Hit a plateau at 50

[Halfcenturian]

Hey guys, I need your help, on how to break through plateaus. I'm not really a body builder or a powerlifter. I sort of do both.

I go heavy (for me) on Squats, Bench, Seated overhead press, Deads.
But I keep the ancillary work; bi's, tri's, flyes etc. in the 8 to 10 range.
Basic 5X5's style. 5 day split. One maybe 2 body parts a day.

My diet is a little light. 4500 cals /day +or-.
I eat clean: All the meats, whey, bananas, brown rice, oatmeal. 5 to 6 meals a day. I don't want to get a lot bigger, just STRONGER.

I'm 50 years old 5'10, 205,and running about 12% BF.
My 1 or 2 rep Maxes: Squat 375, Bench 315, Military 200, dead, 350.
Those are not lousy lifts...BUT,I have been there for the last 9 months.

Goal for now is to increase raw strength. Then maybe shread down to true boby builder stature. It's harder to put on lean muscle mass at 50. I don't care what anybody says.

The prolem is I have 50 year old connective tisue. So far so good, but I hear shit that makes my teeth hurt about rips ang tears. I was going to go see a "Strength coach" but he won't know how much gear I'm on. so here I am.

Help an old man out.

 

[Halfcenturian]

Come on guys. You will be 50 some day and need some advice. NOBODY?

 

[wedge]

Hey Man

Those are great lifts for any age and for 50 you are doing great. How much more weight do you want to increase on these lifts ? 50 is not old anymore in most peoples minds but if this is your first go round with heavier weighhts, your gains might not come as fast as you like.

wedge

 

[Halfcenturian]

well hell...you buttheads.

Guess I'll just go up real slow. Add 5 lbs. a month or something. Low reps 2-4Heavy weight. That's how they taught it 30 years ago. Thanks for your help.

 

[Paul Bunyan]

Guess I should've looked at your post before your PM, LOL. We'll get you going in the right direction.

PB

 

[Halfcenturian]

So Paul, are you out feeding Blue?

Guess I should've looked at your post before your PM, LOL. We'll get you going in the right direction.

PB

Were you gonna put something together for the old man? (me) About bustin' thru these F-ing plateaus. I got desire, I got time, I got milk. (oops, sorry) gear. Turn me into a 50 year old MONSTER! I'm stuck at these weights. Should I do; 6,4,2's? 3,2,1's?
Thanks, Bro.

 

[Paul Bunyan]

Gimme a minute. You old guys are so impatient.

PB

 

[ironfreak83]

Hey guys, I need your help, on how to break through plateaus. I'm not really a body builder or a powerlifter. I sort of do both.

I go heavy (for me) on Squats, Bench, Seated overhead press, Deads.
But I keep the ancillary work; bi's, tri's, flyes etc. in the 8 to 10 range.
Basic 5X5's style. 5 day split. One maybe 2 body parts a day.

My diet is a little light. 4500 cals /day +or-.
I eat clean: All the meats, whey, bananas, brown rice, oatmeal. 5 to 6 meals a day. I don't want to get a lot bigger, just STRONGER.

I'm 50 years old 5'10, 205,and running about 12% BF.
My 1 or 2 rep Maxes: Squat 375, Bench 315, Military 200, dead, 350.
Those are not lousy lifts...BUT,I have been there for the last 9 months.

Goal for now is to increase raw strength. Then maybe shread down to true boby builder stature. It's harder to put on lean muscle mass at 50. I don't care what anybody says.

The prolem is I have 50 year old connective tisue. So far so good, but I hear shit that makes my teeth hurt about rips ang tears. I was going to go see a "Strength coach" but he won't know how much gear I'm on. so here I am.

Help an old man out.

personally, i'd try a 4, or even 3 day split. 3 day splits give me the best strength gains, and at 5 days a week, i get progressively weaker until i take time off to recover.

me and my partner have been doing 4 sets of 5 reps, 4 sets of 3 reps, and 5 singles on bench, squat, and deadlift with a lot of success lately. my routine right now is like this

Sunday-max effort bench
monday-max effort squat
thursday-shoulders and back and accessory work

for my max effort squat days, i squat one week, then deadlift the next, and do any accessory exercises i need like reverse hypers, leg curls, hack squats, every once in awhile i do some leg extentions.

