New here, Hello all.
Age: 44
Height: 6’4"
Weight: 265
Fat %… no idea
Quick background, started lifting half assed back in 1990… sheesh that feels forever ago. Now at 44 I’ve been consistent with one variation or another for the last 15yrs, prior to that it was in fits and starts of 6 months here with 6 months off etc… longest stretch was 5 yrs off and I got FAT! also because I stopped cycling as well, used to down hill mountain bike races and rode trails all the time, at age 20 I was a lightweight 195 and looked like I had an eating disorder, gaunt, thin, heroin sheek.
15 yrs ago when I got serious about lifting I dropped from 280 to 215 and put on muscle simply by looking at plates. When I gain weight it mostly mid section, but being tall it’s not as noticeable, never had a beer gut though. I don’t recall the exact routine I started with but it was with a buddy at the time who wanted to compete in an event and I worked out with him, he dropped weight and shredded fast, but got weaker, meanwhile I was hitting new maxes weekly and never got shredded, though I wasn’t trying as putting on muscle was my goal. I found early on that it was easy and honestly I got lazy, I could drop weight fairly fast and pack on muscle without much effort, so I cruised thru a lot of my yrs and routines.
fast foward, Iv’e been tracking my PR’s for the last decade and have noticed that while they are mostly all the same I’m not tracking up anymore, kinda sucks. Also not willing to injure myself so I’ve backed off.
I’m at a point where I want to thin down but still stay strong. for the last 3yrs my routine has been M/W/F. I’ve also been lifting in a bubble, home gym and other then reading Arnolds book ages ago I’ve just adapted what I like. Here’s been my latest routine for the last 3 yrs.
Monday:
BB bench 5 sets 10,8,6,4,2
BB incline bench 5 sets 10,8,6,4,2
DB fly 3x10
DB incline fly 3x10
BB bent row 4x10
cable straight arm push down 3x10
wide lat pull 3x10
close grip lat 3x10
crunches 3x15
reverse crunches 3x15
Wednesday:
Clean & Press 5 sets 10,8,5,5,2
DB, raises, front & lateral 3x15
DB laying rear raise 4x10
BB shrug 3x10
BB curl 4 sets 10,8,6,4 (Heavy)
EZ bar Tri 4x15
DB curl and tri 4x15
Wrist curls 2x15
hang grip, 1min x 3
crunches 3x15
reverse crunches 3x15
Friday:
BB Squat 5 sets 10,8,6,4,2
BB single leg squat 4x5
BB calf raise 4x15
BB stiff leg dead 5 sets 10,8,6,4,2
DB ham curl 3x10
T-bar row 4x10
Crunches 3x10
Reverse crunches 3x10
Monday 2:
Pull ups 3x25
BB Deadllift 5 sets 10,8,6,4,2
BB Bench 5x8
BB incline bench 5X8
DB incline fly 4x10
Pushups 3x25
Cable row 3x10
Wide lat pull 3x10
crunches 3x15
From reading a bit more lately I think the above is high volume, I’ve never been fatigued from it, it takes on avg 90mins to get thru a routine. I do cardio on the off days by riding trails for an hr.
Here’s the thing though, I’ve gotten to where I don’t feel the need to push my PR’s and have decided to scale back and move to a 6 day program that is 45-60 minis at a time and far less accessory lifts, i prefer compound lifts and moving explosively. For example when squating, I struggle with slow tempo and heavy weight. I.e. slow tempo I max out at 315lb but If I move fast and rebound the bottom I’ll easily move 500lbs, same for bench, slow = max PR of 330, single reps done fast I can manage 420.
While I have isolation lifts in there I hate them, booring and once it starts to burn I lose strength, rest, rinse repeat. I’ve yet to find the limit on those lifts so I don’t bother pushing too hard but use them to fatigue a couple times and move on.
Hopefully I haven’t made too much of a mess of my lifting yrs… I’ll let you all know how the next chapter works out. Oh and feel free to critique and ask questions.
For those wondering, who knows, working weights on various lifts not PR:
Bench press 315
Squat 355
Dead 405
BB Curl 135
Oh and use a CoC #3 regularly, inherited a very strong grip from my dad, thanks pop.
I’d really like to trim down and loose weight but really don’t want to lose the strength I have.
Thanks for reading this far!
