Strong at 40?

[Doug W]

Strong as a Geezling

So my 40th birthday is coming up in August and I wanted to be in better shape for a trip we aretaking. This led me back to lifting weights and I started looking at programs. I read around and found stronglifts which lead me to starting strength. Somehow getting in shape turned in to ‘how much can I really lift’ and here I am.

I started back in mid april and finally decided to start keeping a log on line. My workouts used to be simple and are getting more complex to the point of doing warm up and even back off sets. I need to know why I am making or not making progress and that entails a bit more than just the spreadsheet I have.

As a background, I have played sports off and on my whole life, but mostly I have just been coaching my sons in their sports lately. With his lacrosse season over now, I had no sport to do (coach) for a while which is why I started lifting.

Starting Stats (April 2011)
Age: 39
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 198
Bench: 80
Squat: 90
DL: 120

Previous 1RM from when I was training in MMA about 4-5 years ago
Weight: ~185
Bench: ~180
Squat: ~220 (but form was probably horrible)
DL: ~315

Current Stats: June 26,2011
Weight: 207
BP: 200
SQ: 225 (275 PR) On injury reset
DL: 0 (350 PR) On injury reset
Press: 70 (110 PR) On injury reset
PC: 0 (135 PR) On injury reset

Progress Chart
progress.jpg
btw. All numbers will be in lbs. unless otherwise noted.

GOALS
Strength Goal 1: BP 200 6/26/2012, SQ 300, DL 400
Vanity Goal 1: Trim fat for summer vacation
Strength Goal 2: BP 225, SQ 315, DL 405 – 2, 3 and 4 wheels
Strength Goal 3: 1000 combined

First goal reached!

[Doug W]

Starting as above and not having lifted anything heavier than myself in the last few years, I started working out at my corporate gym which only has machines, treadmills and dumbbells up to 60 lbs. Here is how I started for my first workout:

April 18th:
Deadlift:120 (2x60 DB) 5x5
Squat: 90 (2x45 DB) 5x5
Bench: 70 (2x35 DB) 4x5
80 (2x40 DB) 5x5

Yeah, deadlift was limited by the dumbbells from the start

For the next week, I continued to work out at my corporate gym increasing linearly as per the program (kinda)

Week	Date	Deadlift	        Squat                   Bench
1	18-Apr	120 lb (60lb DB) 5x5	90 lb (45 lb DB) 5x5	70 lb (35lb DB) 4x5 
                                                                80 lb (40lb DB) 1x5
1	20-Apr	120 lb (60lb DB) 5x5	100 lb (50 lb DB) 5x5	80 lb (40lb DB) 5x5
1	23-Apr	120 lb (60lb DB) 5x5	110 lb (55 lb DB) 5x5	90 lb (45 lb DB) 4x5 1x10

So obviously I was not going to get strong screwing around with a max of 60lb dumbbells. As such, I took the leap and renewed my membership with California Family Fitness. "OMG, no way!" you say. Why in the world did you join a globo gym? Well, first and foremost, I am a family man. My wife was already a member, and my two boys are actually able to go and either swim, play on the kids equipment or work out with me (oldest only). Additionally, there are three locations that are convenient to me, 1 right by my work, and 2 within 5 minutes from my house.

BTW, each Cal Fit has 2 squat racks and a power cage and about 4 flat benches (and yes about 300 machines of various sorts).

Now that I am in a gym with equipment good enough for my strength level, I can really get started.

To start with, none of this sissy dead lifting. I immediately bumped it up to 195 for 5x5 and put a big wheel on each for bench and squat. Being a big sissy, I didn't do PC, but did BOR.

Here is the workout from week 2
April 28
DL: 195 5x5
SQ: 135 3x5, 155 2x5 Squat was retarded easy at 135, so I bumped it up between sets
BP: 135 5x5
BOR: 85 5x5

Notice that I am really NDTFP at this point, but weights are going up so...

[Doug W]

Week 3:
More relatively linear progression. I also added in PC, but I didn't really know the form other than the general movement so I'm sure it sucked (still does actually)

April 30: SQ 155 5x5, BP 135 2x5 145 3x5, Press 95 5x5, PC 115 5x3, Chin up 5 (yup, just 5)
May 02: SQ 165 5x5, BP 145 5x5, DL 215 3x5, Press 95 2x5 (and then I gave up, beat), Chin up 5 (again)
May 05: SQ 170 5x5, BP 150 5x5, Press 100 2x5 1x3 95 1x5, Chin 9 (failed on the press, but upped my chins quite a bit

Ok, good progression whis week. PC, I hate because I don't do them well at all. Chins I am doing to get some arm (yes bi) workout rather than pull ups (remember my original motivation )

[xcardiobunny]

Aren't you glad? Globo-gyms are the only choice a lot of the time. The important thing, as you pointed out, is that they have barbells, weights, squats racks, etc. I'm about to turn 45 and love lifting, maybe your wife will want to start too.

