Broken, Beat & Scarred

Training Over 35 Lifter
1

Hi all,

Decided that I better get off my ass and do a log for some accountability. A brief background is below.

Age: 35 (just make it into this forum :])
Weight: 210
Height: 5’9"
Bodyfat: no idea but 20% plus I’d guess

I used to lift a fair bit when I was a teenager, then life caught up and I stopped at about 21. After a few years of not doing too much I got into boxing in my mid twenties and cut down to amateur middleweight (weighed in at 160). I could run for three hours but at that weight I always felt on the edge of being sick so in hindsight not a healthy time.

I then did nothing for a few years as we had a couple of kids and didn’t want to miss out on their early years.

About 3 years ago I finally got back into the gym and had an OK 15 months. Then my shoulder finally packed in (I broke it when I was 16 and got misdiagnosed until I was 32 … queue arthritis) and I had some clean up surgery to try and get a few more years out of it before a full replacement has to happen.

I started back after a few months and was just getting into things again when BAM, Canterbury got smashed with an earthquake in September last year just as I also caught pneumonia. Got over that and BAM again, Feb this year we got dealt another more damaging quake. So no water or sewer for three months made working out difficult to say the least as I could not even get a shower more than a couple of times a week at best.

All said and done though life has settled down again and in the last few months I changed to a great hardcore lifting gym that oozes the right training culture rather than the spandex encrusted former gym I was going to. Finally I am getting some good continuity in my training.

I am currently doing a full body workout (I am a rep so travel a lot and can not plan my gym visits, therefore try and hit everything in a session in case I can’t get back for a few days) and attempt to get in 4 sessions a week. Session is about 60 mins and goes as:

Front Squats
Deadlifts
Romanians
Dumbell Row
Incline Bench
Shoulder Press (machine to try and preserve my stuffed joint)
Dumbell Curls
Close Grip Press

Between 2 to 4 sets of each and rep range anywhere from often singles on DL to 8 or so on the curls etc.

Surprisingly doing full body a few times a week is going pretty good for the moment even though it sounded pretty stupid even to me as I was planning it out.

Lifts are pretty ordinary with anything shoulder related just being tragic. Best is DL at 407 for a single. Worst is bench at paltry 170 for reps as stability is a major issue. Front squats are … interesting and I’m still getting to grips with them but as I can no longer get my arm back to hold the bar on normal squats they are going to be a long term focus.

Goals are to lose some decent fat and see what I actually have to work with. Also would like to get bench to 220 and DL to 440. Front squats are still a learning curve so as long as they improve over time that is all I am wanting for the moment. Arms to a cold 16" would be good and legs to 27" by the end of the year are also on the list just for something to aim at.

Anyway regular updates to come…

Cheers all

2

Welcome aboard, will look forward to seeing how things come along.

3

Welcome, Ippon. Those are really good weights, I’ve been fighting for years and still can’t get up to a 400 dead or 170 bench. Good luck on your journey.

4

Welcome ippon,

Good luck with the goals. Full body workouts 3 x a week is how they used to do it in the olden days, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t still work today and that’s a good list of exercises you’re using.

Look forward to following your progress.

Are you a rugby fan by any chance?

5

Hey all, thanks for the kind responses.

The gym I now go to has a powerlfting section where a number of the guys are well over 400 pound for bench so not even getting to 220 makes me feel weak hehe, still you do what you can =)

And yup FarmerBrett, I’m a big Crusaders fan and actually have the privilege of being involved for a few sessions every preseason with them for a bit of boxing training. Big season and they came so close!

6

Welcome.

Regarding your avatar. FUCKING HELL YES!!!

7

Yeah I bet you’re not a Will Genia fan right now.

Are you looking forward to the World Cup?, do you think you’re going to win it this year?

Friends of mine bought me tickets to see the England v Wales (Cardiff) warm up game for my birthday. Looking forward to that. I live in Wales, but I’m English and a massive England supporter.

I think you are rightly huge favourites, but I wouldn’t ever write off Australia.

8

Welcome, if I deadlifted and squatted four times a week I’d cry tears of blood.

9

Welcome aboard. Your great attitude will get you far.

10

Well I’d like to say the All Blacks will win the world cup but we are just not that good at knockout competition so I’m not yet convinced. Australia will be a much bigger threat than many people give them credit for.

11

Wednesday

Well who would have thought that starting a training log would give me one of my best workouts in a long time. Really enjoyed training tonight.

Front Squats - 3 sets peaking at 200 x 4
Deadlifts - 4 sets peaking at 308 x 10 (decided to ease off heaver weight / low reps for a while as the lower back is starting to protest a bit so higher reps here we come …)
Romanians - 2 sets at 265 x 5
Dumbell Rows - 2 sets at 77 x 8
Dumbell Incline Press - 3 sets at 60 x 10
Machine Shoulder Press - 2 sets x 10 reps
Close Grip Press - 2 sets at 132 x 5
Dumbell Curls - 2 sets at 33 x 10

All up 20 working sets which is about all I really try and aim for.

Close grip bench was the ugly exercise for the night but still got something done on it.

Biceps are easy oesy at the moment as I just can not seem to shake a mild bicep tear that has been lingering for about 6 months now. I have finally thought “screw it” and will train through it rather than resting it but common sense says to take it light and easy.

Finished with 3 rounds on the bag which is always fun if I can be bothered.

Also day 1 (again …) of the diet and feeling pretty good considering.

12

Nice to see you on the forum.

Have done a couple of trips to nz for the whole outdoor experience, was very shocked to see the aftermath of the quakes especially in christchurch where we were recognising buildings that we knew.

Have good friends up in northland (whangarei) parents may be emigrating to nz soon.

13

welcome to old meathead land

4x a week full body is pretty rugged

14

Welcome aboard Ippon! Looking forward to following your progress.

What’s the latest on the shoulder? Has the doc told you to take it easy or are you clear to push it?

15

Saturday

Decided to scratch the Deadlifts for a session and did a few extra sets of front squats instead. I finally got to the 220 pound mark for 3 reps and it felt ok. Still went right down. The limiting factor on front squats is still the upper body side of it but 220 was a good first goal to knock off.

Also moved up to 100 pound dumbbells for dumbbell rows and got 6 reps out on both sets

The other weight increase was incline dumbbell press. Went with 72’s (apologies for the strange looking weights but I am converting them from kg to pounds as this seems to be a mostly USA site) and got sets of 8 reps out. The shoulder felt ok with them as a bonus.

At the end of the session I did some public service and helped a new guy out on how to do deadlifts. The bastard picked up some great form in about 5 mins lol, much faster learner than I ever was.

late2thegame - The shoulder is a bit of an odd one. I broke it in a rugby tackle when I was 15 but it was misdiagnosed as a rotator cuff injury. It was never x-rayed and over the years I have been through 3 different sports doctors and 5 physios, none of whom ever thought to do more than believe the previous patient notes.

Finally about two and a half years ago when I was back in for more “maintenance” a new doctor sent me for an x-ray (bless him) and it turned out that I had chipped off most of the bone on one half of the edge of the socket part of the shoulder joint. So there were about a dozen fragments of bone floating in the joint, the biggest shard being 12mm long but to make matters worse a ton of arthritis due to 18 years of no real treatment. As my specialist told me it is now pretty much the shoulder of an 80 year old. About 18 months ago I had clean up surgery on it and now its just a case of managing it best I can so try and hold off a full shoulder replacement as long as possible.

Sucks but many people have a lot worse and it can be worked around.

Alrighty, that was the day and all in all a pretty good one.

16

Welcome Ippon Good luck on your new Journey. Keep at it!