edro said:
Hello All,
I'm about to get back to lifting after many years off, I'm in pretty awful shape right now and wonder if there's any sage advice out there for someone like me for diet, supplements, routine, etc. I'm specifically worried about hurting a tendon or something else right off the bat and putting the kabosh on it all. Especially rotator cuff's and elbows, knees, lower back, ok....everything.
I plan to start light (very light) with high rep's. Eat maintenence calories to start, saving wieght loss for later after I get some muscle recovered.
Just got put on HRT (androderm for now) and am feeling up to it for the first time in years, it's made an amazing difference in how I feel. I'm 52 yrs, 6'1", 255lbs, lotsa bodyfat.
Thanks,
Ed
Well, I've been where you are (starting over in the early '50s) , so if my experience is any guide, here's what I would do if I had to do it all over again.
During the first phase of about three months, you're only preparing your body for the work to come, so don't look for any major gains. During this phase, I would emphasize improving your general fitness instead of strength per se, so you should be doing cardio and lots of it. A total of 30 minutes per session is too short a period. Assuming you don;t have heart problems. You should slowly increase your heart rate up past 150 beats per minute, which takes me about 9-10 minutes, and then held it above 150 for 30 minutes, then cool down for a few minutes. Do this at least four times a week. If you can join a gym, elliptical trainers are real easy on the knees, which is a consideration at our age. Cross-train on different types of machine if you can. Rowing machines are wonderful if your knees can hold up.
For the first three months or so I would lay off free weights and work with machines only. This will allow you to isolate and train the main muscle groups with a much lower risk of sustaining injuries, which are much more common at our age than for guys in their 20s, and harder to shrug off. At the start I would aim for 15 reps per set, three sets, at a weight that's heavy enough to cause failure just at that point that you reach the final rep of the 3rd set. Remember that good form on machines is just as important as good form lifting free-weights if you want to make any progress.
The downside of machines is that they won't do anything for the stabilizer muscles, so after three months I would start to make the transition to free weights and stop working machines at all at the six-month mark (except for a smith machine).
For the next six months after that, the standard 12 reps per set x 3 sets works fine. During this phase I found that leg presses were almost as effective as squats, especially if I alternated narrow stance with wide stance, with a lower risk of injury. Similarly, I found that chest-pressing by lying on a bench under a smith machine worked just as well as barbell presses.
After the one-year mark, you shoud aim to be using free weights exclusively and might try the 5 x 5 program mentioned in some threads in this forum.
Good luck, hope this helps.
