Reply With Quotegood luck man.
One thing I gotta mention about diet. your eating about 1645 calories. You said this represents 1,000 cal. deficit that would bring you to 2545 cal per day.
by comparison, I'm 60, average cal per day = 2800. I'm 5'5 @ 163lbs.
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Cutting and switching to SS lifts
First off, I'm NDTP, because I'm currently cutting from 280 to 220, and I'll accept any stalls in my linear progression. And I'm still looking for a coach to help with power clean form. Once I reach 220, I plan to pause the cut and focus hard on getting stronger. Ideally via recomp, but that may be overly optimistic.
Age: 40
Sex: Male
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 245
Average macros for last week: 137 protein, 61 fat, 137 carbs. This is roughly a 1000-calorie deficit, which feels a little steep on paper, but I'm still seeing lifetime bench PRs, so who knows. My 40th birthday was a lot easier to bear when I realized that I benched more now than I did as a high-school wrestler.
Recent non-SS lifts:
High-bar squat: 210 × 5 (pulled glute, currently 185 × 5)
Trap bar deadlift: 235 × 5 (ditto, currently 185 × 5)
Bench: 200 × 1 (probably not 1RM, up from a pathetic—by personal standards—115 × 9 a couple months ago)
That bench is recent lifetime PR. I actually have a 5 lbs/workout linear progression on the bench press going nicely, and had a 10 lbs/workout progression on deadlift and squat until I got greedy and pulled a glute trap bar deadlifting 245 when my progression said 235. Learned my lesson there.
Working on SS lifts:
Low-bar squat: I can do it the SS way, but it puts scary strain on my shoulders. My left shoulder has slightly limited mobility, probably because of a tight pec (I'm working on it). I have longish forearms—I can set up an OHP pretty well, but the rack position for the power clean is a little sketchy. So I'm probably going to need to figure out a really wide grip with bent wrists and a light grip for now.
OHP: Feeling like I've got the form figured out this week, and I love the lift. I'll begin a linear progression on Monday.
Deadlift: Learning regular deadlifts Monday. My (non-SS) trainer had started me with a trap bar and then taught me to sumo deadlift.
Power clean: Going to see if my trainer can teach the SS version.
Workouts
Workouts: Twice a week, meeting with my trainer twice a month for form checks.
A note about my trainer: He likes to lift, likes compound lifts, and heartily approves of linear progressions for novices. He's strict about correct form, and he's willing to help me with SS. But left to his own devices, he's fond of complicated programming, lots of assistance exercises, and traditional versions of several lifts. The other local trainers are either (a) brutally expensive Crossfit types, or (b) "You need to do a 12-week mobility program before squatting" types. So I'm staying with the guy who likes linear progressions and who's willing to try coaching SS for me as an experiment.
So this is what my program will look like next as of next week:
Workout A
Squat 3 × 5
OHP 3 × 5
Deadlift 1 × 5
(Pullups, assisted)
Workout B
Squat 3 × 5
Bench 3 × 5
To be decided???
(Pullups, assisted)
On the non-strength front, I'm training a mix of short-to-medium-distance cardio to prepare myself for whitewater kayaking this summer. Twice a week, I do one of the following: Run intervals, run a fast mile, swim a slow mile, swim some sprints. Current (treadmill) mile time is 9 minutes, would love to do 1.5 miles in 12 minutes. Why cardio? People who can swim without panting are harder to drown.
Last edited by vtdad; 05-20-2016 at 06:33 AM. Reason: Minor fixes
Member
good luck man.
One thing I gotta mention about diet. your eating about 1645 calories. You said this represents 1,000 cal. deficit that would bring you to 2545 cal per day.
by comparison, I'm 60, average cal per day = 2800. I'm 5'5 @ 163lbs.