[StrongLiftMyBalls]

April 30: SQ 155 5x5, BP 135 2x5 145 3x5, Press 95 5x5, PC 115 5x3, Chin up 5 (yup, just 5)
May 02: SQ 165 5x5, BP 145 5x5, DL 215 3x5, Press 95 2x5 (and then I gave up, beat), Chin up 5 (again)
May 05: SQ 170 5x5, BP 150 5x5, Press 100 2x5 1x3 95 1x5, Chin 9 (failed on the press, but upped my chins quite a bit

Dude, I know youve just started and you're keen and using light weights, but doing 4 lifts is a a bit OTT; even if you are finding the weights manageable.

Are you going to dial back to Alternating workouts A and B later on?

[Doug W]

May 07: DL 225 3x5 (woo hoo, two wheels), BP 155 5x5, BOR 115 5x5, PC 115 2x5, Chin 6
May 09: SQ 175 5x5, BP 160 5x5, Press 95 2x5 1x4, BOR 115 5x5, Chin 5
May 11: DL 235 5x5, BP 165 4x5 1x4, BOR 125 3x5, Chin 5

So I guess I was alternating my DL and SQ at this time, weird. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm pretty sure that this is when I said screw it to PC.

[Doug W]

Dude, I know youve just started and you're keen and using light weights, but doing 4 lifts is a a bit OTT; even if you are finding the weights manageable.

Are you going to dial back to Alternating workouts A and B later on?

Yeah, I got with DTFP a bit better later on. I never had DOMS throughout this whole starting phase. At some point (I don't remember when exactly, I got on the eat a crap load train and I think that has helped tremendously.

[Doug W]

May 14: SQ 180 5x5, BP 170 4x5 1x4, Press 80 (2x40 DB) 2x5, BOR 125 5x5
I guess I needed a change on the press and decided to go light for that day with some dumbbells
.
May 16: DL 245 5x5, SQ 185 5x5, BP 175 3x5, Chin 8
Uh-oh, Bench, which has always been my weakness started getting hard. No more of this 5x5 for BP
.
May 18: DL 275 2x5, SQ 205, BP 175 3x5
I decided to stop being a puss with the deadlift and start pulling some weight (yeah, I can be an idiot like that). +30 from last workout 2 days ago but on 2x5 instead of 5x5
I'm beat after this one. Didn't raise my bench and didn't do any chins

[Doug W]

A few comments on my workouts so far.

Cal Fit has actually been a really good place to work out. I have never had to wait for anything, never had anyone talk to me and generally get to do my workouts in peace. On the boring side, there is no crazy stuff going on either. Yeah, some people have bad form on their lifts and there is lots of light weights of questionable value, but no 1 legged bosu ball behind the neck smith machine shrugs. Or maybe there is and I just don't pay close enough attention. Either way, no one is bothering me so that is good.

It is also around this point that I start to squat low bar. The first time I do it, I think I have the bar too high and it rubs along my scapula. That really doesn't feel good. The other bad part is that from years of working at a computer, I find that I have TERRIBLE shoulder mobility. I also start to try to learn to clean correctly and I find that I also CAN NOT rack the f-ing bar to save my life. 20+ years at a computer will do that to you I guess. Time to work on shoulder, wrist and forearm flexibility. I start to do light stretches at home to help out

By this time, I am trying to eat a lot of food and have added whey powder into my diet. I munch on almonds and such at work and start eating breakfast (ok, that maybe started a week or two earlier). Before this, I wouldn't eat breakfast at all.

Weight is probably about 202 now.

On my workouts, I am still not really doing any warmups. Generally warmups will consist of 1x10 with just the bar to work on form and 1x5 for each wheel I put on. Generally this means only 1 warm up set at 135 for BP and SQ and 1x5 at 135 and 1x5 at 225 for DL. Yeah, not very much, I know. I did jog on the tread mill 1 time for 5 minutes before a workout... once. On the plus side, I am taking this resting and recovery thing very seriously. It's glorious

[StrongLiftMyBalls]

20+ years at a computer will do that to you I guess. Time to work on shoulder, wrist and forearm flexibility. I start to do light stretches at home to help out

Damn you. I read this, agreed, and did a quick forearm stretch (wrist pulled back to shoulder), and my elbow went straight through my shirt. I really liked this shirt as well.

Im sending you the bill... bastard.