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Barbell Advise for a fat middle aged guy

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Tommy Helms

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Hello...just joined Strongfirst. Looking for some guidance. I am a male 54 yrs old, 6'1", 270 lbs. 38% bodyfat. Never worked out in my life. Type 2 diabetic for 20 yrs, had 2 smallest toes amputated on my right foot 2 yrs ago. My balance is still decent, thankfully. My diet and blood sugar are good now...I eat one meal a day in the evening...no snacking.

I also have frozen shoulder syndrome in both shoulders...I can't hold a barbell behind my neck...not enough flexibility and painful. I think I could do Zercher squats though. It's also hard to bench press with a barbell. I can manage it with dumbbells without too much pain. And I've tried Romanian deadlifts since I'm not flexible enough to do regular deadlifts with good form

I'm not interested in getting ripped. I'd just like to get stronger so I won't become a burden as i get older.

I've started walking 2 miles a day, and that's helping me feel better

I've read Pavel's PTTP, Alexander Faleev's 5x5 program, Stronglifts 5x5 program, Marty Gallagher's Purposeful Primate, and Steve Justa's Rock Iron Steel...and I'm just a little overwhelmed and confused on where to start

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you
 
I will answer, but I am not an expert, so take it with a grain of salt.

I am in a similar situation, middle aged and overweight, although no shoulder and diabetes issues. Here is what I was told.

1. Anything about 25% body fat is unhealthy. It should be the first priority in my training. To accomplish this, increase energy expenditure by exercising, and reduce intake. Since you have diabetes, check the intake with your doctor.

2. Since I am overweight, any exercise that requires moving of the feet is very taxing to the knees. So all exercise should be static or bike or swimming.

3. If your shoulders can take it, I was recommended the kettlebell swing. I was told it is the best one exercise. Simple and Sinister is what I am using.

4. If they cannot I recommend you stay away from the barbell, since you have to adapt to it and you have mobility issues. Use dumbbell in the beginning, since you can select the position of each shoulder independent of each other.

5. If going for dumbbell, I recommend first a bodybuilding style kind of exercise, 3x10 sets and reps, with one push, one pull and one lower body. Something like bench press, some row, and squat variation with bodyweight or dumbbells. You will get bigger, more energy use just by breathing, and stronger, since you have never used weights.

6. Go for walks every day, if the weather allows and your knees can take it.

hope this helps.

Edit: fixed typo.
 
Hello...just joined Strongfirst. Looking for some guidance. I am a male 54 yrs old, 6'1", 270 lbs. 38% bodyfat. Never worked out in my life. Type 2 diabetic for 20 yrs, had 2 smallest toes amputated on my right foot 2 yrs ago. My balance is still decent, thankfully. My diet and blood sugar are good now...I eat one meal a day in the evening...no snacking.

I also have frozen shoulder syndrome in both shoulders...I can't hold a barbell behind my neck...not enough flexibility and painful. I think I could do Zercher squats though. It's also hard to bench press with a barbell. I can manage it with dumbbells without too much pain. And I've tried Romanian deadlifts since I'm not flexible enough to do regular deadlifts with good form

I'm not interested in getting ripped. I'd just like to get stronger so I won't become a burden as i get older.

I've started walking 2 miles a day, and that's helping me feel better

I've read Pavel's PTTP, Alexander Faleev's 5x5 program, Stronglifts 5x5 program, Marty Gallagher's Purposeful Primate, and Steve Justa's Rock Iron Steel...and I'm just a little overwhelmed and confused on where to start

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you
Welcome to SF.
Given your health challenges you should first consult with your trusted medical professionals before embarking upon any dietary changes or physical training. Sounds like you have diet dialed in somewhat.
If cleared for exercise and within your means then I highly recommend seeking out a coach (in person is preferable, but these strange times may dictate distance coaching)
Your walking is an excellent start however and I encourage you to keep at that and progress as able to do so.
Barbell training would not be my first choice (although nothing wrong with it). I would investigate KB's; specifically S&S 2.0
Again this is where a good coach will be invaluable; teaching you the right form is critical (with any modality: KB,DB,BB,BW)

Again... welcome
 
Hello. My 2 cents: PTTP, Faleev's routine, and stronglifts are great routines. BUT, they are not good for you right now.

Right now, you should focus on becoming as insulin sensitive as possible. Strength routines will not do that for you. You need higher rep ranges and higher volume.

If I were you, I would walk 2 miles a day, and I would do a high volume-high frequency-low intensity routine, with compound movements. The free weights are superior, but, the machines are an alternative.
Something like this:

Upper body day
-Dumbbell chest press, or chest press machine: 10 sets of 10 reps
-Barbell row, or row machine: 10x10
-Bicep curls: 3x15
Tricep extentions: 3x15

Lower body day
-Zercher squat, or leg press machine: 10x10
-Romanian deadlift: 10x10
-Leg extension machine: 3x15
-Leg curl machine: 3x15

Weekly schedule
Monday: upper body, walking
Tuesday: lower body, walking
Wednesday: walking
Thursday: upper body, walking
Friday: lower body, walking
Saturday: walking
Sunday: rest


This is what I would do if I were you. This will make you more insulin sensitive and healthier. And stronger to some extent.
 
