Newbie Weight Lifter at Age 49

nossmf wrote: »

(snippety)

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.
(snip)

There's very much goodness in @nossmf's post, IMO, but I snipped this part. Can I be a witness (in a way that I think could be encouraging to OP)?

I gained noticeable muscle after mid-40s, while not doing much lifting at all, but mostly from doing a lot of something most would consider cardio, but a form that has a slightly progressive-strength-challenge element to it (rowing, both boats and machines, and plenty of it, for years). And I'm not only old, but female besides. (This was during a period of maintenance, when I was over-fat, not in a calorie deficit.)

Not gonna lie, it happened really slowly, because rowing (though slowly progressive) is not an efficient way to build muscle if that's the goal, compared to weight lifting. I'd recommend rowing as a thing that's fun, not as an ideal way to build muscle!

But I suspect that if a middle-aged woman doing sub-optimal exercise can slowly add muscle, a similar-aged man who's strength training has plenty of reason for optimism. Patience still required, probably.

Creatine: There's been some debate about whether it can cause some muscle cramping, but most recent sources seem to say it doesn't. I've never heard of it making people hyper or jittery, and I certainly don't experience that. It seems to be very safe, it's pretty cheap, and there are hints in research that it's especially helpful as a supplement when aging, plus for (maybe) cognitive benefits as well as for certain exercise-related reasons. (A friend's neurologist told her to take it for cognitive reasons, for example.) There are also hints that it could have benefits for athletes who are vegan or vegetarian with limited dairy/egg intake, but IMU the studies on that front have not been very well controlled.

Best wishes!

Sounds like a solid full-body routine. Moving from Friday to Saturday will not delay your results any, though if you skipped Friday completely that would slow things down.

MFP members are a mixed bag when it comes to feelings on protein shakes. Some live by them; some think they're the devil incarnate. Most are somewhere in the middle, thinking that if you can get enough protein from regular food then do it, if not then adding a shake is fine. Personally I only add shakes on lifting days, or rarely on days when I'm running light (such as hotdog over a fire night). Otherwise I eat enough meat and drink enough milk that reaching my goals is easy. What's your protein goal?

AnnPT77 wrote: »

1g per pound of estimated lean body mass (LBM).

^ This. The "X grams per pound bw" adage falls apart for non-lean people. Your fat doesn't need all that protein. It's either a sliding scale of X to Y grams per pound bw, X if you're at a high body fat range, Y if you're lean, or just use a lean body mass estimate, which at 1g per pound lbm comes out to about 160g being plenty for you. I don't think a bit higher will be harmful, but it could be an inconvenience to try and fit into your daily intake and macros.

I assume the people in this study were generally leaner than OP, which means the following ratio could drop somewhat:

Protein supplementation beyond total protein intakes of 1.62 g/kg/day (0.73g/lb) resulted in no further RET-induced gains in FFM.

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/6/376

EDIT: I see the examine link shows 160g being the upper range of a good target. I got the 160g estimate from a lean body mass calculator and applying 1g per pound to that.