Pushing 60 Years Old

Happy New Years and Merry Christmas to everyone.

Been spending the deload doing a lot of pumping exercises. Seems to be doing some good, so will keep going.

Tried doing some nose breakers for arm work, was surprised by how much my left arm hurt. I know my left side is weaker, but this really drove it home. So going to do more of stuff like this to try and toughen up the left. It’s sure to help my bench and dips and stuff.

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Well you’re doing way more than I have, and you got a PR, yay. Happy New Year.

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Busy with job hunt, not even bothering to go to gym. Playing around with band at home, getting good workouts from it. Crazy. After a week of very light workouts, finally destressed the body enough that I could sleep all the way through the night. I ALWAYS have to get up once or twice for bathroom, been a year or two since I had a thorough night’s sleep. Felt good, so decided to have a very light workout:

one set of leg presses with band.
one set of arm press with band
one set of curls with band
one set of pull-aparts with band

And even that stressed me so much I woke up several times that night. It seems practically impossible to keep from overstressing things without going into a coma.

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Hey, cavalier what i want to ask is if your body is maybe better at building endurance is do you have these barriers everywhere it’s about human capacity (I.e strenght or endurance or speed ). ?

Honestly, I have no idea about endurance capability. I might be good at that, since my resting heart rate tends to be barely over 60 per minute without even trying for endurance. The thing is that I’m not interesting in running marathons, I want strength.

Damn job hunting is stressful. Might be a mind-body thing. I know when I’m anxious or stressed, I’ll wake up with my heart thumping away for no reason. But yeah the BW & band might be enough now for your body. Or just do one exercise like DL or whatever if you want to keep up your strength without stressing the body so much. IDK, I’ve never gotten it right when I’m stressed.

I just lost a job I really thought was a slam dunk. Very stressful. I’ve had problems in the past with heart arythmia and heart palpitations, but not recently thankfully.

Went back to gym and did a very abbreviated workout.

Bench
65 x 5
95 x 4
135 x 3
that last set was pretty tough, probably should have stopped at 2 reps, but I just can’t stop myself from really pushing at it

Incline bench
65 x 5
95 x 5
felt better than regular bench.

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Yes i know who doesn’t want strenght ? Why run from the bear when you can fight the bear (or rather not haha) but I thought maybe you have noticed some kind of “endurance ability”. Have you tried mediation or some of these things against stress ?

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Cav: I have PTSD too, and will post when I get to an actual computer

Please keep posting your workouts. 60 ain’t so far off for me, and it’s encouraging to see your posts!

Congrats on your progress!!!
~S

Hi @cavalier
Yessir, PTS can affect everything in one’s life!

Looks like you’re doing well , & am glad to see that you are.
Your posts are inspirational to me. Thank you.

Your words resonate with me. I too suffer from PTSD, though the cause is different.

You feel like you’ve been “given a new chance?” And, it looks like in this quarter of the ball game you are determined to play to win?! That sentiment is familiar.

I too am back in the gym, after years of existing on my ever fattening ass, doing nothing much other than bitching about myriad things, and getting more and more out of shape the entire time. I’d gone from being fit with zero medical issues, to morbidly obese with Type II Diabetes, multiple medical implants for pain control, a clotting disorder, COPD, and God only knows what else I was diagnosed with between 1992-2014.

Over the past 3 years or so, I’ve lost about 165 lbs - an entire person or more - in weight.

Can’t say for certain the PTS was THE culprit in my not caring about stuff, or being so weak in mind that I did nothing about it, but it was a major factor.

Learning to identify “triggers” of things that “set me off,” and how to deal with “episodes” that resulted made the difference…
I see that you utilize the eye movement technique while recalling things. That’s similar to what I have to do, but not the same entirely.

For me, I’ve looked back to the period of life before the PTS came about, and remember how moving forward at all times was the focus, rather than allowing a negative experience dominate “the now.” I was a strong frigging U.S. soldier, and felt like nothing could ever prevent me from reaching a goal, and it never did. While acive duty, I got tagged with the nickname “Bull,” not because of physical features, but because of attitude. If something alerts me, like a red flag being waved at a bull, I charge it and will not stop until I go through it. At least that’s how I was from birth through 1992. From 1992-2014, I was not. But, in late '14/early '15, things changed back for the better IMO.
All of a sudden at age 22 I was physically disabled from a traumatic injury, retired from the USAF, and ten years later physically unable to work at all due to a chronic pain that still prevents it
But, by St George, that was in the past, and regardless of how many times something startles me now, there’s a serious present and future that requires my attention.

We who have PTS, if we wish to be happy, have to keep reminding ourselves that the “P” part of the acronym signifies “post” BUT that the event was and is “Past.” Best we can do is learn from it and move on, a lot like a kid learning to walk after falling down while learning how. If they let a fall make them stop trying, then they never will walk.