I think the barbell is a great tool and it's something I recommend to start with.

Do you train at home or in a gym? A safety squat bar is an excellent bar that will enable you to squat with a barbell on your back. I highly recommend it, even to people with healthy shoulders. Maybe your gym has one, maybe you will get one yourself.

The zercher is a great squat as well. Nothing wrong with starting with it either.

Romanian deadlifts are fine. They should help you increase the mobility as well as get stronger (and maybe thus increase the mobility as well). The other choice would be to do deadlifts with less range of motion, and gradually increasing it as you get better.

You can also start the bench with the dumbbells. Another good choice. It's hard to say what exactly makes the bench with the barbell hard for you. But starting with the dumbbells is perfectly fine.

Both PTTP and the Purposeful Primitive are great, great books. I recommend you pick one option, put blinders on, and get at it for a decent while, like half a year or so at least.

Great to hear that your diet and blood sugar are in order. That's your main priority.

Coaching is a great idea. Another one is joining a powerlifting club or such, where you can get help on dialing in your form in the beginning.
 
@Tommy Helms, welcome! Congratulations on taking some positive steps.

My advice is to find something you like to do (maybe something that particularly appeals to you within the options you have studied so far, or what you have the easiest access to) and build the habit of doing it regularly. A good way to frame your objective for the first few months is slowly building the volume of the training that your body can adapt to and recover from. Positive physical changes will occur from regular training and building the volume of it. The good news is that virtually anything works during this time! So make it something that you enjoy.

If you like what you find here, then S&S is a good program to use in getting started. Keep up the walking that you're already doing. Good luck and keep us posted!
 
As you're a beginner, I'd suggest you could get quite a lot of mileage (so to speak) out of just walking and doing some flavor of frequent low-intensity deadlift (barbell, kettlebell, a bucket of rocks, whatever). With PTTP-style programming in particular, just keep the intensity very low as you start out. You should finish each session feeling energized, not exhausted.

Past that, I'd seek out a good therapist to work on unfreezing those shoulders. That's the sort of thing that probably requires professional help, and I speculate that the ability to reach over your head might be a greater bang-for-the-buck in terms of trying to keep you independent as you age.

My unprofessional $0.02.
 
The good news is that virtually anything works during this time! So make it something that you enjoy.

Yes. The beauty of your situation is that anything will work (for a while). Yiu need consistency and repeatability. Dont fall into the trap of killing yourself with high intensity, only to burn out in a month. So find something that interests you. Start with a strength program and lots of walking. I would walk 1 hour every day. For strength, choose 1 of these:

-S&S kbell program
-A barbell program like Starting Strength
-For the 1st few months, maybe even going to a gym to use the machines would work (as long as you are consistant).

My preference is the barbell. Regardless of what you choose, consider a coach (online or live), even if it's just to get you started.

Nutrition and sleep are also part of the equation. Maybe even more important than the training.

Regards,

Eric
 
Have you consider about body weight exercise first? Like the basic hip hinge, deep squat, hang, plank, incline push up?
The barbell is great, I like it a lot, but seems like with some one with high mileage, controlled body weight exercises would be safest.
About the barbell, +1 for safety bar squat. Also, Romanian deadlift is a great choice. This is an exercise makes you better even with the bar.
 
Have you consider about body weight exercise first? Like the basic hip hinge, deep squat, hang, plank, incline push up?
The barbell is great, I like it a lot, but seems like with some one with high mileage, controlled body weight exercises would be safest.
About the barbell, +1 for safety bar squat. Also, Romanian deadlift is a great choice. This is an exercise makes you better even with the bar.

Very easy movements to neglect. Mindful moving trough theses movements will teach you alot about you body control.
 
Have you consider about body weight exercise first? Like the basic hip hinge, deep squat, hang, plank, incline push up?
The barbell is great, I like it a lot, but seems like with some one with high mileage, controlled body weight exercises would be safest.
About the barbell, +1 for safety bar squat. Also, Romanian deadlift is a great choice. This is an exercise makes you better even with the bar.

Every time something gets out of whack on my posture and alignment, it shows up first on my barbell heavy lifts in a negative way (tweaks, tightness, joint stress, etc) that I've learned is a warning sign.

I'll then regress back to a bodyweight exercise for the movement, either on rest days (if minor) or swapping them in on workout days, and then some extra mobility work.

It almost always fixes the problem, and definitely reduces my injury rate.

Right now, I'm doing extra bodyweight VMO work on my left leg on because my knee was being grumpy.

Bodyweight should always be part of the repertoire, even for barbell or kettlebell lifters.
 
Every time something gets out of whack on my posture and alignment, it shows up first on my barbell heavy lifts in a negative way (tweaks, tightness, joint stress, etc) that I've learned is a warning sign.

