Just Turned 35 and Need Advice

Bigger Stronger Leaner Over 35 Lifter
1

A little about me. I’m new to the site but enjoy it alot. My question is: I am a 35 year old male and have been athletic all my life but never really worked out all that much. Mainly I would work out for a few weeks see no progress and stop for awhile then pick it up and the cycle would continue. I got divorced a couple of years ago and just let my body go and my weight training became non existant.

What I would like to know is: what type of supplements would benefit me for my age and what type of workout is suggested for someone over 35. I can’t take steriods or test because I work for the Goverment but I do want to become as big as I can but only naturally. I have been thinking about doing a 5x3 or a 5x5 tbt workout but I am unsure if this will be for me.

I origanally posted this in the bodybuilding thread but the mods moved it to the beginner thread, I just hope that it makes it this time to the over 35 thread. Semper Fi.

2

Welcome duffer. Your question has many answers. I would just be sure you have big compound exercises in the workout:deads,squats,bench,military press,BB rows,etc. I went up a shirt size after I started deadlifting. Can’t go wrong with a 5x5 routine. Good luck.

3

[quote]ecogenx wrote:
I would just be sure you have big compound exercises in the workout: deads,squats,bench,military press,BB rows,etc. [/quote] Well said.

Workout program doesn’t really matter, but you do need two things for good progress:
Consistency and Intensity.

Then there’s the whole nutritional thing - do some reading/searching on the site for that.

Semper Fidelis, and good luck.

4

[quote]ecogenx wrote:
Can’t go wrong with a 5x5 routine.
[/quote]

x2

I liked Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength”

5

Eco, asdf and yo. Thank you for your responses. I have been giving a 5x5 or 5x3 program consideration. I was thinking of maybe a cycle of 5x5 for two weeks than doing 5x3 for two weeks than maybe a Starr workout for two weeks with one week off for rest. We’ll see. Thanks.

6

[quote]duffer74 wrote:
Eco, asdf and yo. Thank you for your responses. I have been giving a 5x5 or 5x3 program consideration. I was thinking of maybe a cycle of 5x5 for two weeks than doing 5x3 for two weeks than maybe a Starr workout for two weeks with one week off for rest. We’ll see. Thanks.[/quote]

Look at some Dan John stuff. Danjohn.org is a good site. He does a lot of O lifts. He also has articles on this site.

7

Yup. I did a 5x5 program for a year, and am now doing 5-3-1.

Supplements I take and swear by: Alpha Male, BCAAs (4 just prior to workout, 4 during, and 4 immediately after), Flameout, and Hot Roxx.

Make sure you eat enough to support the effort, and make sure you’re eating clean. All the work in the world won’t matter if you’re not feeding your muscles. Get lots of protein and enough calories to maintain or even put on a bit of weight. Right now, I’m a huge fan of a gallon of milk a day along with my normal eating (2500-3000 clean calories a day). In the short time that I’ve added the milk, my recovery’s become MUCH quicker, my energy levels are up, and I feel stronger.

Also, lots of pre-hab and rehab. face pulls, dislocations, foam roller work, etc. Gotta watch the shoulders in our advancing years. :slight_smile:

8

Thanks for the advice mcl. I haven’t looked into the 5-3-1 workout yet. I will have to search and take a look. I will be starting on Monday, I am just now coming of of a 2.5 week vacation. As part of my cardio plan I have been thinking about doing only the cardio sessions of p90x. I have a friend who swears by the p90x dvd’s so we will see.

9

Duffer,

your thinking about this way too much. JUST G0 TO THE GYM!!,
make sure you warm up slow and have your form perfect at all time. 5x5 5,3,1 3x8-10 doesn’t matter as you are starting from 0. anything will help. Just remember to feed your muscles,not your ego.

Your shoulders, elbows and hips will thank you…Dont be one of those a’holes doing curls and your legs are soar the next day from swinging the weights and only having your arm move 3 inches…

stick to a basic plan with 2 warm up sets and 3 working sets of 6-12 reps.
include all major movements, deads, squats, bench and so on. Use a push pull (1 day chest and bi’s, off day, shoulders and traps, off day, back and tris, off day, legs and anything that doesnt “hurt”.

You stated you worked out in the past so why have you been posting for 5 days… get off the puter and hit the weights.

As for supps, stick to a protein and creatine till you build a foundation. Supps are just that, they supplement a good diet. Save the supps for when you stop making gains and need something for extra push.

that shouldn’t be for a couple of months… you start taking all the crap now and you will never be able to work out with out a 2hr prep with this powder and that pill and god help us all if the next MR O swears by suppository protien, its really ganna suck going to the bathroom in the gym then…

What ever happened to eating clean and lifting like an animal…Now we need the right straps and the new extra hardcore platinum Nanovapor (and don’t forget if you shake it before you open it YOU WILL DYE) and enough pills to make you rattle when you walk…

Lift some weights, eat some chicken and get your sleep… you will be 100 times better off then read a million forms on why you should only do 1 rep or 100 reps… 6-12 reps has worked for over 40 years so far…

good luck to ya.

ca

10

BOnzz thanks for the reply. I guess the reason for me posting was to find out what was working for everybody. I know that what works for one doesn’t work for all. I just needed some options to chose from. Your advice and most of the other posters on supplements seem the same. To use protein and creatine. That will save me some money. Thanks.

11

[quote]mcl wrote:
Yup. I did a 5x5 program for a year, and am now doing 5-3-1.

