Tips for introducing new and elderly people

[AlexF]

Hi Mark, thanks for hosting this service - I've learned alot from these forums. I have two questions for you:

A lot of people come to me and ask me to show them how to workout. I try to get them on the right track and encourage them to buy Starting Strength and also to check you out online. My question is this: since most people don't have weightlifting shoes or even chucks, when someone asks me what they should bring to the first workout session should I tell them to bring their regular tennis shoes or would hard soled dress shoes be better?

Also, my dad has just expressed an interest in getting back to health and strength. He's in his sixties and has started experiencing some joint pain and diminishing mobility. I would estimate that he's a 170lb man who weighs 230 pounds... if you know what I mean. So he wants to regain some strength and also loose some weight. My plan so far... which is very much subject to change depending on your feedback... is to start him on a basic 3x5 starting strength program for perhaps 2-3 months so that he can experience and enjoy the rapid strength gains that occur during the initial period of training. After that I was going to move to some type of programming (which I haven't completely ironed out yet) that involves two days a week of active strength training and a day in the middle of the week that involves some type of metcon or aerobic conditioning since he wants to lose the weight and isn't necessarily interested in becoming powerlifter strong. What do you think of this basic plan/idea?

Thanks!

Alex

[Mark Rippetoe]

Just tell them to come to the gym and hope they show up. We'll nickel-and-dime them later.

As far as your poor old dad is concerned, same thing. Just get his ass in the gym a couple of days a week, show him the basic lifts, make sure he gets stronger, and then worry about the exotic shit later. You should like the kind of micromanager that will scare him off anyway. For now, squats are all the "metcon" he needs, and cleaning the gooey shit out of his diet will work better than all the training he can do to drop him down to a better body composition. Put ye not cart before horse.

[AlexF]

Thanks Mark .

[Bif]

...cleaning the gooey shit out of his diet will work better than all the training he can do to drop him down to a better body composition.

Rippetoe has fucking BINGO here. I agree with this 100%. My personal story (even though you didn't ask ): I discovered low carb eating in 1998. At the time I was doing 3 days/week of weights and 3 days/week of cardio. I was getting steadily fatter because I was eating a "healthy", lower fat diet that included tons of sugary foods. Anyway, I was constantly tired, so I figured upon switching my diet to low carb, I would drop the cardio workouts for a couple of weeks -- just to "rest up" don't you know. As it turns out, I never went back to doing the cardio. I simply eliminated the goo, and ate somewhat smaller portions. I dropped 40 pounds in 6 months without doing 10 seconds of cardio.

The take home message: If you want to drop weight, fucking eat smarter and less. That's it. <boston> Ahn't I wikkid smaht? </boston>

Good luck to you and your dad OP.

~ bif ~