Member
Thanks you! So far, things are going good, as long as I don't exceed my recovery or pick up any minor BS injuries. I feel stronger, I move better, and I can actually see the new muscle. The combination of a high starting weight and newbie gains have allowed me to get stronger while cutting so far. I'm not under the impression that I'll be able to get away with this forever.Originally Posted by lou t
I'm a 40-year-old male with a sedentary desk job, which gives me a baseline of roughly 2,670 according to various online calculators I've tried. Subtracting 1,000 gives me 1,670, then I add back whatever I burn lifting or exercising (according to RunKeeper's guesses). This results in a weight loss of roughly 2 lbs/week, or maybe a hair more, which corresponds nicely to a 1,000/day deficit. The numbers for last week don't quite add up because I wasn't particularly hungry for several days, and ran a little under, which I'm now trying to avoid by the addition of beef jerky before bed if my numbers are still low.
I'll end my cut at 220, and I'll slow it down before then if my bench numbers start regressing. I understand that bench is one of the first lifts to go down when cutting, and it's the only lift where I'm not attempting to change form, so that's my benchmark. At 220 @ 6'2", I want to see if I can try manage to recomp while eating maintenance. I have no idea whether or not that's a realistic goal. At 220, I'll still be carrying quite a bit of fat, but I don't know how long a linear progression I'll be able to sustain like that.
Member
L.
O.
L.
This is SOOOO funny . . . .SOOOO true.
Gilchrest is wise!
Member
1650 cal seems too low IMHO . . .esp for a 6'2" frame. . . . even for a "cut".
Member
My first goal is dropping from low "obese II" to middle "overweight." This is as much medical as aesthetic. While doing that, I'm trying to gain strength for as long as I can, and when that stalls, I at least hope to preserve strength. Once I'm below 220, I'm happy to focus on strength for a while, and very open to advice about the best way to manage bulking/cutting/recomp at that point.
I don't know my trainer's exact lift numbers, but he's not certainly not a "beast" by SS standards. He appears to personally focus on aesthetics (with an upper body emphasis), with Olympic lifts as a hobby. But he explains things well, he doesn't let me get away with anything sloppy, and he's willing to be flexible. There are no SS coaches in Vermont, and the other local trainers are either outrageously expensive or totally inflexible.
I'm strongly considering attending the SS seminar on October 21-23 in Gardiner, NY, if it hasn't sold out.
Yes, I've read SS, and I've taken detailed notes on form, and cross-checked those notes against various Rippetoe videos on YouTube. That doesn't necessarily imply that I correctly understood or current remember the programming details, however—it's a lot of stuff to learn.
The "To be decided???" in the power clean slot of the program is because I haven't figured out whether to do another deadlift day (as per the early weeks of SS), to do the power clean (if my trainer can coach the SS version), or to just omit that slot to keep my deadlift volume low until I finish my cut. At 40 and in a steep cut, I do need to pay attention to my recovery—deadlifts wipe me out completely for a day.
Yeah, my trainer is always happy to film a work set. I can probably post some form check videos in a week or two if you for feedback. But let me see how far I can get with the books and my trainer next week, first.
Member
this could be a problem and red flag
one can't teach what one doesn't know or by their own experience haven't done.
Member
The "SS version" isn't different from any other model of coaching with a straight vertical pull, it's just taught differently. In my opinion, that's a point in its favor. To be honest, I didn't particularly like the "jump with the bar" method until I went to a seminar and saw how well it worked for people who had never done a power clean before. Then I was convinced.
That said, if he teaches you power clean with different cues, that's fine. So long as he can get you doing them well, I would go for it.
Member
Counting the calories I eat to balance out exercise brings it up to 1,970–2,170 four days a week. Could easily still be too low—and I'm happy to be convinced—but I'm not particularly hungry, and I'm adding 5 lbs/week to my bench, and the lean mass gains are visible. The CDC says 1–2 lbs/week, and I'm at roughly 2 (as a big guy with too much fat). So it seems aggressive but not outside standard guidelines? I'll review everything with my doctor next month. She has worked with college varsity football players, so she presumably has some familiarity with strength training, and won't tell me to stop squatting.
It's a whole different ballgame at 40 with a desk job than it was wrestling at 17 and doing 90-minute wrestling practices with 200+ push-ups and ridiculous amounts of cardio. My maintenance calories are obviously a lot lower now. Sometimes I don't remember this, which is why I currently need to lose weight.
Member
I think this is pretty optimistic for a natural lifter (especially at 40 y/o). I'm 6'1" 240, probably ~20% BF. I could tighten up my diet, but I don't expect to see any abs at this weight.
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