My I Swear This Isn't A Midlife Crisis Log

[George Christiansen]

An introduction:

40 YO
6'7" 228lbs dressed. Hovering around 20% BF based upon this site: http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/...age-men-women/
Using the scale on the way out of Publix. (They frown on nudity in their stores.)

I did pretty heavy manual labor from 16 to around 35. Was in better shape than the majority of folks, but my weight always hovered around 200lbs. So thin and, by the standards around here, as weak as a kitten. I was consistently inconsistent about working out, mostly because I was heavily influenced by the HIT Jedis, which led to a vicious cycle of overzealous workouts followed by ridiculous DOMS followed by too much rest followed by no real results followed by repeating the cycle when I could tolerate it.

From 35 until about this August I was doing pretty regular workouts, but not training in the proper sense. I had good endurance and body awareness, but still pretty weak. The last two years I had no real gym access, but was able to get my thinking straight by reading a bunch of good stuff.

I've had two shoulder injuries: one falling off a roof and one getting hit by the ex-wife, while she was driving the Bronco. No surgeries for either. Occasional discomfort, but nothing serious. Both feeling better from lifting so far. I am feeling a few little aches and pain, which I think is the combo of age and the fact that I was getting a lot less exercise over the last two years working as a stay at home dad.

Started the LP mid August @ a body weight of around 205lbs.
First week or so was adjusting my form and figuring out what the work set weights were.

Next 2 weeks I trained twice a week due to lack of sleep. We just moved and the kids were not sleeping well and because I am way to pretty and weak for prison, neither was I. The third week was the same schedule due to the gym being closed on Monday for the holiday.

Did Squat+Deadlift with rotating Bench & Press the first two weeks. Dropped one Deadlift for Glute/Ham and Chins (My shoulder issues that have me deciding to wait on Cleans until I get more confident in my structural integrity.

Had trouble getting the hip "bounce" in the Press and keeping the upper back tight on the Bench so I didn't push those lifts too much and am actually adding 10lbs on bench the last two sessions, now that I've got the technique better.

Last week was the first three day a weeker and because I am old I decided to just work up to 1 rep of my previous Squat work weight as kind of a light day on Wednesday/Deadlift day.
Friday's Squats were still hard enough that I decided just to drop Wednesday's Squats and just do Deadlifts and a Press or Bench.
I decided to switch the Glute/Hams (partly because the "machine" sucked) for RDLs on Monday & Friday. I wanted the extra grip work anyway (I am going to try and stay with hook grip for all Pulls.) I also do band pull-a-parts, if for nothing else they seem to help my posture.

I'll see if both Monday and Friday RDLs are too much, but this is the template that I am planning on keeping for a while:

Monday:

Squat 3 sets of 5
Press or Bench 3 sets of 5
RDL 2 sets of 5
Chins 2 sets of 5

Wednesday:

Deadlift 1 set of 5
Press or Bench 3 sets of 5

Friday:

Squat 3 sets of 5
Press or Bench 3 sets of 5
RDL 2 sets of 5
Chins 2 sets of 5

The only other way I am NDTFP is that I am doing the last set for as many reps as possible without actually letting myself miss a rep. This is pretty much just because I am really not at my "real" working weights with everything yet, so if I get 7 or more reps I go up another 5lbs more than the normal increase.

Improvements as of last Friday:

Squat: 165-220
Deadlift: 200-260
Bench: 125-145
Press: 100-110

No other training or working out other than walking, playing with the kids, and coed naked wrestling with the new and improved wife.

Been eating three pretty big meals a day and chasing them with a quart of whole milk and maybe a beer or two at night. Obviously, I've lost my abz, but I figure that it'll all even out over the next few weeks after which I might have to add another quart of milk with some protein powder.

I just started taking creatine monohydrate today. No loading phase. Just 5gms per day and another 5gms after training. Other than that I do a multi, some fish oil, and just started with some joint junk.

Aiming for at least 250 @ 15% BF, 1.5xBW Squat, 2xBW Deadlift, 1xBW Bench, .75xBW Press by summer when I intend to try and become a Starting Strength Coach.

I'll probably post once a week and when there are any significant changes.

[George Christiansen]

This week:

Same layout.

Weights:

Squat 240lb
Bench 165lb
Press 115lb
Deadlift 275lb
RDL 170lb
Chin x3

Not too pleased with my squat and bench form. Passable, but I am going to redo those weights next Monday to make sure I own them before I move up. Also switching my Bench and Press to before my Squats to warm up my shoulders and elbows more before the Squats.

[Brian Jones]

Welcome. Suggest posting videos for coaches in their forum. Hang in there. Blow this up!

