YANOG - Yet Another New Old Guy

[sac]

Hi.

Sal, 55 soon to be 56, from Lawn Guyland in New York.

I was a middlin' powerlifter in the 220 and 242 pound weight classes back in the 90s with competition best lifts of 615, 405 and 600. Torn meniscus and a shoulder injury led me to leave the game in 1999. Spent the next 17 years deskbound, raising kids, buying a house, getting fat and really just wasting my time in the gym when I bothered to get there. Decided that I wanted to get some of my strength back and read SS at the suggestion of my daughter, who told me that RIP has a great reputation.

Read it, read PPST and found I knew next to nothing about getting strong.

Vital stats are:

Bodyweight: 300 (I did say I got fat).

Squat: 235x5 - at least 20-30 pounds in the tank there, I'm taking it slow.
Bench: 200x5
Deadlift: 315x5
Press: 140x3
PC: 145x3


My goals are simple: Have all those numbers go up, except for weight which should go down. That and get some damned heat in the garage so I can squat in there and not have to go to the local health club at 6am so I can get the rack to myself.

[Mark E. Hurling]

It must be Spring. All the geezers have decided to sprout.

Welcome back to the iron.

[57bergstrm]

Nice to have you here, god luck with the weights!

[Cheesepuff]

Welcome.

I heat my garage gym (attached which helps) with a heater like this.

Amazon.com: Lasko 5307 Oscillating Ceramic Tower Heater, 16-Inch: Home & Kitchen

I live near Chicago. I also wear warm stuff including a hat and neoprene knee sleeves / sweats.

Still more convenient than the gym. No waiting on Rack #1. LOL.

[SteveL]

Welcome.

I heat my garage gym (attached which helps) with a heater like this.

Amazon.com: Lasko 5307 Oscillating Ceramic Tower Heater, 16-Inch: Home & Kitchen

I live near Chicago. I also wear warm stuff including a hat and neoprene knee sleeves / sweats.

Still more convenient than the gym. No waiting on Rack #1. LOL.

I heat my garage with two small space heaters. Start them up about 30 minutes before I train. Knees sleeves and sweats. By the time I get to my dead lifts I need to shed some clothes as I'm getting too hot even after turning off the heaters. I love not trying to train at my local Y.

[sac]

It must be Spring. All the geezers have decided to sprout.

Welcome back to the iron.

Thanks. One of the things I'm finding quickly is that at this age less is more. I train everything once a week except sears which are every other week and all the numbers are moving without excessive soreness. As a competitive sore every day was life which I'm taking means I - and the guys I trained with were perpetually over trained.

[sac]

Welcome.

I heat my garage gym (attached which helps) with a heater like this.

Amazon.com: Lasko 5307 Oscillating Ceramic Tower Heater, 16-Inch: Home & Kitchen

I live near Chicago. I also wear warm stuff including a hat and neoprene knee sleeves / sweats.

Still more convenient than the gym. No waiting on Rack #1. LOL.

How big is your garage? Mine is within the structure of the house - a two car where I have one side. There's a partition wall separating it from the side of the garage where the car is supposed to go (supposed to because right now it's used for storage). Total space to be heated is about 200 sq ft.

[Cheesepuff]

I have an 2 car garage about 24x16 = 384 with a ceiling of 7'9", all drywalled. Above it are bedrooms, to one side our Den, and the other three walls are exterior. (one of course a garage door).

My rack is against the outside wall furthest away from the Den, roughly centered.

I keep my knee sleeves, lifting shoes, watch cap, and a zippered sweat shirt out there to use as needed. I always wear my knee sleeves and sweat pants, but then next most importing thing is the hat. (which surprised me).

In winter I used the heater less than half the time. It is hooked up to some work lights that I use when working out. The lights were added for when I videoed my squat, but I also like them for reading / logging on my Airdyne.

Flickr
Heater is in the center / bottom of picture.
Bench is off to the left, you can only see the corner.

I've been tempted to put on "lifting gloves" when it is cold because the bars seems to "stay cold". Time of day also matters as it is colder out there in the mornings. I typically lift in the evenings when it is warmer... except when my wife comes home and opens the garage door... that can be distracting.

[BrooklynJerry]

Hey Sal, fellow Long Islander here. Working out in your garage sure beats going to the gym. I have a detached 2 car garage and WO there all winter. I have propane fired heater that I got at Home.Depot called a Ready Heat. I used on.days it was below 32 degrees. Went through 2 small size tanks over the winter. Just think in 2 months we will be complaining about the heat.

[Mr. Bingley]

welcome sal!