Increasing overall strength

[Mark L]

Hi Folks,
I'm thinking I need to increase my overall body strength. I'm pretty pleased with my muscle tone and endurance, that hasn't been a problem for me. I have some upcoming um, challenges, that will be more easily met if I get stronger.

The thing is, I don't particularly enjoy or have alot of time for weight training. But I do recognize that that is required to acheive my goals. BTW, I'm a 45 year old in pretty good shape, 5'10", 185 lbs., have good cardio, no injuries or physical limitations.

I want to lift 3x per week, do 3 or 4 sets per exercise, 10-12 reps per set, 45 minutes or less. Starting with a light weight warm-up set, then increasing to a moderate weight for the second set, then 1-2 more sets with heavy weight (heavy is defined as the most I can do for a full set). I'm planning on bench press, dead lift, squats, and pull-ups. Is it wise to do each of these exercises in each session? Am I hitting all the major muscle groups? What's a good order for these exercises? Setting a program that has exercises that targets the muscles individually (bicep, tricep, lats, deltoids, quads, etc.) is not what I want, I honestly don't believe I would stick with an extensive routine.

The first session will be about establishing where I am, that is, how much I can lift for a set. Then I'd like to set a goal of improving 30 - 50% over the next 4 months, is this realistic?

 

[swiftpete]

Hey Mark, firstly I'm interested in what your upcoming challenges are! I think you hit the major muscle groups with those exercises, but I'd probably add shoulder presses to the list as well. And when you're doing your bench presses you can always alternate them with incline pressups, put your feet on a chair or chest of drawers and do pressups that way, they always get my chest going.


Only thing i would say is what i have read when i was researching this sort of thing, that it is better to do your warm up set then go straight to your heavy set. Then you can decrease the weight as you get tired and still keep good from in your exercise. Other wise you're tiring the muscles out with your medium set without fully stressing them, then when it gets to the heavy set you don't get as much from it.
I think you'll be struggling to do all of these exercises 3 times a week, don't think you'll get enough recovery time in. Why don't you alternate the workouts, say Bench press, shoulder press, pullups one workout, squats and deadlifts the next? That might help a bit.
Anyway good luck, make sure you're eating enough food as well, stock up on cans of tuna, if you can force down a can of tuna a day as well as your normal food, you get about an extra 40g of protein, which'll help if you're lifting a lot. Tastes pretty grim after a bit though!
Best of luck!

 

[Martial Tucker]

Hi Mark,

Sounds like our situations are fairly similar, but I'm not training in anticipation of any "challenges" other than age! I'm 48 yrs old, 6'1", 210 lbs. I'm no expert on physiology or exercise, and I invite anyone who is to feel free to correct anything I say. I do have some practical experience, though. I started lifting seriously many years ago when I played college football. In the offseason we lifted about 2 hrs a day, different muscle groups on alternate days.

I haven't lifted like that since I graduated, but I still lift 3x week with an orientation towards core body strength. My routine takes about 1/2 hour.
Looking at what you are proposing, I would say that it's a decent bare-bones
program based on a power-lifting core. I can think of other lifts you might add, but if you want pure strength as quickly as possible, you've got the main groups covered.
A few suggestions:
1. If you are training primarily for strength, 3-4 sets is fine, but use heavier weights and do fewer reps. In each set, 3-5 reps with enough weight such that failure occurs in that 3-5 rep range will build strength faster than lighter weight/more reps. Personally, after warming up, I start with the heaviest weight first, do as many reps as possible, then rest, take off a little weight, and do the next set. Repeat this until you've done 3-4 sets.
I've had good results by trying to keep the # reps constant per set, taking off weight for each subsequent set as my muscles tire. Exhale as you're lifting, inhale as you're lowering the weight. Ideally, the lowering (a.k.a., negative) part of the lift should take about 3x as long as the lift, i.e,
if you are bench pressing, and it takes 1 second to lift to full extension, it should take around 3 seconds to lower the weight back to your chest. You get much of your strength gains by the slow, controlling lowering of the weight.
2. Think about adding a couple of antagonistic muscle group exercises. If you do a lot of bench pressing and build up your pecs and chest strength, you should do a liitle lat work to keep your strength "in balance". Same with squats, which will strengthen your quads, but not your hamstrings (as much). If you don't strengthen the antagonistic muscles some, you risk more muscle pulls as you will have a strength imbalance from one side to the other. Sounds weird, but I used to pull shoulder muscles frequently when I was benching a lot, until did some work strengthening my lats for balance.
3. Make sure you stretch when you are done. Not bouncy/jerky stretching, but slow, deliberate static stretching with deep steady breathing. This can be done in 5-10 minutes. Research that I've read has shown stretching to be more effective when done carefully after the muscles are tired.
4. Obviously, make sure you are warmed up before you begin. I've found that going thru my TKD forms is an excellent warm-up. I have 16 of them that I do, and when I am done, all of my muscles are loose, and I am sweating lightly. Perfect for lifting.

Anyway, hope this helps, and again, I encourage anyone more educated and/or up to date on exercise physiology to jump in and comment/correct any of my thoughts.

Good luck

 

[Mark L]

Hey Mark, firstly I'm interested in what your upcoming challenges are!

I'll be testing for nidan in April with five guys going for their shodan. They are all talented fighters, ranging in age from 18 to 35. Only one of them is lighter than me, where I can use my size and strength as an advantage in addition to technique. I do OK with them all in stand up work, and all but one of them on the ground. That guy is just way to friggin' strong for me, and he is an awesome grappler. I want to separate myself from them a little bit, and getting stronger so I can focus on my technique rather than worrying about being overpowered on the ground is my main goal.

I think you hit the major muscle groups with those exercises, but I'd probably add shoulder presses to the list as well. And when you're doing your bench presses you can always alternate them with incline pressups, put your feet on a chair or chest of drawers and do pressups that way, they always get my chest going.


Only thing i would say is what i have read when i was researching this sort of thing, that it is better to do your warm up set then go straight to your heavy set. Then you can decrease the weight as you get tired and still keep good from in your exercise. Other wise you're tiring the muscles out with your medium set without fully stressing them, then when it gets to the heavy set you don't get as much from it.

I didn't think of that, good tip.

I think you'll be struggling to do all of these exercises 3 times a week, don't think you'll get enough recovery time in. Why don't you alternate the workouts, say Bench press, shoulder press, pullups one workout, squats and deadlifts the next? That might help a bit.

Makes sense, I'll give it a try. My thinking behind doing all of them each session was to hit the muscles every few days rather than having five or so days in between. Maybe I need four days a week instead of three.

Anyway good luck, make sure you're eating enough food as well, stock up on cans of tuna, if you can force down a can of tuna a day as well as your normal food, you get about an extra 40g of protein, which'll help if you're lifting a lot. Tastes pretty grim after a bit though!
Best of luck!

Thanks for responding, and I love tuna.

 

[Mark L]

Anyway, hope this helps, ...

Good luck

It does, thanks. Although not explicitly stated in my initial post, a proper warm up and post-workout stretch are of particular importance to guys like us who are rapidly approaching middle age.:wink: