I’m a 49 year old former - I’ll call it “Strength” athlete. 6-2 255, and currently very detrained. ( 41 inch waist) I was a pretty accomplished Shot putter, also dabbled in power lifting. my college totals were 600 squat, 650 dead, 425 bench, and I cleaned 370. at a body weight of 260-265.
I’ve recently discovered the barbell medicine and starting strength websites/forums etc. - by the way, I feel like I’ve found the fountain of youth! my knee pain has all but disappeared! every morning I wake up with no knee pain and I feel 20 years younger! thanks for opening my eyes!
Anyway, to my question- I’ve started the novice linear progression programming and it’s going well. Making gains on a calorie restricted diet (currently working towards a 2100 calorie daily target with 200g of protein. Given my history, what would you expect as far as how I will progress, how long will the gains continue on the novice program? my goal is to reduce fat while building muscle- I know, not the easiest thing to do.
thanks for any advice (I’ve already signed up for BBMED online coaching) just waiting to hear back from whomever’s assigned as my coach.
Welcome! We can’t know how long your LP will go, and really, it doesn’t matter. You should see continued progress, and you should have altered programming as needed to continue to drive that progress. It’s not going to be a sign of anything “good or bad” if your LP gets you to one place versus another. We want to see you making progress in 2 years, not just 2 months!
Hello Leah I was Just about to post almost the same thing myself. I see PAdad beat me to it. So my questions as a new NLP 40 year old at 205 5’8 and a 38 inch waist is this. Also I found Barbell Medicine through Alan Thralls videos. I want to increase my strength on LP and I see that Rip recommends eating as much as possible and worry about fat loss later. But I am in the AF and don’t have that luxury. So if I stick to a 2300 to 2600 a day caloric diet with 200g of Protein and most of my food coming from Single ingredient meals should I be ok or are there certain factors I would need to focus on to get strong on LP but not gain a tremendous amount of Belly fat?
Thanks Leah, I appreciate the quick response. I guess I was wondering if you’ve seen a difference in folks that have trained heavily in the past - in this case a LOOOONG time ago and progression on the novice program. In other words “am I a special snowflake?” LOL
I’m 4 workouts in- and have noticed that the lifts are getting easier- particularly the squat as the weights are increasing - increasing 10 lbs per workout. Even though I’m in a caloric deficit. It’s tempting to accelerate the intensity- but I have not. I’ll wait to work with the trainer on that front- I’m thinking the weights are feeling easier due to some “muscle memory” from the past? Or just confidence as I get back in to it? - but as you say it doesn’t really matter. It took many years to get out of shape, no reason to hurry getting back in shape.
Hi and welcome! If you check out our resources, you will see that we do NOT recommend someone in your position gain weight and certainly not to eat as much as possible. To be fair, I don’t think that would be the SS suggestion for you either. We don’t know what you have been eating, so I can’t say whether you will gain or lose on those calories. Have you read the To Be Beast article? Your focus now should be on consistent training and reasonable nutrition, at a macro number that brings your waist down a bit with this new training. Eating more food is not the answer to getting stronger (it’s not the one key), so try to divorce yourself of that notion. Aim to train and eat well.