Been a lurker for a while. Decided to jump in with a log. Criticism and suggestions are welcome
My stats:
37 years old, 5’ 9", 172 lbs, been very active my whole life
I destroyed my shoulder last year. Couldn’t lift 5 lbs over my head without a lot of pain in my right shoulder. Broke down and got some rehab and didn’t lift for 2 months. Nothing, nada. I went to the drs. Office for something else and got weighed. I was at 155. I was shocked. I lost 10 lbs in 2 months and I am already pretty thin. Decided I needed to jump back in the next day but do it smart. I started really light. Benched 95, deadliifted 135. They both kicked my ass. It’s unbelievable how much strength you loose if you are not pushing yourself. About the same time rippetoes “you want to be a beginner” articles were published. I realized that is what I needed to do. Start light and add weight each workout. I also changed up my grip for the bench and military press. I still had some pain in my right shoulder but it was slowly going away. (I had an impinged tendon in the front of my right shoulder, my therapist had also told me I could have at one pt had a tear in my right pec). Martin Rooneys awesome overhead press article also helped me a lot. I immediately changed to the close grip and the pain dissapeared completely.
Anyways my workout consists of a lower body day, upper body day, sprint day. Lower body day, upper body day. Two days off. I travel for work sun-tuesday and use 2 of those days as my rest days. Usually just go for a long walk on Monday.
Today was leg day
Clean 165- 3x3
Leg press 295- 3x5
Deadlift 280 - 3x5
I like to finish with a unilateral exercise. Today was Turkish get ups. 1 set of 3 per leg.
Considering when I jumped back in march 10th I deadlifted 135 and leg pressed 145. I don’t think it’s too bad.
Unfortunately my gym doesn’t have a squat or power rack. Just a smith machine and leg press. It’s a tiny local gym. I can ride my bike there in 3 minutes and usually I am the only one working out.
My goals are to add weight every day. May 7th my clean was 105, leg press 220, deadlift 225.
I am also trying to eat 3500 cals a day. I am inhaling everything. I am keeping my workouts simple and adding small increments of weight each workout. It seems to be working for me. Gonna go eat some cottage cheese with fruit and some olive oil.
Today was upper body
Pushups -24,24. I stop when my speed starts to drop
Bench 185-4,5
Cable face pulls 70-5,5,5,5
Standing overhead press 110-5,5,4,3
Weighted pulls ups 20lb dumbbell between my feet -5,5,4,5
Straight leg dips-11
Thanks for the comments guys. I have no one at the gym to push me so I am counting on it here. And to all those guys that think they are old most likely you could wip the vast majority of 20 something kids out there. Keep up the hard work.
Today was sprint day. Jogged half a mile to the middle school track and did
3x 100 yds, 3x 80, 4x 50 then walked home.
I would like to go heavier weight/ lower reps but I have no one to spot me. And I mean no one. I will do legs tomorrow and will use the magnetic pass to get in. The only people in the gym will be myself and my 6 year old daughter. I don’t think she is gonna be much help lifting a couple hundred lbs off of me.
[quote]rossk wrote:
The only people in the gym will be myself and my 6 year old daughter. I don’t think she is gonna be much help lifting a couple hundred lbs off of me.[/quote]
You can usually get some squat stands pretty cheap, since everyone’s scared of them. Front squats and 90% singles to triples are usually pretty safe and let you keep enough control to dump the bar if needs be. A lot of the strength loss was probably from the weight loss. 20 lbs is no small fall at our size. and 179 is sturdy for 5’9".
Yesterday
Legs
I felt real good in my warm up and decided to push hard
Clean 165x3, 170x3, 170x3
Leg press (I was going to put 300 on so after 3 plates I added 30 lbs). It felt harder then it should and I looked up and added the weights up and instead of 30 lbs total I had added 30 aside. So I had actually done 330. A 13% increase from last session.
330x5, 330x5, 320x5
Deadlift 285 3x5
Walking lunges 20lbs a side 12 steps
Today
Pushups 25,25
Bench 185-5,5
Face pulls 72 lbs 4x5
Overhead press 110-5,5,4 95-5
Pull ups 20lbs between my feet -5,5,4 0 lbs-5
Dips -13