I'll then regress back to a bodyweight exercise for the movement, either on rest days (if minor) or swapping them in on workout days, and then some extra mobility work.

It almost always fixes the problem, and definitely reduces my injury rate.

Right now, I'm doing extra bodyweight VMO work on my left leg on because my knee was being grumpy.

Bodyweight should always be part of the repertoire, even for barbell or kettlebell lifters.

Very true!

Bodyweight movements seems to re-align the body in an interesting way.
 
For those who recommend bodyweight exercising I have to point that I disagree.

If an 80kg guy, out of shape and never lifted comes up, you will never recommend bodyweight exercising with 40kg backpack on. This is what you are recommending with bodyweight exercising to a very overweight person. The op weights 120kg, too much load for the joints.

I have to mention that I am also guilty of the same in a previous post. Since the op has still not read it I am going to edit my previous post.
 
I had a good friend from way back (middle sch, so we’ve known each other for 25+ years). He had gotten quite overweight, health markers weren’t great. This was about 4 years ago now. Today he is under 20pct bodyfat, does 2-3 days of simple calisthenics (pullups, dips, walking lunges with dumbbells) and 1-2 days of very easy running... and that’s all he does.

I followed him during his first 2-3 weeks of training (which he did alternate days) and it went something like this:
Walk 1 lamppost (ie from 1 lamppost to the next)
Do 1-2 Squat
“try” to jog 1 lamppost, if not, walking is fine
Do 1-2 pushup
Repeat for 15-30mins (depending on how u feel)
Turn around and repeat towards the start point.

It was of course humbling at the start and even with what sounds like super light intensity he would be sore. But after about 10 weeks it was obvious he lost weight and looked better. His diet was good too.

So I feel that - just start doing something today is the way to go. Learning Kb/Bb movements is something you can add on later, but getting movement in and weight down is the important thing here. There are others who have different opinions of course, but this is what I can share.

My personal experience was not as good - I was fat about 8 years ago and i wasted time doing yoga/pilates and most importantly i didn’t fix the diet. So after spinning wheels for a year or so I found crossfit. Ironically it was the “diet”/paleo bit that helped me - I don’t do it strictly today but generally I have eaten healthily for the last 7 years.
 
I'm guessing the above posts that mentioned body weight exercises ment for them to be modified for range/depth. Body weight squat done to a high stool, push up with hands on the wall,row with a slight backward lean facing a bar or TRX type straps, etc.
 
I'm guessing the above posts that mentioned body weight exercises ment for them to be modified for range/depth. Body weight squat done to a high stool, push up with hands on the wall,row with a slight backward lean facing a bar or TRX type straps, etc.
Walking and diet, and walk some more. With your shoulder issues, I'd avoid anything with the word bell in it for now. Bodyweight modified as above is a good start, if a coach or PT thinks it's appropriate. While I'm not a yoga practitioner, I do think it's helpful in many cases. See Arthur's story below.

Wishing you the best.
(edit)-Just wanted to add, that Steve Maxwell years ago, said when he worked with geriatric and/or seriously overweight & physically challenged individuals, the first exercise he drilled into them was to do simple getups. Just lie down on floor, and get up to a standing position, then repeat. I'm guessing that the OP's wt. and shoulder issues would make this fairly challenging.
 
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For those who recommend bodyweight exercising I have to point that I disagree.

If an 80kg guy, out of shape and never lifted comes up, you will never recommend bodyweight exercising with 40kg backpack on. This is what you are recommending with bodyweight exercising to a very overweight person. The op weights 120kg, too much load for the joints.

I have to mention that I am also guilty of the same in a previous post. Since the op has still not read it I am going to edit my previous post.

As a 100+ kg guy who does bodyweight (currently 105 kg, cutting to 102 kg) exercises (dips, push ups, chin ups, inverted rows, bridges, ring work, hollow holds), I'm going to disagree with you.

When I was at my heaviest (Fitbit log: 1/31/2019 267 lbs / 121 kg), I could do easier bodyweight exercises like air squats, push ups, Hindu push ups, planks, etc with no issues.

Mat-based core exercises, Pilates 100, dead bugs, bird dogs....these all have low kinetic components.

They're not high impact. You can regress them to the appropriate level.

We're not talking about plyo box jumps.

P.S. I'm 50.
 
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I'm guessing the above posts that mentioned body weight exercises ment for them to be modified for range/depth. Body weight squat done to a high stool, push up with hands on the wall,row with a slight backward lean facing a bar or TRX type straps, etc.

Right.

There are plenty of modifications that work.

Nobody is saying go do muscle ups and pistol squats.
 
I would not recommend starting exercising with a barbell. I your condition, sorry, you will do more harm than good.

Trap Bar Deadlifts, to build some systemic strength and body weight stuff.

Light Goblet Squats using your range of motion until some competence is acquired.

It will take dedication and patience to climb your hill. Be safe.

54 years old is middle aged? I think I hit middle age around 35.
 
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