Older Trainees

[franklie]

I would love to hear from my fellow older (over 40?) SS trainees.

I am 50, 188cm, 96kg... and am still progressing on my lifts:
sq - 132kg
dl - 152kg
press - 54kg
bench - 80kg

I am eating a lot and have added 5kg to my weight in the last month, but unfortunately have added a great deal to my gut. I'm very happy how the rest of my body is filling-out especially since I have always been thin, but this gut-thing is starting to worry me.

What's your experiences regarding weight-gain? Did you initially get a gut but then it subsided (as Rip says it will). Or did you have to limit the food intake?

What other factors do you notice... increased recovery periods? Some bad days (where you feel weak)? etc? etc?

I am 48, 178cm, 82kg:
sq - 155kg 1RM
dl - 150kg 5RM
press - 70kg 1RM
bench - 105kg 1RM
clean - 75kg 3RM

Right now I'm using TM programming to give myself more recovery. Being not as young as I used to be it is very easy to overtrain/underrecover

[Bergie]

Hello,

I'm 50 years old. 6' , 202lb last time I checked. I started the SS program a year ago. Before that was in pretty good shape but had never done any weight training before.

I found that the biggest challenge presented by being a bit older that the average person starting out with weightlifting is injuries, caused mostly because I was in a rush to increase the weights. The older body definitely needs more time to adjust to changes, but it certainly can get out of shape fast.

As you can see below I spent the first few months playing with injuries before some good linear progressing was possible.

I started the program 11/12 and on 11/24 pulled something in lower back during squats. So i reset the weights and rested.

Started back up on 12/8 and pulled it again on 12/22. Hey but at least it happened at a new PR.

With resting and rehab during the holiday I started back up 1/8. This lasted until 1/28 when had another injury and Febuary was a loss because of work and the birth of twins, my 6th and 7th children.

So started back up early March and progressed well, no back issues. However, my left bicep started complain vigorously due to low bar squat position.

So I stopped again to work on improving flexibility, some CF, and trying to get the babies to sleep at night. By the end of May I was ready to try SS again.

From 5/27 through 10/5 I had a good run of linear progression. through that time nothing broke and I was able to perform well.

However, it was not to last that 10/5 work out produces a very nicely torn adductor in my left leg.

This week I am starting out again. Hopefully everything will hold together for a long while time.