The big blue experience.

Training Over 35 Lifter
241

Cav…thanks.

I think that what has happenned and is finished is that i have made those easy beginner gains and that phase is over. It was nice, even exhilarating, while it was happening .
Now…things have settled, i have consolidated somewhat, some lifts have even crept back a bit and now i have to think about this longer term.
It is certainly motivating to see the progress and as i have said before that as a sports clutz i am stunned that it has actualy happenned and that i have really enjoyed the ride so far.
I hope to still be lifting weight in 10 years time i just think that now will be the time to dig in and really lay the hard work down–and it’s to you guys on the forum that i look to see everyone elses battles…really is inspiring.

242

[quote]big nurse wrote:

I think that what has happenned and is finished is that i have made those easy beginner gains and that phase is over. It was nice, even exhilarating, while it was happening .
Now…things have settled, i have consolidated somewhat, some lifts have even crept back a bit and now i have to think about this longer term.
[/quote]

It’s true that when you start lifting the gains come pretty easy because anything you do is better than the nothing you were doing before. After that it becomes more of a thinking mans game when the “add 10 lbs each time you squat” principle stops working.

You sound pretty smart and seem to have a good grasp of how your body both, reacts to various stimuli and feels fatigue wise, so I think you’ll do well.

And all the info is right here on the site, you just have to trawl through it all and find what works for you.

I really don’t begrudge you your evening weekend shifts in “Booze fuelled Britain”. You all do an amazing job.

243

Brett.
Soldog.

Thanks for the feedback, i am surprised that nobody has threatenned me with public humiliation/flogging/exorcism/the inquisition/cannibalism etc for not signing up to 531.

Dan John rules ok !!

244

So : first week of the new plan.

Monday…whole day off, mainly sleeping, did absolutely zip.

Tuesday. Fasted walk 45 minutes.
Home workout based on the DJ complex, some squats with the kbs, chins and pull ups and press ups.

Wednesday.
Dan John complex twice as a warm up, one slightly loaded above bare barbell weight. This currently : (movements) dl, ohp, squat, row,floor to ceiling sets of 10. Ohp is by far my weakest plane of movement and i am working hard at bar + 5kg.

Main lift work . Squats : 3x10 and 5x5 mixing rear squat and goblet squat.
Barbell ( + 10kg) warm up 1x10
Goblet kb 54lb 1x10

Rear squat 88lb 3x10
Rear squat 110lb 2x10
Goblet squat 88lb db 3x10 (to make up a 5x5)

Secondary work :
Bench press
Barbell warm up 1x10
66LB second warm up (bit stiff) 1x10
88lb 1x10
99lb 2x5

Secondary work 2
Deadlift
Barbell warm up
132 lb 1x10
176 lb 1x10

Finishing work :
Chins, farmers walk x2, med ball throws and slams,400m run, stretches.

This weeks game is any as many chins/pull ups as i can do during the week.

EDIT (thursday)
Rather than keep bumping the thread, once again i will just do an edit ech day :

Thursday eveing training before shift.
D.J complex 2 rounds as warm up.

Main lift : deadlift
132 lb warm up 1x10
176 3x10
198 5x5.

Second lift : bench in between some deadlift sets
66 lb warm up 1x10
88lb 1x10
99 lb 2x5

Last night on shift i lost it on the diet …mid way through the shift i was absolutely craving carbs and hit the cookie jar.

Tonights lifting though : it felt quite smooth and in control , one big difference is that keeping the weight within my working range i seem to be able to concentrate a bit more knowing that i can handle that weight.

That is now 2 nights back to back lifting so tomorrow i will most liely do a bwe session maybe press up/pull up based and some rotation work.

EDIT (Saturday night).
Last heavy gym session of the week and i am really pleased to have had a good strong finish to the week , no new personal records etc just consistent good work layed down.
Tonights main lift was bench.
Second lift 1 = deadlift
Secondary lift 2 = squat.

So :
Bench barbell warm up 1x10
66 lb second warm up 1x10
88lbs 3x10
99lbs 5x5 . middle set actuallly done at 45kg (105lbs)

Secondary 1 done between bench ‘tens’
Deadlift
132 lb warm up 1x10
176 lb 1x10
198lbs 2x5. nice to say that both the 176 tens and the 198 fives now feel nicely in control and smooth so maybe it’s time to add some metal there.

Secondary lift 2 done during bench ‘fives’
Barbell sqaut.
88lbs 1x10
110 lb 1x5
121 lb 1x5.

Diet has failed a couple of times but generally held together.
Time to plan next weeks work…

245

Great plan!!

Is the wife still at the training? are you able to comment? ~~~ sigh, was hoping to read something about her.

246

[quote]UpScale wrote:
Great plan!!

Is the wife still at the training? are you able to comment? ~~~ sigh, was hoping to read something about her.

