Trying hard to feed the positive

New to the forum... hi!

55 years, male, 5’ 10”, 250lb, ~35% body fat.

Current shoulder impingement (giving supraspinatus tendon inflammation in the sub-acromial space), probably from heavy overhead work refitting my garage ceiling - not from lifting.

320lb ~two years ago.

History of lots of sports practice in my youth: martial arts, fencing, squash, rock climbing. Dealing with 20 years of decline.

Lost the 70lb through caloric deficit alone initially, and some light martial arts/boxing practice recently.

Built a small home gym for that, and thought about adding a rack for some weights. This lead me to looking up how to lift properly, which (happy days), lead me to the Blue Book, the Grey Book, and the Old Guys Book, which lead me here.

Current situation: gym slowly coming together. I have a cheap crappy bar (sorry Rip), bought from eBay before I knew better. This will be replaced as soon as funds allow. I have 70kg of bumper plates, and intend to add 40kg a month for the next few months. I also need some fractionals. I have a bench.

I need the rack. I have very limited headroom (outdoors for presses for me...), so need to get a rack built for the space. I have a UK company that will do this, and hope to drop the order at the start of July.

I need shoes. The best I have right now are my boxing boots, which have solid soles with zero cushioning, but are dead flat.

I need the shoulder to repair just a little more. It’s been ongoing for about 4 months, and the last two weeks was the first time I’ve been able to touch the back of my head with the hand on that side. In those 2 weeks since then, I’ve got to the point where I can almost get a high bar squat position. I’ll start with that if I need to, and continue stretching out to get the correct setup.

I’ve now read the Blue book 3 times front to back, and the programming and prescription books twice each. On my third time through “The Barbell Prescription” now. I’ve been watching many of Rip’s instructional videos, scoured the website, and been lurking on these forums.

I don’t expect to start on the program until July - once I have the rack and a few other items as mentioned, but wanted to just get this going, to help keep me honest.

My intention is to follow the programme as outlined in The Barbell Prescription for old guys.

I love the boxing practice, but I’m prepared to largely put it aside for the purposes of the LP, to maximise the benefit of the program. I might have to have a few sneaky heavy bag sessions, just because I love it so much.

Tried deadlifts for the first time the other day, to check form, and just see how it felt (I’ve never deadlifted in my life before).

I stopped at 70kg, because I only had option to add 10kg (22lb) due to limited plates, and that felt like it was going to be too much for first go. The slight warmth in my posterior chain the next day felt good.

I’m looking forward to getting these last bits of kit and getting started, and in the meanwhile, to continue my education.

I’m also figuring out how I tell the wife I want to take a day off work for a trip down to London for weightlifting coaching... I feel there is a visit to Carl Raghavan in my future...

Thanks for reading!

Excellent! Another 50's fella (53 here), where we're old to many here, but youngsters to many others.

You're on the right path, but yes, you need the rack. In the meantime, use your empty bar to dial in your squat form and a few plates for the other lifts, like you did for the deads. We were in a similar situation last summer, where we had the bar (a good quality one), but only a couple of kettlebells of different weights and some hand weights. The rack/bench arrived, but it was still a while before we got actual weights. But we got creative with what we had, as you will no doubt do too. And you'll have that 80kg deadlift soon.

Definitely get in with Carl as soon as you can. Having that in-person SSC experience will tie those books together quickly. If you're reading them and training yourself you'll get to the same destination, but it will take longer.

Welcome!

Thanks Bill, for the kind words and welcome!

Got that 80kg deadlift today 🙂.

Not sure what to do now…

The 80 today felt the same as the 70 a few days ago. I don’t really want to get into the program before my shoulder is good for presses, and before I have a rack for squats and benches. But now I’ve started with deadlifts, it’ll be hard to stop trying to progress with them.

Guess I’ll keep the DL’s going without thinking of it as being part of the program proper.

Time to get some fractional plates, I think…

After a few away from home, came back today and hit the 90kg (198lb) DL.

I’ve found the limit. I definitely can’t add another 10kg in one go. The only reason I’ve been able to these few times is because I was wimping out on previous attempts. What I thought was my limit, wasn’t.

Today, did 30x5, 45x5, 65x3, 80x1 and then the 90x5.

First attempt at the 90, I moved the bar four inches, and put it down, thinking “too heavy”. After a minute, stepped back up and managed the 5. I wasn’t sure the fifth would get all the way up, but it did.

The fractional plates plus another two 20’s arrive today or tomorrow, so I’ll be able to progress at a more reasonable rate now I’ve really just found my starting point.

Also did 20x5x3 bench presses today, which was a struggle, and I wouldn’t want to do much more without my rack and safeties.

I still can’t overhead press or squat due to the shoulder, but it’s still improving.

Hopefully the shoulder and the rack will come good at around the same time…

Welcome! I started a bit later.

Rip has this video on shoulder rehab.
Shoulder Rehab | Mark Rippetoe

This has done wonders for me. I used straps to suspend the bar from my rack. (Rip has a set of rings suspended from his ceiling). A lot of good info on that video.

Good luck, you're off to a good start.

Wow, thanks Cheesepuff, I hadn’t seen that one video!

Fortunately, I haven’t needed surgery, but the inflammation is very persistent, with a lot of pain at the limits of a much reduced range of motion.

The biggest issue I have isn’t so much the press position (though I do need to work into that and video will be very useful), as the squat position (of the shoulders). I can now just about get a stick to the back of my head, but nowhere near getting it down to even a high bar position yet, and this with three months working into it!

The low bar position was very uncomfortable for me early on. No discomfort now.
Also rehabbed a Labrum tear and an rotator cuff tear. Being 67, shoulder mobility is a concern.
So I throw in 5 of the arcs on my normal press sets as a "precaution".
Rip has put out a lot of good stuff but this video is priceless.

On Friday I attempted 95kg with the deadlift, but only managed 2 reps.

I think I’m going to hold off until I can get some coaching. My back felt very precarious.

Individual coaching is great. Also sometimes they have Squat seminars and dead lift seminars. I did one of those with Jonathan Sullivan in Detroit... it was like stealing. What an experience.