Lifting Advice for the 51 year old.

[Fred40]

I've been lifting off and on most of my life...but more off as I got older. About 7 years ago I started TRT and start lifting a little more "focused" at that time. It was bad when I started TRT...at that time I was benching about 145 lbs for 2 sets of 8 and my legs had been completely neglected for a decade or more (could only squat with 115 lbs for 3 sets of 6). After I starting TRT and getting more focused I got my workout bench and squats to 225lbs for 4 sets of 5. I've pretty much costed ever since. Not trying to increase the weight at all.

Well recently I got motivated to get a little more serious about my workouts. Picked up the intensity big time...adding additional lifts and ramping up the intensity of every set.

Been doing 3 days on with 1 off. Day one - Chest and Triceps, Day 2 - Back and Biceps, Day Three - Legs. I've added a lot to leg day vs what I was doing.

But now (at 51) I'm having recovery issues. Day 5 comes around (which is chest day again) and I'm not ready for it and it ends up being a slack workout...but then by the time it comes around again (another 5 days) I am ready for it.

So I've been thinking about changing it up and going three days HARD...like I was...then one day off and then three days Light. ??? What do you think? I figure on the light days I could do a lot more dumbell work and also start incorporating muscle groups I really haven't focused on (like delts, traps, forearms, calves...etc...). I also figured on the light days I could do more like three set of 15 vs the heavy sets of 5 I've been doing.

The other option is to just switch to 3 days on 2 days off. ???

I'm pretty much all free weights and workout at home. I have a squat rack that I bench and of course squat in for safety.

[PeanutbutterDC]

I've been lifting off and on most of my life...but more off as I got older. About 7 years ago I started TRT and start lifting a little more "focused" at that time. It was bad when I started TRT...at that time I was benching about 145 lbs for 2 sets of 8 and my legs had been completely neglected for a decade or more (could only squat with 115 lbs for 3 sets of 6). After I starting TRT and getting more focused I got my workout bench and squats to 225lbs for 4 sets of 5. I've pretty much costed ever since. Not trying to increase the weight at all.

Well recently I got motivated to get a little more serious about my workouts. Picked up the intensity big time...adding additional lifts and ramping up the intensity of every set.

Been doing 3 days on with 1 off. Day one - Chest and Triceps, Day 2 - Back and Biceps, Day Three - Legs. I've added a lot to leg day vs what I was doing.

But now (at 51) I'm having recovery issues. Day 5 comes around (which is chest day again) and I'm not ready for it and it ends up being a slack workout...but then by the time it comes around again (another 5 days) I am ready for it.

So I've been thinking about changing it up and going three days HARD...like I was...then one day off and then three days Light. ??? What do you think? I figure on the light days I could do a lot more dumbell work and also start incorporating muscle groups I really haven't focused on (like delts, traps, forearms, calves...etc...). I also figured on the light days I could do more like three set of 15 vs the heavy sets of 5 I've been doing.

The other option is to just switch to 3 days on 2 days off. ???

I'm pretty much all free weights and workout at home. I have a squat rack that I bench and of course squat in for safety.

You can add a shoulders day, arms day, and split leg day (e.g. quads and calves one day, hams and glutes another, with shoulders and/or arms in between)

Or if you really want to do 3 days hard, three days light try compound exercises for one work out and isolation exercises for the other (i.e. bench one day, flyes the other). I would also try mixing up reps count - as you mentiined - on heavy days do fewer reps, obviously, and on lighter days do really long sets (either tons of reps or super slow)

Tons of ways to do things. Be sure and change up regularly
Best wishes!

[Fred40]

Thanks for the advice. Never thought about splitting leg day... which might be good, squats kill me. My thing with arms is you are already hitting them pretty good on your back and chest days so why not just polish them off on those days? Adding a shoulder day would be good though. Yeah you hit them also on other lifts but not as hard.

[PeanutbutterDC]

Thanks for the advice. Never thought about splitting leg day... which might be good, squats kill me. My thing with arms is you are already hitting them pretty good on your back and chest days so why not just polish them off on those days? Adding a shoulder day would be good though. Yeah you hit them also on other lifts but not as hard.

I agree about arms. I only recently gave my arms their own day (10 months ago). It's an option. Maybe throw it in if arms are lagging or you need an extra recovery day.
I've been splitting legs for years. Best training decision ever, for me and my needs.
Try a few different splits and see what works for you. And if it starts feeling stale or not working, mix it up again.
Have fun with it!

[Fred40]

Forgot all about this post. Well, almost a year later and things are going pretty well. Did my own thing for a while and then stumbled across a powerlifting program called nSuns (derived from 5/3/1). It's a high volume program.

I was at 225 for sets of 5 on bench when I first posted here...last week I put up 280 for a set of 4. Deadlifting 4 plates now as well. Squat...well squats are my nemesis. Switched to SSB squats several months ago and have worked op to a set of 3 at 275, so it's coming along but I can still bench more than I can squat.