[Progress, x-post /r/fitness] M/43, 6'6", pectus & fake hips, 1 year progress. Weight 200->215, bench 70->215

rev411

New member
43-year-old guy, 6'6", pectus excavatum, cancer survivor, artificial hips, one year progress. Here are side-by-side before and after pics. I'm not totally confident enough to throw my full pic out on the internet, so since I've been told tons of times that I look like Jason Segel you get his smiling mug in place of mine. As you can see in the "before" pic, while I wasn't in stereotype-40-year-old fat and sloppy, I had zero muscle tone whatsoever. Scrawny and my torso is basically a straight up-and-down line. The after pic shown is from today. I'd spent May trying to eat as much as humanly possible (I'm very bad at this) so my BF% is slightly higher than I'd like it to be.

Stories time! I bought Powerblocks about 8 years ago and every few months I'd do some halfassed "routines" with them for a week or two and then forget about them. I have pectus excavatum so it's always been easy for me to use the "bad genetics" excuse as a reason for not trying to get fit. Instead I was just happy to eat sensibly and not be fat. After I found /r/fitness (pre-default) my halfassed working out became more frequent and, well, sensible. I bought Starting Strength and read it, and while I was using the dumbbells more often I wasn't really getting anywhere.

Then last April my wife and I booked a cruise to Hawaii. Everyone needs a kick in the ass and the idea of my weak, hollow-chested self in Hawaii kicked my ass. From April 30 until early September, 3-4 times a week without fail, I did my weird dumbbell version of SS. My Jefit shows that I started benching with 35 pound dumbbells, as an example. I couldn't do a single pull-up. I basically did the same thing every workout: "deadlift" with dumbbells, one-arm rows, bench, OHP, curls, and whatever I could manage on my doorway pull-up bar (at the start IIRC it was like 3 negatives, rest, 2 negatives, rest, fail -- granted I'm over 200# but this was demoralizing).

I also did bodyweight squats, but only bodyweight. As mentioned above I had cancer back in the late 90s. The chemo saved my life but caused avascular necrosis in my hips -- my hip joints lost their blood supply, died, and started to crumble, which does in fact hurt. Got them replaced but the doctor screwed up both replacements, one to such a degree that I got it re-replaced (by a different surgeon). As a result my hip flexors are a bit messed up (psoas on one side is a mess of scar tissue, iliacus on the other impinges into the hip sometimes). I'd given up on this for years and just accepted that I'd be weak and in pain forever, but started doing some stretching and mobility exercises a few years ago when my wife went to school to become a Registered Massage Therapist, and these helped so much that I'm never in pain from my hips anymore, but my legs and hip flexors are still totally weak from over a decade of mis- and disuse. I've managed to get up a 1RM 135 on squats just this month.

We went to Hawaii and, looking back, I was in Hawaii as a less-skinnyfat hollow chested me, but I'd moved up to benching sets of 60 pound dumbbells along with other strength improvements including actually being able to do a pull-up, so I was damn brimming with confidence. I looked way better, my shirts fit a little better, and I felt way better.

We got home and after talking with my wife to make sure that putting a 3x3' metal contraption in our games room was cool, I pulled the trigger and bought a power cage, barbell, and plates, all after research and questions to /r/homegym. I switched to SL 5x5 at this point mostly for the ease of tracking using the Stronglifts app. I stuck to the program closely and didn't add much in the way of accessories -- I even dropped curls altogether (!) I stayed with Stronglifts from late September until late April, though I dropped the use of the Stronglifts app and when back to Jefit for the improved tracking and ability to track accessories when I wanted to add them. I moved from SL because I'd hit a wall on both bench and OHP and wanted to improve them.

I took up 5/3/1 in late April, adding in 5/3/1 Pendlay rows to the Squat day since my squats still aren't very high-weight or taxing. I've added accessories appropriate to each day (e.g. on bench day I do flys, incline DB bench, and DB shoulder press). I've added curls because, I admit it, I want to bro up my arms a bit, and I feel shame for this. I've also added ab work to DL and and squat days because I've hardly done any straight ab work at all, though my wife says my obliques are way bigger and more solid, and I'll take her word for it as she's the muscle expert. My first cycle of 5/3/1 increased my OHP, DL, bench, and squat 1RMs, and the OHP and bench hadn't increased in ages. I don't know what's up with 5/3/1 but it seems to work. I'm sticking through this program through at least the end of the year.

I'd love any feedback or questions. Hoping I convince at least one 40+ dude to give the lifting a shot. I've got literally nothing genetic or medical going my way and I still managed to gain 15+ pounds of muscle in a year.

Stats all in pounds:

Weight: 200ish -> 215 -- my waist size also went from 34-36 to 32-33. I reckon I've put on 15-20 pounds of muscle in the 13 months.

Bench: 35 DB x 5 -> 215 1RM

DL: 45 DB x 5 -> 275 1RM

OHP: 20 DB x 5 -> 125 1RM
 
@rev411 Nice work! You look great. I envy your forearm gains. I'm about your age. I started with 10lb dumbbells several years ago. I hit a wall when I got to 35lb dumbbells and kinda lost interest.

I've been attempting SL 5x5 on and off since October 2014, inadvertently stopping when I stall. My last restart was the end of April. I added the accessories from ice cream fitness (ICF) and things got better. I haven't stalled yet. I just do the program so I don't know my one rep maximums but I can squat and deadlift 15% more than my own weight. I should be able to bench my own weight by the middle of July. I did weighted dips for the first time in my life, today (3x10, I need to increase the weight). I'm in uncharted territory. I will stall again soon, but I'm not going to stop or quit.

I never take pictures because I'm so ashamed of my appearance. I'd been skinny-fat for 25 years. That ended in April. I'm no longer fat and I can wear regular fit size 34 jeans. Previous jeans were loose-fit size 38. Maybe I'll be confident enough for pictures in another 6 months? Thanks for sharing. It is inspiring to see others succeed.
 
@theohpilus Go for pics if you've improved so much. I lost 30+ pounds about 7 or 8 years ago when I stopped drinking every day -- 3-4 beer and whatever else every day added calories and made me lazy, and I was 235, 36-waist jeans fit me most of the time, and I was just a lump. Decided to go without it for a month, did it, and never went back to those drinking ways, or my old drinking friends at the bar for that matter.

Awesome, don't stop, don't quite, keep going, throw up a progress thread at some point because people see them and it affects them. I can't remember any specific progress post I've seen in the last couple of years but I do know I looked at some of them and used them as inspiration.
 
@rev411 Well done.

PS Nowt wrong with DBs if they're heavy enough to keep challenging you. :) Problem is, most gyms tend not to have heavy dumbbells (one local one only has the heaviest ones as 30kg!).
 
@meredithhww Totally, DBs are awesome. My issue with them became getting them into position for, say, bench. Actually lifting them was much easier. DBs are my favourite for accessories though. I got two oly dumbbell handles since I already had the plates. (I gave the Powerblocks to a friend.)
 
@rev411 Ah, I guess you may need help. I do see people balance them on their knees and lean back into position - I am talking about beasts doing benches with 50kg DBs not just little ol' me with the pink DBs. ;)
 
@meredithhww the other problem with dumbbells is after a certain point you start limiting range of motion due to them being too large.

Once you get past full sets of dumbbells at 100lbs, you REALLY are better served switching to benching heavy with a barbell.
 
Back
Top