More Rest or More Calories?

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mcemino2
mcemino2 Posts: 427 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
First a little background. I am a 57 year old male, 5'5" and currently 190 pounds, sw 227. I have been eating at a deficit, 1600 calories since last October, when I started going to the gym also. I am not new to lifting, but this is the first time I have worked at it seriously. My lifting schedule is:
Monday:upper body
Tuesday:legs
Wednesday:upper body
Thursday:skating
Friday:rest day except work which is physical
Saturday:mix of upper body and legs if I can get to the gym
Sunday:skating.
My question is should I space the upper body workouts further apart. On Wednesday I struggle to make the same weight/reps I did on Monday. The following week or Saturday I can usually hit the previous numbers or increase slightly.

Replies

  • LINIA
    LINIA Posts: 1,045 Member
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    is your goal weight still 180 pounds? You could always try to spread out the Upper Body workouts, experiment with that---or rotate M-W one week...then M-TH the next week.

    GL
  • mcemino2
    mcemino2 Posts: 427 Member
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    Looking to get to around 180 for now, ultimately like to be 160-170.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
    edited June 2019
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    I think moving the 2nd upper body workout to Thursday seems reasonable.

    Probably also no need for the Saturday upper lower workout. Since you are already doing 2 upper body workouts and 2 days of skating. Get your rest and hit it hard...

    You could, and probably should up your cals a bit. 1650 - 2310 range maybe.
    1650 is probably closer to your BMR so I would go higher on the range.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    "More Rest or More Calories?"
    Two separate questions really (but with some crossover):
    Are you feeling fatigued?
    Any you losing weight at an inappropriate rate?
    (Side note - recovery and rest are different, you don't have to rest to recover.)

    "1600 calories since last October"
    Wow, that's low for someone your weight.

    "My question is should I space the upper body workouts further apart"
    Maybe. But this sentence doesn't tell the whole picture "on Wednesday I struggle to make the same weight/reps I did on Monday."
    Do you really expect to lift the same every workout? No good days/bad days?
    Are you lifting to failure / maximum every time, using a fixed rep scheme or perceived exertion?

    I see the logic of your schedule, one alternative is to drop the intensity level on the Monday.
    But.....
    "The following week or Saturday I can usually hit the previous numbers or increase slightly."
    Overall then you are progressing week on week so does it really matter that on Wednesdays you can't lift as much?

    If you started from the perspective of progressing your lifts week on week rather than being disappointed in one workout would you still see a problem that needs fixing?
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    How are you measuring your calories? If you're using a food scale, 1,600 is too low (you posted this in the Gaining Weight forum---- 1,600 is about your BMR).
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    edited June 2019
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    I wouldn't be striving to lift the same weights necessarily. I "might" look to produce the same excersion depending on the short/long term goal. I would certainly want to see the average weight move upward over time.

    Example my second lift on Monday is a competition bench and on Tuesday my first lift is a Pin Bench.

    Monday -Comp bench
    1×315@RPE7
    1×320@RPE7
    1×335@RPE8
    320×2×2 sets @RPE 8
    320×3 @RPE9

    Tuesday-Pin Bench
    1×295
    1×305@RPE6.5
    1×320@RPE8
    3×310@RPE9
    295×3×2 sets

    You can see my top single of both benches(335/320) are 15lbs different but the same exersion or stress. My top triple has a 10lb difference between the days.

    I'm lifting a different weight but dosing the same amount of stress for my template which is written for my goal of doing a near max single in three weeks.

    If I was to attempt the same weight on back to back days I wouldnt be able to rid the stress to do so and would also build up fatigue that I would have problems recovering from for my goal of lifting much heavier singles in three weeks.

    As far as your calories, I would look at the trend of weight loss/gain for your goals. It appears low if you are relatively active.

  • mcemino2
    mcemino2 Posts: 427 Member
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    Thanks all. I agree calories are low and I don't use a scale. If I eat back exercise calories or above 1600 my weight doesn't drop. I was stuck for almost a month a took a diet break, scale seems to be dropping again after gaining a few pounds back. No fatigue or abnormal weight drops.
    As far as the lifting I try to lift heavy with low reps for several weeks then deload a little with lighter weight and higher reps.
    I know some days I can do more than others, just seems to be more of a trend lately.

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