50-Year-Old Weight Lifting Beginner Routine. I am not getting any younger as my age is catching up. I have been sitting and getting fat for a long time. Working and building a family were my task for many years and during the time, I have very little time for exercise. Worst still, most of my working time was on a table day in day out. Automatically, my body tends to grow and my increasing weight has never look back since.
I am a typical short Chinese man that stands at only 168 cm in height and weight at 75 kg. I am considered over weight based on my BMI calculations. To make things worst, I am already having high blood pressure at age of 40 and currently on medication. Just last week while having dinner with a close friend of mine whom already have diabetes and on medication, I was told that he fainted few weeks ago due to high blood pressure. I thank god that it didn’t give him a stroke.
High blood pressure patient does have a tendency to cause stroke. So, it was a wake-up call to me. I am no longer as strong and I read that we lose our metabolism and muscles as we age. Muscles lose faster when we are above 40 years of age. And in order to gain some muscles back and according to what I read online, I have to start going to gym and workout. Coincidentally, my son was already a gym maniac 1 year ago thus I questioned myself, should I go to the gym now that my age is already 50? I fear injuries risk and may not be as strong anymore.
I did my research online and found mostly advise from Westerns (very little from Asians) gym enthusiasts that we can weight lift at any age. Many articles are from the USA as compared to Asian write up. I guess not many Asians believes in weight training after 50. They would rather prefer outdoor activities for examples, jogging, walking, yoga, etc. In in other words, they prefer mostly aerobatic exercises than doing weight lifting. As for me, I decided I would do weight lifting instead of aerobatic exercises. Of course, I don’t go into the extreme weight lifting where I go on a strict diet and all. What I wanted is to just get to the gym, do treadmills and pump or press a few weights. I will take it slow and build those muscles little by little. So, I started going to gym in June 2017.
My routines are simple (maybe until end of Sept/2017):
- Cardio – on treadmill for 20 mins (5 mins to 7 mins brisk walk and medium speed run for the rest). When I started in June, I walked for 10 mins and run for 5 to 7 mins then back to walking till finish. Today, I brisk walk for 5 to 7 mins and then run for 15 mins. I didn’t want to tire myself out so I could carry some weights.
- Chest – lying barbell press on the Smith machine with 25kg/3 sets/12 reps. Why I choose the smith machine? I needed the balance and stability as I didn’t work out for so long, I might risk injuring myself on free weights.
- Chest – lying barbell press on incline using Smith machine. 15kg/2 sets/12 reps and 25kg/1 set/12 reps. Incline press is slightly difficult for me so I reduce the weight for the 1st and 2nd set.
- Lat – I rotated my Lat pull down routine. Rotate between either back with front pull down or vise versa.
- Lat – back pull down with wide shoulder on machine. I started with 35kg/1 set/12 reps and continue with 40kg/2 sets/12 reps.
- Lat – front pull down with wide shoulder on machine. 35kg/3 sets/12 reps all the way.
- Lat – front pull down with close shoulder /reverse grip on machine. 35kg/3 sets/12 reps.
- Chest – internet called it pec-deck machine. Front at 40kg/3 sets/12 reps. Back 25kg/3 sets/12 reps.
- Back pull machine – 35kg/3 sets/12 reps.
- Leg press machine – 30kg/3 sets/15 reps.
- I will try to stick to my above routine for 3 months and see what happens. Meanwhile, I might as well enjoy going to the gym. Let’s get motivated.
This is me taken Mid-July 2017.
