Forget all this weight loss, anyone lifting weights?

[MWPT]

Get an adjustable goal.

Ha! May be reduced to a golf ball before too long

[RocketBooster]

Weight training is the foundation. Add in cardio and some dietary restriction (not crushing 12 Oreos at a time) in moderation.

Gives me the ability to mostly eat whatever I want, whenever I want, and maintain health metrics (BP, weight, cholesterol, glucose, A1C, etc).

[CordMcNally]

Add in cardio and some dietary restriction (not crushing 12 Oreos at a time) in moderation.

If you eat 12 Oreos and can't eat the rest of the package then you're just not committed.

[MaxPower]

impressive, very nice. I could get a bit over the rim, grab it with my fingers, but never come close to dunking.

Jumping/explosiveness has definitely gone down the most in 25 years. For a while I thought I’d introduce plyo and an actual jumping routine into my workouts, visions of grabbing the rim at 50 or something, but my Achilles is my Achilles and it didn’t like for one second high frequency jumps.

I do maintain eccentric calf training purely to treat chronic AT, and I can handle track sprints of 50-75 m and soccer - would love to include more plyo but fearful of injury.

At our ages, an Achilles rupture would be something we’d never fully come back from. If you’re feeling any twinges in your Achilles it just isn’t worth it.

[burritos]

Definitely not annoyed by it, as you know i have reasons IF is useful to me and i do use it from time to time - even my non IF usual routine is IF influenced, i only have one small meal in my sixteen hours which is a huge cry from the constant grazing i used to do all morning long.

However I found IF incompatible with strength straining and the weight gain necessary to support it. Which raises the question, is all this strength training and weight gain good for us, or not? Even barring injury - which could happen doing cardio or sports, too - does packing on even mostly muscle mass have a metabolic cost? It's hard to find useful data on longevity in bodybuilders because so many of them used anabolic steroids or weird supplements for many years.

I certainly don't buy Mark Rippetoe's advice to "not worry about seeing your abs," which may be good advice for a powerlifter and makes for faster strength gains as a bodybuilder but surely can't be worth the metabolic cost in the long run. My fear of getting fat plus naturally being a hard gainer are why my progress is much slower than some, but I've kept my BF in the 12-15% range which i think is healthier in the long run than getting up to 20%.

One reason I'm so fastidious about deadlifts is that i have nearly complete disc loss at L4-L5. That started in my mid 20s and i was talking to a spine surgeon in my late 30s. Then i discovered deadlifts. That plus every other year RFA has decreased my back pain 80%. If I go even 3 weeks without DLs, my pain starts to come back. Having a strong back has been miraculous for my back pain.

Conversely i have to be careful with squats, if I go too heavy or too frequently i pay the price. Right now my sets twice a week are at 205 and my hips and legs are ready to increase weight but my back is saying no. So I'll deviate from Starting Strength, again, and just go up in reps till I get more like 8-10 at this weight, and reassess.

I also think the squats and deadlifts are really important for injury prevention playing soccer and skiing.

This is my routine:

Sunday: pullups or chinups, bodyweight (50+) or weighted (3*6-8) which i alternate every workout; bench or press (3*6); row (3*6-8)

Monday: squat (3*6-10) and deadlift (1*5 plus warmups)

Tuesday: alternate from Sunday, no row
Thursday: squat and cleans (3*6)

Friday: same as Sunday

Sunday: same as Tuesday and so on

I am running about 25 miles a week, one long slow Maffetone run on Saturday, one middle distance speed workout on Wednesday, and two easy 4 mile runs Monday and Thursday. So twice a week I both run and lift, try to run in the morning and lift in the evening.

i really need to add some flexibility and be more consistent with my core work. If anyone has a good flexibility routine to share I'd love to see it, that is absolutely my greatest deficiency but i haven't found something i enjoy (and my back does not like yoga).

I'm 47 and everyone keeps saying by 50 both strength and speed start to noticeably decrease, so this may be close to as good as it gets...

50 pull ups? ************************ that is insane. I threw up 26 this month. My previous PR was 25 when I was 17, 33 years ago. So i supposed you could say i’m on an upward trend.

[coastal]

I miss lifting real weights - it’s been a couple years. Have had both hips scoped the last two years - pretty bad FAI which finally caught up with me just before 40. After finishing my last rehab this spring have been doing body weight stuff primarily (Gymnastics Bodies) and taking things slowly. Just started deadlifting and squatting again a few weeks ago. I’d like to get strong again, if my body will let me, but I’m not really interested in adding much weight. Just under 6, 165 now, and don’t really want to go over 175. Primary athletic pursuit is learning to surf (hence less weight better) and I find it’s easy to feel over-trained even with just the body weight stuff. Not in my 20’s anymore!

[FIREshrink]

50 pull ups? ************************ that is insane. I threw up 26 this month. My previous PR was 25 when I was 17, 33 years ago. So i supposed you could say i’m on an upward trend.

Hah! Not in a row! 3-4 sets!

[pierre]

I consider myself a hard gainer.

What is a hard gainer?

I’ve never been very consistent with weight training. I like lifting, but don’t like going to a crowded gym. Lately I’ve just been doing push-ups, squats (bodyweight), sprints, and slow aerobic runs.

I’ll be moving next week and will finally have a garage. I’m thinking of setting up a small gym in there. Any recommendations on a set of adjustable dumbbells?

