My Workout Routine (Muscles at 50!?!!)

Some friends and readers have asked me about my workout routine. Before I begin, please note that I’m an amateur. Before you take fitness advice from a nerd on the internet who plays with plastic dinosaurs, consult <insert one or more: your doctor, a personal trainer, other nerds on the internet, YouTube, your favorite plastic dinosaur, the Magic 8 Ball!>

I’ll have another update for you on December 27th when I get another test. My goal is to be at 18% body fat or less with minimal muscle loss.

Wow!

I really like numbers and data, especially when it comes to money and fitness. Regarding the latter, I have an impedance scale to keep track of my weight and body compisition, but it’s not very accurate. Fortunately, there is a hydrostatic testing facility near me. Here is what I look like getting the test:

I went for my first test in August of 2017 and then again in September. Coincidentally, the same technician was working there. I stripped down and jumped in the tank. After the last test, something neat happened. The technician said this:

Wow! You weigh about 6 pounds more, but it’s all muscle. Also, you’ve lost fat! Usually when someone comes in that’s your age, any weight gain is all fat.

This was a relief. When you’re working out and see yourself every day, it’s difficult to notice changes. Before the test, I had convinced myself that my numbers would be horrible. But then they weren’t:

Pics Or It Didn’t Happen

How can I write about fitness and not share photos? While they’re quite embarrassing, the proof is in the… pudding?!?? Anyway…

In each of the photo series below, the first photo was taken on July 15th, the second on September 25th, and the third on November 16th.

Back: This is where I notice the most gains. Yay pull ups!

Chest: I see improvement here, but the progress is slow.

Side: Oof. I don’t like these photos at all. My gut is getting smaller, but it’s taking a loooooong time. I’ve read that the first place you put on fat is the last place it comes off. My stomach was definitely the first place I put on bonus pounds. I have been eating at a slight caloric deficit, but am going to increase it and also increase my zone 2 workouts.

My Routine

The main exercises I do are:

• Pull ups (use a lat pull-down machine if you can’t do a pull up)
• Bench press
• Overhead press
• Tricep push-downs
• Dumbell curls
• Squats
• Dead lifts

Secondarily, I do:

• Dips
• Seated rows

When I first started this routine in July, my routine looked like this:

Day 1: Upper Body

I complete these exercises in this order, resting at least 3 minutes between sets. I also finish each exercise before moving on to the next.

• Pull ups
• Bench press
• Overhead shoulder press
• Tricep push downs
• Dumbell curls

Day 2: Legs

• Alternate between squats and dead lifts.

Day 3: Zone 2

• Stair machine or walking around with a weight vest. My goal here is to keep my heart rate around 120.

I changed my routine up about a month ago. The reason was this; when day 1 rolled around again, even after two days of rest, sometimes my back and chest were still sore. This is probably due to poor sleep (my struggle), but that’s a different conversation. In any case, I switched to a 4 day routine:

Day 1: Back/Chest

Again, I complete these exercises in this order, resting at least 3 minutes between sets. I also finish each exercise before moving on to the next.

• Pull ups
• Bench press
• Dips
• Seated rows

Day 2: Legs

• Alternate between squats and deadlifts

Day 3: Shoulders/Arms

• Overhead shoulder press
• Dips
• Tricep push downs
• Dumbell curls

Day 4: Zone 2/Rest

• Stair machine or walking around with a weight vest. My goal here is to keep my heart rate around 120.

While the changes in my body are hard to see, numbers don’t lie. Besides my body composition, I recently did 15 clean, pull ups, a new personal record.

Key Tips

Go. To. Failure. This is hard. But it may be the most important part of the whole deal. The only reps that matter are the last one or two where you should be straining. Bonus points if you let out obnoxious grunts at the gym followed by high-fiving your gym bros.

Rest between sets. A lot. Most of my time at the gym is spent walking laps around the track. For the big muscles like back and chest, I walk a quarter mile between sets. My workouts take a long time.

Eat your target weight in protein. If you’re target weight is 150 pounds, eat 150 grams of protein spread throughout the day. Cottage cheese, canned tuna, protein shakes, and yogurt are your friends. Friends that taste bad.

Track your big lifts and do more every time. This is another way to push yourself to failure. I track my pull ups and bench presses. Every workout, I try to do more than last time.

Track your calories: Keep a spreadsheet of every calorie going in. Use a fitness tracker to track how many calories you burn. Also track protein intake.

Get a body scan. It’s very difficult to see changes in yourself. Change is gradual. Every once a while, I’ll notice a new vein popping out or my measurements will change slightly. The hydrostatic body composition tests will show you if what you’re doing is working.

Tweak tweak tweak. What I do may or may not work for you. If it’s not working, change it up.

Other Tips

Be patient. I’ve come to terms that it will take me at least 12 months to get to where I want to be.

Use good form. My shoulders were killing me after I started doing dips again. Turns out that my form was bad.

Optimize for muscle gain or fat loss? I’ve been doing something that isn’t easy; putting on muscle and taking off fat simultaneously. I’d probably be better off it I focused on one over the other.

No alcohol. Bad calories.

What’s The Point?

If you don’t have health, all the wealth in the world doesn’t matter.

Health >>> Wealth

Keeping weight down will improve my cardiovascular health including lowering blood pressure. High blood pressure killed my dad.

Maintaining strength will help me age more effectively. If you break a hip after age 65, you just increased the chance that you’ll be dead in a year:

The mortality from a hip or femur fracture is staggering once you hit about the age of sixty-five. It varies by study, but ranges from 15 to 36 percent in one year—meaning that up to one-third of people over sixty-five who fracture their hip are dead within a year. – Dr. Peter Attia

Strength will help me maintain balance and keep weight off (muscles burn more calories).

Plus, I’m a little vain and don’t want to be embarrassed when I take my shirt off to go for a swim! 🙂

I just wish that I would have figured all of this out at 20 instead of 50. Better late than never?!??

For more information, this episode of ChooseFI is great: https://choosefi.com/podcast-episode/update-healthiest-year-ever-dean-turner-ep-480 Big shout-out to Brad Barrett and Dean Turner for the inspiration and advice.

More 1500 Days!!!

You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at:

Mile High FI podcast:

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MindyOnMoney podcast!

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