Will do that.
Btw now that I have your attention.
I am kinda old 53 and I just don’t seem to put on muscles.
Do you have any experience training someone my age. I’m putting the calories in, not much but a bit and any weight gains seem to be fat 
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I have trained a handful of people aged around 45-50, usually the things we need to think of the most are joints and posture (as a lot of people have worked a desk job for really long time and developed a bad posture) For improving posture, upper back and rear delta work usually helps. Usually slowing down the tempo on the lowering phase of the lift is a good idea as well as picking the appropriate exercises and using a bit less weight for more reps (you could absolutely do this program as it is mainly high reps and the lower reps are carefully planned)
As an older guy you may have harder time putting on muscle, but training hard and eating a lot of protein and vegetables/berries/fruits should help (of course fat and carbs as well), basically everything that works for younger guys should work for you nutrition-wise. We want to get in a lot of greens to be sure we hit our micronutrients so our bodies work as well as possible.
Some experts suggest starting TRT after hitting 45 or so, depending on your testosterone levels of course, so you may want to get those checked just in case (if you do not have anything against TRT)
So, in short:
A lot of protein
A lot of vegetables, fruits and berries
Enough carbs and fat
Possibly get your T levels checked
As for what us enough protein/carbs/fat, just take your current amount of calories (I don’t remember off you’ve been logging this), say 2500 Calories per day
Then, either take your bodyweight in KGs and multiply it by 2.2 or just take your bodyweight in pounds, that’s how many grams of protein you need every day, so if you are, say 75kgs/165lbs, you need at least 165 grams of protein per day
The rest of your calories should come from carbs and fat, I’d recommend eating about a gram of fat per KG of bodyweight per day, so if you are 75kgs, eat 75 grams of fat each day.
The rest of your calories should come from carbs, so in this example:
Calories per day - protein grams x 4 - fat grams x9
2500 - 165x4 - 75x9 = 1155 Calories left
Divide by 4 and you have your grams of carbs per day
1155/4=293 grams of carbs per day
So in total, in this example:
165 Protein
293 Carbs
75 Fat
Also try to get in 25-30 grams of fiber per day (when calculating remember to adjust the numbers, or if these happen to be accurate you can just use them)
If I missed something you wanted to know, feel free to ask and I’ll try to help you out!
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Thanks a lot. I am close enough for the numbers you put in there.
running 2600 cal at just under 80 kg bodyweight.
I’ll look into the macros, I can see I’m a bit under 1 gram protein pr lbs. Ending in somewhere between 130 - 160 grams pr day. Thanks again.
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No problem man, I’m glad to help
Beginning a new phase and an evil squat variation
So, I’ve now progressed onto the next phase of my program even though LST hasn’t begun yet (I don’t even know if I’m in yet, I’ll get to know in a couple of days)
So far I’m liking it, (2 sessions deep) but I won’t put it out there just yet, I want to see wether there are some things that don’t work before revealing it. (It’s not like you couldn’t guess what it’s like but still)
Now that I moved onto the next phase I also cycled my hard variations and one thing I want to say is this: don’t be a slave to the numbers. If the program calls for sets of five with some percentage but you can only do doubles, lower the weight! For example, today I managed to only use about 50% if my max when the program called for 70% because my hard variation is hard as hell (you’ll see below) I didn’t get stressed out and anxious about it because I know that as long as I’m progressing in weight with the movement, it’ll have carryover to my main lift and thus I’ll progress with it as well.
Now, to the exercise. I’m pretty sure these are used by other people than me as well, but just for the sake of practicality I’ll refer to them as “D Squats”
So, essentially the movement is a pretty vertical paused high bar/front box squat with no belt to a height between parallel and “pretty deep”
So you see why I named them.
You probably got the idea already but I’ll gi though it anyways.
So, bar placement is going to be either a high bar or a front squat, depending on wether you are focusing on front or back squats. Low bar won’t work because it prevents you from keeping yourself upright enough.
