Training for My 55yr Old Father

Bigger Stronger Leaner Over 35 Lifter
1

hey guys

so i think i finally (after 8yrs) talked my father into joining a gym. i’m going down there in about 2 weeks to bring him in, and show him things to do.

but, before i do that. i wanted to ask if there are any other guys here of a similar age that might care to shed some light on their training these days.

he’s going to be going very light. and only 2x a week to start; then upgrade to 3x a week.

what i had figured for his first sessions of 2x a week was an upper and a lower day. then switch to TBT; sorta.

so i’m going to let the boards open up and here what y’all got to say.

thanks!

2

I hope you get plenty of response to this question. I’m 56 and just recieved a gift certificate to Golds. What I am thinking of doing is starting slow with the help of a trainer. Do some weights and cardio and alot of time in the sauna :wink:

I used to be a mule but I also know If I try to have that old work ethic I would burn out or injure myself so I think the old turtles work habit would be best for me… And congrates on getting your dad to the gym. I wish I could have that opportunity…

3

well just make sure the trainer isn’t a f*cking idiot. haha

there are some at my gym that i see working with people at your age range and i just shake my head. i don’t know what the f*ck they are thinking. and this is @ a Gold Gym too!

4

There’s a lot of truth to that old saying - less is more. Stick with strength movements first. Dont worry about BB type movement so much. Just do a couple sets, I wouldnt go over 8 reps. The tendency is to do too much, and it overwhelms someone just starting out. He will have to find his limits, but not on the first few work outs.
God bless.

5

I’m not a guy, but I’m the same age as your dad.

I would suggest you design a routine based on his goals and his current fitness level. Also take his health and prior injury status into account so he can work around them.

I also think that most beginners to lifting or those returning after a long layoff will benefit most from a 3 times a week TBT-like training schedule. Once they’ve established themselves, then 2 split training sessions a week will be good.

Just use common sense, compound movements and start slow.

6

It’s easy for someone who works out regularly to forget that people who don’t work out are almost completely lacking in fitness. You should definitely focus on fitness training in the beginning (and for ever after) as that will do the most to increase the quality of your dad’s life. Strength training has its place in any program, but it should be secondary to fitness for the vast majority of people.

I’m 57 and while I enjoy strength training, it’s clear that fitness is the critically necessary foundation for all of it. Strength is fun; fitness is life.

7

[quote]B rocK wrote:
well just make sure the trainer isn’t a f*cking idiot. haha

there are some at my gym that i see working with people at your age range and i just shake my head. i don’t know what the f*ck they are thinking. and this is @ a Gold Gym too![/quote]

Read the ‘Hacking’ thread on the home page. You can get 80% of the benefits on a 2 or 3 days per week schedule, compared to a much more intense routine.

I am 54 and you MUST take care of the heart. Buy him a Schwinn Upright bike off of the Web (only like $200) which he could use at home. Then 2 days/week of TBT as described in the Hacking article up front.

For Christmas next year (if you have the $$$), an Oly set with a power cage.

8

If this is a first for him. Start really light. Maybe a circut on the machines until he feels comfortable. When free weights with chins-ups and pull-ups. Try to keep it fun so the interest stays high.

Get him to keep a log it’s very helpful.

Most important, it has to be fun. That’s the reason I’ve been doing this shit for over thirty years. I use weight lifting as a base for all my other sports and I BB because I’m vain.

9

[quote]streamline wrote:
Most important, it has to be fun. That’s the reason I’ve been doing this shit for over thirty years. I use weight lifting as a base for all my other sports and I BB because I’m vain.[/quote]

X2.

10

Ok. I thought about some of the posts and, I think I need to clarify something. I dont think a person should go strait into power lifting (although I did lol). Its the movement that I think is important. If your going to lift weights to get in shape, you should concentrate on the MOVEMENTS that are going to use the major muscles IMHO. Thats what I was trying to get at.

Also I think using a lot of different exercises to get there is good. Dont get married to any of them. Very your routine to keep it interesting. Have fun.

