51 years old 5' 9" and 193 lbs (need to lose 20). Recently cranked up my workouts. Lifting 6 days a week. 3 days heavy (5 rep sets) one day off then 3 days light (10-15 reps). Right now my bench is still ahead of my squats and deads. I have a longer history of benching when I was younger but neglected my legs. Then it got worse when I started my career. Spent all day sitting in a chair or in my car. Got so bad that I was having knee and ankle issues due to muscle atrophy! When I started squatting I could only handle 115 lbs.

Now I'm up to (working sets) 230 bench, 225 squats and 225 deads.

All freeweights...in my basement with a rack.

Next plan is to cut my weight down into the 170's but at minimum maintain my lifts.

5’9 148lb. I walk and jog daily

I could walk up and kick you meatheads in the nuts and run away so fast you could never catch me...

You might need to work on your anger issues. lol

If I weighed 148 pounds, I think I could probably fly.

Used to be a heavy lifter, going for nothing but strength. Have I benched >350lbs, yes. Do my shoulders hurt today? Yes.

When you get older though, and after your joints and tendons start to ache, you begin to think what the hell was the point of it all?

I've been in the gym since 1992 religiously and very dedicated. Nowadays I want to be able to go to a pool or beach, take my shirt off, and have my chick think I look good. I could give a sh!t about poundages anymore. My body doesn't constantly ache. I want abs and arms and jacked vascular legs.

Bodybuilding, which I do, is much more friendly towards your body. Less wear and tear imo.

Props to the guys still going heavy though. Not taking anything from them as I know many. Just consider changing avenues.

I stopped running myself too much on the joints. I’ve been using a 240lb tire 1/2 hour work outs 4-5 x week flipping & 8lb sledge. At my age I still work out with weights as well just less weight & more reps & cardio has become way more important. Tweek your back these days can turn into months of pain !

I think over time the tire thing is going to be way more on your joints than running. I used to be an outdoor runner, but for my knees, I'm now on a treadmill post weights. No knee issues at all.

I think this year I will finally join a local gym that has an escalator like machine I’m looking to do that mixed in with other low impact cardio like versa climber & treadmill maybe all 3 x 10 min each. 30 minutes cardio is the key though, less than that is too little

Not a power lifter, but I do lift.

Had rotator cuff surgery in May 2015. Nasty tear too.

Started lifting again in March 2017...I could only do 30 pounds on the bench press machine. The other night, I did 3 sets of 6, with 185 pounds on the bench press itself...pretty cool since my doctor told me the day of surgery that I would never bench press again.

A year ago, I couldn't do a pushup...now I can do a set of 50.

Thanks! I do like the oly stuff because I don’t want to put on mass for more strength and they require just as much work on form and movement. I train 3x a week, MWF. I hardly ever try to bench and I have never maxed my backsquat, I’m always off the rack with no cage. No belts, and I like the front squat. It comes into play catching cleans and standing back up. I only lift to stay in shape while drinking a ton of beers

Just getting back into training after a year off due to injuries, working back up to my strongest which was

Bench 165k
DB press flat 52k
DB press incline 48k
DB decline presses 50k
Squat 250k can’t go heavy due to a torn quad and back injury years ago.

Back in college, I was benching over 300 pounds. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt like a shell of my former self.

It’s so nice to get some strength back. My shoulder injury was 15 years of constant pain. 10 of those winters, I would be in physical therapy trying to fix it. All because when I broke my arm, the surgeon, aka butcher, touched my shoulder when he shouldn’t have. That is what lead to the rotator finally tearing. My 2nd surgery in 2006, was to fix the first surgery from 2002. My 2nd surgeon warned me, that I could have future problems due to the first surgery. 3rd surgeon is a magician in how he fixed me back in 2015.

Living with a torn rotator cuff is painful. Watching tv, painful. Driving, painful. I stopped lifting, stopped bowling, pretty much stopped everything. The MRI showed it as a partial tear. I had 6 radiologists all day it was a partial tear. When the surgeon went in there, it was fully torn. The pain from surgery was 100 times worse than the daily pain I was living with. After a week, the surgery pain was equal to the daily pain I was living with. I was in physical therapy for 6 months. I had to sleep upright on a couch for 7 months, was way too painful to sleep in a bed. Took 18 months before I was pain free. 4 months later, I decided to give it a go at the gym. 14 months later, I’ve added about 20 pounds of muscle and I’m down a total of 120 pounds. I’m at my college weight. Next goal is to hit high school weight (20 more pounds to go). When people ask how I did it, I tell them that I use the DIE method....Discipline...Intensity...Effort.

Yep! I was always told by the guys that mentored me when I start bodybuilding that an injury is 50% physical 50% mental, once that injury has healed it then becomes 100% mental, removing that dought/concern that’s in your mind.

If you have had back injuries (I have had one myself) I would recommend a trap bar for your heavier deadlifts (I also perform squats this way at times), because your stood/lifting in line with the centre of the bar compared to a traditional bar where your stood/lifting from behind, there is a huge reduction in the stress it places on the spine. The grip is also a more neutral grip position (side) which more often than not let’s you go heavier for longer without your grip failing first which is often the first thing that fails most people on deadlifts - which is where the whole overhand, mixed and hooked grip debates stem from.

Well I've added 110 lbs to my squat so far.

I haven't used my free weights in a decade. I opened this thread out of curiosity and I'll be darned I feel....inspired. Especially by my fellow 50+ posters

what the what? A benchpress higher than a deadlift???

Probably not max...but working sets at the moment...yep. Max bench is 265, haven't tried a max dead.

