realistic expectations for age...

[Y282]

right. i'm nearly 40. there, i said it.

i'm trying to get some shape back, mainly upper body after being pretty trim when younger then doing sod all for the last few years. i've recently started a few bits and bobs and i'm pretty lucky genetically but i'm trying to work out a balance between vanity/shape/tone and being a normal middle aged bloke who likes crap food and works full time.

i guess the question i'm throwing out there for comment is: what's considered a normal/healthy shape for a 40 year old bloke?

[RemainAllHoof]

Normal? Over-hanging beer gut, out of breath walking from sofa to fridge...

I'm 39 and am slim/trim with definition (not powerfully-built, though) but it comes from eating healthily (I still have my burgers, chips and cider; no need to go crazy) and exercise.

Think about a plan for life - something that can fit in with your current lifestyle. Also, don't go crazy in the first week by trying to run 100 miles a week and eating couscous salad every meal. You will give up or die within a fortnight and be back to unhealthy living.

[Y282]

RemainAllHoof said:

Normal? Over-hanging beer gut, out of breath walking from sofa to fridge...

I'm 39 and am slim/trim with definition (not powerfully-built, though) but it comes from eating healthily (I still have my burgers, chips and cider; no need to go crazy) and exercise.

see i don't have a gut or moobs and can run if i need to without getting out of breath (within reason). but what would an average healthy looking male around 40 look like in this country?

[RemainAllHoof]

Y282 said:

see i don't have a gut or moobs and can run if i need to without getting out of breath (within reason). but what would an average healthy looking male around 40 look like in this country?

Not like you or I, then. I think the average person is overweight. Which makes them not overweight, from a statistical viewpoint.

[RemainAllHoof]

As with anything, it might be necessary to change who you socialise with; I don't mean dump your friends but introduce new friends into your life via the gym or a sport. For instance, if you want to start a business, you'd ideally want to mix more with entrepreneurial and successful types which will give you enthusiasm for building your business. In the case of fitness, the people I see 50% of my social time are lean, muscley types and that really encourages you to train.

[Y282]

RemainAllHoof said:

Y282 said:

see i don't have a gut or moobs and can run if i need to without getting out of breath (within reason). but what would an average healthy looking male around 40 look like in this country?

Not like you or I, then. I think the average person is overweight. Which makes them not overweight, from a statistical viewpoint.

yeah, that's kind of part of my reason for questioning. when i think back to my childhood in the 70s, most men weren't overweight or even built. in fact, more were skinny than big in any way. if i were a grown man in the 70s at my size/shape now i'd look odd (more so than i do anyway). the average uk male now seems much bigger generally,, be it muscle or fat.

for figures, i'm 5'9" and 12 8. (probly be 12 7 in about another half hour). i looked on one of those BMI charts in a hospital recently and it put me in the average band, slightly above centre.

[RemainAllHoof]

I just had another thought - if you want to see realistic expectations, get on fitness-singles and look at the men in your age range. That's what is realistic. There's one guy in the "most popular" list who looks like a Men's Health cover model. Now, I doubt I can achieve that due to my enjoyment of burgers, chips and cider but I am sure I can achieve half of that level of physique/fitness/health.

[Y282]

RemainAllHoof said:

As with anything, it might be necessary to change who you socialise with; I don't mean dump your friends but introduce new friends into your life via the gym or a sport. For instance, if you want to start a business, you'd ideally want to mix more with entrepreneurial and successful types which will give you enthusiasm for building your business. In the case of fitness, the people I see 50% of my social time are lean, muscley types and that really encourages you to train.

i very much like to train alone, in isolation these days. my best mate is very, very built and spends a lot of time in the gym, but i hate the bloody places. i'm a firm believer i can do everything i need to at home/outside the gym by doing the right exercises.

that said, i'm really struggling with upper pec mass atm. i had the brainwave the other night to do pushups against the wall (you know, feet elevated to about 10 degrees off vertical) but it seems to be just hitting the fronts of my shoulders and my back.

[RemainAllHoof]

Y282 said:

yeah, that's kind of part of my reason for questioning. when i think back to my childhood in the 70s, most men weren't overweight or even built. in fact, more were skinny than big in any way. if i were a grown man in the 70s at my size/shape now i'd look odd (more so than i do anyway). the average uk male now seems much bigger generally,, be it muscle or fat.

for figures, i'm 5'9" and 12 8. (probly be 12 7 in about another half hour). i looked on one of those BMI charts in a hospital recently and it put me in the average band, slightly above centre.

Well, forget the BMI thing (they're useful for the average person) because you want to train so the BMI may not change as you shed the fat and build muscle. I'm nearly overweight but I know it's definitely not fat.

