Newbie Weight Lifter at Age 49

It sounds like you're doing everything right and making great progress. Keep doing what you're doing. Make sure to maximize your chances of success by getting enough protein, about 150g in your case is a good daily target, no harm in going higher, and make sure you get plenty of sleep. You may also consider adding creatine too.

Don't worry about how you might progress relative to someone in their 20's, say. Yes, it'll be harder as you know, but what's important is progress relative to your old self, and what you're doing will get you that progress. Ideally, you'll be doing this as long as you possibly can, and if you do then you'll be seeing more health benefits than just what the scale tells you.

I started lifting at around 45ish. IMHO, too many make weight lifting too complex. Just start out really slow, get someone to help you with form, even if it's just a couple of trainer sessions.

I'm 58 now and I've moved from lifting 3X a week down to 2X per week, but I do a pretty rigorous workout when I lift (and do a lot of other stuff like Rowing and Assault Bike, that also compliment weights for my cardio).

I've been somewhat stunned, how over time, how much muscle I've been able to put on. Even in my late 50s. I'm around 208 right now (I'm just a bit taller than you), but I only really need to lose around 10 lbs.

daymonh74 wrote: »

I lift twice a week. Full body heavy weights. I've been thinking about going to 3x a week, but I'm not sure if I'd be overtraining and I don't quite understand all of the mechanics related to doing splits just yet. I'm learning what my different muscles are and what they do. I'm just not 100% yet. I'm doing a lot of compound exercises right now too which if I understand correctly will kind of put my body into that muscle building mode (to dumb it down).

Some thoughts on the bolded parts...

Every person is different, and for some going 3x a week would be too much, for others it's not. Since you're still doing full-body, just make sure you have at least one day of rest between, so for example lift Mon-Wed-Fri taking Tues-Thur off. If you want to move one of those days to the weekend, no problem, just keep 24 hours between consecutive workouts. When and if you decide to try it, just monitor how you feel. If you are still feeling weak at the start of the next workout, then for your body at this moment in time you may not be ready yet for a third day. Likewise if your sleep starts to suffer or you are nonstop sore all the time. But realize that even if you aren't ready NOW, doesn't mean you'll never be ready, it just may take some more time getting used to lifting. Lots of people are able to graduate up to three lifting sessions per week just fine.

Don't worry yet about doing split workouts. Some people never do them, just stick with full-body every time, and they are very satisfied with their results. Others reach a point where they want to try splits, whether for the sake of variety or because they feel they can get better gains. Both paths are completely valid and can yield terrific results. If/when you want to learn about splits, there are plenty of resources available to read, and lots of people on this site more than willing to teach.

Now, for the part about compound exercises causing a "muscle building mode," let's stop right there. The way your muscles grow is a several-step process:

• Muscle fibers are stressed/torn
• The body sends nutrients to heal the damaged fibers
• If the same fibers are repeatedly stressed/torn, the body does more than simply repair the damage, it adds reinforcement to help prevent future damage, aka builds bigger muscle

This cycle can occur through lifting objects at work just as easily as through exercise of all forms. Yes, ALL forms, not just weightlifting...swimming, running, yoga can all spur increases in muscle, provided it first stresses the cells to the point of needing repair, then repeats the process until the body feels compelled to repair AND reinforce. This won't continue indefinitely. Think about walking: as an infant, walking was new and decidedly difficult, requiring lots of new brain coordination and muscle building, but as an adult you can walk around without causing any overt damage, thus there's no reason for building the muscles based strictly on walking. You CAN prompt the body into repair, such as by walking for hours on end or hiking over rough terrain/steep slopes.