11

What kind of shape is your dad in? Does he have a history in athletics or weight lifting? Is his job physically challanging? Are there any health issues that he will have to overcome?
I was in good shape untill a couple of years ago before these hormone issues arose. It took me two yrs to find out the problem (lucked out and found T-Nation 4 months ago) but I had digressed to being a total couch potatoe with just enough energy to get to the fridge.

12

Thanks for the tips and whatnot thus far everyone…

My father stands all day long, from 7am to 9pm with minimal downtime. Hopefully that will be coming to an end once we rid our family of the restaurant he owns/runs etc…

He lifted and played HS football. He ‘knows’ how to lift. But it’s been so long that I’m going to have to go through everything with him and make sure he still ‘knows’ everything with correct form.

I know he’s got a knee problem. So the squats will be to just above parallel to start (i’m going to send him to the Dr. too with a list of questions) and then progress from there.

He’s a bit overweight (20-50lbs) but he has been able to in the recent past; loose that.

So right now with his availability being 2x a week i’m going to set up an easy upper/lower split with some good stretching, mobility and cardio to start with some basic movements to get his muscles contracting for about a month.

Then he said he’ll be able to put 3x a day in; where he’ll be doing a TBT style workout.

13

[quote]B rocK wrote:
Thanks for the tips and whatnot thus far everyone…

My father stands all day long, from 7am to 9pm with minimal downtime. Hopefully that will be coming to an end once we rid our family of the restaurant he owns/runs etc…

He lifted and played HS football. He ‘knows’ how to lift. But it’s been so long that I’m going to have to go through everything with him and make sure he still ‘knows’ everything with correct form.

I know he’s got a knee problem. So the squats will be to just above parallel to start (i’m going to send him to the Dr. too with a list of questions) and then progress from there.

He’s a bit overweight (20-50lbs) but he has been able to in the recent past; loose that.

So right now with his availability being 2x a week i’m going to set up an easy upper/lower split with some good stretching, mobility and cardio to start with some basic movements to get his muscles contracting for about a month.

Then he said he’ll be able to put 3x a day in; where he’ll be doing a TBT style workout.[/quote]

I did this recently with my mom. She is 65. The program has no machines in it and focuses on DB work, most of it standing. As you said, a lot of older people have balance and mobility issues along with a lack of strength. Machines do nothing for the first two issues and are questionable for strength. I don’t see any benefit in using machines and then transitioning to free weights. Start them off on the right path.

14

[quote]B rocK wrote:
He lifted and played HS football. He ‘knows’ how to lift. But it’s been so long that I’m going to have to go through everything with him and make sure he still ‘knows’ everything with correct form.

I know he’s got a knee problem. So the squats will be to just above parallel to start (i’m going to send him to the Dr. too with a list of questions) and then progress from there.

[/quote]

Being older and having knee issues I’d point out that for a lot of people (me too) knee pain is actually just an indicator of how poorly glutes and hamstrings are working. Most stress comes off the knees when you squat below parallel, so having him some up short might make his knees hurt more.

Mobility work (look at Robertson’s stuff, it’s pretty good) is in order and correct his posture if need be. Having him try to lift when he can’t get his hips under himself (tight psoas) or can’t get his shoulders back is just going to make him worse off. Remember that if some body part doesn’t work well in a lift, the load moves to the next strongest element in the chain with possibly injurious results. Worst case is if he really can’t move well for some specific exercise. Then I would put him on machines for a bit (for that exercise only, I stress) and treat it as straight rehab. Again, this is not optimal but I’m giving you a fallback position if it turns out he is in worse shape than you think.

Biggest practical issue as we age is the fight against gravity. Once older people can no longer move themselves they are on a one-way slide. Therefore, always have him do bodyweight work. My way of sneaking it in is to start with it and after a few weeks, use it for warmups. For example, squatting his own bodyweight, go for reps for the first few weeks. Doing a total of 50 (5 sets of 10) squats will give him a good workout.

Also, single best tip I can give you for building strength is isometrics. If he is really weak someplace (e.g. coming out of the bottom of a squat) have him do isometric work there. It is self limiting (hard to hurt yourself) and very joint friendly.

