James39's Turning 40 Starting Strength Log

[James39]

Today's volume day:

Squat 290x5x4
Bench 220x5x4
DLift 385x5x1

My gym was closed so I drove into the city and worked out at the other gym I belong to... near work. I actually like lifting there. There are two nice squat racks. The crowd is also much older... like me. It is a good change of pace.

Squatting is nice at this weight. I feel my form is very good and I think it makes a difference.

Bench was actually qutie easy today too. I did the first three sets so easily that I did not even ask the guy to spot for me on the last set.

I like deadlifting. It just makes me feel strong. There is something about throwing on so many plates (and then lifting them) that is satisfying.

This may be my last real progress day as I intend to start really hitting the track harder this week. I saw a guy in his 70s last week at the track and he was training for the same track meet as me. That motivated me.

[spiderman]

Squat 360x1x1, 365x1x2

On intensity day I feel like I need too have some progression. I don't feel like putting on the new 1RM weight on my first work set. Squats were good. I felt strong and could probably do another 5#.

I surprised that 360 is so significantly different from 365 for you and serves as a good final warm-up. That is 98.6% of your final lift. I would think a weight so close to a 1RM would actually tire you out rather than get your muscles and nervous system completely warmed up.

For powerlifting competitions, I think people use a first lift in the 90-93% range and a second lift is usually somewhere in the 93-96% range.

[James39]

I think you are right. I don't record my warm ups here... the 360 was not a warm up. I just did not want to put on my 1RM and fail it on the first attempt. It seems to me that progressing on 1RM weights is trickier than on 5RM because if I know I will fail rep five I can simply rack the bar after four. For 1RM I cannot do that and I fear injuring myself.

I missed a couple days due to the storm and the holidays. I got a bit back on track today, but only did a modified volume workout.

Squat 290x5x3
Press 150x5x3
Chins BWx7x3

Everything was actually pretty easy. No problems at all and I really worked on my form. I will take Sunday and Monday off and then do a volume day on Tuesday and try to get back into the swing of things for the new year.

I went to the track the day after my last workout and it was incredibly discouraging. I tried to do some high jumping. It was just about exactly 19 years ago I was high jumping 6' 7.5" fairly consistently. I did it three times during the season. Now my body just has absolutely no bounce. I am about 35 pounds heaver which obviously makes a difference, but that's not it. I am just old. I am seriously considering just bagging the track and field plans and sticking with weightlifting. I like doing these workouts and it makes me feel good. After I did the track workout my body just felt fragile and broken. My back hurt, my ankle hurt, and I just basically felt like I sucked.

I still like the idea of competing to some extent. I may look for an old guy powerlifting meet. I am over 40, weigh about 225 and my current 1RMs are 365/250/430. I am sure I could boost them up a bit with some focused effort. I tried looking for results for masters meets, but could not really tell if I would look like a fool or not. I may just try to find a small local meet and check it out.

[James39]

Today's weight 223. Today's volume workout.

Squat 295 x5x4
Bench 225x5x4
DLift 395x5x1.

[James39]

Wow, it has been 12 days since I worked out. It has not been because I have been a slacker. For the last week+ I had a nasty case of the flu. I also had a number of other things before that. During the last week or so I have not been eating much nor have I been taking creatine. I was really out of it. I lost a bunch of weight as a result. I feel pretty good now, but wanted to take it easy in the gym today.

Today's weight 214. Today's light workout.

Squat 225x5x3
Bench 185x5x3
DLift 315x5x1

That's it. I am going to get back on track. I will probably lift lightly for a few weeks and then start taking things more seriously.

[James39]

OK, I have been a slacker. No excuse. I just spent a lot more time with my son, which was nice.

Anyway, today's workout:

Squat 275x5x3
Bench 205x5x3
DLift 365x4x1 (grip failure)

Pretty easy day. I wanted to ease back into things. I felt strong. I should have warmed up more on the squat. I tweaked my groin a bit, but no big deal.

Bench felt fine.

Deadlift was good except I swapped my hands and did my weak hand underhand and my strong hand overhand on my work set. I had not done this before. It hurt like hell and I thought the skin on my hands was going to rip right off. The only thing that gave out was my grip. Oh well.

I have been off creatine now for a couple weeks. I think i will just go slow for a bit and then do a linear progression and try to strengthen back up.

Hopefully I am really back on track now.

[James39]

I skipped the workout on Tuesday. Today's workout:

squat 280x5x3
press 140x5x3
chin BWx7x2, x6x1

good workout today. feeling weeker due to skipping workouts and no creatine. I have lost weight also. i'll take it slow for a while before gearing things back up. i am feeling back on track but not feeling like going crazy.

[James39]

Oops. I forgot to log in my last workout... from Tuesday.

Squat 275x5x3
Bench 210x5x3 (I think it was 210)
DLift 365x5x1

Today's workout:

Squat 280x5x3
OHP 145x5x3
Chin BWx7x3

I am only working out twice a week now. I am doing the above workouts and skipping cleans. I am also off creatine. I am losing weight too. Things at work and the weather and family committments are making it too difficult to hit three days in the gym.

I also may stop logging things in here for a while until I get back to a real workout system. For now, I am going to just maintain things for a while.

[spiderman]

I also may stop logging things in here for a while until I get back to a real workout system. For now, I am going to just maintain things for a while.

Don't stop logging! Yours is the only log I actually follow.