50th year PRs

50th year PRs

Cliffs: I'm 50 later this year and am challenging myself to set as many lifetime PRs as I can

tldr

49yo male. 6ft, 90.5kg/199lbs. Grew up in London, now live in Sydney Australia.

Have long term sporting background. International representative rugby player at top tier sporting university and played semi pro into my late 20s. Also played varsity soccer as freshman at college, plus all the sports including track and field growing up.

The past 20 years since rugby finished...I've almost always exercised/trained and have always been fit but it's mainly been 'working out' rather than training. By which I mean I train hard when I go into the gym...but without any real plans or goals.

I had two serious sporting injuries that still impact my training - the knee reconstruction plus a torn & bulging disc in the L5/S1 region and after a really frustrating 3ish years of a cycle or injuring myself every time I tried to go hard for a period of time, I've cut the intensity of my training over the past 5 years. By doing this and giving up several movements (squat, snatch, squat clean), I've managed to stay active and training all the way through....albeit going through the motions for months and then more committed at other times.

But I find myself bored with my training and staring down the barrel of a major milestone as I turn 50 in the middle of 2021. And so I'm going to aim to reach 50 in great shape and to give myself something to keep me interested by aiming to break as many of my lifetime PRs as I can.

Realistically, I'm never running a sub 11.5 100m or hitting the roads to run a marathon again and I'm not squatting or o lifting heavy any more, so those ones are out. But I think the upper body lifts are within reach (I've never been 'strong' in those anyway, but they haven't dropped off much) and I think some of the cardio PRs are definitely do-able if I can commit to the pain...albeit I'm definitely scared of the pain

Simultaneously, my cholesterol levels have been rising the past few years and I'd like to drop some body fat...so I'm going to be adopting a better diet and substantially reducing my drinking

Here's a list of my PRs...some of them are relatively soft, in that I haven't really trained them for that long.

PRs within reach

Lifting
Bench 107.5kg (currently at approx 100kg)
Press 70kg (currently probably 67.5 but gym closed right now and my home gym ceiling is too low for me to do standing press)
Bar Dips 26 (guessing I could do 15ish)

Erg
1km 3.17 (guessing 3.30)
2km 6.59 (I did a 7.19 yesterday and it damn near killed me)

Assault Bike
100 cals 3.11
200 cals (can't find the PR but I'll be attempting one)

DEXA PR: 16.2% (I think I'd be 18% ish now)

PRs that are possible but not probable

Dead Hangs 18

Erg
500m 1.28 (est 1.32 right now - 4 secs is a HUGE difference in a 500m)
5k 18.43 (guessing 19.30)

Caliper bf% when playing rugby was 12.1 - which I'm guessing equated to 14% ish?

Other lifetime PRs fyi that we won't be attempting to break
Squat 165kg (in 1993)
Deadlift 170kg (2010)
Power Clean 105 (2015)
Snatch 82.5kg (2015)
11.5 100m
1.28 half marathon

This is about as far as I've got.

I haven't worked out an exact training plan yet - our gyms are closed for covid at the moment but I have a barbell, rack and bench at home plus an erg and a pull up bar so I can train most of the above. I generally get to the gym 4 to 5 times a week and aim to do at least one other 'activity' per day as well - I've got quite obsessive about getting 10k steps in since I've been working from home since March. And then I have a very sporty 10 year old son who I am helping get fit for his upcoming season - both soccer and rugby will start in March. So we're doing sprints and skills training too.

Next steps

keep things ticking over with no huge focus for the next 2 weeks, then after a week's holiday 13th to 20th January, I'll commit to a more detailed plan and improve my lifestyle.

I'm very heavy for me (most of my PRs were done with me weighing 83-85kg and I'm 90kg right now), so it's a good time to try to get some upper body PRs.

the cardio goals scare me and are the main reason I've started the thread.
I want to force myself to do more conditioning work but I know the pain I'm in for - that 5k row PR was done when I was peak crossfit and will be a total nightmare to get to from where I am right now.

I'll be getting a DEXA in late Jan.

I had my bloods done last month and will probably get another lot done before my birthday.

I may also add some additional fitness goals...just not sure what they'd be right now

sorry for the wall of text and sorry if you're unable to multiply kg by 2.2 to get to lbs

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31 December 2020 at 05:26 AM
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3x9 leg curl 20kg *single leg
3x11 leg extension 47kg single leg
4x9 leg press 250kg
6,5,5 deadlift 140kg
3x12 skullcrushers 42.5kg ss with
3x20 close grip press 42.5kg



My very first interval since the beginning of Feb last year. Did a 1k warm up and then 3x1k 4r

Had no idea what to expect, given I’ve done no cardio at all apart from an occasional walk and I just wanted to make it morale building and not brutal, so figured I’d aim for 3 at 2.00/500. That ended up being easier than I thought it would be so I did each interval 10am a faster. The final one stung.

I might try it again next week, use the 2nd interval split as the 1st one and then try to do the final two at 1.50 or a little faster


day off yesterday

first day back at work today and managed to only get about 4 hours sleep, so the 6am gym didn't feel easy. got through it ok though

wide grip pull downs 3x13-70kg
neutral grip, medium width pull downs 10,10,11-77kg
close grip rows 4x10-77kg
shrug 3x14-120kg
preacher curl 3x9-45kg ss with
hammer curl 3x9-15kg
machine preacher curl 3x12

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