Vanity at 40? Feel free to judge...

So, by definition, I’ve been an “Exercise” enthusiast for years. I have never, aside from P90X, TapOut, and two half marathons, been in shape as I’ve come to understand it (I am not counting Boot as that is somewhat a sore subject with strength purists and I, of late, completely agree with them). Early this year, starting with various IG celebrities, then to YouTube, then Untrained, then Dr.'s Baraki and Feigenbaum, and finally to SS, I have gone down the rabbit hole of strength training. I’m even listening to Barbell Logic (gasp!)

So for the past 3 months I have slowly become more fluent with the three big movements and have ended up here.

My question is: I’m 40, I’ve never really been strong, I’m kinda fat (240 lb), and my lower back recovers for crap. I want to at least look fit as I wander through LP. I know SSLP is not a physique program but (Being honest here) can I draw out the LP as it’s written in the Blue Book and also diet responsibly for the sake of vanity (i/e: not having to wear 42" waist shorts) to then advance in weight from a less robust personal size?

As an example, I would take my modest numbers and add sets across for continued hypertrophy/muscle sparing (Vanity) for more sessions, then increasing intensity after a week or so as not to exceed recoverable volumes of a calorie restrction. It would be a stair step as opposed to a linear progression.

I have used a pre-written hypertrophy block from a pretty reputable source (Not 5/3/1 dammit!) however, I love low bar squats and so does my back, with only the occasional twinges previously. Friday of last week I did 5 sets of 245x5 for squats then 5 of 215x5 bench, and finished with 265x5 for 4 sets of conventional DL. My existing plan had called for deficit squats and front squats (Its a PL hypertrophy block) and my back just refused to do it on Wednesday and I took an additional rest day instead. I felt gassed Saturday and Sunday after my cobbled together workout and I slept 9 hours for the first time in years Saturday night, but my back felt awesome. I had done some work, so win. Monday I returned to the original program I was following (I’m a recovering quitter) and Tuesday I couldn’t sit long enough to get through writing a discussion paper for my crap class. I’m not vilifying the programmer, its just obvious to me that the exercises prescribed are not something I recover from well. This doesn’t seem to be a problem with the exercises SS prescribes even under modest loads for a novice and in the standard A B format.

I’m not asking anyone to write programs for me, I just want to know if I’m in the deep grass on this one and should just STFU and do LP on a diet, or if I can make some physique gains first and not look quite so… apple bottomed? as I struggle with heavier weights later.

You’re probably looking for a response from a much more qualified resource (i.e. our moderators), but I’ll offer my input.

I think where you want to go comes down to personal priority.

The first thing I’d do is switch from 5 sets to 3. You’ll find that volume much easier to recover from. Doing SSLP in a caloric restriction may be possible (I know I’ve heard the Dr.s talk about gainzzz during this state), but it’s not ideal. You also seem to be trying to do a lot of volume, without the work capacity to support it. I’d forget about any hypertrophy blocks, in my very humble opinion you’re not strong enough yet for them to be required.

Beyond that - I’d probably work down to less than 15% body fat before attempting to make gains. That is where your personal preference comes in. Do you want to look better, or get stronger? Obviously dropping the weight will give you a more solid foundation to build on. If you weigh a lot less you’ll be more insulin sensitive which will allow you to have a much better response to training stimulus.

In short - Get the weight/food/sleep/recovery thing in order, and appropriately program your volume so you can recover from your workouts in one day. Then build work capacity up.

Good luck!

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I can’t tell if I’m trying to sound smart, or if I am just so excited to be learning all this information that I forget I am still a novice putting the work in.
Of course I would want the moderators to chime in, I’ve been following their advice (Poorly obviously) for months as I learn the basics, but your response is very considered and probably what I need to hear.
Before I logged back in after the gym today, I had already come to the conclusion I just need to keep working and keep my diet on point and stop making this complicated. So to come to the point, thanks for the input! You’re right. I needed someone to tell me to get back to work and stop analyzing the details that don’t apply to me… yet.

Those details are important to analyze, but don’t ever lose sight of the basics. Go kick some ass!

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Aaaaaand then they post a pod cast Q&A that basically answers all these questions.

I have been doing LP on a slight caloric deficit but maintaining my protein and trying to moderate my carbs and fat and eating slightly less on non-training days. I have gotten stronger while losing weigh at now 42 years of age. I started off at 330+ and then fucked around for about a year before finding starting strength. I am 220 now and even when the weight stays the same for a while your body composition improves. I am a smaller 220 than I was say a month ago. Stronger even if it is incrementally.

After grinding and grinding and grinding at the end of LP trying to go up their bridge program has been a welcomed change. Those two types of alternate squats have really helped my form, bar position, concentration of what I am doing, bar path and really made my squats better. Last night I did week 3 day 2 and it is hard. Much more volume but I can see 2.5 weeks in an improvement and with the variance in exercises I do not feel as “mentally fatigued” with always trying to grind down a few more lbs on those LPs lifts.

I started at 40 at 5-10 330+ (you never know how big you really are at that point) and 2 years 3 months later I am 5-10 220 with still some room to go. In terms of strength it is all about goals. There is also the psychological impact of seeing that improvement in yourself…always adding more weight. You may not be able to see that in your every day life but it is easy to see and evident when your numbers go up even if incrementally.

My two cents.

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Good post, I am pretty close to your situation, 6’1", 245lbs, 41 years old, lifts are all about the same, and I just recently realized that my waist and weight is just too high. Im on a 2000 calorie diet to start cutting. The last couple of weeks I have still been hitting PR’s which isn’t that awesome considering the numbers aren’t that high to begin with. But anyhow, tracking calories, losing some fat and when I get down to a reasonable weight, I will start nlp with the surplus cals. Keep up the good work

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The Novice LP is so short that I would just get as strong as you can while either maintaining or slowly losing weight and then run a hypertrophy block after it on a cut. The higher rep stuff is going generate a more effective hypertrophy response if you are stronger and using heavier weights.

Thanks everyone for chiming in!
I had decided to just run maintenance on my diet and not stress about it too much. I’m currently grinding out my LP and just trying not to be a hog in the kitchen (Limited success) and making sure I get 220-250 of protein a day. Pizza aside, I’ve been doing okay. The scale doesn’t move, but as Bear_Bryan pointed out ^ my novice stage will end soon enough and I still see some re-composition changes. Veins, better posture, and the ability to string 5 chins together help me ignore the scale… a bit. And besides, when I got to the bottom of my squat at 285 and just… stood up, I realized getting stronger is worth it! (Until I had to repeat the feat 14 more times, now I know what people mean when they say “Grind”) But I did it, and now I’m staring 305 in the face and waiting for my 300 sticker to arrive from SS, meh… I can wait a little longer to work on the physique.
Besides, Junior is already bugging me about his band fundraiser 5K (He’s gonna be 13 and he ran it last year in 26 flat, apparently percussion, surpluss nervous energy, and speed go together!) next spring and I will have to add cardio in here somewhere. I think running a hypertrophy block when sets across are in the 300’s somewhere will be better for the waist anyway.
Thanks for everyone’s input, I appreciate the support and commiseration, knowing I’m not the only fat-ish 40 year old looking to get strong (and svelte) helps combat the mirror fatigue.