Anyway, back to the part about compound exercises causing magical muscle building. The fact you're lifting weights is causing strain on your muscles, prompting the body's healing process. Keep doing this, and that's why you gain muscle. Now, what's special about compound moves (bench press, deadlift) compared to isolation moves (curls, leg extensions)? From a purely biological perspective, nothing at all. Both cause the muscles to tear, both require the body to adapt. What sets compound moves as generally considered superior is two-fold:

• Time-saving
• Heavy-setting

Think about it this way: You can spend ten minutes doing pushdowns (triceps), another ten minutes doing cable fly's (chest) and ten more minutes doing DB front raises (shoulders), hitting all three groups in a total of 30 minutes. Or you can do bench press, hitting the same three muscle groups in ten minutes total, saving time to either do more compound moves or just get on with your day.

The other part about compound moves is how you can really load up the bar, since the combination of muscles working together are stronger than any one group by itself. Heavier weights cause correspondingly greater damage, which elicits a correspondingly greater healing/building reaction from the body.

Thus compound moves let you lift heavier for less total time while achieving more body response. That's your "muscle building mode," which can be achieved using nothing but isolation moves, it just would take a lot longer, both in terms of per workout as well as more weeks due to lighter loads being used. Isolation moves have their place, but unless you have a specific reason for doing them (a certain goal, a trainer's instructions, medical rehab, etc) you're probably better off going with most, if not all, compound moves.

nay0m3 wrote: »

Creatine is also a must...

For the record, I've never taken creatine and have been quite happy with the results of my hard work. I'm sure I ended up having some through my diet, but I never took it as a supplement. So while I won't argue it's potential benefits, I will argue the idea it's a "must."

Technically, creatine isn't a "must", but the potential benefits weighed against how cheap and easy it is to add to your regimen, make it very compelling.

I used to lift casually in my 20's and early 30's. This was before the internet, so it was harder to get good info. I'd go to the gym, do stuff with no real plan. I made some progress, nothing amazing. Then my habits changed. I got more sedentary, and gained weight.

As I turned 50 a bit over 3 years ago I made changes. I got myself a little home gym of bench, loadable db's, ez-bar, barbell, pullup bar and various plates. I've since dropped over 50 pounds and sustained there. TBH I could probably drop another 10-20. My waist size is down about 6", and my tshirt size is the same, though some are baggier than others, but not enough to drop a size. I just got some blood work done, everything is in normal range though my glucose was higher than I thought it would be, at the high end of normal.

I've tried various splits and what I've found works for me, that I can sustain, is an upper/lower split every other day. On the in-between days I may do a bit of cardio. Yes, that means Monday one week will be a lifting day, the next week not. Since I'm working out at home, that's not a problem. Every four days I'm getting bench, squat, row, etc., and at the end of leg day I may add in Myo-reps for arms to get a little extra volume.

If you want to add a third day of weights you don't have to do entire full body again, which may well lead to overtraining even if you are (hopefully?) doing a deload every so often. Different parts recover faster than others. You don't need a convoluted split either. Keep doing bigger lifts like squats or deadlift twice a week, and on the extra day in between do more arms, accessories, etc.

daymonh74 wrote: »

nay0m3 wrote: »

Curious what your lifting program looks like if you want to share with us!

I workout every weekday. Treadmill on Monday, Lift Tuesday, Exercise Bike Wednesday, Treadmill again Thursday and Lift Friday.

For lifting I do the same thing each day since I think there's plenty of recovery time between. Incline bench press, barbell squats, deadlifts, overhead military press, pendlay rows, barbell curls, bent over dumbbell rows, arnolds, and then I usually finish with dumbbell lateral raises and dumbbell face pulls. All free weights.

All free weights.

Friday is a busy day. There are times I have to skip Friday and do it Saturday instead. I'm not sure if this is slowing my progress or not. I started The last week of October 2022 and have been consistent. I only added protein shakes in the last couple of weeks. I thought I could get most of my protein from food alone. Nope... not happenin'.

I share @nossmf's question about your protein goal. Also, are you an omnivore?

