[quote]trotter54 wrote:
So here is my story briefly…
40 yrs old. Played college football then was in the military. Injured in the miliary, but made full recovery. But gave me a great excuse to get out of shape. since then ballooned up to a very soft 260. now down to a very soft 235. Benched 405 20yrs ago, Dont think I can bench 205 now.
Oldest son 14 started lifting for football. Realized its now or never.
The information is awesom on this website, but TOTALLY overwhelming.
Where the heck do I begin? Need to lose weight too, what do I eat, what do I do in the Gym? Which one of the 10000 threads to I follow?!?!?
Help!!
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Follow the KISS principle. Your son is going to look up to you, so the bottom line is you need to do everything RIGHT. The form, the technique, warm-ups, etc. Even if your son doesn’t lift with you, you’re still “dad”. You’re still the big dog, so set the right example. Warm-up right, do the muscles you can’t see in the mirror, get the form correctly or at least work at it hard.
For right now, HOW you do things is much more important that WHAT workout program you do. KISS. Fundamentals. Leave the conjugate bullshit for later. Leave the “cutting edge” for later. Straight forward, don’t start complicating shit. You learn how to clean and fire a weapon from the ground up, you learn sports from the ground up, you learn lifting from the ground up (again ;). Lift 3 or 4 days a week, jog, bike, hike, canoe, or run 2 days a week. Easy does it on cardio, just be active, and watch your old injury sites (knees, back, whatever).
if 3 Days/week – full body workouts every gym day. Sets 3-4, reps 6-15. Pick one compound, multijoint exercise for each movement category below:
Legs
horizontal press
horizontal pull (rowing motion)
vertical press
vertical pull (chin/pull-up motion)
abs–whatever you want
Pick a different movement for each category every workout of the week. For example, Day 1 might be lunge, barbell bench, cable row, barbell push press, chin-up, then Day 2 would be weighted step-up (carrying dumbbells), db bench, barbell row, db military press, pull-up with different grip width/feel. Day three the same, pick different exercises for each category and do them. You can also pick a different rep scheme for each day (eg: 4x6, 3x10, 2-3x15), although in the beginning that is not really necessary.
Keep the same exercises for about 4 weeks, then switch the ones you picked for each day: either switch grips, stances, angles, db to barbell, or reps. Does NOT have to be drastic, just change something about the exercise.
Focus on goblet squats if you choose a squat variation. They are mostly self correcting and they teach you good form that carries over to regular front/back squatting. Look up youtube videos for Dan John (specifically) teaching the goblet squat.
If you workout 4 days a week you can still do full body workouts. If you prefer you can do upper/lower body layout, which works nicely for 4 days/week. Follow the same concept: 2 days lower body, 2 days upper body, compound movements. Different rep schemes for each day-- 1 lower rep day, 1 higher rep day for both upper and lower. 3-5 sets of 6-15 reps
Lower body template:
Squat, DL, Step-up, or Lunge variation
Step-up, Bulgarian squat, or Lunge variation
Hamstring isolation (you can use leg curls, but please for the love of all that is holy and Iron look up more exercises for this category)
Leg press or quad isolation
Abs
Upper body template:
horizontal press
horizontal pull
vertical press
vertical pull
lat isolation movement OR scapular/low trap isolation movement
bicep movement
abs
You can change the order of the exercises on UPPER body day, but not lower body day. There is a reason it is organized like it is…see if you can spot the reasons and post your answer up here :). For upper body day if you you choose to change the order of the exercises, you 1) always alternate a push and a pull movement, not two pushes in a row. Could be horz press/vert pull, or vert press/horz pull, or as written above, but you always alternate push and pull. 2) Always leave isolation exercises to last.
RULE: most draining, demanding exercises always go FIRST in any workout. These are the exercises that use the most muscle groups, or are heaviest, or are most explosive. Compound exercises always go before isolation exercises. Again, you have to know the fundamental rules first before you can learn (gradually) how to bend them or break them.
ALWAYS WARM-UP FIRST. this is going to be key for nagging injuries and also setting a good example. Plenty of good warm-up ideas out there, look up Defranco’s Agile 8, Eric Cressey/Mike Robertson stuff, foam rolling, mobilitywod.com, whatever. Just get the problem areas worked out before putting iron up.