Andy Gained 50 lb in His 50s | Starting Strength Gyms Podcast #58

[stef]

Ray Gillenwater talks to Andy Rutledge about what went into the new website's design and how strength training has benefited his life. At Age 57, Andy gained 55 lb of bodyweight and got his squat to 405 lb.

• 02:12 - Gaining 50 pounds in his 50s
• 07:21 - Starting and current bodyweight
• 09:55 - Current PRs
• 12:04 - Outlook on everything after Starting Strength
• 15:34 - The last rep compared to cycling
• 23:31 - We're performing science
• 31:40 - Your health is your responsibility
• 35:36 - Digital logbook
• 45:52 - SS Gyms team
• 56:19 - Decision to hire an SSC

[Bill P.]

Thanks for this, Ray. Loved it. Selfishly, because Andy and I have a lot in common. Am 57, started lifting on the program at 49, gained nearly 40 pounds, and got my squat well over 400, deadlift over 500, press to 200. Up to that point I was a cyclist, then looked around in my mid-40s after my mom moved to a retirement community and had a revelation about sarcopenia and elderly men. SS and training transformed me and is at the center of my life. It's inspiring to see a true brother of the same age talking about a nearly identical experience to mine.

[Ray Gillenwater]

Am 57, started lifting on the program at 49, gained nearly 40 pounds, and got my squat well over 400, deadlift over 500, press to 200.

Well done.

I wonder what percentage of 40+ men would love to do the same and what percentage of them know that it's possible.

[Bill P.]

Well done.

I wonder what percentage of 40+ men would love to do the same and what percentage of them know that it's possible.

Thank you. Good question. I work out in a gym in the basement of my office building. Only a handful of guys use the lone rack, none consistently, and none understand training. They appear to view me as a bit of a freak. A couple younger guys (in their 20s) have, however, have recently asked me about my program and seem interested and impressed. You'll be unsurprised that, over the years on rare occasions when I've shared the abbreviated version of the program and its results with those who ask, no one seems to follow through.

When I was only a couple years into lifting one of my colleagues in his 30s, a whippet-thin cyclist, walked through the gym to the locker room change and then bike home as I was finishing my squats. After I sat down he walked over and asked me, somewhat sarcastically, "What's the goal?" It was the first time I'd been asked. "To get as strong as I can," I replied. His expression conveyed both confusion and scorn.

That's the moment I truly understood Rip's observation concerning "narrowcasting."

Men my age in my city (metro DC) appear to cycle, run (even in their 50s), do yoga, and/or fling light dumbbells around and eat salads from Chopt. I'm a walking advertisement for the program but no one my age has ever asked me how they can get strong, too. Not to be thin is apparently unthinkable here. Barbells are scary and for brutes.

Feel like I'm red-pilled in The Matrix, and have for the eight years I've been lifting. I'm always reminded of David Mamet's book The Secret Knowledge, in which his rabbi slowly feeds him books about conservative/classically liberal political ideas, to which Mamet's resistant. He groks it all finally, however, only when the local city council (in Santa Monica) abuses him over landscaping alterations (or something of the sort) he wants to make to his home. That was me, finally understanding that I needed to get under the bar when I was suddenly around men in their 70s and 80s in a retirement community, saw what physical wrecks they all were, and realized that was only 20 years away for me on the horizon. Though I'd known about SSBT for 6-7 years at that point, that was my wake-up call to buy the book and implement the program.

[Chris_Richard]

I just turned 46. Been following SS principles for over 3 years. Gained 30 lbs going from 220 to 250. PRs all in the last 6 months in competitions are squat 440, bench 345, deadlift 535, and press 255. I look appreciably different, guys that are my friends and various men I work with are very cognizant that I lift weights, yet literally NO ONE ever asks me any questions to any depth about my training. In the rare times it comes up I explain some things and am very positive about the health benefits (and beyond) but no one follows up. It’s crazy to me. I’m a CPA, so maybe that part of it, I do not get it.

[Bill P.]

I just turned 46. Been following SS principles for over 3 years. Gained 30 lbs going from 220 to 250. PRs all in the last 6 months in competitions are squat 440, bench 345, deadlift 535, and press 255. I look appreciably different, guys that are my friends and various men I work with are very cognizant that I lift weights, yet literally NO ONE ever asks me any questions to any depth about my training. In the rare times it comes up I explain some things and am very positive about the health benefits (and beyond) but no one follows up. It’s crazy to me. I’m a CPA, so maybe that part of it, I do not get it.

I have the same experience, too. I believe that older men don't understand the underlying substantial physiological benefits of barbell training because, unlike increased size and better posture, these aren't visible. Also, the MSM has drummed into them that physical health flows form LSD cardio work. Finally, as I noted, in cities like mine the physical ideal for men is to be wiry and "fit." I notice that women respond very positively to my physique, perhaps partly because it's so unusual in a city like DC in someone my age. Whenever I see a guy my age who's clearly strong he's usually ex-military. Beyond that, they're all thin runners and cyclists if they're active.

You and I understand that these guys are misguided for not lifting heavy because we've experienced the benefits. They're clueless and will learn the hard way of their folly in due time.

[Ray Gillenwater]

I have a suspicion that most men don't understand that it's possible to get big and strong. This is what I thought before I discovered the program. There are guys that can lift heavy weights and there are guys that can't, right? It never occurred to me that EVERYONE can lift heavy, if they follow a process. After all, I had been lifting since I was a teenager and never saw any appreciable changes. Besides that, the idea the subjecting your body to moving such heavy weights can be GOOD for you? It seems outlandish to the uninitiated. This is one of the many reasons we do the podcast and weekly video content, pointing out what's obvious and normal to us but is groundbreaking to everyone else.

[Chris_Richard]

Good comments Bill P. and Ray. Thank you. Will still try to change hearts and minds, one 40 something + dude at a time.

[Smyth]

I started the program at 51 when I learned of it through Instapundit. I have read all the books, some more than once. Like most people there are times when I fell off the program, but I always got back on. I turn 60 in a week, and am still lifting, still adding weight in all the lifts, albeit not by much. I’m not a very big person, but I am considered by observers to be disproportionately strong for my size and age, and I walk tall. I have no plans on being a weak, shuffling old man.

[Johnsonville]

I have a suspicion that most men don't understand that it's possible to get big and strong. This is what I thought before I discovered the program. There are guys that can lift heavy weights and there are guys that can't, right? It never occurred to me that EVERYONE can lift heavy, if they follow a process. After all, I had been lifting since I was a teenager and never saw any appreciable changes. Besides that, the idea the subjecting your body to moving such heavy weights can be GOOD for you? It seems outlandish to the uninitiated. This is one of the many reasons we do the podcast and weekly video content, pointing out what's obvious and normal to us but is groundbreaking to everyone else.

Agreed, but you guys are doing a good job on YouTube demonstrating that this process works for everyone.