[Y282]

RemainAllHoof said:

I just had another thought - if you want to see realistic expectations, get on fitness-singles and look at the men in your age range. That's what is realistic. There's one guy in the "most popular" list who looks like a Men's Health cover model. Now, I doubt I can achieve that due to my enjoyment of burgers, chips and cider but I am sure I can achieve half of that level of physique/fitness/health.

what metabolic type do you think you are?

i'm predominantly ecto with possibly 30% meso. part of this is off the conversation i had with my mate yesterday. he can slab dense muscle on with no problems but couldn't get any lower torso definition if his life depended on it. i'm the other way round. if i didn't eat crap and burnt more i could still get some cut back to my lower torso even at this age.

i guess to bring my own question full circle, what i'm trying to figure out is how little can i watch my diet and exercise and still be considered in shape?

[RemainAllHoof]

That's all too scientific for me! I do find it difficult to build bulk but I don't eat enough protein and it's not my primary goal to be bulky. Although I have weights, I tend not to use weights for training and rely on body weight alone so I do stuff like dips, push ups, pull ups, bear crawls, turkish get ups, full leg raises, MMA ground training... I have subtle definition in the abdominal area; I'm definitely lean and you can see that I must visit the gym or something (something being the local climbing wall).

Re building pecs at home, how about wearing a small rucksack filled with plate weights (or buy a weighted vest) and do press ups with the rucksack on your back?

[Y282]

RemainAllHoof said:

That's all too scientific for me! I do find it difficult to build bulk but I don't eat enough protein and it's not my primary goal to be bulky. Although I have weights, I tend not to use weights for training and rely on body weight alone so I do stuff like dips, push ups, pull ups, bear crawls, turkish get ups, full leg raises, MMA ground training... I have subtle definition in the abdominal area; I'm definitely lean and you can see that I must visit the gym or something (something being the local climbing wall).

Re building pecs at home, how about wearing a small rucksack filled with plate weights (or buy a weighted vest) and do press ups with the rucksack on your back?

plates idea sounds good. just found a good video of strong technique pressups to fail, followed immediately by flys to fail on low weight then dumb bell presses to fail. one thing my mate did say that kind of resonated is to try and visualize the muscle you're trying to isolate and work on. no matter how much i try to focus on upper pec work tho, the anterior delts always seem to end up getting the lions share of the work.

[RemainAllHoof]

Y282 said:

plates idea sounds good. just found a good video of strong technique pressups to fail, followed immediately by flys to fail on low weight then dumb bell presses to fail. one thing my mate did say that kind of resonated is to try and visualize the muscle you're trying to isolate and work on. no matter how much i try to focus on upper pec work tho, the anterior delts always seem to end up getting the lions share of the work.

Well, you can't de-activate that muscle. It's going to be used as it's part of the system. You could slice it with a scalpel so it comes away from the bone if you're that dedicated. ATTENTION: THAT WAS A JOKE!! (Just in case you missed the smiley.)

I remember reading on here about rather than doing just 3 x 8 reps of press ups or whatever you do (what do you do?), try to do as many as you can in one go, rest for 1 minute and then repeat. Keep repeating until you can't push up properly.

[Y282]

RemainAllHoof said:

Y282 said:

plates idea sounds good. just found a good video of strong technique pressups to fail, followed immediately by flys to fail on low weight then dumb bell presses to fail. one thing my mate did say that kind of resonated is to try and visualize the muscle you're trying to isolate and work on. no matter how much i try to focus on upper pec work tho, the anterior delts always seem to end up getting the lions share of the work.

Well, you can't de-activate that muscle. It's going to be used as it's part of the system. You could slice it with a scalpel so it comes away from the bone if you're that dedicated. ATTENTION: THAT WAS A JOKE!! (Just in case you missed the smiley.)

I remember reading on here about rather than doing just 3 x 8 reps of press ups or whatever you do (what do you do?), try to do as many as you can in one go, rest for 1 minute and then repeat. Keep repeating until you can't push up properly.

yep, that seems to be a common idea i keep stumbling on. work to fail, not to rep numbers. going to try it now. my typing may be less accurate shortly.

[RemainAllHoof]

Well, I can't type properly from watching this exercise video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T0B13WyXqg

But here's how BJJers do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OKN0zDXC7k

[RemainAllHoof]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPTH305ME70

Some good tits here. I mean tips. FFS.

[Y282]

that animal one is excellent. i can see how stretching and core would really benefit from it.

ju jitsu one also, never occurred to me to use animal walk for core/abdominal training.

[RemainAllHoof]

I find the bear crawl is more knackering than it looks. I set a watch for one minute and make sure I'm moving around the living room floor until the alarm goes (when I reach one end of the room, I rotate vertically so my back is facing down then again back around then rotate horizontally to head in the opposite direction). Rest one minute, repeat.

[Y282]

RemainAllHoof said:

I find the bear crawl is more knackering than it looks. I set a watch for one minute and make sure I'm moving around the living room floor until the alarm goes (when I reach one end of the room, I rotate vertically so my back is facing down then again back around then rotate horizontally to head in the opposite direction). Rest one minute, repeat.

i'll try that at some point today, but atm my chest and shoulders are shaking like a stting dog.

[RemainAllHoof]

No excuses. Get on with it.

I normally do bear crawls, press ups and leg raises in one session.