New geezer with Qs for the Old Salts

[MashedTaters]

63yo male, married/empty nester, down in the piney woods of Georgia. Got more hair in my nose and ears, and on my back, than on my head.

Started lifting when I was in high school. Didn't know what the hell I was doing, but I made some gains. The "novice effect", right?

Weights have generally been part of my workout routine except for my years in the Army (82nd Airborne and 1st Ranger Battalion).

When I turned 60, I cut my weight in half and doubled the reps so as to be doing the same amount of "work." Dunno why; just seemed to be the right thing to do for a geezer. For example, I was pressing only 35#, but doing 2 x 30. It wasn't easy, but I now know that I wasn't really getting any stronger.

Then...I discovered SS in early June via PJ Media. Wow! Who knew? Consider me a die-hard proselytizing SS disciple. So far, got my wife and one daughter hooked.

I started out lifting 3x per week. Now that I'm in weight territory for which I've never seen, I've backed off to 2x per week. I think this is the sweet spot.

I'm only doing the big three: squats, presses and deads. I LOVE the simplicity of SS.

Question 1: What do you do for warmup? I row 3 minutes; stretch quads, hams, adductors; then the warmup sets.

Question 2: I eat fairly healthy and stay away from gooey shit. How did YOU change your diet? Anything special/extra on lifting days?

Question 3: I don't sleep worth a shit. Wake up EVERY morning around 3am. My mind starts spinning and it takes an hour or so to get back to sleep. Then the alarm goes off at 5am.

Thanks for reading my tripe. I am stoked to be here!

[Suwannee Dave]

Warmup: ride my bike to the gym 2 miles then just use empty bar for what ever exercise I will be doing
Diet: try to limit carbs except for a little extra on lift days
Sleep: I think compromised sleep just goes with getting older. Fortunately I am retired and love to take a nap after lunch

[Mark E. Hurling]

1. I used to do 5 minutes of some cardio like warmup. Now I just do the warmup sets. Also I'd suggest moving the stretching to after lifting. Recent studies have shown that stretching before lifting actually makes you weaker.

2. Nothing special for me. I do try to minimize carbs and rely on meat and vegetables.

3. Welcome to geezerhood. Naps on my lunch hour are now a staple for me.

[Skel]

Warmup is cycling home from work. It's not far - about five miles - and that's my doctor prescribed cardio and warm up. I parked my car twice that distance to make sure I do it, else the temptation to drive in is too much on a freezing cold morning.

I do some of the recommended things in the nutrition forum, but I mainly follow the no ab diet: If an ab rears its ugly head I eat a bit more, and if the fat starts to spill over my belt I eat a bit less.

Sleeeeeeppppp... lovely sleeeeep... I remember that. Seems to me that as we get older we need less, and I usually wake up after six hours without the alarm. Though I also sleep in my break at work. Just pull over, set an alarm and climb into the truck bunk.

Because I work ridiculously long hours I've had to split the workouts up a bit, so I usually do Mon: Press etc, Tues: Squats, Wed: Rest, Thurs: Bench etc, Fri: Squat + D/L, Sat rest, then either start again on Sunday and roll it round or take an extra rest day, depending. Seems to work; my lifts are going up, slowly, but what's the rush?

[Dave Klopp]

1. usually will row for 500 yards then some foam rolling, finish up with dynamic stretching. This takes about 10 mins.
2. I took in more protein, stopped eating pasta, bread. When I am approaching PR territory I will count my calories, macros to make sure I am eating enough food. On lifting days the only thing I do differently is take BCAAs and a carb source 15 mins or so before I start to lift.
3. sleeping for me is usually good though at times a bad sleep pattern will develop such as waking up at 3 am every night. This can be tough to break. I have gotten pretty good at calming my mind (don't think about work or family) during these times allowing me to fall back to sleep.

[pkelly54]

Welcome to the group.
1- Like Mark, now I just do warm-up sets. I used to do 10 minutes of elliptical as warm ups but found that much work for warm-ups affected my work sets. I do 10 to 14 of HIIT ( 20 sec sprint every 2 minutes) after the work out. This was a recommendation of Jordan's. It seems to work.
2 - I usually have a "see-food" diet. Now I add Whey every morning and 5 grams of creatine. I do eat clean and am trying to cut back on carbs but my wife is Italian and a good cook.
3 - Sleep is more difficult for geezers, one possibility to help improve sleep might be to start earlier.

Good Luck.

[AK49]

Welcome! I think it is great that you discovered SS on PJ Media. Getting the word out really helps. I think I discovered it on the reddit /r/fitness group but I don't remember for sure.

For warm ups, I usually walk fast on the treadmill for 5 mins at a 10% incline, then do a few pushups, lunges and jumping jacks. I find the SS prescribed squat warm up weights take me the rest of the way if you work through them quickly. I aim for a light sweat on my forehead before hitting my work set.

As for diet changes, I initially just added protein. Then I added a lot more calories. If I were to do it over again, I would eat just above maintenance calories and make sure a lot of that is protein. My goals aren't to become huge. I am trying to strike a balance between looking good and gaining strength. 15-17% body fat is my target.

[franklie]

1. I used to do 5 minutes of some cardio like warmup. Now I just do the warmup sets. Also I'd suggest moving the stretching to after lifting. Recent studies have shown that stretching before lifting actually makes you weaker.

2. Nothing special for me. I do try to minimize carbs and rely on meat and vegetables.

3. Welcome to geezerhood. Naps on my lunch hour are now a staple for me.

What Mark said but I've bolded for emphasis what's helped me.

[Bill Quick]

I have very little problem with sleep - generally get at least eight hours, sometimes nine or more. I attribute it to the 10,000 units of Vitamin D, 6 mg of melatoin, and 800 mg of calcium and 600 mg of magnesium I take daily.

[JohnRoman]

Question 1: What do you do for warmup? I row 3 minutes; stretch quads, hams, adductors; then the warmup sets.
Question 2: I eat fairly healthy and stay away from gooey shit. How did YOU change your diet? Anything special/extra on lifting days?
Question 3: I don't sleep worth a shit. Wake up EVERY morning around 3am. My mind starts spinning and it takes an hour or so to get back to sleep. Then the alarm goes off at 5am.

1) Treadmill for 5 minutes (with knee sleeves on if doing legs that day). Just to get the blood flowing. Some have speculated that stretching before powerlifting can make injuries more probable. I can't find the source and I don't know how credible that info is or if it is just bro-science. I stretch after and/or on off days.
2) More protein. Started taking Creatine, Beta Alanine daily. Before lifting I take : Betaine Anhydrous and another does of Beta Alanine. If I'm feeling sore/stiff I will take some BCAAs. After lifting I take another dose of BCAAs.
3) Sleep is an issue for me also. I know my bad sleep negatively affects my recovery. Sooner or later I think it stalls anybody that can't get good quality sleep.

Technique, lifts, programs, etc. are what seems to have most of our focus. However, recovery seems to be what drives long term sustainable progress.