An Over 50 Lifter

Training Over 35 Lifter
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[quote]Elaikases wrote:
Tuesday part of my weekly split work-out

Abduction 325 lb x 12 rep +5 lb
Adduction 315 lb x 13 rep +5 lb +1 rep
Shoulder
Cable Fly* 25 lb x 10 rep +2.5 lb
Dip Belt body weight + 27.5 lb x 7 rep, +1 rep
Seated Row 275 x 7 reps, will do 270 or maybe 265 next. No more low back/lat Row – I’m going to use this to hit the mid back.
Body weight Dip x 9 +1 dip (natural cadence)
Cable Curl 112.5 lb x 10 reps +2.5 lb
Cable Row, High/Face Pull 157.5 lb x 8 rep, +2.5lb
Abdominal slant sit up, +30 lb dumb bell x 10, +5 lb
Back Extension 345 x 10, +5 lb (headed back towards my prior max of 350).

Good workout. Most on pulse up, one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand count negative, except for the body weight dip set.

Bicycled there with my daughter, and then to the park afterwards where she played until it was too dark, then bicycled home on the sidewalks.

Feeling much better.

*that is the rotator cuff strengthening exercise you see a lot of where you raise the extended arm from your side to 45 degrees. You can do it laying down with a dumb bell or standing with a cable fly. I do it both sides. I tried doing both at once and went back to one side at a time.

I was doing a lateral raise machine, got to where I was moving a lot of weight, but I don’t think I was hitting the right muscles or I’d be moving more with the flies.

My rotator cuffs are doing so much better. It is a miracle.
[/quote]

That’s good to hear. Rotator cuff problems are such a bear to get past sometimes. Excellent that your are responding well and getting better.

242

[quote]Elaikases wrote:
*that is the rotator cuff strengthening exercise you see a lot of where you raise the extended arm from your side to 45 degrees. You can do it laying down with a dumb bell or standing with a cable fly. I do it both sides. I tried doing both at once and went back to one side at a time.
[/quote]

Do you know a good video of that, Elaikases? Thanks.

243

[quote]1Geech wrote:
Elaikases wrote:
*that is the rotator cuff strengthening exercise you see a lot of where you raise the extended arm from your side to 45 degrees. You can do it laying down with a dumb bell or standing with a cable fly. I do it both sides. I tried doing both at once and went back to one side at a time.

Do you know a good video of that, Elaikases? Thanks.[/quote]

First, don’t buy the product, but change up your pillow if you side sleep, like this: - YouTube

Hmm, it is harder than I thought.

That is the exercise, with dumb bells instead of a cable pulley.

244

[quote]Elaikases wrote:
My wife can see the improvement in my upper body. That’s nice, her opinion means more to me than just about anything else I can think of.

[/quote]

It’s always nice knowing that the wife still is lookin’ at ya! :wink:

245

[quote]Elaikases wrote:
1Geech wrote:
Elaikases wrote:
*that is the rotator cuff strengthening exercise you see a lot of where you raise the extended arm from your side to 45 degrees. You can do it laying down with a dumb bell or standing with a cable fly. I do it both sides. I tried doing both at once and went back to one side at a time.

Do you know a good video of that, Elaikases? Thanks.

First, don’t buy the product, but change up your pillow if you side sleep, like this: - YouTube

Hmm, it is harder than I thought.

That is the exercise, with dumb bells instead of a cable pulley.
[/quote]

Ok, got it.

246

[quote]Elaikases wrote:
1Geech wrote:
Elaikases wrote:
*that is the rotator cuff strengthening exercise you see a lot of where you raise the extended arm from your side to 45 degrees. You can do it laying down with a dumb bell or standing with a cable fly. I do it both sides. I tried doing both at once and went back to one side at a time.

Do you know a good video of that, Elaikases? Thanks.

First, don’t buy the product, but change up your pillow if you side sleep, like this: - YouTube

Hmm, it is harder than I thought.

That is the exercise, with dumb bells instead of a cable pulley.

[/quote]

I like this one too:

247

Thanks Skid. I suspect it is good to have a couple of these in the bag.

248

[quote]1Geech wrote:
Thanks Skid. I suspect it is good to have a couple of these in the bag.[/quote]

It is, it helps to find ones that fit your needs just right.