I’m 47, you’re almost 60. Sure, we have life experiences that were equivalent to falling down, but just because most of America deems those ages as “middle” or “aging” or whatever the hell the term is now, doesn’t mean we are required to conduct ourselves to match what popular sentiment defines as “acting our age.” Fuck that. It’s a number.

Sure our bodies may not respond AS well to things, but they do respond. It’s our guts that propel us forward, and inevitably what allow us to take care of our bodies well enough that the inevitable end is further in the future. Meanwhile, we have an opportunity to excel in whatever state in which we exist.

For me, I’ll always have physical pain to remind me of a FUBAR injury, along with medical implants to treat it jutting out of my abdomen, but I’ll be damned if that means I have to “behave” like a disabled person.
Screw that. I’ve gutted out enough in the past - no reason to stop now. It’s in the heat of battle that real valor shows itself. And if anyone claims that living with the problems stemming from PTS isn’t a battle, a reevaluation and definining of PTS for them is needed.

There’s guys doing “special olympics” stuff and other activities in wheelchairs, so why the hell would we allow PTS to prevent us from doing WTH we want?!!

ONE thing that helps me the most is a little modification I’ve made to the old adage.
“Seize the Day (carpe diem)”
I say that days are made of moments, so for me, it’s "Carpe Momentum (Seize the Moment). If you’ll indulge me, and consider what you are reading now, in this sentence: as soon as you’ve read the last word of the sentence, it is officially in the past.
That moment is over, and can never be relived. The next moment is in the future, and is not guaranteed.
So what we have, at any friggin nanosecond of life, is THIS moment.
Carpe Momentum!

I’d told you in a previous post I wanted to reply to this thread when I got to an actual cvomputer, and that’s what this is.

Feel free to look at my training log, where there are some pics (warning - fat man & severe burns), that illustrate the little life struggles I have, and continue to overcome, by focusing on the moment that IS rather than the one that WAS.

Best of luck in all your endeavors!

Peace,
~S

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Good going, s_afsoc.

Someone else was using the 45 pound bumper plates and all I had was the 25, so the numbers are a bit odd.

Deadlift
95 x 5
145 x 5
185 x 3
235 x 2

DB hammer curls
15 x 10
20 x 6
25 x 3

And that’s it. Had a little DOMS this morning, which means it actually worked, but didn’t drive me into the ground. Will see where this goes.

Squat
95 x 6
135 x 5
185 x 3
a bit lighter than usual, but form was perfect and I got low

Donkey calf
360 x 14
decided to do donkey calf to work both hams and calves at the same time. It worked.

Doesn’t look like much, but my legs were actually rubbery on the way home.

Bench
65 x 6
95 x 6
135 x 3
The 135 felt a bit easier, don’t know if it’s progress but hoping.

Incline bench
65 x 8
100 x 4

Deadlift
135 x 6
185 x 4
235 x 3

Did the 185 with parallel grip, got one more rep before my grip failed. don’t know if it’s progress.

Hammer DB curl
25 x 5
25 x 5
surprisingly easy

One more rep is always progress.

FINALLY got the new job. Not too bad, nice people. However, will have to go to a different gym during weekdays which is closer to work than the usual. So Thurs I did my usual routine at the new place.

Bench
65 x 6
95 x 6
135 x 4

Incline Bench
75 x 5
100 x 4
okay, bad news. Their incline bench isn’t what I’m used to. Bad leverage and positioning, almost couldn’t lift off.

This may take some reworking. I’ll have to move bench to weekends when I use the regular gym and shift deadlift to weekdays.

Tri Pulldown
40 x 8
60 x 3
another problem. Used a straight bar instead of the usual rope, and left arm went completely berserk. Probably the old injury flaring up. Will have to work it maybe with nose breakers.

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Went to usual gym and played around.

Incline bench
75 x 6
85 x 5
100 x 5 . that was easy
105 x 6 . no problem

Delt machine
20 x 4
30 x 5
40 x 4
50 x 3

Donkey calf
400 x 12
400 x 10
that was full weight stack

Side bend w DB
95 x 4
bleah, grip is just lousy, should have brought straps.

Congrats on the new job! And some good lifting to boot!

YAAYYAAYYAYAYAY.

I just got fired from the job. It lasted all of a week and half. Something about how the client was pulling money, couldn’t afford me, same old story. I never had a contract cut before it was over, not even a short one like this.

Did some squats yesterday, so-so effort. Hard to think. Had a lousy night’s sleep. In the past week, been sleeping very soundly, now back to old patterns.

Squat
95 x 6
135 x 6
195 x 2
form was questionable on last one, couldn’t concentrate