\for max effort bench, i do flat bench, then we do board presses off a 2 or 3 board, then either barbell inclines or dumbell inclines, then heavy weighted dips, heavy flyes in the 6-10 rep range, and tate presses or skulls or some sort of cable pushdowns for tri's. i usually throw in my bicep work at the end, but i dont do biceps that often.

shoulders and back and accessory- some sort of military, lateral raises, rotator work. and for back we do bent over rows one week, chest supported rows the next week. also seated cable rows, facepulls with bands and any other accessory work we feel like doing.

this is what's working for me and my partners right now, and it might not be what you wanna try. just an option and it'll allow you to switch things up a little bit.

 

[Halfcenturian]

Hey Thanks guys. I've been doing a 5 day split, heavy. And I don't think I'm recovering enough. Cuz I can't get past those max effort weights. It's been over 6 months. I'm stuck. This routine looks pretty good to break thru some of those plateaus.
So you do 3 day split 4 sets of 5 reps. 5th rep being to failure so to speak. Then 4 sets of 3, the 5 singles. So you're going balls to the wall most all the time on all the complex lifts anyway. 80-90% of max? Then you do ancillary flyes, military, curls in the 6 rep range. But only 3 days a week? Do I have it straight?
Thanks.

 

[ironfreak83]

i basically work each body part once a week. to make it more simple, i do legs on sunday, chest and arms on monday, and shoulders and back on thursday. it just works well for me that way since i'm off sat. sun. and monday every week.

my bench workout was like this on monday this week:
135x5
225x5
315x5
405x5
455x3
495x3
515x3
525x3
535x1
545x1
555x1
565x1(set a PR here)

then i did all my accessory work like inclines, dumbell flyes, and anything else for triceps like dips and skulls.

my squat and deadlift workout would be the same rep scheme, and then whatever accessory work i thought i needed afterwards.

on thursdays when i do militaries, i do high reps with the dumbells, but if i'm doing barbell military i usually sets of 3-6 reps going as heavy as possible. bent over rows i do heavy sets of 5-6 reps or just how i feel.

remember that in the strength game, recovery is key. it's not always how hard you're training, but how smart you're doing it. i hope some of this helps, just remember that everyone is different, and what might work for some people might not work for you. i'd say somethin like this would help you blast threw the weights you're stuck at though.

 

[Halfcenturian]

Thanks for help,

So you're doing a 5 day split with this kind of firepower??? 12 sets of bench?

I'd need the next day off. (565-bastard)

Then same routine for squats, deads, military. And then you do ancillary flyes, curls, etc at a 6 rep max. That sound pretty good. What's your workout time. I gotta be in and out in 45 minutes. Hour max. thanks, Bro.

 

[ironfreak83]

sorry if i'm confusing ya lol. i only workout 3 days a week. train each body part one time. i'm usually in the gym about 2 hours each time, so this may not work for ya. i take 3-5 minute rest periods between my heavy sets. tonight i'm doin behind the neck militaries, bent over rows, seated cable rows, and some shoulder dumbell work, then some shrugs.

 

[Halfcenturian]

I got an hour max

I think heavy is the common denominator here. I may do 6,4,2 on complex lifts. Then maybe 3,2,1 next week. I'm glad to know you guys don't curl 275 pounds or do 150 pound flyes. It's more the 3 basic cores; Bench squat, dead, that are HEAVY. I may throw military in there too. I want to body slam my neighbor, who's only 190lbs, onto his front lawn pool, just for grins.

 

[ironfreak83]

I think heavy is the common denominator here. I may do 6,4,2 on complex lifts. Then maybe 3,2,1 next week. I'm glad to know you guys don't curl 275 pounds or do 150 pound flyes. It's more the 3 basic cores; Bench squat, dead, that are HEAVY. I may throw military in there too. I want to body slam my neighbor, who's only 190lbs, onto his front lawn pool, just for grins.

lol, when you do i wanna see a video

remember that upper back is key to a big bench. shoulders help out a lot too, especially if you're benching raw like i am right now. just keep hittin it heavy and hard and you'll blast through the weights you're stuck at in no time brother!

 

[Halfcenturian]

lol, when you do i wanna see a video

remember that upper back is key to a big bench. shoulders help out a lot too, especially if you're benching raw like i am right now. just keep hittin it heavy and hard and you'll blast through the weights you're stuck at in no time brother!

Thanks Brother.

J/K about the body slam thing. Some times I just.......................................

I'm gonna suplex him through the widshield of his F%$#@ing Porsche!

