starting course

[middleaged]

Hello everyone any advice for a middle aged man starting out who is 50lbs overweight . Left self go over the years after being athletic for my life but know that this is the starting point now.

[Henry Marczak]

Hi middleaged, 50lbs = 1 year, for sustainable weight loss by some nutritional experts. Basically be very active and train with the Charles Atlas system. 15 minutes a day is a great starting point.

[middleaged]

Hello Henrey thanks for the info how long do you train per day? how many sets and reps do you on the exercises

[emfermi]

Hi Middleaged, even though I am not 50 I can tell you that in the Atlas system therea are no fixed numbers of reps and sets. Everyone one is different and one of the great things about DT ist that it teaches you to listen to your body. How many sets and reps FEEL good to you? A little hint, you must feel better when you finish than when you started. If not, you are most probably overtraining. A very small amount of soreness is to be expected the first few days, but not pain or an incapacity to move.

When I practice the 12-week course, as far as sets go I do 3 sets only for the dips and deep-knee bends. For all the rest I just do 1 set. Reps I do as much as I can do without straining for the bodyweight type exercises and around 10 for the self-resistance exercises. This is just for me, try to find what works for you. And remember the Atlas course advises to train twice per day.

[Henry Marczak]

how long do you train per day? how many sets and reps do you on the exercises

I work on a building site as a general labourer 4 times a week, 8 hours each, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday are days off and these are the days I train. On working days I might do something in the morning on work days but it all depends on how hard I had to work on the job site. As you get older you don't need high reps, but know your doing good quality and effort. Generally I do 20 dips on 3 chairs and that's good enough, I don't need to do 5 sets, mainly just do one set routines often not counting reps but getting some real good tension and observing that I can get the muscle to come out, it might even only be 3 reps on some. What I avoid is just going through the motions just to get reps in, with sit-ups I have to make it intense, just flailing back and forth a 100 times is not much good for me, make it intense so you only need to do 25, this is done with muscle tension and having the finger tips on the abs make me able to create more tension.

[Prior Aelred]

Somewhere Charles Atlas suggests 8-12 reps - that is a good starting point. "Train don't strain." Something is better than nothing. Listen to your body. I promise you that if you work the course seriously, you will see results!