8/15/21, Sunday
Rainy Road Ruck
Apparently, rucking in one of the hardest downpours of the summer is good for my average mile time 
This was the funnest workout I’ve done since hiking in the frigid cold mountains in February.
8/16/21, Monday
OHP w/ EZ bar
Rows w/ EZ bar
Push-ups, handles + feet elevated
A light workout to test my elbow. I’ll see how I feel for the next few days. The EZ bar allows for a semi-supinated or semi-pronated grip, which felt good.
Helloooooo
Everything okay?
Thanks for checking, CL! After the upper body workout last week, I totally crapped out on training. My biceps/elbow hurt like heck after two, three-hour sessions of yard work and the one upper body workout. On the plus side, a mechanic friend fixed my car - thank God! - so the week wasn’t a total waste.
Another couple weeks til my appointment with the ortho, so I’m still in a holding pattern for exercising. I’m torn between two lower-body-only sessions or splitting up the upper body lifts and doing two full-body workouts. What I do know is my weight’s been slowly decreasing, and I want it to continue, so trail time will return this week.
How are things for you?
8/22/21, Sunday, weekly weigh-in
On 8/15, I weighed 199.2, so I gained 3/5 of a pound. Given I only exercised twice last week (and ate an entire box of Entenmann’s doughnuts myself) the gain could’ve been worse.
But I could be weighing in the 198’s. I’ve lost 12 pounds since January 1 and the T-ransformation’s beginning; this is the first time in four years I’ve seen a 1 as the first scale number! I plan to drop to 190, but I’ll be ok with consistently weighing 195 around Christmas.
Sorry to hear the elbow is still giving you trouble. Hope they can get it sorted out soon. Great news about your car!
8/24/21, Tuesday
Lying leg curls
Squats
4 rounds:
Squats felt heavy tonight, but I got 'em done. I plan to increase by 10 pounds next week, with a goal of repping 275 - the max I believe my spinlock bar can safely hold - by Hanukkah/ Christmas.
All upper body lifting is paused until my ortho appointment, but I’m noodling over which routine to do when I can. I really liked the upper/lower, every-other day split Thibs wrote in a recent article. The program is based on four straight sets of a working weight with a back exercise every workout. It’s a simple progression model which I’ve found effective. It’s very similar to what @simo74 does and obviously works very well for him.
Conversely, lots of articles claim men over 40 burn out quickly with straight sets and are best served with a top and back-off sets. Lots of 40-plus guys here successfully follow that base model, so it seems a toss-up. Typing this helped me see the obvious answer - try Thibs’ routine and see how it goes. Mix and match straight and top sets, depending on the lift. Experiment, observe, learn, and improve.
The article:
Looks like solid advice to me. This is a basic double progression model, add reps and then add weight. Has been used since the dawn of time by lots of big strong people and will deff work.
Agreed, it’s tested and reliable. Or, stated another way, tried 'n true
Thibs also ironed the wrinkle of stalling with changing the rep range after stagnation. I’ve used that method too, with great success.
The one aspect I don’t love is due to my low weights - I’m stuck doing high-rep deficit deadlifts. Like you, I’ve not found cheap, used weights in my area for a long time. Ah well, I don’t need worry about until I can do 4 x 10 deadlifts. (In the article comments, Thibs suggested doing 4 x 8-10 if one’s goal is mass instead of pure strength. Sounds exhausting! Haha)
8/25/21, Wednesday
Road/trail jog/walk
Agreed and thank you! Public transport is very limited here in Albuquerque, so having a running vehicle is necessary.
Wish you were closer, I could loan you some plates 
I appreciate your thoughtfulness! Or, even better, we could deadlift together once a week 
Heck yeah!
I have people over 60 at my gym in incredible shape (one is 64, natty, has more chest than me and looks 50 at best lol) and they do straight sets.
I think the issue is just that’s harder to recover at that age, and that volume is probably the hardest thing to recover. But at the same time I have done for instance Colossus, on a deficit and nicely recomped ahah.
So it depends upon other factors. What’s your personal tolerance to volume? How’s life, the stress, the sleep, the food, recovery etc…
I just did this yesterday and my hammies, glutes and back are deaaaad
If you don’t have enough weights… Try some staggered stance RDL hehehehe
8/26/21, Thursday
Walk
8/28/21, Saturday
Road walk
8/29/21, Sunday
Lying leg curls
Deficit deadlifts
4 rounds of:
I discovered my bar can hold at least 290 pounds safely. If I buy two more 25-pound plates, I’m confident it’d hold 300. That’s only 25 pounds more than I’ve been using, but mentally it makes a difference to me.
These are helpful observations, thank you. I used to tolerate volume very well but had difficulty recovering from much intensity. In the last five years, things have flipped - I recover well from intensity but less from volume.
My overall stress is somewhat high right now - sleep is also a problem - but things are manageable.
Maaan, I’m already dreading high-reps straight-sets deadlifts lol. What’s a staggered stance RDL? It sounds awful.
On the plus side, I bought two more 25-pound plates today, so I should be able to use 300 pounds for deficit deadlifts. Just seeing a 3 at the beginning makes me feel much better about the lift 
8/30/21, Monday
Weekly weigh-in