Greetings,
I'd like to formally introduce myself. I'm Gene, live in the Northwestern US and am a research scientist for a pharmaceutical company. Oh, and I have a wonderful wife and two dogs, BTW. I'm new to m4C/firearms and started assembling and collecting ARs this year (bad timing, I guess). I'm not new to fitness, however, and used to be an avid hiker, mountaineer, rock climber, biker, and powerlifter.
I used to be in fantastic shape in my early 20's. I could run two miles in 13 minutes, bench 535, squat 625, and run the 40 in 4.6 at a bodyweight of 242. Perhaps not the ideal body type for a Marine, but pretty healthy nonetheless.
Unfortunately, life sort of became complicated in my mid 20's going to graduate school (12 yrs of college), getting married, and working full-time. I became quite out of shape and stayed this way until age 39. Below is a 2003 pic of my sorry out of shape ass (and my wife) in Le Mans, France. It's probably the dorkiest photo I have of myself, but looking at it was motivation enough to get my butt back in shape.
Seriously dorky photo showing what years of neglect can do...I'm about 225 in this pic (and 5'11").
After getting back from this vacation, I started running, hiking, climbing and lifting. I'd typically run three miles every other day and five to six the other days. On weekends I'd do a couple of familiar hikes for time: one was three miles one way and 1,700' and the other three miles at 2,400' elevation gain. My lifting routine was based on the "big three" with accessory stuff and lots of core work.
I suffered a major shoulder injury while snow skiing in BC that resulted in a 3rd degree separation of my right clavicle. This pretty much put the weightlifting on hold, but I pressed on with the other activities.
After about eight months, I looked like this at age 40:
Me and my wife at Crater Lake. She's getting in shape too.
Obligatory Pit Bull pic. This is Boris- an avid hiker too:
A few more months of this routine and I managed to lose most of the weight I felt necessary. My clavicle had healed enough to begin lifting again so I did so using pain as my guide. My lifting routine incorporated the big three (or four if you include military presses), but using a progressive wave developed by former champion powerlifter Jim Wendler. This is called the “5,3,1 routine”.
In summary, you perform the military press, squat, deadlift, and bench press three or four days per week. You can incorporate other compound exercises, but these are the principal exercises the program is built upon. You do these for just three work sets, not including a thorough warm-up. Accessory work is incorporated as well, but again the focus is the main exercise of the day.
First you determined your current 1-rep maximum (1RM), and reduce it approximately 10%. Then use your 1RM to calculate your loads for a four-week wave.
Week one is three sets of five (3 x 5) on your major lift.
Week two is 3 x 3.
Week three is 5, 3, 1.
Week four is a deload week using lighter weights for recovery. for 3 x 5.
Each set is progressively heavier before but all are lower than your 1RM- even the single on week three. The percentages for each day are recommended by Wendler and work wonderfully. Additionally, for each of the first three weeks you perform as many reps as possible for the final set.
Got to www.elitefts.com and check it out. I’m not affiliated with this site of the authors, just reporting what has worked for me.
After one year of this program, my squat improved from 415 to 585 and bench from an injured 305 to 365.
In mid-2007 at age 42, I went from 215 to 235 and looked like this:
I started training for a drug-free powerlifting contest for shit's-n-grins and in the middle of my planned progression, badly injured my neck. This caused my right scapula (via the long thoracic nerve) to become completely paralyzed. The result was massive loss of strength in my right arm and shoulder. However, I pressed on and entered the contest anyway. I managed to bench 325 without a bench shirt/legal pause and deadlift 555. Not bad for being beat-up, I guess. During this entire time I kept running and started biking about 45 min to one hour per day.
By 2008 the nerve had healed approximately 95%. Then, in October I paralyzed the left thoracic nerve. I'm not kidding! I decided it was wise to spend lots of time rehabilitating my neck to prevent another injury.
As of July 2009, both nerves are about 95%. I don't think they'll get to 100%, but this is good enough. I'm about 235-240 now and can bench 415, squat 640 and deadlift 665. I need to spend more time on cardio and eating better. I think I've enough mass, so it's time to cut.
Here's a recent pic of the old man (44) doing shrugs with 745:
Forearms getting a good workout:
So there it is. Mid life threw me into the corner and I came out and kicked its ass. And I've only just begun.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate any feedback- negative, positive/constructive. Don't worry, I can handle it
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Originally Posted by cody0341
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