Starting Out at (Nearly) 40

All Pro Simple Beginner Routine

Week 1, Day 3 (10RM x 80%)

2x8 warm up sets per lift

Working sets:
Squat 40kg 2x8
Bench 35kg 2x8
BOR 32.5kg 2x8
OHP 20kg 2x8
D/lift 47.5kg 2x8
BB curl 15kg 2x8

Didn’t eat properly/enough today so even though this was the light day I felt all off. Lesson learnt. Eat.

All Pro Simple Beginner Routine

Week 2, Day 1 (10RM x 100%)

2x warmup sets per lift

Working sets:
Squat 50kg 2x9
Bench 40kg 2x9
BOR 40kg 2x9
OHP 25kg 2x9
D/lift 60kg 2x9
BB curl 20kg 2x9

1x extra rep per set on week 1. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s progression!

Progression is progression! Good job.

welcome to the group…in the same spot you are, yet 5yrs older…shoulders are the weakest of links

definitely be careful with that shoulder…from personal experience i can attest to this…i am coming up on a 3yr anniversary where i tore up my left shoulder…that injury derailed my lifting for 2.5 years due to terrible diagnosis and my own rushing things instead of resting

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
Progression is progression! Good job.[/quote]

Thanks! I suspect weeks 3, 4 and 5 will get harder when I reach then push past the 10RM I’ve been working at (10, 11 and 12 reps then back to 8 with heavier weights).

[quote]ErikM wrote:
welcome to the group…in the same spot you are, yet 5yrs older…shoulders are the weakest of links

definitely be careful with that shoulder…from personal experience i can attest to this…i am coming up on a 3yr anniversary where i tore up my left shoulder…that injury derailed my lifting for 2.5 years due to terrible diagnosis and my own rushing things instead of resting

[/quote]

Thanks for the welcome. I’m definitely taking it easy on that shoulder. Don’t want ego to bring the whole thing to a halt. Hope you’re getting back on track now.

All Pro Simple Beginner Routine

Week 2, Day 2 (10RM x 90%)

2x9 warm up sets per lift

Working sets:
Squat 45kg 2x9
Bench 35kg 2x9
BOR 35kg 2x9
OHP 22.5kg 2x9
D/lift 55kg 2x9
BB curl 17.5kg 2x9

All Pro Simple Beginner Routine

Week 2, Day 3 (10RM x 80%)

2 x warm up sets per lift

Working sets:
Squats 40kg 2x9
Bench 32.5kg 2x9
BOR 32.5kg 2x9
OHP 20kg 2x9
BB curl 15kg 2x9

Total disaster tonight. Was supposed to be week 3, day 1 of All Pro Simple Beginner Routine but had little energy and a crappy mental attitude. Tried to struggle through a couple of sets of squats before conceding it really wasn’t happening. Still wanted to do something so lightened the weights and did:

Bench 10x10
BOR 10x10

Glad I forced myself to do something, but pretty disappointed by my performance tonight. Huge kick up the arse required for Wednesday!

25/03/15: All Pro Simple Beginner Routine

Week 3, Day 2

2x warm up sets per lift

Working sets:
Squat 50kg 2x10
Bench 40kg 2x10
BOR 40kg 2x10
OHP 25kg 1x10, 1x8 (left shoulder felt really weak)
DL 60kg 2x10
BB curl 2x10

All good except OHP where I missed the last two reps of the second set. It’s like my left shoulder loses power or something. Not painful, just really weak. Weird.

27/03/15

All Pro Simple Beginner Routine

Week 3, Day 3

2x warmup sets per lift

Working sets:
Squat 50kg 2x10
Bench 40kg 2x10
BOR 40kg 2x10
OHP 25kg 2x10
DL 60kg 0x10
BB curl 15kg 2x10

Lower back felt fried after squats and rows, so gave the deadlifts a miss.

Welcome. I was 48 when I started and went from zero to now BP 205 Dead 335 Squat 275 and OHP 140 at Age 52. So you can do great things from 40!

I am an OHP fan, moving heavy things overhead is ultimate. But I do have some shoulder soreness. The best thing I have found useful is to do a great stretch warmup at beginning of workout (standing banded YTI’s, also adding in full stretch behind the back in the T form, inside out rotations with DB, some light weight DB front and side raises). All of this really stretches out and strengthens rotator cuff muscles which usually cause the most issues. Before all BP and OHP work. Then use progressive warm-ups to get to working weight (IE 3x85,3x95,3x115,1x135, then working weight). I only use a couple of reps which continue the warm up but doesn’t sap power from my working weight.

[quote]dhoke231 wrote:
Welcome. I was 48 when I started and went from zero to now BP 205 Dead 335 Squat 275 and OHP 140 at Age 52. So you can do great things from 40![/quote]

Thanks for the welcome! It’s great to see I’m not to late to get started on this journey. Keep up the good work.

I do a bit of shoulder warm up before OHP, but not as much as you have detailed here. I’ll try spending a bit more time on it tonight and see if it helps. Thanks.

30/3/15:

Squat
25kg 1x5
35kg 1x5
55kg 5x5

Bench
25kg 1x5
35kg 1x5
45kg 5x5

BOR
25kg 1x5
35kg 1x5
45kg 5x5

BB curl
15kg 3x10

All felt good tonight. Pleased with that.

01/04/15:

Deadlift
45kg 1x5
60kg 1x5
70kg 3x5

OHP
15kg 1x5
20kg 1x5
25kg 3x5

Upright row
20kg 1x5
25kg 1x5
27.5kg 3x5

Lateral raises
7.5kg 3x10

6/4/15:

Squat
40kg 1x5
50kg 1x5
57.5kg 5x5

Front squat
35kg 3x10

SLDL
40kg 3x10

Calf raises
40kg 3x10

Ok, so after a good start on Stronglifts 5x5 I decided to give a beginners hypertrophy routine a go (All Pro’s) and really didn’t like it. Took too long, weights were quite light etc. and to be honest I’d rather get stronger than try and look like a bodybuilder. So for the past week or two I’ve been pretty directionless in my training while figuring out what to do now.

I tried a few SL5x5 workouts again, and while it’s something I might return to in the future it’s not right for me right now. Soooooooooo, after a spell of doing long full-body workouts three times a week I’m going to turn things on their head a bit and start Dan John’s One Lift A Day program on Monday. I’m committing to running at least three four-week cycles over the next twelve weeks to give it a fair go. The “One Lift a Day” Program

I spent last night trying out some lifts to see which ones (a) I like and (b) I want to get stronger in and decided to go with:

Mon. Back squat
Tue. Bench press
Wed. Bent over row
Thu. Overhead press
Fri. Romanian deadlift

I’ll spend tonight trying to nail down accurate 5RMs for each and get started on Monday.

I’m thinking of starting a new log in the O35 for the twelve weeks (and more if it goes well), so if anyone’s interested in how this program works out feel free to check in.

Looks like these are my max training weights for the first week (5-rep sets)of Dan John’s One Lift A Day program starting on Mon.

Squat 60kg
Bench 50kg
BOR 55kg
OHP 27.5kg
RDL 55kg

By the end of three cycles (12 weeks) I’d like to increase these to at least:

Squat 75kg
Bench 60kg
BOR 65kg
OHP 35kg
RDL 65kg

Looking forward to getting started and having a focus again.