[MaxPower]

What is a hard gainer?

I’ve never been very consistent with weight training. I like lifting, but don’t like going to a crowded gym. Lately I’ve just been doing push-ups, squats (bodyweight), sprints, and slow aerobic runs.

I’ll be moving next week and will finally have a garage. I’m thinking of setting up a small gym in there. Any recommendations on a set of adjustable dumbbells?

I have the Bowflex SelecTech BD552 adjustable dumbbells and they have been great. I also bought the stand for them. I think there are probably less pricy options out there, but if I remember correctly I got them 5-6 years ago on sale for $329 (currently $399). They go from 5-25 lbs in 2.5 pound increments, then by 5 up to 50, plus a 52.5 option. Aside from bench press or incline press, I can do everything I want to with just those dumbbells for upper body currently. I do some higher repetition, lower weight stuff with them for lower body stuff (goblet squats, Bulgarian split squats, single leg calf raises, etc), but am currently looking for a good squat rack to go along with my 300 pound Olympic weight barbell set.

Edit: I love working out at home. I also don’t like crowded gyms, waiting for machines/weights, weight Bros, etc and I’m motivated to work out every day so it works for me.

[pitt1166]

i have been lifting regularly since college, and have been fortunate enough to be able to maintain 4-6 days of lifting throughout med school and training.

now that i am out as an early attending, i still do 4-5 days of lifting per week, before work, and maybe 1-2 additional days of exercise per week. since the pandemic, i've gradually accumulated a solid home gym set up, from rogue fitness.

i have a squat stand, barbell, curl bar, trap bar, a few kettlebells, and dumbells from 5 to 80 pounds (in roughly 10 pound increments).

i've been exercising in the morning before work but i really do notice that i'm slightly weaker on virtually all lifts in the morning versus lifting in the evening. but its more sustainable to lift before work, and lifting heavy weights and putting on muscle is less important to me now. ideally i'd wake up like 30-45 minutes before lifting to give myself time do wake up and loosen up. i need to give myself more time in the mornings to stretch and also leave some time for more exercises/sets if i'm really feeling it.

any tips for successful morning lifts?

i'm just trying to maintain now. i've been doing this consistently for about 18 years now, now that i'm 35, i wonder sometimes what the end game is. but of course there is no end game. just trying to stay in shape and healthy. i've stopped doing heavy squats and deadlifts and stopping doing cleans to avoid injury. feel like a weenie somewhat but oh well.

i will not be returning to the gym. i like my current home gym, and i'm going to casually look around for some used machines and perhaps a cable tower.

[FIREshrink]

What is a hard gainer?

?

Ectomorph body type. Lean, runner body, hard to add muscle. Also known as a skinny fat. But Starting Strength (progressive overload) and focusing on complex basic movements like squat, DL, press/bench, plus eating a lot more, has finally helped.

[Lordosis]

I have the Bowflex SelecTech 552 adjustable dumbbells and they have been great. I also bought the stand for them. I think there are probably less pricy options out there, but if I remember correctly I got them 5-6 years ago on sale for $329 (currently $399). They go from 5-25 lbs in 2.5 pound increments, then by 5 up to 50, plus a 52.5 option. Aside from bench press or incline press, I can do everything I want to with just those dumbbells for upper body currently. I do some higher repetition, lower weight stuff with them for lower body stuff (goblet squats, Bulgarian split squats, single leg calf raises, etc), but am currently looking for a good squat rack to go along with my 300 pound Olympic weight barbell set.

Edit: I love working out at home. I also don’t like crowded gyms, waiting for machines/weights, weight Bros, etc and I’m motivated to work out every day so it works for me.

I have those as well but I have the ones that go from 10-90lbs. They are very easy to use and versatile. A little more wobblily than I would like and they are very large. Just helps build the stabilizers I guess.

[pierre]

Ectomorph body type. Lean, runner body, hard to add muscle. Also known as a skinny fat. But Starting Strength (progressive overload) and focusing on complex basic movements like squat, DL, press/bench, plus eating a lot more, has finally helped.

That sounds like me.

I probably just need to be more dedicated with the weights. I am 6’3” about 195-200 lbs usually. I would like to keep the same weight, but replace 10 lbs of fat with muscle. I never know if I should try to lose the fat or gain the muscle first so I just stay the same.

[Dicast]

I’ll be moving next week and will finally have a garage. I’m thinking of setting up a small gym in there. Any recommendations on a set of adjustable dumbbells?

I have both SelectTech Dumbells 552 and PowerBlocks. I prefer the powerblocks most of the time even though they are ugly and tend to feel weird. The biggest issue is durability. You can drop power blocks pretty regularly and nothing will happen. The SelectTechs I have always been a bit scared to be rough with so I tend to use them for gentler lifts. Wife likes the SelectTech better because of the grips. All that said, I don't lift routinely anymore. I stick with my rowing machine most of the time.

[FIREshrink]

That sounds like me.

I probably just need to be more dedicated with the weights. I am 6’3” about 195-200 lbs usually. I would like to keep the same weight, but replace 10 lbs of fat with muscle. I never know if I should try to lose the fat or gain the muscle first so I just stay the same.

Recomp is super hard to do. Also, anabolism isn't very compatible with IF, it's kind of the opposite in fact...