Anonymous wrote:I'm 50, 5'5 and 130lbs. I've been running 3-5 miles, 4x a week for 10 months and I probably lost 2lbs. Regardless, I need to add strength training.

Generally I eat eggs, lean protein, lots of fruits & veggies. My weakness are coffee creamer, peanut M&Ms in the office kitchen and I dislike drinking water.

Yesterday's breakfast: 1 egg, 1/2 sweet potato with 1 Tbsp peanut butter, a large coffee with 1 Tbsp sugar & milk

Lunch: baked salmon belly, 1 cup steamed zucchini, 1 cup cherry tomatoes, green tea, a couple handfuls of peanut m&m

Dinner: 1 egg, 1/2 zucchini baked with egg/bread crumbs, 1 glass of red wine

How do I effectively gain more muscle through strength training? Should I get a personal trainer or join a fitness group at the gym? Between work and kids, I only have 2 evenings a week for the gym.

If I were you, I would do the following:

Day 1:
3 sets of 5 squats, start with bodyweight -- add weight each week 5-10lbs based on your abilities
3 sets of 5 deadlifts -- 5-10lbs each week
3 sets of 10 alternating reverse lunges, start with bodyweight -- add 5-10lbs each week
3 sets of 10 glute bridges, 2 second pause at the top, with a weight on your plevis -- find a moderate load and stay there

Day 2:
3 sets of 5 bench press either dumbbell or barbell -- 5-10lbs each week
3 set of 5 single arm bent over row -- add 2-3lbs each week
3 sets of 5 strict overhead press -- add 5-10lbs each week
3 sets of assisted pull-ups or lat pulldowns or barbell upright row depending on your access to equipment

Do these 2 workouts wherever it fits into your schedule. I can almost guarantee you'll see strength improvements. Also squeeze in a protein shake on workout days. Your body will begin to crave it as you lift more. Report back!

If you have no idea where to start a trainer is not a bad idea. But with two nights a week I would try to do two full body workouts. And each I would have one squat type and one hinge like movement for lower body and one push and one pull type movement for the upper body. These would be compounds targeting several muscle group. If you have time you can add a few isolation movements like triceps extensions, leg curls etc. The good thing is that as a beginner you can follow basically any program and still add muscle. Just make sure you increase weights/reps over time. And absolutely eat more protein. For breakfast you can have a mix of eggs and egg whites. For lunch I would swap the salmon belly for a leaner protein like chicken. The M&ms could be swapped for Greek yoghurt with some chocolate protein powder mixed in to make it feel like a treat. And for dinner again, find a leaner protein source and eat more of it. If this is truly how you eat every day, your calories seem very low. Try to get into a small surplus which would again create more opportunity to add some extra protein. Try to get at least 100g a day.

One egg only has 6 grams of protein. I measure egg whites (I buy cartons of it) and use 150g of egg whites mixed with one whole egg. That is 25g of protein. I have a side of Dave’s killer bread with honey or Nutella or peanut butter for an additional 5g of protein. That’s breakfast.

Measure 100g of salmon with your lunch.

Dinner is not enough protein.

I add a protein shake in for a snack mid morning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to eat more protein. I ounce per ideal body weight. Lift heavy weights. I use Fitbod app.

Is eating more protein still recommended if I'm full in between meals? What would you swap out from yesterday's meals?

OP you need to just START strength training. You aren't going to build muscle mass until you do that. Right now you do cardio and you eat reasonably well.

Start lifing and then you will probably find you naturally start craving protein rich foods. Pay attention to how your body feels and especially how it recovers-- add protein especially to your post workout routine to help with recovery and muscle growth.

There is no point in fiddling with your diet before you even start a strength training program.

Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to eat more protein. I ounce per ideal body weight. Lift heavy weights. I use Fitbod app.

Is eating more protein still recommended if I'm full in between meals? What would you swap out from yesterday's meals?

OP you need to just START strength training. You aren't going to build muscle mass until you do that. Right now you do cardio and you eat reasonably well.

Start lifing and then you will probably find you naturally start craving protein rich foods. Pay attention to how your body feels and especially how it recovers-- add protein especially to your post workout routine to help with recovery and muscle growth.