[George Christiansen]

I really don't have a way to video myself. I am thinking of finding a local coach to get "inspected" soon, though. I am pretty confident in my form in general. I was feeling like crap yesterday which made the weight feel heavier, which led to subpar form, but nothing scary. Except for one of the squat reps, it was still good. The Bench reps were just a bit to fast, which made them suspect to a shorter ROM.

[George Christiansen]

This week:

Squat 240lb (Got 3 sets of 5 previous two sessions but really struggled. Stayed at same weight and got 7 really good reps on the last set today.)
Bench 165lb
Press 120lb (Only got 4 reps on last set left shoulder/trap/lat/pec was feeling off Thurdays and today.)
Deadlift 285lb
RDL 180lb
Chin x4 (On last set)

[George Christiansen]

I am pretty certain the left shoulder/trap/lat/pec thing (as well as some tightness in wrists and elbows after squats was from some issues with my squat bar position. Reviewing this seemed to be the ticket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2tyOLvArw0

[George Christiansen]

This week:

Squat 250lb
Bench 170lb
Press 105lb (Reset after last weeks misses.)
Deadlift 290lb
Chin x3x3

Had one minor twinge during presses, but elbows and shoulder bothered me a bit during chins. Need to mix the grip up. Upped the rest times to 5 min for squat and 4 min for presses & chins. Was doing 3 min for everything.

[George Christiansen]

Rough week.

Had to reset Presses and was feeling a bit burnt out so I reset everything for Mondays session. 225 Squats still felt heavy and my left shoulder is still bothering me.

I am pretty sure I broke my pinky toe on Wednesday.

I decided to do a higher rep session: Dumbell Press & Bench, Pulldown & Seated Row, Glute/Ham & Sit Up, Leg Press, Leg Curl, & Leg Ext. Did two warm up sets and then 2 sets of between 10 & 15 reps, except Leg Press which I did 20. Did everything in two lazy circuits. The swelling had not really become too bad on my toe so I was able to get through this without any issues.

Now I can add going to Starting Strength hell to my nagging shoulder and broken toe. I might just skip today and do some mobility stuff over the weekend. Depends on my foot. I've been lazy about icing and elevating it.

I might do a couple of weeks of dumbell stuff and Leg Press Glute/Hams instead of Squats and Deadlift to regroup, stay off my toe a bit (I can squat, but not walk out now) and rehab my shoulder.

After that I am going to deload everything and reformat my schedule a bit. Likely it will look like this:

Monday:
A- Bench
B- Press
A- Pendlay Row
B- Neutral Grip Chin (Feels better for my shoulder)
Squat

Wednesday:
A- Press
B- Bench
A- Neutral Grip Chin
B- Pendlay Row
Deadlift

Friday:
A- Bench
B- Press
A- Pendlay Row
B- Neutral Grip Chin (Feels better for my shoulder)
Squat
Curls

Planning to take 50lbs off best Squat and Deadlift and work up in 5lbs increments for Squat and 10lbs for Deadlift
Planning to take 25lbs off both Bench and Press and then work up in 2.5lbs increments
Planning on BW Chins and Resetting Rows to 135 (Can do 150 x 3 x 5 now).

I am also going to do the last set of everything for AMRAP without allowing any unacceptable break in form to have some sort challenge to keep me from losing my mind regaining old ground. I am also thinking of doing GTG TGUs, Pushups, and Pull Ups on weekdays due to the fact that I don't want to get too used to this phase in my life where my other physical activity is at desk jockey level and it will be an almost daily reminder about good posture and keeping my bumb shoulder "packed".

It sucks to recover the same old ground, but I'd rather not screw up my shoulder any more than it is now. I feel like I have at least a couple month of real LP left after I get back to my last numbers, which should get me pretty close to my starting goals (1.5 SQ, 2xDL, 1x BN) before going to an intermediate program.

[George Christiansen]

I forgot to mention that I did set a PR of sorts on Monday. One of the guys at the gym who is actually pretty knowledgeable, uses good form, and is quite strong asked me where I learned to squat. At first I thought he was going to give me shit about going too low or something, but he just said how impressed he was that I was using such good form being so tall. We had a similar discussion about my Deadlifts on the previous Wednesday. I've only seen a very few guys Deadlift or Squat (Smith machine doesn't count) and even fewer guys break parallel.

[carson]

I forgot to mention that I did set a PR of sorts on Monday. One of the guys at the gym who is actually pretty knowledgeable, uses good form, and is quite strong asked me where I learned to squat. At first I thought he was going to give me shit about going too low or something, but he just said how impressed he was that I was using such good form being so tall. We had a similar discussion about my Deadlifts on the previous Wednesday. I've only seen a very few guys Deadlift or Squat (Smith machine doesn't count) and even fewer guys break parallel.

Good going. If you have a chance share a video.