Training Advice

Bigger Stronger Leaner Over 35 Lifter
1

I’m brand new to the forum. But have lurked for a while.

I’d like to solicit your advice on ways I can improve my size and overall appearance and try to stay injury free in the process.

I am 35 years old. I used to lift a lot through high school and college but was never enormous. My training fell into sporadic bursts through my 20s, mostly around my single life. Then I got married and work became taxing and I stopped going so often.

In October of 2007, I started going back to the gym. This is the result of doing something physical ~50% of the time since then.

I am a pretty busy professional guy so I have to work out early in the morning or at night and my schedule get thrown off a little by travel and by entertainment.

The basic exercises I do are as follows:
Dumbells: incline bench, military press, flat bench, shrugs
Barbells: Curls, upward rows
Body weight: Dips (assisted), crunches, decline sit-ups, medicine ball twists
Machines: tricep extension, seated rows, lat pulls, reverse fly

I don’t get enough cardio and my diet could be better. My joints are a problem, but I try to run 2-3 times a week doing interval work on the treadmill: 5 min jog, 5 min sprint, 1 min walk, 5 min jog, 5 min sprint. The jogs are about 7.5 mph and the sprint is about 9.2 mph.

I don’t do the big power lifts I used to do back when I was playing football: cleans, squats, deadlifts. I know some guys swear by these, but in all honesty, my goals are about vanity. I’d just like to look better and if getting stronger comes as part of the package, great.

Any advice you can offer would be welcome. Thanks in advance for your help.

2


Oh, and here is another pic.

3

Welcome. When you’re getting back into the game, anything you do is a good thing, but I’ll still swear by the big lifts even if you’re just interested in looking good. Nothing builds muscle better or faster than squats, deads, etc. I think most of have or have had joint problems, a little time off seems to help me when it gets bad. Overhead work hurts my shoulders a lot, so I limit how much I do.

4

Two pieces of advice. First, if you want to avoid injury, do some mobility work every day if you can and make sure you warm up properly when you lift. Second, make sure you’re getting enough omega-3s in your diet, especially if your joints are an issue.

5

[quote]daddyzombie wrote:
Welcome. When you’re getting back into the game, anything you do is a good thing, but I’ll still swear by the big lifts even if you’re just interested in looking good. Nothing builds muscle better or faster than squats, deads, etc. I think most of have or have had joint problems, a little time off seems to help me when it gets bad. Overhead work hurts my shoulders a lot, so I limit how much I do.[/quote]

okay, so if i get back into compound lifts (which I haven’t done in 15-17 years) i should stretch a ton and start at really light weight, right?

i know this is real noob shit, right here…but at least i’m not afraid to ask.

6

[quote]Bas Chabal wrote:
okay, so if i get back into compound lifts (which I haven’t done in 15-17 years) i should stretch a ton and start at really light weight, right?

i know this is real noob shit, right here…but at least i’m not afraid to ask. [/quote]

Definitely go really light, but save the stretching for AFTER you’ve lifted. Stretching actually weakens the muscle slightly and you don’t want to do that before doing strength work.

When you first start off, concentrate on good form. Even though it’s for women, I really like some of the discussions here:

www.stumptuous.com/cms/displaysection.php?sid=3

Take a look at her descriptions of squat form. You should also search the main site for pretty much any article by Christian Thibaudeau.

Go light. Keep everything in control Don’t get too enamored of getting sore. Sore doesn’t mean anything that you can usefully interpret.

When you bench, bring the bar down to your lower sternum area and keep your upper arms at about a 45 degree angle to your body. Place your hands greater than shoulder width apart about where you’d place them if you were going to do a pushup. The wider your hands, the more stress is moved to your shoulders; the narrower, the more stress is moved to your triceps.

When you deadlift, consider it an “unfolding”. Too often, beginners lift in “stages” where first the legs straighten, and then the hips move forward, and then they move their back backwards. You want to just move everything in a smooth chain. Try to keep the bar as close to your shins/legs as you can.

Don’t get too happy with isolation types of exercises that work small muscles. In other words, don’t do a ton of curls and triceps kickbacks. When you’re putting your exercises together, you generally want to go from biggest muscle group to smallest although there are exceptions. (Supersquats actually ends each workout with 20 rep squats and that’s a good mass building program.)

Finally, get your diet straightened out although frankly, you’re not starting from a bad spot. You don’t look like you’re in that bad of shape to me.

7

When you train for strength and watch your diet you just natcherlly end up lookin’ good.

Unless you was fugly to begin with…

8

[quote]skidmark wrote:
When you train for strength and watch your diet you just natcherlly end up lookin’ good.

Unless you was fugly to begin with…[/quote]

i don’t watch my diet. but i eat pretty well based on stuff i like. i could/should maybe take sups but i don’t.

my biggest weakness is drinking. i’m good for 30-40 a week.

9

Okay. Turned over a new leaf this morning.

In addition to regular bullshit like:

1.5 mile run
4 sets lat pulls (9 a set, 140 lbs)
4 sets seated rows (9 a set, 120 lbs)
250 crunches and 200 medicine ball twists

I added my first set of power cleans in more than a decade. 2 sets of 5 with a puny, lame 135 pounds. That seemed sufficiently scaled down to start.

Flame away.

10

No Worries. Nobody on this forum is will flame someone actually trying to improve.

11

We’ve got powerlifters, weightlifters, strong men and women, bodybuilders, throwers, hyperactive skaters, dieters, people worried about their hormone levels, and every range of the strength scale. We’ve got the walking wounded and every ache and pain imaginable. Most injuries can be found here, too. We’ve got those rehabing and those who’ve been through it.

We’ve got the has beens, the wannabes, the could’ve beens, and the gonna bes. We’ve got really smart people and those just learnin’. We’ve got real complicated plans and we’ve got just grab and lift woprkouts. We’ve got occasional rants and bitchin. What we ain’t got here so far is Flamin’. In common we’ve got being over 35. Welcome and keep on lifing.

12

try all the plans: 5x5, 10x10, full body,etc. and pick and chose what you like and can stick with. have fun with it

13

[quote]hel320 wrote:
We’ve got powerlifters, weightlifters, strong men and women, bodybuilders, throwers, hyperactive skaters, dieters, people worried about their hormone levels, and every range of the strength scale. We’ve got the walking wounded and every ache and pain imaginable. Most injuries can be found here, too. We’ve got those rehabing and those who’ve been through it.

We’ve got the has beens, the wannabes, the could’ve beens, and the gonna bes. We’ve got really smart people and those just learnin’. We’ve got real complicated plans and we’ve got just grab and lift woprkouts. We’ve got occasional rants and bitchin. What we ain’t got here so far is Flamin’. In common we’ve got being over 35. Welcome and keep on lifing.[/quote]

thanks man. well written, that.