 

[Max55]

How about “micro loading”? I’m making great progress since I started following the advice of my father in law who is 55, benches 380, squats 460, and deads 510. He adds small increments every week. .75-1.25lbs on bench, 2-2.5lbs on squats and deads. Most people don’t want to do this because they have no patience. Everyone wants to add 5-10 pounds every week. Well that’s not going to happen. You can handle small increase each week and they really add up over time. More than trying to add 5lbs every week were you’ll end up with more plateaus. These are the plates I bought, though I found them about $10 cheaper on ebay.

**broken link removed**

Another key is that you can’t train heavy every week without burning out and hitting a wall. I find this to be even more true as I get older and I’m 35, not in my 50’s. 3-4 weeks heavy then take a light week and occasionally a complete week off. No you won’t lose size or strength during that week off, you’ll come back stronger. But that means one week, not more, unless you’re really overtrained. Here’s a good article on the subject by Jack Reape, a three time Military National Powerlifting Champion.

**broken link removed**

 

[nicocujo]

This is an old post but I haven't been here in a while.
I turned 49 this week and I train 4 days per week.
My squat is 225 kg, bench 135 kg, and deadlift 240kg. I can rack pull from knee height 290kg. I weigh 96kg. Used to Olympic lift but retired froim that 2 years ago. I also quit benching 6 weeks ago due to a rot cuf problem.
Monday:
squat heavy 5's and 3's (4-5 sets) (all compound movements)
leg presses 10's and 15's (2 sets)

Tuesday:
Mil Press 10's down to 2's
Dips 10's down to 6's
tricep ext. 15's down to 10's

Wednesday:
Pulldowns: 15's down to 8's
Rows 10's down to 6's
Curls: 12's down to 8's

Thursday:
Deads or Rack pulls: 5's and 3's
Power shrugs: 10's down to 5's

Pretty basic. Keeps my strength up. I'll change it when I decide to compete again.

 

[tattoojr]

I'm 49 and My lifts are somewhat better than yours but our goals are similar. I have a workout that a world record holder in Squat (1103lbs) gave to me last month. Now in a couple of weeks it will change but this is what he's got me on nowday Max Effort Lower Squat 4sets 5 reps , Hack squats 3sets 5reps, leg ext 3x10 leg curl3x10. sitting calf 2x25 and good mornings 4x5. Day 2 ME upper BP 4x5 incline press 3x8 military press3x5 side laterals 3x10 dips 3x10 and pushdowns 3x10. Day 3 Dynamic effort lower Walking lunges 2x15yards, tire flip3x3 that can be replaced with band deads, t bar row3x10 iso row 3x10 shrug 3x10 abd kettlebell upright rows 3x6. Day 4 DE upper Keg clean and press( I don't know what can replace these as you use a keg with water in it.) kettlebll press from the floor3x8 , pec deck 3x10 front barbell raises 3x6 hammer curl 3x8 and preacher curl 3x8. Take the next 3 days off for recovery , technique(sp) is also a big factor in how much you can lift. Good form and good rest will help you put up more weight. J.R.

 

[big_byrd52]

This is an old post but I haven't been here in a while.
I turned 49 this week and I train 4 days per week.
My squat is 225 kg, bench 135 kg, and deadlift 240kg. I can rack pull from knee height 290kg. I weigh 96kg. Used to Olympic lift but retired froim that 2 years ago. I also quit benching 6 weeks ago due to a rot cuf problem.
Monday:
squat heavy 5's and 3's (4-5 sets) (all compound movements)
leg presses 10's and 15's (2 sets)

Tuesday:
Mil Press 10's down to 2's
Dips 10's down to 6's
tricep ext. 15's down to 10's

Wednesday:
Pulldowns: 15's down to 8's
Rows 10's down to 6's
Curls: 12's down to 8's

Thursday:
Deads or Rack pulls: 5's and 3's
Power shrugs: 10's down to 5's

Pretty basic. Keeps my strength up. I'll change it when I decide to compete again.

with u bein an OLY lifter, im curious what percentages u work up to for ur hweavy 3s and 5s on squats and DLs. and are u working up to just 1 top set, or several sets at that weight. up to a heavy 3 then back down to 5s?

sorry, i like to pick the brains of OLY lifters cause they almost all have great squats (and DLs too once they learn to strain) and it isnt even what they do.

 

[nicocujo]

Big_byrd, you're the master here. I usually go up to 85% for 3 sets of 5 or 90% for 5 sets of 3 when I'm pushing my 5 or 3 rep max up. Sometimes I'll do 82%-85% for 5 sets of 5. Depending on my cycle, I'll sometimes work up to a heavy triple or 5. As I said, I'm getting older and I don't recover from the high volume workouts like I used to. But if you'd like to share some words of wisdom, I'm all ears.