Weightlifting Exercises for Older Men

Strength Training for Persons Over 55 Years of Age  by Mike Garofalo

I lift weights 5 days each week at the Tehama Family Fitness Center in Red Bluff, California. 

My current weight training partner, since January, 2014, is Roger Andresen.  Roger is 64 years of age, highly motivated, and competitive.  His legs are very strong.  I've seen him do 12 repetitions on the incline sled leg press machine with 620 pounds.  I am 68 years of age.  I can do incline sled leg presses 5 times with 480 pounds.  We do free barbell squats with up to 245 pounds for 6-8 reps.

My one repetition best ever in the bench press was 255 pounds, but I now train regularly at around 195 for 5-10 reps.  

We do from 16 to 20 sets, 8-12 reps per set, during each workout.  We sometimes drop to 5 reps for our heaviest lifts. We lift some comparatively heavy weights for a couple of older men!! 

My current summer season (6/12-8/15) fitness, bodybuilding, and weight training schedule is as follows:

Monday:   Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Legs 4pm; Yoga class 5:30pm; Taijiquan practice 6am; Gardening in morning.
Tuesday:   Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Back and Shoulders 4pm; Yoga class 5:30pm; Taijiquan practice 6am.
Wednesday:  Walk for 4 miles 5am; Taijiquan practice 6am; Gardening in morning.
Thursday:   Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Chest and Arms 4pm; Yoga class 5:30pm; Taijiquan practice 6am. 
Friday:   Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Legs 4 pm; Taijiquan practice 6am; Gardening in morning. 
Saturday:  Walk for 4 miles 5am; Taijiquan practice 6am; Gardening in morning.
Sunday:  Walk for 4 miles 5am; Weightlifting for Chest and Arms 4am; Taijiquan practice 6 am; Gardening in morning.

For more information about Strength Training for Persons Over 55 Years of Age, please check my webpage on the subject.  This webpage also gives more details on my exercise program. 

The Principles of Weight Training:  Overload, Progression, Specificity, Rest and Recovery, Nutrition, Variety, and Proper Attitude. 

Listen to what some other people have said about having the Proper Attitude: motivation, intention, desire, goals, determination, willpower, and focus:

“Weight lifting is about lifting the impossible, overcoming the unachievable. If you don’t lift things that are hard, and only do the things you can do, it’s only going to get boring.  Unless you want to lift beyond your limits to get stronger, to achieve new goals, and to be satisfied, you got to lift past these challenges, and still lift the things you think are impossible to really understand how your true strength will show.  Lift how I lift, see how I lift, watch how I lift, learn how I lift, and your true strength will come forth and be revealed”
– Chasers Holmes

“When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no ‘I’ll start tomorrow.’ Tomorrow is disease.”
– V.L. Allinear

“To feel strong, to walk amongst humans with a tremendous feeling of confidence and superiority is not at all wrong. The sense of superiority in bodily strength is borne out by the long history of mankind paying homage in folklore, song and poetry to strong men”.
– Fred Hatfield

"Take care of your body.  It’s the only place you have to live.”
–  Jim Rohn

“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot become manifest, strength cannot be exerted, wealth is useless, and reason is powerless.”
– Herophiles

By trying hard we often achieve more than we dare hope.

You can't push yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.  
 
Waiting to do something isn't enough, you must do it.

You can never achieve great success without great exertion.

“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.”
– Arnold Schwarzenegger

"There is no point in being alive if you cannot do the deadlift."
- Jon Pall Sigmarsson

"We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
- Carlos Castaneda

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Winning is not normal, and people who win do so by following an abnormal path. The discipline and dedication and sacrifices are incomprehensible to the thousands, standing outside looking in, who are capable of joining, yet unwilling to pay the price of admission."
- Steve Trippe

"It is no use saying, "We are doing our best." You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary."
- Winston Churchill

“The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.”
– Anthony Robbins

“Most of us think we don’t have enough time to exercise. What a distorted paradigm! We don’t have time not to. We’re talking about three to six hours a week – or a minimum of thirty minutes a day, every other day. That hardly seems an inordinate amount of time considering the tremendous benefits in terms of the impact on the other 162 – 165 hours of the week.”
– Stephen Covey

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
-  Steve Prefontaine

"If you fully believe you will be successful and can visualize yourself being successful, you will succeed."
- Tom Platz

“I do it as a therapy. I do it as something to keep me alive. We all need a little discipline. Exercise is my discipline.”
– Jack LaLanne

I don't have time to lift, I make time.

“Intensity builds immensity”
– Kevin Levrone

“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”
– Buddha

Have the courage to accept what you can't alter and to alter what you can't accept.

Thoughts are mere dreams until you put them into practice.

If you waste today crying over yesterday, you'll be able to waste tomorrow crying over today.

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."
- Vince Lombardi

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."
- General George Patton

"There is no failure except in no longer trying."
- Elbert Hubbard

"Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach."
- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"If",."perhaps" and "but" never got any person anywhere.  

The most important day of your life is today.  
 

"Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak"
- Thomas Carlysle

"I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds"
- Henry Rollins.

"Squat more!"
- Jesse Marunde

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger"
- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Sell yourself short on nutrition and you're selling yourself short on maximizing your physique development."
- Ernie Taylor

"If you believe in yourself, have dedication, pride, and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards."
- Paul "Bear" Bryant

"Strength is happiness. Strength is itself victory. In weakness and cowardice there is no happiness"
- Daisaku Ikeda

"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do."
- Martha Grimes