Here is another variation on that exercise,

The name comes from the fact that the exercise was originally done with canned vegetables.

249

http://www.dietandfitnesstoday.com/body-fat-percentage-calculator.php was interesting. Put my bodyfat %tage at 13.34% or so.

My Tanita puts it a little higher, though I haven’t checked it for a while (about 17 lbs or so).

Anyway, I’m about to go off for a three mile walk with my wife. Love her. She thought my day might be a little rough, so she mowed the lawn so when I got home I wouldn’t. It was rough (I taught two two and a half hour classes back to back, nothing but lecture, and some extra time in between. I didn’t know I could talk that long) and my boss told me to go home and recover.

I told her thanks, I thought I’d go home and mow the lawn. So I got home about 5:15 to find steaks cooked on the counter and the lawn mowed. My wife told me to take a nap, I slept for an hour and just got back up.

Life is sometimes better than I deserve.

250

Aw…

That’s so cool!

Really!

You and your wife rock.

Thanks for the grins …

Cappy

251

EnvyisasinEnvyisasinEnvyisasin…

Good on you both!

252

E, sounds like you and Bunny are married to the same wonderful woman. Congrats

Thanks for all the shoulder advice. I’ve been following a lot of your advice for a couple weeks and I am seeing some slow improvement. I am going to stop benching three times a week, so that should help also (duh…).

I have the Tanita scale at home and it puts me a couple of % points higher on the bodyfat measure versus the caliper method.

253

skidmark – that gnarly dog avatar just gives me the creeps, every time. I’ve got to find you a better one.

mday, glad the shoulder advice helps. Really appreciate the comment on the Tanita. I’ve lost 17 lbs and my Tanita pretty much gives me the same bodyfat numbers … (now, on the drop from 245 to 167, and my easing back to 189 and staying there for a couple years, it was more consistent).

Anyway, today’s lifts …

neutral grip pull-ups, used 30lb support, a good clean 9 reps, two count up, four seconds down, great pump.

Bent-over dumb bell row
67.5x11 +2 reps, really felt it.

Shoulder Press (oops, should have been doing my wood chop here) 117.5 x 8, man, it was hard for a warm-up (last week was 85 x 9, no wonder).

Cable Triceps, 87.5 x 9 (what I was going to do for shoulder press), barely made it, my triceps were bushed. (should have been doing 112.5 lb).

Then the wood chop, 117.5 x8 + 2.5 lb, felt that too.

Rotations, all four, 35 lb x 10 reps.

Cable Fly, 52.5 x 8, only +2.5 lb but I was really feeling it too.

Next week I’ll have it sorted out. Get the shoulder press back where it belongs in the sequence, with the right numbers for a warm-up.

Or, maybe not. I’m still pumped up an hour later.

Lesson learned on the pull-ups, of course. When I’m not making progress or the exercise just isn’t working, cut back on the weight, work the form better.

Man, made the entire exercise go well.

Now I’m off to run more errands, poor kid still has a fever from her strep throat, had to skip soccer, two birthday parties and a trip to the zoo with girl scouts (5:30 to 10:30 p.m. special). Wife is staying home with her.

And, as I came home from working out and delivering birthday presents, resealed the grout and got started on some other projects.

Darn, I feel good. Muscles got hit, but I feel good. I may repeat this changed cycle.

254

Talk about avatar pics’ being creepy? You went from a class picture to a predator/gargoyle kinda thing, and that DOG was creepy? Well, Skid actually found something worse, and it’s right above this post!

Lot’s of good work Ela, all you guys have been hitting it pretty well.

255

I forgot…I can’t find the workout but, I remember you doing face pulls HEAVY, like 90-100 lbs.? I’m doing about 35 lbs, and can hardly stay upright. I’m standing, ending in the “double bicept” position.

Am I confused, are you doing a supported movement, or are you just that dam strong with that movement? I need to find that post of your’s and check it out. Great work either way.

256

[quote]zildjianman wrote:
I forgot…I can’t find the workout but, I remember you doing face pulls HEAVY, like 90-100 lbs.? I’m doing about 35 lbs, and can hardly stay upright. I’m standing, ending in the “double bicept” position.