Hope this helps.

– jj

15

[quote]jj-dude wrote:
B rocK wrote:
He lifted and played HS football. He ‘knows’ how to lift. But it’s been so long that I’m going to have to go through everything with him and make sure he still ‘knows’ everything with correct form.

I know he’s got a knee problem. So the squats will be to just above parallel to start (i’m going to send him to the Dr. too with a list of questions) and then progress from there.

Being older and having knee issues I’d point out that for a lot of people (me too) knee pain is actually just an indicator of how poorly glutes and hamstrings are working. Most stress comes off the knees when you squat below parallel, so having him some up short might make his knees hurt more.

Mobility work (look at Robertson’s stuff, it’s pretty good) is in order and correct his posture if need be. Having him try to lift when he can’t get his hips under himself (tight psoas) or can’t get his shoulders back is just going to make him worse off.

Remember that if some body part doesn’t work well in a lift, the load moves to the next strongest element in the chain with possibly injurious results. Worst case is if he really can’t move well for some specific exercise.

Then I would put him on machines for a bit (for that exercise only, I stress) and treat it as straight rehab. Again, this is not optimal but I’m giving you a fallback position if it turns out he is in worse shape than you think.

Biggest practical issue as we age is the fight against gravity. Once older people can no longer move themselves they are on a one-way slide. Therefore, always have him do bodyweight work. My way of sneaking it in is to start with it and after a few weeks, use it for warmups. For example, squatting his own bodyweight, go for reps for the first few weeks. Doing a total of 50 (5 sets of 10) squats will give him a good workout.

Also, single best tip I can give you for building strength is isometrics. If he is really weak someplace (e.g. coming out of the bottom of a squat) have him do isometric work there. It is self limiting (hard to hurt yourself) and very joint friendly.

Hope this helps.

– jj[/quote]

Totally agree with the bodyweight work. Squats, single-leg deads, lunges, pushups (flat or incline) for reps is a great place to start. Done as a circuit it can be good for conditioning. Women are usually OK with this approach. Men’s ego will often mean they want to lift weights ASAP which can cause some conflict.

16

What’s the environment of the gym like at the time he’ll be going? Walking into a gym for the first time in years can be very intimidating. If possible I’d try and get him in off peak hours so he can spend some time getting familiar with the equipment and over his awkwardness without worrying everyone is watching him.

First time will affect how he feels about continuing to go. Once he gets back in the swing of things and knows his way around he’ll stop worrying about it. Tell him to pay us a visit here if he’s into the internet. We know most everything and make up what we don’t.

17

[quote]B rocK wrote:
hey guys

so i think i finally (after 8yrs) talked my father into joining a gym. i’m going down there in about 2 weeks to bring him in, and show him things to do.

I’ll be 55 in May, I work out every day, but I do it because -like many here I love it.

Some food for thought- first find out what he likes doing
aerobic wise. Tennis,cycling,whatever and you join him in that. Slowly work in resistance exercises,at first body weight then light weights. Also go to some health food restaurants. You have a window of opportunity-try to make it fun for him initially. A little psychology never hurts.

18

Thanks for the help and whatnot so far everyone. I’ll be writing up a program maybe next week for him, I’ll toss it up on this thread and see what peoples’ thoughts are.

I should tell him about this area of T-Nation. Though I bet he would come off as the most ultra-newb ever haha. He’s just been getting into computers/internet in the last year…

Thanks!!

19

[quote]B rocK wrote:

I should tell him about this area of T-Nation. Though I bet he would come off as the most ultra-newb ever haha. He’s just been getting into computers/internet in the last year…

Thanks!![/quote]

Maybe he will pick up some solid eating habits on here as well. Just a thought.

20

You might want to consider a whole body program to start off with. There are a few advantages.

  1. If you miss a workout your schedule isn’t messed up.
  2. Higher frequency builds conditioning and less DOMS.
  3. Less intensity per body part is not as stressful to a new lifter.
  4. Higher frequency leads to faster progression.
  5. Easy to program. Squat, Push and Pull.

Stu