[/quote]

Indeed so, unfortunatley she is feeling like a bit of a muppett this week as she managed to injure herself on just about her first session working without the trainer.
It sounds as though what she did was loaded up too much weight while having a go at deadlift and pulled something in her back.
I think she is basically ok, just a bit angry with herself and it has been a valuable lesson to be really aware of what she is doing.
She is going for a session tomorrow with her trainer who she has talked to about the injury and i know that he is competent so it should be ok.
I have tried to pesuade her to strat keeping a log of which exercises she is doing, how much weight on how much work etc–then when we go up there together i can at least see that she is working in the right range.
Interestingly she is already saying things like 'i saw this woman doing a or b with x weight more than me’and i am persuading her to not make comparisons.

247

[quote]big nurse wrote:

[quote]UpScale wrote:
Great plan!!

Is the wife still at the training? are you able to comment? ~~~ sigh, was hoping to read something about her.

[/quote]

Indeed so, unfortunatley she is feeling like a bit of a muppett this week as she managed to injure herself on just about her first session working without the trainer.
It sounds as though what she did was loaded up too much weight while having a go at deadlift and pulled something in her back.
I think she is basically ok, just a bit angry with herself and it has been a valuable lesson to be really aware of what she is doing.
She is going for a session tomorrow with her trainer who she has talked to about the injury and i know that he is competent so it should be ok.
I have tried to pesuade her to strat keeping a log of which exercises she is doing, how much weight on how much work etc–then when we go up there together i can at least see that she is working in the right range.
Interestingly she is already saying things like 'i saw this woman doing a or b with x weight more than me’and i am persuading her to not make comparisons.
[/quote]

well hopefully the injury is a quick heal.I get a bit sketchy about any tweaks and am very cautious, the few times I wasnt it bit me for sure.
I never really cared what anyone else is lifting, I proudly plunk on my 2 1/2s with pride lol

248

[quote]UpScale wrote:

[quote]big nurse wrote:

[quote]UpScale wrote:
Great plan!!

Is the wife still at the training? are you able to comment? ~~~ sigh, was hoping to read something about her.

[/quote]

Indeed so, unfortunatley she is feeling like a bit of a muppett this week as she managed to injure herself on just about her first session working without the trainer.
It sounds as though what she did was loaded up too much weight while having a go at deadlift and pulled something in her back.
I think she is basically ok, just a bit angry with herself and it has been a valuable lesson to be really aware of what she is doing.
She is going for a session tomorrow with her trainer who she has talked to about the injury and i know that he is competent so it should be ok.
I have tried to pesuade her to strat keeping a log of which exercises she is doing, how much weight on how much work etc–then when we go up there together i can at least see that she is working in the right range.
Interestingly she is already saying things like 'i saw this woman doing a or b with x weight more than me’and i am persuading her to not make comparisons.
[/quote]

well hopefully the injury is a quick heal.I get a bit sketchy about any tweaks and am very cautious, the few times I wasnt it bit me for sure.
I never really cared what anyone else is lifting, I proudly plunk on my 2 1/2s with pride lol
[/quote]

I am still a little vague about what she actually did but it sounds like on her first lifting session she did deadlift with a bare bar and then at around 27kg, sounds about right–then on her own session she went and chucked a 10kg plate each end !! and so tried to dl some 75% odd of her body weight !!.
I have got her thinking a bit more about only going up in 10% increments and only doing that when she is really confident…it’s only her first week after all.

249

That sucks to hear abour your wife. I hope she recovers just as quickly as you did.

250

[quote]JoeGood wrote:
That sucks to hear abour your wife. I hope she recovers just as quickly as you did.[/quote]

Thanks, she is going for her session today, i am going to tell her that she has alreday got the good folks of t nation taking an interest in her training. Maybe i will have to run a sub-thread for her.
She has had all sorts of problems with her neck and shoulders over the last few years, possibly job related, i was talking to her trainer yesterday who says there are lots of tight/short areas and she definitely needs strength and mobility.

251

I’m assuming she is pulling conventional?

252

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
I’m assuming she is pulling conventional?[/quote]

I think that is what her trainer is teaching her, hopefully see her later and find out how things went today.

253

Ok so onto Jax training for the day.

She tells me that it went well, trainer is very pleased with her progress.

I can’t gat exactly what they did as she doesn’t yet know what everything is called and isn’t thinking in exeercise,sets and reps yet however :

Main lower body focus sound like barbell rear squat and she thinks she was squatting 40kg–if so that is well impressive, no deadlifting but some incline leg press and what sound like a low cable pull up.

Upper bod sounds like some bench press and a lot of cable pull in different planes although no lat pulls.

Main thing is that she came home happy and much more positive than earlier in the week.

EDIT…J says that squat was 35kg and ‘lots of them’ still respectable.

254

Jax stuff…taking a well earned day off from exercise as she has exercised every day for the last 6 and is running a bit of a cold, but feeling really positive about the weights now.

