46, always been naturally skinny and was fairly physically active into my 20s/early 30s (swimming, fencing & aikido as a teen, camping and LARP as a teen and into my 20s, dancing in my 20s-early 30s), but definitely added a lot of fat through sedentary life, rich food and drink. Still topped out around 185 at a fraction under 6 feet. During a period of unemployment for a few months in my 30s at one point I dropped down to 148 through eating and drinking less (especially cutting out soda). Most of my adult life I was in the 165-175 range.
The last few years I've been doing some mountain hiking, and about 15 months ago one of my oldest friends finally talked me into a regular gym routine with him. Lifting (and a few planks) three days a week, initially for a half hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays after work, and an hour Sunday mornings, and now still three sessions but around double the length. I've missed a total of six sessions for injury or other reasons; even when I injured my knee last summer and couldn't do leg work for six weeks, I kept to the gym (one-legged planks are just more challenging, right?) schedule.
I weighed in yesterday at 193 in my brand new lifting shoes, which was a surprise; I've been pretty well plateaued in the high 180s this entire time, though I only started seriously protein supplementing a few months ago. I really need to buy a food scale and start actually counting calories so I can nail down my proper maintenance level, but I've been too lazy to. I'd like to do my first planned cut this Spring.
Typical weeknight routine is three circuits of chest and arm work in the 8-12 rep range (or 15-20 for smaller isolation stuff like tricep skull crushers) with an occasional leg or back exercise added in, plus a 90 to 120 breath plank before each circuit. Sundays are usually 5x5s with deadlifts and leg press as well as chest, arm and back work, plus planks before each circuit. I'm now trying to get back exercises into every session. Yesterday was...
90+ plank x 4 + 120 plank |
Deadlift 225x5, 225x5, 245x5, 250x5, 265x1 + 245x4 (tried to hit a new PR of 300 today but couldn't lift it; 295 was new PR last week) |
Inclined Smith bar bench 90x10, 100x5, 110x5, 110x3 + 100x4 , 120x2 +110x2 +100x3 +90x5 (drop sets) |
Cable lat pulldowns (neutral grip) 85x12, 100x10, 120x8, 120x7, 100x12 (injured my left trap a bit on that 3rd set; still hurting today) |
Dumbbell lateral raises 15x12, 15x12, 15x12, 15x12, 15x12 |
Leg press 318x12, 368x6, 408x6, 458x6, 498x6 |
Dumbbell preacher curls 35x10, 35x10, 35x15, 40x5 +40x5 (switch arms halfway and back), 40x10 |
Cable face pulls 25x12, 25x12, 35x12 (just trying this one out; I think I want to add it to balance the rear delts) |
Goals: More back work. Add in squats (have only experimented with them a bit). Do a cut this Spring and reduce the belly fat. Add some cardio eventually.