Short version: 65 year old male. 5’10”, 185lbs. Can’t get strong and can’t put on muscle. I’ve tried MANY different programs always the same result. What do?
Long version: I’ve been active my whole life. Triathlons and bike racing a long time ago, and about 15 years ago started strength training (no more Tri’s and Bike racing). I’ve tried Crossfit, Starting Strength NLP (many times), StrongLifts, Ivysaur 448, Juggernaut, Various versions of 531, and most recently Beginners Template. You name it and I probably tried it. Always with about the same result. My current numbers:
Squat: 220 x 4 @9
Bench 190 x 4 @9
OHP 115 x 4@9
DL 260 x 4 @9
No matter what I do, I can’t get those numbers to budge. Nor can I seem to add any muscle. Now the Starting Strength people will just say that I need to gain weight. I used to be 170, and gained 15 lbs with no change in strength. And it seems that at age 65 gaining muscles vs fat is challenging at best. When I gain weight it generally goes to my legs as fat. Nice!
I’m pretty sure my diet is good. I get about 165-190 grams of protein a day. My sleep on the other hand is awful! Probably between 5 – 7 hours per night. I’ve always been that way, and at this point I think I’m stuck with it. I’ve had a lifelong sinus problem that tends to wake me up at night. Had a couple of surgeries to try and fix it with no help. Last one made it worse…
So what I guess I’m looking for is advice for which template to try next, or any other changes to make. I would say that my goal is to get stronger, and I’d like to add some muscle/size in the process. Do I try a Hypertrophy template? Powerbuilding?
FWIW I really enjoyed the beginner template but stil ended at the same place…
Thanks for the post and detailed history. Sounds pretty frustrating to not get what you want out of your training efforts. Quick question though, did you do the beginner prescription or all three blocks of the beginner template? That would likely change my recommendation. In the meantime, here’s how I think about working through plateaus:
Stress, too much or too little?
Too little stress won’t drive fitness adaptations and fatigue should be relatively low. Too much stress has the potential to drive a lot of fitness adaptations, but fatigue will also be high and that limits the realization of those fitness adaptations. In general, I think most people don’t do enough exercise to get the results they want. This isn’t always the cause, as some people can do a lot of training that doesn’t actually contribute to their goals, which is termed “non functional overreaching.”
Stress, right or wrong?
In addition to the amount of training stress, the elements determining training stress need to be well-suited to driving the desired fitness adaptations. For example, doing a program that heavily relies on sets of 5 to improve 1RM performance is likely not great. Similarly, exercise selection, proximity to failure (RPE/RIR), rest periods, and so on all contribute.
Time Course
The time it takes to start building muscle from the initiation of an appropriate program is probably in the 4 to 5 week mark, though using analogue measurement techniques outside of the lab it’s going to be longer. For strength, it’s probably in the 3-4 week mark, rather than the weekly or daily strength progression that some claim. Just pointing this out regarding expectations, though I think it’s more than reasonable for you to get stronger and gain muscle size.
Hi Jordan, thanks for replying. To answer your question I did the first 2 phases of the beginner template, and did the 2nd phase twice with different exercises.
What’s interesting to me is that it is very rare that I finish a workout and think “That was a hard one”. For example during NLP even though I’d fail one of the lifts I still didn’t feel like it was a hard workout… So perhaps more stress is better? No idea how to judge that though.
Likely more stress, though not necessarily harder sets. I do not think training to failure frequently is a great idea for strength or on compound exercises, for example.
Powerbuilding I or the BB II (3-day) template would be my recommendation here. If you’re more up for doing singles and full-body workouts, pick Powerbuilding I. If you’d prefer an upper/lower split and strength work without singles, I’d pick BB II.
So, when you say more stress I’m guessing you mean more volume at a reduced RPE? I’m leaning more towards the BB II template. So since you suggested “more stress” would you expect me to add more volume to what is already prescribed?
I think compared to some of your previous training, PB I and BB II are going to have more volume, yes. However, training stress is a function of volume, average intensity, exercise selection, rest periods, and other programming variables as they’re experienced by the individual. To that end, the I suspect PB I and BB II are going to have more training stress. I predict the training as written should give you the appropriate amount of training stress to drive the desired results, though we’ll have to see how it goes and adjust from there.
Bought PowerBuilding 1 yesterday and today was the first workout. I’m guessing that I should probably run it a couple of times before changing? I’ll post progress.
My general thinking is that if people are doing well with a particular setup, they’d probably best served by continuing to use that plan for a bit longer until something changes.