Am I confused, are you doing a supported movement, or are you just that dam strong with that movement? I need to find that post of your’s and check it out. Great work either way. [/quote]

Do 'em at the seated row.

257

[quote]zildjianman wrote:
I forgot…I can’t find the workout but, I remember you doing face pulls HEAVY, like 90-100 lbs.? I’m doing about 35 lbs, and can hardly stay upright.

I’m standing, ending in the “double bicept” position. Am I confused, are you doing a supported movement, or are you just that dam strong with that movement? I need to find that post of your’s and check it out. Great work either way. [/quote]

That dog of Skidmark’s was just too much for me, I was offering to trade an avatar or something, but I’ve now posted my scariest one

(the werewolf was actually done by a friend of mine, if you go to the profile, the pictures of a person are pictures of me, the rest are custom avatars done for me. I am actually commissioning a new one for skidmark to replace the dog with).

However, I’m now posing with my scariest avatar yet …

The “face pulls” are a seated row. I’m sitting on the ground with the cable pulley thing set to the weight I’m using and pulling the rope (I’m using the rope handle, a length of rope with caps on the end and a hook in the middle, grabbing a length in either hand) so that one end is on either side of my face.

ind of like a seated row, except the pull is to the face instead of the hands coming to the side on a typical row.

In Judo you have a number of pulls where that is the angle you want to pull to, so I thought I’d switch things up.

Hope that answers any questions you had. Oh, I’m not pulling down, I’m pulling up, with the pulley at the bottom of the machine.

A classic “face pull” is down (see http://abcbodybuilding.com/exercise3/facepulls.htm )

I’m seated and pulling up.

Like this, only instead of to the neck, I’m pulling so my hands come to either side of my face:

258

The seated row I’m doing is a contraption that only pulls straight. I was using it more classic, with low back and the rest pulling in, I just switched to letting it isolate and that is requiring me to drop some weight.

Cable Row, High/Face Pull 157.5 lb x 8 rep, +2.5lb is the weight I did last.

My goal is to break 175. I want to be able to pull strongly enough to pull someone off their feet at the 160.2 weight class :wink:

I used to be monster strong when I was younger and want to be that way again if I am able to make starting Judo again work this January.

On a straight row I was moving 300+ lbs on the machine. Looks like when I isolate so that I’m not using my low back in it I’ll have to drop back to 265 or so. So this face pull row isn’t as much weight, but at a different angle.

I find when I can’t work my lats into an exercise it gets harder (e.g. the wood chops. I’m barely over 100 lbs doing them with an extension going up, whereas when I was going down I was closing on 200 lbs and had to wear a weight belt to keep my feet on the ground.

But pulling up, the classing direction, I can’t suck my lats into it which means less weight).

259

Got my Tuesday part of the split done.

Hip Abduction 330 lb x 12 reps, +5 lb. I’m rapidly adjusting to the different way of doing the exercise.
Hip Adduction 320 x 12

Cable Shoulder Fly 27.5 lb x 10 reps. +2.5 lb. This continues to work the rotator cuffs.

Dip Belt, 27.5 lb, 7.5 reps. I’m going to cut back to 25 lb. I need to be in the 8 to 12 rep range to make real progress.

Seated Row, quest for better form (true Seated Row form rather than row form), 265 x 8. I’ll probably do the same weight again next week and try for better quality reps towards the end.

Bodyweight dips, 10 (just normal pace rather than pulse and four count each). +1
Cable Curl 115 x 10 +2.5 lb

Face pull cable row, 160 lb x 8.

Slanted sit ups, bodyweight + 35 lb (using the 35lb barbell weight) x 10 reps. +5 lb.

Back Extension machine, 350 lb x 10 – back to my personal best, with 45 lb of weights hanging off the machine.

A good workout. My daughter crashed her bike on the way home, playing in a parking lot. She’s ok, hogging the Jacuzzi. Time to kick her out and tell her to go to bed.

I’m at good numbers, feeling good, enjoying the progress.

260

One thing I have learned is when I’m not making progress at some point I need to just cut the crap, drop the weight and improve the form.

I’ve also learned that sometimes I just need to shift my lifts around. If nothing else, it lets me make progress around as I hit the muscles differently and have to reduce the weight – that is a whole new chance to make improvements.