Reply With QuoteWelcome back. What were your linear progression numbers? Is this a variation of some established program? What is your height?
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Need a Help!
Hi everyone!
50 Y.O. guy needs a little help..
After 2 months of absence from the gym I started training again in September. I have to say that last year I struggled to achieve my best weights and failed to regain 7 kg. of bodyweight I had lost for several reasons (job lost..many things have changed). But this year I decided to do well and regain my bodyweight and to do so I started eating as if there was no tomorrow ..and since I had to re-start my training I decided to do 3x10 three times a week with a basic full-body (squat/press/rdl's + some little assistance).
I started gaining weight again, I started the 1st of September at 71kg. to 74kg. right now, with very little fat.
So it worked!! Then I decided to start a H-L-M split. Squat and Press 3 times a week (with no Deadlift). To tell the truth, I kept a day (Friday) with 10 reps for Squats and Press (with Rest Pause for the last one) so it was: Monday 3x5; Wednesday 2x5 -10kg of Monday (squat) and 3x3 (Press); Friday 1x10 (Squat) 1x10+ R. Pause (Press).
Again, it worked.
Last week I managed 1x10 with 144Kg.(Squat) and 58kg. 1x10 (+5 + 3) (Press). My body weight increased to 76.5Kg. with the same % of fat (my mirror says so).
Now, I gained more in these 2 months then in the whole last training year, I think because I really ate so much (if not I really don't know) :
Squat 3x5 144Kg 1x10 144Kg. (I used the same weight from Friday 's to Monday's)
Press 60Kg. 3x5 62Kg. 3x3 56kg. 1x10 (plus rest Pause)
The problem is I really don't know where to go now, I thought something like:
5x3 (Monday) 2x5 90% of Monday singles on Friday.
The fact is I really liked the higher reps day, it needs a different kind of strength and to me it helped me gaining weight again.
What do you say? Every advice is well appreciated as always!
P.s. I hope I have made myself clear obviously English is not my language!!
Thanks a lot.
Member
Welcome back. What were your linear progression numbers? Is this a variation of some established program? What is your height?
Member
Hi,Originally Posted by carson
I re started my linear progression at 120kg. for 3x5 on Mondays adding a little weight for my Friday workout and 10 reps (then I wused the same weight for 3x5 and so on). You know, I needed something different. It is a little variation of H-L-M in fact I tried to calculate the total tonnage and do the heaviest day on Monday, a recovery day on Wednesday and a medium day on Friday. I'm short, 5,5.
Thanks!
Member
Try a periodization program like Candito's 6 week strength program. It starts with a hypertrophy phase with high reps and works down to heavy low reps at the end and is designed top be repeated. I'm trying it now and am in the third week. 1st couple of weeks are quite difficult...
Candito Training HQ
Member
Apologies if I'm missing something, but why do you need to change from what's working? Also, it's not clear if your current lift weights are above your pre-absence level - until you get back to where you were, gains should come easily.
Member
Hi,
to better explain: I had my best lifts at the end of the 2013 where I hit a 80kg. press (3kg. above my bodyweight) 200kg. full squat and a 220 Dead lift. After that I had a shitty 2014 where I had to change a lot of things in my life, I trained very little so I lost some of my strength and bodyweight. Last year I managed to find a good new gym and restarted my training trying to slowly come close to what I considered my working weights were supposed to be but I failed.
I tryied but nothing. My Bodyweight was dropping too. I had never experienced such a situation. This year I decided that, despite my age and coming from 2 months of no training at all, I wanted to hit at least 90% of those numbers or at least good working weights. The rest is as above, I feel quite happy but at the same time I have doubts about how to go on. To-day I hit a 146kg. squat for 10 reps (plus a 130kg. x 10 as back off set) and a 56kg.x 10 Press so, weights are still moving up, but I start feeling my knees are a little stiff and sore (nothing serious). So, I'm not at what I consider my best weights but at least I'm better and I gained almost 6 kg. of bodyweight. The fact is that I have to change something now, at least drop the 10 rep sets and maybe replace them with a set of 5 but I 'm still trying to decide between a H-L-M system and something else. I forgot to say..the best lifts I mentioned were hit while on a TM template; it worked out well at 47...at 50 maybe is not a good idea but I'm considering the idea of 4-6 weeks of TM anyway..what do you say?
Member
So if you are still making progress workout to workout with 10s, switching to HLM as a weekly program makes some sense, but switching to 5s could well work for a while too, and you might even get more out of your 10s with a reset or two. I've just started doing 8s in a 8/5/2 program (2x/week) and 3x8 is a lot to recover from as a 50+ guy, so 5s seem like a better answer than 10s to get back to where you were in 2013. Post down in Andy Baker's programming forum for expert advice.
Starting Strength Coach
I've lost count of the times I've listened to this while working out. I'm 51 and find this very informative... Stick with whats working till it stops working, when it stop working you can make a change..
Mark Rippetoe on making gains in your 40s and beyond - YouTube
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Yes , weights are still moving up but I think I have reached a limit, I mean, doing 1x10 with 150kg. may be really hard to recover from. So I'm thinking to 1 set of 5 for some weeks and then I'll see. Maybe a TMish weekly progression for a little while and then H-L-M.
Then, after listening to Rippetoe's interview about training over 40's I have this doubt: a master athlete should stick to3-5 reps (safer and more productive then 10's) so a more hypertrophy oriented training with higher reps is out of discussion?
Then I remembered this:
Mark Rippetoe: Coach Rip Squats 315x10 - YouTube.
So maybe from time to time we can make a set or two (joking). Seriously, Rippetoe is a Bible to me and if he says 10's are bad I'd better follow his advice.
Thanks for your help guys.
Member
What makes you think that as you add weight to your higher rep work that you won't concurrently be building your recovery abilities in that hypertrophy range. Nothing is absolute so maybe you should stop and think about it. It's your body and your goals. As you age maintains muscle mass is very high on the priority list, and higher rep Squats are hard to argue with. If you hate the idea of a top set of ten you could work up to a 5 like you were thinking then hit some back off sets to get the volume in on that Friday. Gives you the weekend to recover.
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