There is no point in fiddling with your diet before you even start a strength training program.

Anonymous wrote:You need to eat more protein. I ounce per ideal body weight. Lift heavy weights. I use Fitbod app.

Is eating more protein still recommended if I'm full in between meals? What would you swap out from yesterday's meals?

Casey Johnston's couch to barbell program is excellent: https://www.couchtobarbell.com/

There are hundreds of guides out there. Almost all of them will work if you do it consistently. 45 minutes twice a week will really help. Do a series of exercises that works your whole body (lower and upper). Machines, free weights, body weight, bands - they ALL work, as long as you do between 5-15 reps per set at a weight that is challenging. That is, the last few reps should be much harder than the first few. You don't have to and probably shouldn't work to exhaustion. Almost all gyms will give you an overview of the equipment available and suggest a program.

You need more protein.

Gaining muscle is also like gaining fat in that you need to eat enough to gain fat or muscle. You can not store excess calories in the form of fat or muscle if you are not eating excess calories. To gain muscle you need to lift heavy enough to change while enough to gain muscle.

Check out Caroline Girvan on youtube. I've put on real muscle mass by following her programs. I've also steadily increased the weights I'm using. Started with the dumbells I had on hand (so like 5 and 8lb -- not heavy) but now use her programs at the gym and have purchased heavier weights at home -- I now regularly use 20-40lb dumbells for most exercises. One thing I really like about her programs (I'd start with Iron) is that there is a good balance between full body and targeted training. Like the schedule will have you doing:

Leg Day
Upper Body
Posterior chain
Full body
Abs and Arms

Also the workouts are highly efficient -- I like the 30 minute workouts best and on days I run or bike I do them at the end. But she has 10-15 minute versions that are easy to tack on to something or just do on their own when you don't have much time. She also has some 45-60 minute workouts that are pretty intense but I tend to avoid those because they incorporate cardio and I get that elsewhere -- I just use her for strength training.

She also has an app now but I've had good results with the free content on youtube so I'd start there.

I’m 45 and started lifting 2-3 years ago. I started with dumbbells at home and the peloton app, using the hardcore on the floor group from Facebook which gives you workouts. I would sometimes do gym workouts but found it hard to figure out what exercises/weights to do. I definitely gained muscle from the group but I don’t think it qualifies as heavy lifting (especially for lower body).

I’ve recently started doing small group personal training to lift heavy weights and it’s great. Personal training was a little too 1-1 time for me but I love having someone put together a program, help me on form, etc.

You need to eat more protein. I ounce per ideal body weight. Lift heavy weights. I use Fitbod app.

How much muscle you have isn’t determined by what you eat or don’t eat or how much fat you have. It’s about how much heavy stuff you move. A heavier body will give you more muscle to move it, and stronger bones to support it. Lifting, carrying, throwing, and moving heavy things tells your body to build muscle because you need it to do your thing. I garden and build stuff to achieve that - buckets of dirt, bags of compost, piles of rocks, tree limbs - all very heavy!

Or you can go to the gym and lift weights. A few sessions with a trainer if you haven’t been taught yet would be a great investment.

Lift heavy weights.

I'm 50, 5'5 and 130lbs. I've been running 3-5 miles, 4x a week for 10 months and I probably lost 2lbs. Regardless, I need to add strength training.

Generally I eat eggs, lean protein, lots of fruits & veggies. My weakness are coffee creamer, peanut M&Ms in the office kitchen and I dislike drinking water.

Yesterday's breakfast: 1 egg, 1/2 sweet potato with 1 Tbsp peanut butter, a large coffee with 1 Tbsp sugar & milk

Lunch: baked salmon belly, 1 cup steamed zucchini, 1 cup cherry tomatoes, green tea, a couple handfuls of peanut m&m

Dinner: 1 egg, 1/2 zucchini baked with egg/bread crumbs, 1 glass of red wine

How do I effectively gain more muscle through strength training? Should I get a personal trainer or join a fitness group at the gym? Between work and kids, I only have 2 evenings a week for the gym.