I have trained off and on for over 20 years. Every time I start back up, I get my strength back pretty quickly. But, I dont see much in physique changes, so I quit. i want to start up again, and wondering what y’all think is a realistic muscle gain goal in my 1st year back?
Welcome, Mbdix. You’re in Texas? Poor thing, I moved out a couple of years ago. I was in Dallas, where are you?
What kind of strength have you built? What have you done since then? I would imagine you’ll get it back within a couple of months, how far would you like to go?
Welcome. Questions would be how old are you, what’s your build(tall short fat thin), what’s the plan?
You can do about anything you want with the right dedication and strategy.
Yeah, I’m in Texas. Texas Forever. But, I’m 37, dont know if I would say I’m tall (6’2") and thin (195). It’s starting to turn to skinny fat. My plan is, i would like to gain 30#s of muscle, and drop bodyfat or keep around the same. I dont expect that all in the 1st year or so, just curious as what would be a realistic goal for 1st year back. Thanks for the welcomes. Also, I haven’t really trained in a few years, in regards to strength, I get back to ‘decent/good’ levels pretty quickly.
If you’re in the Dallas area, there’s a really great place called The Gym - seriously, that’s the name. It’s in Addison, corner of Trinity Mills and Midway. Not too big, very friendly people, semi - hardcore atmosphere. They used to have other good places around there, but they kept closing.
You’ll need to get diet, training, supplements, rest all in order to get the most out of it. You’ll get back previous gains fairly quickly, but past that - hmmm. You should be able to build some muscle in the first year.
Assuming you don’t have any food allergies or issues, I recommend the Paleo diet. It’s high in protein, lo in carbs, eliminates foods that causes problems. Since you’re not interested in drastic fat loss, you don’t have to follow it too strictly. But really kick up the protein - shakes and supplements are really helpful.
Did you follow any particular program before - 5x5 or something like that?
What have you done in the past? You are strictly looking for bodybuilding training it sounds like.
My advice would be to find a partner to lift with, if you have had inconsistency in the past having someone push you and you push them would have a better outcome.
Yeah I have seen ‘The Gym’ before in the shopping center. Might have to check it out. Training wise, I’ve done highschool football weight training split, 5x5, back in the day did the whole bodybuilder magazine routines, but, I will be doing the ‘Arnold split’ legs(mon/thur) chest/back(tues/fri) shoulder/arms(wed/sat) sunday rest.
The last time I was working out, I used this routine and kept putting weight on the bar weekly. I just had some personal issues that derailed me. Honestly, i want to get my physique as close to golden ratio as I can 1st then see where i want to go from there. I also want to be as strong as I can get. I am curious if a 15-20# muscle gain in 1st year back a realistic goal at my age. Thanks for the suggestions.
If you got on TRT and ate clean and a ton of protein well maybe you could.
I would watch ddot and Kanada’s log and see what they do and ask advice.
Most of other guys are doing 5/3/1 or some variation of westside.
Cool, thanks man
No problem Yonkey is another guy on here to follow.
i picked this up from somewhere on the forums:
(except i probably don’t remember it exactly right)
‘muscles aren’t made of hopes and dreams they are made of protein’
if you are training hard and getting enough protein and you aren’t gaining weight then you need to up your calories.
there is a bunch of stuff that you might find useful over on the bodybuilding forum.
‘do this routine instead of that dumb one’ has some ideas for bodypart split…
there is heaps of advice on the boards about nutrition, too.
welcome to the boards.
You can get what you need here in the over 35 section.
Plenty of guys who have been doing it for 20 years.
Filtering through the asinine questions and beginner stuff of other sections is pointless. IMO
You need guys your age giving you advise, we are not 20 anymore.
Hey mb,
You need to figure out what your primary goal is and go after it with vigor. Based on what you’ve said so far, muscle gain seems to be #1.
You need to eat to get there. My recommendation would be to slowly gain, say 1-2lbs a month over a 12mo period. You may get some “re-ginners gains” and I would say if done properly you could potentially gain close to 10lbs of LBM (naturally).
The other train of thought is to “Bulk” and eat whatever you can get your hands on and then strip the fat at point X. I would argue most people like this option for the eating portion but hate it for the dieting portion.
My only other advice for the time being is one word: “Consistency”. Be consistent in diet and training and results appear.
No time is ever going to be free from “distractions”. You just need to either ignore the distraction or make lifting the distraction from the more important issues. In either direction you achieve consistency.
^ Thus my comment on staying in this section.
We all have been doing this awhile, it really is not that hard.
LIFT, SLEEP and EAT
Rinse
Repeat
For
Years
If you sign up at The Gym, you can get training by the staff, but be very sure to emphasize you want serious, hardcore stuff, else they’ll put you on the namby-pamby stuff. Make sure they include squatting and deadlifting, that’ll get things going right. (In good weather, they open the rear doors and have some trainees push a truck around - cool!) They’ve had award-winning bodybuilders train there.
There’s a 24 Hr Fitness at Coit and Campbell, it’s your typical cram-the-paying-clients-in shop, but has some good equipment. No idea if you can get any serious training at all.
If you’re REALLY hardcore, MetroFlex is down in Arlington. Ronnie You-know-who trains there.
At 37, you’re really not that old. Most of us here are in their 40s. I’m 55, Old Navy (another bodybuilder) is 67. No one, including ourselves, cuts us any slack because of age.
General rule: if you want to build some decent muscle mass, especially at our age, you must push, push, PUSH. Just playing with the weights won’t cut it. As Derek points out, you have to eat protein until your belly cries Uncle and train like you have to win the powerlifting meet. If you’re putting weight on the bar, you’re going in the right direction.
Thanks for the advise. I understand it is a journey to get to our goals, and I am restarting my journey. I will be visiting 0ver35 lifter forums, to get advise, and motivation. I’ve trained at the 24 places all over the metro-plex, my home gym was 24 @ Trinity and Marsh. I let my membership expire, so will be checking out ‘The Gym’ but will probably just re-new with 24. I will be eating much more this time around, with large amounts of protein.
yeah… there is a lot to wade through over on the bodybuilding forum… i’ll admit if i have a question i’m more likely to ask people here so there is less of the newbie made-up stuff. at least everyone here seems to be saying the same thing without getting all wound up over miniscule differences that really don’t matter.