How to proceed after two year beginner phase as a 48 year old?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Over 35 Lifter
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Dear T-Nation,

this is my first post here and i want to share my strength sport journey so far, and im looking for advice on how to proceed from where i am today.

I started training in April 2023, at the age of 46. At the time, my body was pretty fxcked up. After the rush-hour years with the kids growing up, building a home and a career, and a litte too much of party, is was way out of shape. i’ve done some sports in my youth, but in 2023 there was not much left of it. Especially heavy lower back pain and a lost spine disk forced my to use medication on a regular basis. When is was so wrecked that i could not sit without painkillers, i felt it was time for a fundamental change. At that time, age 46, i weigh in an 88kg(194lbs) at 1.92m height (6tf5).
So i started weight training in a local gym (which was more a physiotherapists gym for people like me). My 1Rep maxes at that time were:

squat - empty bar
beadlift - empty bar
bench - 30kg (65lbs)
ohp - no records

Now, as of April 25, my stats are
bodyweight 112kg (247lbs)
height 1.92m 6ft5

squat - 130kg (275lbs)
beadlift - 135kg (297lbs)
bench - 80kg (176lbs)
ohp - 52,5kg (115lbs)

After two years of beginner training with more ore less no idea on how to strategicly plan what i do, i’m at a point where i really fell in love with the sports. I feel great again, and back pain is long forgotten (even tough i got a bit chubby). Feeling great on the strength sport, i’d like to get deeper into it.

So, here is my question. What would be the most sufficient training method to proceed from where i am, and to gain strength and muscle mass increase? What are realistic goals in a realistic time period, considering my age? What are realistic strength values to reach in a one-year time period?
Training time is now important to me, and i have the support from my family to put time into the sport on a regular basis (3-4 sessions per week with approx. 90min time frame are possible).

Looking forward to your respones. And thank you all in advance for checkin out my post!

Kind regards from Germany,

Karl

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Welcome Karl, first of all congrats on the transformation. Sounds like a hell of a turnaround in the past couple of years.

I’m personally a big fan of 5/3/1 and it sounds like you’re keen on getting stronger so this program may fit the bill and it also has a heavy emphasis on conditioning. There’s also Easy Strength by Dan John but this has less of a conditioning focus. Of course there’s also the Starting Strength program which is quite popular too.

In terms of limitations - I wouldn’t think too much on it, you’ve made great progress over the last two years. Just focus on listening to your body, eating right and staying consistent. Would be great to follow you along if you start a training log on here.

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Welcome! What is your gym like? What type of equipment. What are your current “beginner” workouts like?

I have not attempted powerlifting for 30 years. I believe I followed the Westside Barbell approach back then.

I will let the strength guys lead the way for you now.

Good Luck!

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Max Muscle Plan 2.0 (Brad Schoenfeld, John Meadows).

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Hi aholding88, thanks for your comment. I checked 5/3/1 and wondered about the effects will have. But you also mentioned the Dan John program. For which time period should one stick to a certain program? does it make sense to mix programs in generall, e.g. got with 5/3/1 for one month, then use another program and so on?
Oh, and thanks for the idea of to post a training log here. That sounds quite motivational. Thanks!

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Hi Friedrich,
for 90% of the time, i use my own outdoor home Gym. After the whole day in the office, i need to see some nature. So i train outdoors year around. The Euiqment is a full rack, bench, barbell, elephant barbell, some dumbbells and simple cable pull machine.
When i started training, i meet with a trainer on a regular basis to learn the movements. Training started with a program called “double progression”, which is based on a ramp-up scheme for all main movements, which is like this:

reps | %rm
4 50%
6 50%
8 50%
10 60%
12 65%
10 70%
8 80%
6 85%
4 90%

in a 6 week cycle, then deload, then max-rm test, then repeat with new values.

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You can purchase both the 5/3/1 and Easy Strength books on Amazon. With 5/3/1 there is so much variety to choose from with different templates so you could run it for years and never do the same template twice. Easy strength does what it says on the tin (as we say in the UK) and is sometimes a nice change of pace and can be adapted for fat loss too.

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Another vote for 531. With the equipment you have it’s a great fit as it prioritizes the barbell movements.

Jim has I believe 4 books, buy the Forever Book, it’s the most current and has put most of his ideas over the years together.

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Dear all, thanks a lot for your support. I took a research on both 531 and Dan John. both of them provide tools and knowlegde. Taking a look at the material, the methods (i did not dig into every detail TBH) delivery a huge amount of possiblities, programs and alike. But in one of the Dan John essays, there was a chapter about goals amd achievements. This made my mind clearer: Alle the methods and programs are only tools, but without a creal definition of a goal, all this remains nothing more than a tool.
So it seems to me that the very next step should be defining a cear goal, a clear realistic vision instead of hopping onto the next program without knowing why to apply it. What do you think? How you define your goals?