My stuff…light workout on the patio before work because of having to organise some camping kit for a colleague–she has never camped and wants to take her boy camping, he is really excited about it and i am setting them up with a single pole scandi-tipi which looks great.

However… i did tonights work fasted after the day in bed and it was absolutely horrible, i was actually shaking after 15 minutes of basic body weight stuff and simple kb squats. Maybe not such a good idea to work out fasted and tired (2 heavy sessions already this week).
Hey…ho…

255

[quote]big nurse wrote:
J says that squat was 35kg and ‘lots of them’ still respectable.[/quote]

Any weight is respectable if you’re working hard.

256

[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]big nurse wrote:
J says that squat was 35kg and ‘lots of them’ still respectable.[/quote]

Any weight is respectable if you’re working hard.[/quote]

It’s what i keep telling her…it’s your weight and your work, no point in comparing with anything that anyone else does.
I did run your latest video for her though and she was much impressed-i think it laid to rest the myth of weightlifting making women bulky and ‘big’ especially when i explained how much you were lifting and it’s only been a few months myself that i can appreciate what it feels like to pull that much weight off the floor.

257

This weeks work.

And it looks like beginners gains again.

Well i though that the easy gains were all over but i seem to be back on the bus again which is a real surprise given that i felt like absulute crap today after a long post shifts sleep.

I had intended to push forward on just 1 lift this week (deaflift) later in the week when i have fully recovered from last weeks shifts but in a slightly mad moment just decided to add the minimum possible weights to todays squatting.

Monday.
So today, based on Main lift/secondary lifts where squatting was the focus :

DJ barbell complex warm up twice (100 moves)

Squats.
KB 52lb 1x10
RS 94lb 2x10 (really couldn’t feel the difference over previous)

Dumbell (goblet) 92lb 2x5
RS 121LB 3x5 (slight increase and slightly harder but reasonable depth and form)

Quite pleased with that.

Secondary work
Bench 88lb 1x10 and 99lb 2x5
Deadlift 132lb 1x10 . 176lb 1x10 and 198lb 2x5
Feeling good and ready to go over 200lbs for the 5x5 sets later in the week.

Finishing work
Press ups 3x10 and chins 3x5.

(this weeks game is press ups sets of 10)

EDIT.
Forgot to add jax stuff so : came in last night after 2 exhausting shifts and with a streaming cold so big nurses orders today was : no gym,confined to sofa, rest and lots of fluids.

Tuesdays edit.
Started with a fasted cardio walk of 45 minutes down into the valley and out again, nice and sunny.

Morning workout on the patio.
DJ complex 2 rounds 120 movements.
Chins and press ups
Kb squats.

Then down to town to see if my shiny new oly bar has arrived yet
And it has…pleased.

Off to boatyard to air the boat out and tackle a couple of jobs.

This weeks insights and thoughts…just been reading TC’s latest about 6 meals a day being the cause of high blood sugars, kind of interesting in that my sugars were all over the place when i was snacking loads (ok it was high gi stuff) so am re thinking the whole diet thing again, maybe just stick with main meals and a post workout snack from now on.

258

Good work, Nurse!

259

Definitely back on the bus !

Main lift today was deadlift, second lifts were, in order : bench and finally squats.

DJ complex twice to warm up.

Deadlift.
132 lb warm up 1x10
181.5lb 3x10 (just over body weight for me now)
209 lbs (95kg) 5x5 (progression-and felt well controlled and smooth)
132 lb 1x10 .

Really pleased with that 5x5 set as it felt completely within my control all through the sets whereeas the first time i lifted 90 kg on a 5x5 i was really struggling at the end …and i still felt ready for more at the end today.
So it looks like the 100kg (psychological) barrier is in sight for my main work , graduation day will be 2 big plates each end.
EDIT…I was just doing some calculations because i couldn’t understand why my bench was progressing really slowly (or not at all) when in fact they are all going up about 5% on each jump !.

Second lifts today.
Bench
88lb 1x10
94lb 1x10
98lb 2x5
110lb 1x5
110lb 3+2

Squats
Just a couple of sets of goblet sqauts with the 42kg (92lb) dumbell.
Of note, my back was very tight after the deadlifts and i really struggled on a last set of quite light rear squats !

It was a really nice vibe in the gym today, as i was setting up for deadlift and bench combined a really fit/strong lad asked if he could work in with me on bench , no problem except when i had finished my working sets which he used as warm ups he then loaded more on his bench bar than i was deadlifting–impressed i was–but he was mucho complimentary about my workload going straight from deadlift to bench to squat with no pauses.

After that…hauled out for late lunch with girlfriend, went down a treat.

260

Glad you’re having fun, Nurse. God, I hate it when guys bench more than I DL, it happens all the time.

When I saw your new title, I thought it was the old Angela Lansbury movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It’s a musical where she uses magic to defeat nazis. I’m not making it up. Oh yes, it’s set in England.