I would recommend getting it.

I would also look into buying micro plates now - you will need them. It would be a good idea to plan how you are going to modify the LP now before you get into a stall.

Trust me -this shit is going to get hard fast.

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@The_Myth I’ll post a video soon. It’s good to have another Old timer to share with. My goals are a 3,4,5 for 1200 total before I hit 50yrs old.

For bf I use a 3 fold caliper method. I’m sure we make some mistakes, but it is more accurate than my Wally World scale with electro resistance measuring that still has me around 35% bf most days.

I’m glad I finally joined the forums here. I’ve been reading tnation for a few months. I’ve watched almost all of Juggernaut, Thrall, Rippietoe, Bell (slingshot), Efferdring (sp?), and ed Coan videos I can find. I am reading starting strength the second edition. It is good.

How did you find a Ss coach? Would be cool to have one check my form.

Thought I would post some where I started transformation pics…

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