Supplements I take and swear by: Alpha Male, BCAAs (4 just prior to workout, 4 during, and 4 immediately after), Flameout, and Hot Roxx.

Make sure you eat enough to support the effort, and make sure you’re eating clean. All the work in the world won’t matter if you’re not feeding your muscles. Get lots of protein and enough calories to maintain or even put on a bit of weight. Right now, I’m a huge fan of a gallon of milk a day along with my normal eating (2500-3000 clean calories a day). In the short time that I’ve added the milk, my recovery’s become MUCH quicker, my energy levels are up, and I feel stronger.

Also, lots of pre-hab and rehab. face pulls, dislocations, foam roller work, etc. Gotta watch the shoulders in our advancing years. :)[/quote]

I like the gallon of milk angle and will be implementing it into my diet, however it surprises me that you credit it for recovery. Quick recovery is something that I can’t get enough of at my age (49)…thanks

12

Two things others have said, do compound moves. If you do them hard enough you will be lucky to have enough energy for a set of situps.

Do basics first then when you get to know what works for you, you will become an expert on YOU.

I would suggest that as time goes by you will be able to increase volume, but you may find two hard sessions enough to start with.

Start light, push the weight up when ever you can, try not to fail reps as it takes out huge energy when on big moves with big weights, and forget basically everything you have ever seen in Musclemag Flex or Mens Health.

Try and find someone who has done this before and learn from them.

Been doing this for 28 of the last 39 years and would still call myself an intermediate. Hold State masters throws records (Australia) broken Nast records at times , placed in US Indoors, but still would not call myself advanced, simple stuff still works…

13

[quote]Dentfixer wrote:
mcl wrote:
Yup. I did a 5x5 program for a year, and am now doing 5-3-1.

Supplements I take and swear by: Alpha Male, BCAAs (4 just prior to workout, 4 during, and 4 immediately after), Flameout, and Hot Roxx.

Make sure you eat enough to support the effort, and make sure you’re eating clean. All the work in the world won’t matter if you’re not feeding your muscles. Get lots of protein and enough calories to maintain or even put on a bit of weight. Right now, I’m a huge fan of a gallon of milk a day along with my normal eating (2500-3000 clean calories a day). In the short time that I’ve added the milk, my recovery’s become MUCH quicker, my energy levels are up, and I feel stronger.

Also, lots of pre-hab and rehab. face pulls, dislocations, foam roller work, etc. Gotta watch the shoulders in our advancing years. :slight_smile:

I like the gallon of milk angle and will be implementing it into my diet, however it surprises me that you credit it for recovery. Quick recovery is something that I can’t get enough of at my age (49)…thanks[/quote]

It’s not the milk, necessarily. It’s just that I wasn’t eating enough, for me, to sustain and gain lean body mass. A gallon of milk adds 2400 kcals/day, good fats, a bunch of carbs, and 160g of protein. I’m going to see where I am in another week or so and decide whether to cut back to half a gallon a day.

If I don’t eat enough, I don’t recover well at all. If I get enough food, the recovery’s much quicker. The milk’s meeting that need for me, plus it helps me sleep better at night, and may be upping my testosterone levels a bit.

14

Welcome aboard. If still looking for suggestions go get Wendlers 5/3/1 e-book do the 3 day a week program and don’t change programs for atleast 6 months or more. And don’t mess with it the program works.

You’re only hitting the weights 3 times a week you can throw in cardio a couple of times and eat good. Simple huh ? By the Way you said your 49 right ? you will like the program. Any questions you can PM me or ask me in my log (Fischers Log) about the program set up.

Fischer

15

[quote]mcl wrote:
Dentfixer wrote:
mcl wrote:
Yup. I did a 5x5 program for a year, and am now doing 5-3-1.

Supplements I take and swear by: Alpha Male, BCAAs (4 just prior to workout, 4 during, and 4 immediately after), Flameout, and Hot Roxx.

Make sure you eat enough to support the effort, and make sure you’re eating clean. All the work in the world won’t matter if you’re not feeding your muscles. Get lots of protein and enough calories to maintain or even put on a bit of weight. Right now, I’m a huge fan of a gallon of milk a day along with my normal eating (2500-3000 clean calories a day). In the short time that I’ve added the milk, my recovery’s become MUCH quicker, my energy levels are up, and I feel stronger.

Also, lots of pre-hab and rehab. face pulls, dislocations, foam roller work, etc. Gotta watch the shoulders in our advancing years. :slight_smile:

I like the gallon of milk angle and will be implementing it into my diet, however it surprises me that you credit it for recovery. Quick recovery is something that I can’t get enough of at my age (49)…thanks

It’s not the milk, necessarily. It’s just that I wasn’t eating enough, for me, to sustain and gain lean body mass. A gallon of milk adds 2400 kcals/day, good fats, a bunch of carbs, and 160g of protein. I’m going to see where I am in another week or so and decide whether to cut back to half a gallon a day.

If I don’t eat enough, I don’t recover well at all. If I get enough food, the recovery’s much quicker. The milk’s meeting that need for me, plus it helps me sleep better at night, and may be upping my testosterone levels a bit.[/quote]

duffer74…I didn’t mean to get off topic on your thread, please pardon the interruption. mcl…thanks for the followup.

16

To everybody that has responded to my post I thank you very much. Don’t worry about getting off topic, that’s what a thread is for. Information. Once I get some pictures I will post them and my stats. I don’t have a computer so I have to use the local library. I need to get with the times I guess.

17

Duffer,

Did ya start??

ca