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Nope… 5/3/1 is a long term approach.

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Some common goals are things like

“Looking Good” or lifting weights to target and develop a muscular, broad shouldered, narrow waisted physique.

“Building Strength for Strength Sports” or lifting weights to get better and better and stronger and stronger at a handful of competition lifts. Like a guy who enters powerlifting meets.

“Performance and Being in Shape” or lifting weights to build a more faser, stronger, more resilient body to get better at non-lifting activities.

Here’s “looking good” style program.

The way you describe your training plan, it sounds pretty “Strength Focused.”

I would call 5/3/1 and Dan John stuff “Performance” or “be in shape” programs.

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As you get into 5/3/1, it’s not just 1 “program” its a whole System, where you rotate through different routines with different focuses. And a lot of times, you switch routines after a month or 6 weeks. But you can stick with another 5/3/1 variation, and all the weights/sets/reps and training days are already lined up for you.

So “yes”, it makes sense to use 5/3/1 for a month before switching, because it’s designed for that. But “no” because 5/3/1 is a long term approach, so you won’t get. ton out of it in just 1 month.

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To expand and clarify - in 5/3/1 you can change templates which means changing the secondary lifts. The primary lifts will stay the same and the progression will remain the same. For example, on BP day in the BBB template I can either do 5x10 of bench as an accessory lift, or 5x10 of OHP. In a different template, the accessories and assistance lifts would be different, but the four main lifts remain the same.

In my opinion, switching from 531 to another program after a month is program hopping and counter productive. I feel this way because in 531 you start low, progress (weight) slow. Switching programs after a month would rob you of the progressive overload gains.

The advantage of starting low is that you get to hit PRs on reps in the AMRAP set, so you see weekly progress if you track your AMRAP PRs you will see progress on the regular.

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Greetings. Not much lifting advice to give you. I’m still doing what I learned in the 60’s. Lot of smart people on here using more advanced system. My only advice is don’t over think it. Gotta ask though. You gain 53 pounds in 2 years? That’s a big gain. Did you do it on purpose. Good luck and enjoy your journey.

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Hi hel320,
yes, approx 50pounds in 2 years is the number. But its a mixture of body fat and muscle. i have no trouble with eating and some good chefs in my family so i could follow the 1g of protein per 1 pound of bodyweight rule quite well. Getting a bit leaner is also a thing to consider, but not the main focus.

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First of all, thanks a lot for all the good feedback, i really appreciate that.
As it seems that there a lot of 5/3/1 fans here, i’d like to know if someone has some experience with starting strength 5x5 / madcow 5x5. And what is the main difference between the 5x5 approach against the 5/3/1 approach. Is there some fact-based evidence on which program serves which purpose, or is it more a personal try and error thing to see which method fits the own body the most? The more i dig into this stuff, the more it seems to me that it is the latter.

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Im hesitate to mention 5 pro that Wendler uses.

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Man, tricky question! What would you accept as Fact Based evidence?

Starting Strength is a Beginner program, based on Practicing the lifts with medium weights over and over to get comfortable with them. The purpose is to learn the lifts and move on.

Madcow is an Intermediate routine that waves the weights around, so in addition to Practice with medium weights you also develop Strength with heavy weights and Power with light weights. The purpose is to Train the lifts and get stronger on those lifts.

5/3/1 used light, medium and heavy weights for power, practice and strength. And assistance lifts to build muscle mass. Plus cardio/conditioning to develop your energy systems. And sometimes in other phases more extras like jumps, throws, stretching and BW exercises. The purpose is to build a bigger, stronger, faster, more capable body that performs better.

But I’m not sure if there is 1 study boiled down to a neat chart that lays it all out.

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the progression is different. full body vs dedicated day for each movement (some templates)

5x5 is a 3x per week,full-body, beginner program, where you do the movements so often you become proficient at them.

this was my introduction to a barbell. I ran this for six months. There came a point where I could not add weight to the bar every session as programmed.

some templates of 5/3/1 are comprised of 3 and 4 week cycles, designed to run indefinitely.

my favorites are the 4x per week templates. a squat day, bench day, deadlift day, ohp day. with 2 assistance movements and a core exercise on each of those days.

I moved on to this. I ran it for the next five years straight.
same lifts. the progression was more manageable. the days’ lifts were programmed was better for recovery now that I was using more weight.

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Hi there,
thanks for your comment. Would you be so kind to specifiy a bit in detail what “what i learned in the 60s” means ? thank you!

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