The height of the box should be anywhere from the top of the box being at mid-shin at lowest to the box being so high that your knees and hip joint are at the same level in the bottom position. (So parallel to pretty deep)
When doing the movement you should try to keep as vertical as possible. Control the descent so it’s anywhere from 2-4 seconds, sit on the box and keep tight. You’ll pause for a 2-4 count (so 1-2 seconds).
Explode up but do not lock your knees. Imagine a giant band pulling you down. At the top position you should have a 10-15° bend in your knees, keeping the tension going. Do not stop at the top the only pauses during your set will be on the box. That’s a part of why this movement is so damn hard. Of course if you are doing heavy triples or speed work you can and should rest just a millisecond at the top, but not when going for hypertrophy.
You can use this exercise for any type of training really, either as an accessory or a main movement.
The benefits of this movement are increased quad and glute size and, in my opinion most importantly, a dramatic increase in ability to squat upright - getting strong with this pretty much eliminates falling forward on regular squats. You also get a lot more power out if the bottom position by doing these.
Any questions and observations from trying this are more than welcome!
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I’m sick again
Surprise
Surprise
Fuck
Apparently this is some virus - based infection that includes fever, sore throat and feeling clogged up overall
It really irritates me that during the time I’ve spent in the military I’ve been sick more than in like five years beforehand.
Lately I’ve also been feeling short of breath during anything even a bit strenuous - like I was breathing through a straw. I certainly do hope that I’m not developing asthma over here but that’s possible - the building we are staying in is old and full of mold.
On a more positive note, I’ll get to know wether or not I’m in LST in a couple of days. I’m not really expecting to get in as the amount of people in there is already twice as much as it has ever been (there are some guys from outside military police who couldn’t have their own course this year so they came for us)
But really, there should be no downsides to this - either I go home in three weeks and go on with my life, or I stay the extra three months, go home as a corporal and then do the same.
Of course by doing the first one I would have more time to make money and study for entrance exams, but it’d be pretty cool to have the leadership training under my belt
So, to be honest, I don’t even care that much
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Far out, get well soon man.
You’ve like done awesome either way. Well done on sticking through it.
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Thanks man, I appreciate it
I hope you feel better soon! …that sounds awful especially trying to function like that.
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Thanks
Yeah, being unable to train and do stuff sucks - I can’t do anything at all at the moment. I like doing all this military stuff a lot more than just laying down and resting, not to mention the fact that I’ve trained like three times during the last month.
But I’m not really wasting time here either, I’m reading, watching seminars and brainstorming with new ideas all the time, so it’s not all that bad
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Yeah get well soon man
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I will, thanks man. A week from now I’ll be back to where I was, I’m certain of it
Rambling
Laying down is probably the most boring thing ever
Really
And when that is all you are allowed to do for the whole time you are awake and you can’t even (officially) use you phone from 6AM to 6PM (it’s really boring even if you do use you phone, I suck at procrastinating) it really makes you think. It makes you think of just how much you like moving around. How much you like training. I’d kill to be allowed to go for a walk now. Yes, I do read books and stuff at the moment, but I’m still really bored, I really have problems with being patient and doing something only mildly interesting for a long time - I can watch maybe one 45 minute seminar or read 50 pages in one go, but afterwards I must take a break and do something else. But how do you do something else when you are not allowed to?
Yeah. I’m bored.
And I’ve been thinking, I came to the conclusion that the one thing I really, really love doing is coaching. Especially bodybuilding - oriented stuff. Now yes, I’ve known this for a long time, and I’ve even mentioned it here, I think. But to this extent, I’ve only now realized how much I like it. I’m really passionate about pushing and helping people - that’s why I post here as well. I’m fascinated by the movement and the way muscles work. And seeing people blow up in size after training with you is really rewarding. Yeah, it may not be my achievement, but it feels good knowing that I may have helped in the process.
One thing I also enjoy a lot is reaching the point where I’m working together with the trainee with so much efficiency that there is no more need for explaining, and the only thing I need to do is to get under their skin and to bring the intensity.
That’s why I want to become a physical therapist as well - even if (and when) I don’t get to push people with hardcore bodybuilding stuff there I still get to help people and work with moving people. Yeah, it’d be really cool to be a full-time personal trainer for bodybuilders, but in reality that doesn’t happen in countries this small. If I recall correctly there are like three coaches here who make a living out of coaching only competitors, and all of them have decades of experience under their belts. So that’s why physical therapy seems to be the better choice.
