Greetings fellow members!
My name is Mike and I thought I would tell you a little about me as well as give you an idea about why I joined this forum.
I just turned 47. I know a lot of you are saying, what is this "old man" doing on our forum? Well, it's my passion for the sport of bodybuilding that has brought me here of coarse! I started in my teens. Back in those days, I was really anti-steroid. I really bought in to the "Wieder" hype. Of coarse when you are 18 to 22 years old and your testosterone is raging, it is not too difficult to pack on some muscle. You could say I had the meto frame and genetics to do fairly well. I think I got my arms up to 18.5 to 19 inches on the left. 47 inches in the chest with a 31 waist. My legs were weak, but I was just a young stupid kid with alot of misguided direction in the sport of bodybuilding. Over the years, I became moderately knowledgable about lifting and nutrition but even so, I must have started and stopped bodybuilding programs a hundred times. As you guys know, there probably is'nt a sport on this planet that requires more hard work and complete dedication than the sport of bodybuilding. Add to that the fact that without the right tools to do the job, gains can be minimal at best. Factor in lowering testosterone as the years go by, well its a reciept for failure. Few people can work that hard in the gym and balance their nutrition 24/7, see little to no strength or size gains and stick with a program.
The last 10 years have been a downward spiral for me. I put on close to 100 lbs. Life was difficult and my ass was always dragging. Then this summer a miracle happened. I was diagnosed with cronic sleep apnea. The problem was that i hadn't slept for the past ten years. Once this condition was corrected, suddenly I was sleeping again and i truly felt like a new man. I had energy again and wasn't falling asleep right in the middle of conversations anymore. Shortly thereafter I made the decision that at the age of 50, I was going to be in the apsolute best, biggest and strongest shape of my life. Aproximately 8 weeks ago, I was at an all time "fatness" of 267. Today I weigh 239. I feel better than I have since my 20's, but the problem is my LBM has also dropped 5 lbs. I eat 6 times a day. lot's of protein isolates, lot's of egg white, chicken, beef, fish. 60% protein, 30% carbs and 10% quality fats. I am doing a hard core split routine, 15 sets per body part one a week, calves and Abs get worked twice. I do 3 / 30 min cardios per day, one at 5am one at noon and one at 6pm. I get plenty of sleep, 7 hours per night (now that I can sleep) I even did a month of creatine. I know this routine has fat burning all over it, but i still consume 250 grams of quality protien a day. .....I can't seem to keep the muscle weight. No matter what I try, every week I lose a little muscle. I know all about the calorie surplus thing and that it is very difficult to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Still, I think you have to chalk alot of this up to the fact that I am 47 year old with low testosterone levels. I have been analyzing this web site for several months and I believe that the members here have a wealth of knowledge that can help me optimize my muscle and strenght gains. After all, if you are going to work this hard at something, it doesn't make sense to be spinning your wheels! Thanks for reading and I hope to meet some of you on the forums!
Cheers!!
Mike
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