I competing in powerlifting as a teenager and am now 48. I used it as a segway for bodybuilding competitions as I felt it was a good way to put on dense muscle. I set a state squat record at 17 years old in the 198 pound class, I think I squatted 535 pounds. Deadlift was 505 and bench a little over 300 pounds. I competed about 6 or so times in total and did some damage the mens classes as well when I crossed over into the mens contests as a teenager. I competed and won the overall in my first bodybuilding competition, Mr. Teenage Staten Island 1989 and the year after went on to win the Eastern Championships overall. Had a few second and third place finishes and than gracefully bowed out when I turned 20. I competed again in bodybuilding at 37, 42 and 46 years old in bodybuilding comps and did ok, but was never really pleased with my conditioning. Now I find myself doing more machines and cardio as I have to work around my aging joints. I will compete again, as long as I can lift, the bug never leaves, it just resurfaces every so often.

That’s a big deal, get it checked. I have borderline BP and check daily with this
https://www.amazon.com/Omron-Pressure-Monitor-Reading-Memory/dp/B00KPQB4OU/ref=sr_1_5_a_it

Calluses- no big deal until the weight gets really heavy. If they build up a lot, you will eventually rip them off. I sand mine down with sandpaper, or an Emory board.

Nervousness - the only lift I am 100% comfortable on is bench. I will get under 500 pounds on bench no problem (using a slingshot for over load training), but I am nervous under 500 on squat. I just haven’t done it enough to be comfortable.

Here is the video of my 450 bench. Definitely not a paused comp lift. I missed this in my last comp, which is why my best comp bench is 424.

Here is the ugly 500 with the slingshot. Not sure why I tried for the second rep, there was no way that was going to happen. Lol

Here is some fun from my last strongman competition. Started at 590, then went up 20 pounds each of the first 5 reps, then finished the rest of the minute at 690.

Serious? Go buy a blood pressure machine. Slide on the cuff, push a button and it tells you in 30 seconds. It's worth the investment of 65 bucks. Peace of mind.

I am 48 now started lifting at 18 my goals were mostly for body building and strength, at 30 I ruptured a disk in my back and it healed for the most part but about 6 months later I woke up one morning and my whole right leg was numb, was hard to walk, that lasted for a few weeks then I got the siatic nerve pains (felt like someone was stabing me in the ass and leg with a knife) the pain never stopped unless I was laying down, tried therapy and everything I could think of but the nerve pain would not go away. I ended up getting an MRI and they said I had a ruptured disk between I think L5 and S1, ended up getting the piece (about the size of my pinky finger) as the doctor said cut out, felt 100 times better right after surgery, never took any pain meds in the hospital or at home. After hurting my back I took a 5 year break from lifting and at 35 I started again and was weak as hell, I remember gaining 10 lbs a week in gains. I was doing really good, at 40 I was probably in the best shape of my life felt great, but one day I went to bed feeling great and woke up with a messed up back again, ended up rupturing the other side of the same disk, the same doctor cut the other ruptured piece out and told me there wasnt much left to come out anymore. I recovered pretty quickly and kept working out but at around 45 I started seeing guys injure themselves trying to lift realky heavy. I never competed in anything so I decided to basicly workout to just stay in good shape and keep from growing man boobs. I have to admit it is hard to find the ambition to keep going when your not trying to get any stronger but I keep at it. In hindsight when I was a kid I wish I would have listened to all the old guys that would tell you to lift with your legs and not your back and I might not have messed my lower back up the way I did. I have twin 13 yr old boys and have been teaching them how to workout the proper way and how not to injure yourself by using good form. Anyway sorry for the long post

You guys need a Hardbody!

20180606_165000 (resized).jpg

I'm not a powerlifter but I have lifted weights for over 35 years and still do. When I get evaluated at health club they say my strength is in the 90's for my age.

My cardio is above average with resting heart rate high 40's to low 50's. However my flexibility is beyond poor. I'm at the point if I don't exercise I can get grumpy.

I suppose in my fifty's I would Bench press and incline press 185, 10- 12 reps and 3-4 sets. I eliminated dead lifts, squats after high school.
In high school football where power lifting was of importance my max bench was 275. I weighed about 170.

In the last few years my left shoulder bothers me some while lifting so I have toned down the weight on bench and especially incline but can't give it up.

Interesting thread. Cheers

in regards to inspiration, can people talk about how lifting has effected them in regards to pinball? particularly moving and manipulating machines...

I became a better player the stronger I got. Plus it helps in moving machines.

Yes, I'm very careful with my back and knees. When you see guys in the gym with these problems you learn
how important it us to keep them whole. You buy an escalara.

I picked up a pin and loaded it into a truck before. It was big and awkward to lift, so now I use some leverage instead of just muscling it. I really just wanted to see if I could do it.

I’m pretty sure it was Demolition Man. It might have been sttng, but I think I was probably smart enough to not test that on the more expensive game. Not sure what it weighed, but those are some of the heavier pins out there.

well if you're gonna do a festivus feat of strength, STTNG or DM are definitely great choices.

Well I was inspired by this thread and started back at the gym today. Started slow with 30 mins on the elliptical because I have a strained brachialis on the mend. Wish me luck. I'm probably going to just do leg presses until my arm heals up. I'm really going to focus on conditioning for now and shedding some LBs.

Discipline. Intensity. Effort.

Do those 3 things everyday and you will be successful.

It’s 7am and I’m one of like 10 people at the gym on the 4th...just doing my stretching right now before I hit the treadmill.

Hell yeah. Get it done.