Here’s a kicker for you; in the past few weeks I’ve realized that I actually enjoy training people more than training myself. I don’t know what it is, and I think it’s kinda odd. I first had this feeling when I trained with the squat dude. With him everything worked just perfectly. I remember walking to the gym several times a week (my gym was 3km away) just to spot him and train him. I walked there, in a goddamn blizzard even when I didn’t intend to train myself, just so he wouldn’t have to squat alone. That was shortly before our matriculation examinations as well, so I was kinda busy reading. (And no, I didn’t make him pay for it) All the people questioning if he was natural and what he was doing, it was great. Trainjng with that one guy here has given me the same feeling - he has made a lot of progress in terms of fat loss and muscle gain, even though we haven’t been able to train together more than twice (sometimes three) times a week.
Coaching people gives me confidence and kind of a feeling of fulfillment. And you can 've sure that if I ever put you through a training session my world is going to revolve around you for that 45 minutes. For that time, it’s all about me pushing you to do bigger better things. I’m not the guy who yells at you to do a 3x10 on leg press and then tells you to load up the hack squat machine. No. I’m with you during the exercise. From the first rep to the last. And when you are down on the floor after the set I’m the one loading up the hack squat and then I’ll come and get you hyped up for it. I’m not trying to brag here, that’s just how it goes.
Now I’m laying here, seeing how a couple of guys are headed to the gym and just thinking to myself how gladly I’d be there too. Oh well. Next week I’ll be there.
Ah man you really do sound bored!
It’s pretty cool you have solid plans for the things you want to achieve in life. It took me till 23 to work it out for me, and at nearly 26 I’m still fighting my way to achieving it. You on the other hand can just focus solely on your goals from the get go.
On another note, the military is compulsory where you are isn’t it? How does that go for people who really don’t want to be there?
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You need to take it easy… your way too motivated even when your sick!!
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Yeah, I’m lucky in that regard. But you are pretty damn close to achieving yours if I remember correctly, I’ve still got five or so years until that
Yes, it’s mandatory.
But you do have options.
- Go to the military for 6/9/11 months (you can pretty much choose this yourself)
If you go you are either class A (can do everything) or class B (doesn’t have to do sports and combat training due to asthma/poor vision/shin splints etc. - so basically it’s an office job for you) guy
- Don’t go to the military
Here you have options as well
You may be a class C guy (things like diabetes and heart complications put you in this class, so more severe things)
Or a class T guy (mentally ill)
If you are neither of those you get to choose either a year or civilian service (working in a kindergarten/school etc), half a year if jail (not sure if this is still a thing) or half a year of being home with a tracking device in your ankle (you’ll have to tell your every move a couple of weeks in advance)
If you are a Jehovah’s witness you don’t have to go either.
So you really have a lot of options, and nobody is forced to be here. (You could become a class C guy just by saying that you can’t sleep if you don’t want to come)
In my opinion it’s as good as this system will ever get - it cannot be perfect.
Yeah, I used to train when I was severely sick when I was like 15, I just liked it so much (and it always made the sickness go away)
In hindsight, I’m really glad I had enough luck to never get even sicker from doing so.
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Let’s hope so, but all of our government agencies have a way of making things very difficult even if you think it should be smooth sailing!
Wow that’s pretty brutal! IMO I think compulsory conscription is a good thing, especially when it’s as flexible as the system you are in. Teaches the younger generation respect and hard work. Those attributes are getting rarer and rarer lately.
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Yeah, I think it’s great as well. Most guys here hate it and think it’s nonsense and a waste of time, but I’m pretty sure they are getting something out of this as well. (At least most of them are)
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How old are you again?
Ah wait… don’t worry about it…
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Haha cheeky!
I do occasionally partake in the odd game of lawn bowls and at several times throughout the day I have the urge to yell at the passing children to “get off my dang lawn” whilst brandishing a timber stick that aids me in walking… That’s about as close to 60 as I get though young man!
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