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Thread: Kapt America Staves off Death - A Master Athlete's Training Log

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Overland Park, KS
    Posts
    29

    Default Kapt America Staves off Death - A Master Athlete's Training Log

    • starting strength seminar april 2024
    • starting strength seminar jume 2024
    • starting strength seminar august 2024
    Ok, I figure it’s time to stop lurking and start posting and logging my workouts. This Starting Strength stuff is “starting” to get very serious and real for me. I don’t have any imminent death pending as my training log title might imply, but I see this as helping to prolong my love of getting outdoors and living life in addition to staving off death despite the fact that I’m really only half way through life having been around for 5 centuries now.

    In High School I don’t recall ever being able to do 5 solid push ups. Yeah, I played football and “lifted” weights, but I never took it seriously and don’t recall anyone really coaching me to lift with good form or programming. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember hurting my neck using some bizarre weight machine designed to “strengthen” your neck muscles. Apparently so you could be a better football player.

    After High School and College I “exercised” and fell in and out of shape… mostly out of shape. My IT and Cyber Security career kept me at a desk and keyboard which encouraged my downward health spiral.

    I woke up in 2014 and decided to take better care of myself and get stronger in the process. At the time I was traveling for work and started getting stronger using dumbbells in hotel gyms. Somewhere around 2016 I came across Starting Strength and Mark Rippetoe on Brett McKay's “Art of Manliness” on YouTube.

    I’ve been largely learning Starting Strength on my own. Living in Overland Park (a suburb of Kansas City) I haven’t had much access to SSCs or great gyms. My solution was to build my own garage gym and watch/read as much as I can - YouTube videos, Starting Strength 3rd Edition, The Barbell Prescription, etc. I have family in Dallas and have visited John Janecek at Janacek Strength several times. He’s greatly improved my form in the limited amount of time I’ve been able to spend with him.

    I’m signed up and looking forward to attending the Starting Strength Seminar in Wichita Falls in December (2019).

    So about those 5 solid push ups in High School… Fast forward to a few days after my 50th Birthday and I could do 34 in under 2 mins. This is despite carrying at least 40 lbs of extra weight around my midsection.

    My Single Rep PRs (all done recently at 50 years of age):
    Squat 305
    Deadlift 315 yes… artificially low right now!
    Bench 215
    Press 145

    I'm stronger in my 50s than I was in High School or College and truly believe in the program's ability to make you a stronger, better version of yourself!

    My goal right now is to finish my NLP while at the same time losing or at least maintaining my weight by eating more whole foods and nutritious meals.

    And so it begins...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    Virginia
    Posts
    755

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    Welcome to the forum, and best wishes for a successful NLP run.

    I have been "involved" with weight lifting for about 5 years now, starting with some of those DVDs featuring the guy who was into "muscle confusion" (not wanting to mention any names ...) and then to his buddy, who wanted everyone to become a "Beast". You know, a "body-builder" with visible abs and big wide shoulders and pumped arms. Not to belittle the program (much), but it was very effective for the newbee me to lose about 30 pounds of excess fat and replace it with 15 pounds of lean mass in less than a year. But that was a long-ish time ago, and progress ground to a halt.

    Gradually, I worked my way through the usual Chaotic Program Hopping methods to discover Starting Strength back in May, and decided to get serious about getting strong. My previous efforts had led to a fairly lean and light-weight body, 183 pounds at 8% BF, but my ability to move iron around had plateau'd and in some cases even declined. Still, for an average guy at 61 years old, not too shabby.

    Well, I was wrong! LOL. Since going NLP in May, I've added something like 50 pounds to my Squat (and I no longer do those quad-focused "partial" reps that had been my limitations before SS/NLP; I can really do a full ROM squat now!). I actually do deadlifts with a straight regular bar now, rather than (cheating) using my hex/trap bar. And I'm moving a weight on the overhead press that (to me and my really old and weak shoulders) would have been unthinkable in 2018.

    I still believe I am a novice, although my training routines have evolved into a 4-day split and reduced the linearity of the progression -- but there is still progression happening -- I am adding weight to the bar for every exercise at least once a week and just the other day broke through a sticking point on my deadlift to make a new all-time high PR for 3 reps.

    And physically, like you, I am stronger now than I was during my time in the Army when I was in my early 20's. My weight is up to the mid-190's, and I've done it without putting on a whole mess of fat. No longer worried about visible abs, but all the fat test methods show me around 10%, which is still lean for my age. And I can hardly wait to see what I can do with SS as 2020 unfolds!

    I look forward to reading your posts and seeing your progress!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Overland Park, KS
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    Hey Bruce... Thanks for the encouragement. Sounds like you've made some great progress.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Overland Park, KS
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    Today's lifts:

    Squat 240x5x3
    Press 125x5x3

    Link to squat:
    YouTube

    I would appreciate any feedback on my squat form.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    Virginia
    Posts
    755

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    Bar speed and position on the scap-ridge looks fine. Video shows you have a tendency to look up as you begin to drive out of the bottom. If you keep your head down looking at the spot about 3 feet or so in front of your toes, it will help fight that tendency, as well as aid in keeping the focus on driving with the hips. The hips should lead the torso on the push back up. At about rep #3, it looks to me like you start leading the drive up with the shoulders; rep #4 looks fine, but that last fifth rep looks like it is almost all upper-body driven.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Overland Park, KS
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    Thanks for the feedback Bruce! Most appreciated!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
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    Overland Park, KS
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    I've been eating healthier and using a combination of The Vertical Diet and Renaissance Periodization Diet's to get my weight down. One of my primary motivations is getting off my blood pressure medication that I've been on WAY TOO LONG.

    I say a combination of the two because I'm basically eating Vertical Meals and managing my calorie intake per the RP diet. I've also been taking in more protein than either of those specify by supplementing with Whey Protein smoothies using coconut water, orange juice, and vanilla whey. Takes great!!!

    I find compliance is much easier eating the red meat and potatoes on the Vertical Meals and I've been ordering Stan's Vertical meals which makes it super convenient and easier to comply with. "Compliance is the Science", as Stan says. I was never a fan of potatoes (other than french fries), but now I understand the satiety you get from gold and sweet potatoes. I think Rip and Robert Santana also mentioned this on a recent SS Radio episode.

    Before someone mentions it, I get that losing weight and getting stronger don't go together very well, but I'm in this for the long haul and other than getting stronger I'm being driven by my goal is to get my weight down to 205 and get off my BP meds.

    Weight Loss Progress - 2019-11-16.jpg

  8. #8
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    Oct 2016
    Location
    Overland Park, KS
    Posts
    29

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    I started off trying to establish my 1RM in the Deadlift. Pulled 315 a few weeks ago with gas in the tank and tried to go up to 365 after that. Not sure why I jumped up that far, but I felt like I couldn't get it moved off the floor. After reading Robert Santana's recent article on artificially low deadlifts I wanted to try pulling more than 315. After warming up I put on 335. I definitely got it off the floor and had my back set properly. Just couldn't get it moving much further than maybe a foot.

    Tried it a 2nd time, not enough in the tank to get it moving.

    Finished up with 225x5

    Bench 170x5x3
    Still rehabbing my shoulder, but getting closer to my 185x5x3 PR set from several months ago.

    I'm really trying to work on squeezing my shoulders together and driving my legs without bridging.
    Last edited by SteveARodgers; 11-21-2019 at 03:27 PM.

  9. #9
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    Oct 2016
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    Overland Park, KS
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    Yesterday's training session:

    Press 127x5x3
    Last rep of the last set was ugly as hell, but I got her done!

    Squat 245x5x3
    Finished strong!
    Last edited by SteveARodgers; 11-21-2019 at 02:32 PM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    5,471

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    starting strength coach development program
    welcome and keep at it!
    hurray for guys in their 50s

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