(Honest bias admission: I have no difficulty getting enough protein, like routinely over 1g/pound of lean body mass, even as a vegetarian, and doing it without protein powders/bars or in my case faux meats. Even though I understand in the abstract that different people have different taste preferences, I always wonder about the scenario when omnivores say they struggle to get adequate protein from food. Some of them have simply cut calories too far, though it sounds like you're on a more moderate loss-rate track. As an aside, I don't think there's anything wrong with protein supplements or faux meats, I just don't personally find them tasty or satisfying.)

If you'd like to be getting more of your protein from food, this thread may be helpful:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

It helped me when I was first trying to get plenty of protein on reduced calories at the start of loss, even though it's very much an "all eating styles" thread, and many of the most calorie-efficient protein choices are meaty/fishy.

Again, supplements are fine, but if you're strongly motivated to be more food-focused (optional!), I could make some suggestions to you about how to get there, because it's a game that many of us veg people need to play when we first adopt this dietary style (as I did in *1974*). The approach would work fine for an omnivore, with the bonus that y'all can utilize foods that we veg people won't/can't. I won't belabor it on speculation, because if you prefer to use a protein supplement, that's fine.

daymonh74 wrote: »

nossmf wrote: »

What's your protein goal?

About 0.8 grams per pound which right now puts me at about 190 grams. Even with shakes I struggle to get close to 150 grams.

More lean meat would probably help, but it takes time that I don't have cooking steaks, pork and chicken breast.

Working 2nd shift doesn't help since I would basically need to eat the cooked meal for lunch.

That's why I decided to add in shakes.

If we haven't already linked it, there's an evidence-based protein calculator you could take a look at, from a generally well-respected site:

https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/

Full explanation of their basis for these recommendations in this document:

https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/

On a quick re-skim of the thread, I didn't see an indication of how much weight you think you need to lose, though your BMI at 239 would be 34.5 (class 1 obese, technically). BMI isn't perfect for individual assessment, to say the least, but it's a semi-reliable screener. Men with normal-to-moderate muscle often are better in the upper end of the normal BMI range (that full range would be 128-172 pounds at your height), or even the lower part of the theoretically overweight range (173-207 is the full overweight range at your height). Some men are objectively not over-fat at even higher weights, but that tends to be men with really high muscularity and/or an unusual build.

IMO, you'd probably be OK at a minimum of 0.8g daily per pound of a healthy goal weight, or 1g per pound of estimated lean body mass (LBM). This is a case where even the probably-inaccurate estimate of LBM from a home scale or online calculator (like the "Navy Body Fat Calculator" ones) can be OK to use, because the arithmetic leads the final protein estimate to be pretty close even if the body fat percent (BF%) estimate is questionable.

I'm sure some of the guys will have more nuanced ideas about this, but even if you end up at the upper end of the overweight BMI range at a satisfying-to-you body composition, 0.8 x 207 would be a protein minimum of about 166 g daily.

daymonh74 wrote: »

About 0.8 grams per pound which right now puts me at about 190 grams. Even with shakes I struggle to get close to 150 grams.

More lean meat would probably help, but it takes time that I don't have cooking steaks, pork and chicken breast.

Working 2nd shift doesn't help since I would basically need to eat the cooked meal for lunch.

Admittedly, cooking steak can take time to do right, but pork and chicken can be cooked in no time flat. Seriously, if you have 15 minutes I can show you how to make a very high-protein meal. How high? With 8oz of chicken, a cup of egg noodles, a cup of broccoli and a 12oz cup of milk we're talking 93g of protein for only 650 calories in 15 minutes. That's a single meal in less time than it takes some people to take a shower. So while I understand time crunch is a real thing, the statement "I have no time" doesn't hold water with me. Even if you don't have time during the week, a couple hours spent on the weekend mass producing food, putting into tupperware in the fridge, and pulling out to nuke will set you up for success.

As far as working 2nd shift, do you mean working from 2pm-10pm or something similar? I did that for years, and yep, I ate protein-heavy at lunch time before work. Combined with tupperware leftovers which can get nuked at work, and it's still doable.