Gain weight to lift weight?

[Mike Carlton]

I'm a skinny 59 year old guy.

Having discovered SS a couple of months ago I'm working on the novice progression and have made some good gains. My squat is up from 45kg to 78 kg and my deadlift is 125 kg from 70 kg altho my standing press and bench press aren't coming on quite as much. I had my first failed reps this week at 55 kg on the bench and finished the workout at 50 kg. I managed a 37.5 kg press yesterday having stalled at 37 kg for a couple of weeks.

My starting weight was only 66 kg, due to a combination of genetics, excessive time spent doing long, slow distance cycling and a year-long flirtation with a vegan diet. I'm now eating meat and dairy, taking protein supplements and starting to put on weight. I'm not unduly discouraged by my slow gains on the presses as I reckon that until I start gaining a decent amount of muscle mass I'm going to be limited in how much weight I can move on the barbell.

Have other older, skinny guys or SS coaches any observations, based on their experience, of what I can expect to achieve if I manage to gain some weight. I'm thinking I should be around 75-80 kg at my height - 178 cm (5'10").

Cheers

Mike

[Mike Carlton]

P.S. Forgot to add that my body weight has gone from 66 kg to 71 kg
Mike

[MWMan]

I'm in the same boat. I'm 63 and 6'1" weighing in at 186 lbs 84.5kg. I have been weight training for a couple of years, but really only playing at the edges. I used to weigh > 230lbs (104kg) a few year ago, but that was all fat. My body fat is now around 13%. Having read the books and listened to Ripp videos and podcasts, I am convinced that I need to add more weight to get stronger, but I'm not prepared to just get fat again. So I am currently targeting a 1/2 lb per week, and am heading for 200 lb before I decided to shake off any excess body fat. I figure I will be at 18 - 20% body fat by then.

My stats are pretty poor for a guy of my size, but probably not unreasonable for the average 63 year old. Squat 120lbs (54.5 kg) Deadlift 210 lbs (95.5 kg) Bench Press 120 lbs ( 54.5kg)

As you can see, my bench press is equal to my squat, so there is a long way to go there - but I do have arthritis in my right knee which gives me some grief.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I hope you guys understand that skinny old men are a lot easier to kill than big old men who train hard. Look it up. You can get big without getting fat if you're training, but all three of us can take a half-pound shit, so a half-pound weekly gain is a rather low bar to set. Gain some weight, get big and strong, and worry about your bodyfat after you're deadlifting 200kg.

[Mike Carlton]

Hey Rip.

I'm not worried about putting on fat as well as muscle.

My point is that, as a skinny guy, my linear progression has stalled after only 10 weeks, during which time I've only gained around 10 pounds. I think I need to gain more weight to lift more weight but as an older guy it's not been easy to change my fairly frugal eating habits. I'm working on it, drinking milk, eating meat and adding protein shakes, and expect that if I can put on another 10-20 pounds I'll be able to push on with the progression.

After years of cycling, my pipe cleaner arms are weaker than my legs, which is why my presses have stalled before my squats and deadlifts. At last my T shirts don't hang so loose over my upper arms and I'm starting to see as well as feel the benefits of the program.

Cheers,

Mike