Newbie - 10 Days into Working Out Daily

[Sean Larabee]

Hello all,

I am 50.5 years old and decided I had to get my body back together. Fix the body and the mind will follow is my thought process and so far it's working.

I have been working out daily (1 hour per day) for the last 10 days and I feel great. Shedding fat fast and feeling a little stronger every day.

One thing I found myself struggling with is a workout plan. Yesterday I went to the gym with the intention of working my chest. But I had worked my arms the previous day, so when I tried bench press, my arms felt very weak, and I really struggled. Lesson learned, need to stagger my days, and have at least a day of rest between and arm and chest workout.

So I am looking for suggestions for daily workout routines, for whole body rehab, after many years of stasis. I am healthy, and my body (and mind) is responding well to the workouts, just need a little guidance on what I should and should not be doing.

My chest is weak, and my legs need serious work. My back is still fairly strong. Abs are weak (had abdominal surgery years ago, and really let myself go after that).

Anyway, any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Sean

 

[5.0]

Welcome aboard and congratulations on the decision to get healthier. Read up and stay safe.

 

[rawdeal]

From your description, the future looks good for you, but remember, you are still a beginner, a 50 yo beginner. If you are already splitting your body into arm day, chest day, etc, you have a bad case of putting the cart before the horse. Try total body workouts, or at the very most just split your body into 2 or 3 different workouts. Consider that you may be able to design 2 different workouts (almost) mutually exclusive, chest vs back for example, but each depletes the body's overall recovery ability and affects the other. If you decide anyway that you have designed the perfect split, do not workout 6-7 days a week. An exception to that may be to balance cardio work vs weight work, but be wary of overall overtraining.

Do not take umbrage at my 50 yo beginner comment above. Fifty is in my rear view mirror, I've made all the basic mistakes I'm aware of and continue to make specific ones I wasn't aware of. "Pride goeth before a fall" can mean inviting injury, but it can also mean stalling progress, losing the enthusiasm you currently enjoy, and eventually just saying fuck it and returning to the tv and the refrigerator. You don't say anything about diet, you didn't ask about diet, but don't ignore the importance of it in your fitness plan, no matter what your specific goals may be.

 

[Sean Larabee]

RawDeal,

No umbrage taken with the 50 year old beginner comment. First step for me to improve myself is for me to be honest with myself about who I am, what I am, what I can change and what I cannot. I am 50, but I have a all new younger mentality. I drank away 30 years of my life, have been sober for 4 years now, and my mind is now ready for putting the rest of me back together.

On diet, I did not ask yet, because I have changed my diet, but I am still reading up on that aspect, and will make changes as necessary.

Right now I am putting in about 200g protein per day (I think).

Breakfast: 4 eggs and a small amount of potatoes (maybe 3/4 cup) and one piece of toast for breakfast.

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Two 5oz cans of tuna, fresh pineapple (1 cup).

Snack: Fresh pineapple or banana

Dinner: 1lb of boneless skinless chicken breast with sauteed onions and green peppers.

Pineapple snack about an hour after dinner.

24g protein shake with creatine 30 mins before and 30 mins after workouts.

Not positive on my chicken protein numbers. Hard to nail down precise numbers, google result are all over the map.

Also I started looking at the diet section here, and it seems that I should spread my protein throughout the day, and work it into a 5 meal plan.

If you have time, let me know your thoughts on my diet so far.

As to a whole body workout: I am splitting up my workouts right now, because years of sitting on my butt, has left me weak and like I said, if I try to do arms and chest in the same day or back to back days, the fatigue leaves my with a very poor workout in one area or the other. Not sure how to address that other than just to keep on keepin on, and push through until my strength has rebounded to the point I can push my whole body in any given day.

So today I am headed to the gym and going to focus on legs, then tomorrow I will hit my chest again and see where I am at. At least that is my plan until I find (or someone suggests) a plan that will work to get my through the initial phase of fatigue and weakness.

Thanks much for your response and I will read all I can, and all suggestions are welcome and very much needed.

Sean

From your description, the future looks good for you, but remember, you are still a beginner, a 50 yo beginner. If you are already splitting your body into arm day, chest day, etc, you have a bad case of putting the cart before the horse. Try total body workouts, or at the very most just split your body into 2 or 3 different workouts. Consider that you may be able to design 2 different workouts (almost) mutually exclusive, chest vs back for example, but each depletes the body's overall recovery ability and affects the other. If you decide anyway that you have designed the perfect split, do not workout 6-7 days a week. An exception to that may be to balance cardio work vs weight work, but be wary of overall overtraining.

Do not take umbrage at my 50 yo beginner comment above. Fifty is in my rear view mirror, I've made all the basic mistakes I'm aware of and continue to make specific ones I wasn't aware of. "Pride goeth before a fall" can mean inviting injury, but it can also mean stalling progress, losing the enthusiasm you currently enjoy, and eventually just saying fuck it and returning to the tv and the refrigerator. You don't say anything about diet, you didn't ask about diet, but don't ignore the importance of it in your fitness plan, no matter what your specific goals may be.

 

[Sean Larabee]

Note: Also doing cardio workouts daily, and sweating it out in a rain suit with sweats and hoodie over that. Man that makes me feel great, I must say!

 

[brazey]

Welcome....