Hello

brianowens1976

I’m a 42 yr old husband and father of 4. I peaked in weight at 217 8 years ago. I am now 164. I am trying to gain some muscle mass, but u struggle with a bad back and knees. Looking for workouts to protect both.

4legsRbetterthan2

@brianowens1976 I moved this to the gaining wight and body building board. Maybe some of our other members who has similar struggles can help you out.

brianowens1976

Ok. Thx!

LiftHeavyThings27105

So, welcome to MFP. I have a similar story (peaked at 251 and got down to 192.....dang I was a beast then!). Sitting at 205lbs now with some extra fluff as I did power lifting for some 18 months (so, lots of eating). PL is deadlifts, squats and bench.

I have a messed up right knee (yes, the GLORY DAYS: high school football injury). I stayed away from squats and dead lifts for the longest time (because of the knee) but started thinking that I likely should do squats to make it stronger. I found some videos from Jeff Calvalier at AthleanX and away I went.

Now, your bad back is a different story. Were it just bad knees I would suggest - generically speaking - that you consider lunges and squats. I found that doing reverse lunges really helped....and specifically reverse lunges because of the bad right knee). The bad back......might want to stay away from squats and dead lifts...

I have hurt myself far too many times in those 18 months (Power Lifting) so I am currently not doing squats or dead lifts (which KILLS ME because I absolutely love both....). We will see in six months.....I have previously said one year, but I am going to work the kinks out (so-to-speak) and see where I stand in six months.

Have you looked for a canned program to follow? Do you have any training history? If so, what? How active are you? What type of lifting - should you have experience there - do you enjoy?

And, the most important question, how much time per week do you have time for training?