And although I have read that lifting heavy with fewer reps results in strength, for me lighter weight more reps means fewer injuries.
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For most people, this is the way to go, especially given your age (71 and still working out = mad respect). Even I am transitioning off of super heavy lifts because unless you are competing it doesn't particularly make sense.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a trainer. Take this as anecdotal evidence.
For anyone interested, I did recently start toying with daily workouts from the Quad Guy, Julian Smith. For $6 dollars a month you get 24 - 30 workouts. (
https://www.thequadguy.com/) It is his workout from the day before and a lot of them are very endurance based and include high rep (and thus naturally low weight) exercises. A former Marine RTO at my gym turned me on to them and they are a killer. I generally used to create my own workouts and still do occasionally but it helps to not have to think sometimes when doing a workout. The downside is that he uses a LOT of equipment and your gym may not have them.
My general philosophy is to split lifting into 5 to 6 days. I occasionally also get up early and use my stationary bike and go for 30 minutes at the max level (which the bike tells me equates to like 28 miles but I don't buy it). I recently got a second membership at Planet Fitness since it is so cheap and s close to my house so it is possible that the cardio routine changes and becomes more frequent as I work that into my routine
Day 1: Chest + Arms, 1 mile Run
- I alternate between 5x5 flat dumbbell/incline barbell press and 5x5 flat barbell/incline dumbbell.
- I then include some cable flys, machine flys, and/or dumbbell flys.
- For arms, I mostly focus on triceps so some rope tricep pushdown, skull crushers, behind the head triceps, etc. About 3 exercises at 3-5 sets each
- Occasionally I include dumbbell curl to overhead incline press.
- Also, I occasionally include seated chest press as a way to exhaust the muscle.
Day 2: Heavy Legs
- I do very heavy leg press (5x5 with two warmups) with shoulder wide feet placement.
- I also do heavy deadlift.
- From there, I do moderate to heavy leg extensions, moderate Ham Curl, calf raises, and then bodyweight lunges to stretch the muscle.
Day 3: Back + Arms, 1 mile Run
- I alternate a wide grip lat pulldown/close grip seated cable row with close grip lat pulldown/wide grip seated cable row.
- I do dumbbell rows on a bench to isolate the back. I also do reverse incline barbell rows on a bench to target the inner back.
- I then do a hodgepodge of other back workouts in the 3x15 range. This includes ground pulley pulls and pull-ups.
- For Arms, I focus mostly on biceps with preacher curls, incline bicep curl, standing hammer curls, etc. Again, about 3 exercises at 3-5 sets each
Day 4: Endurance Legs
- Low weight, high rep squats, single leg leg-press, bulgarian split squats, box jumps, sandbag run, etc. Typically my shortest workout day.
- Often thought of as girl workouts, abductors and adductors are very much recommended by me. In the same vein, hip thrusts are godly.
Day 5: Shoulders OR Grappling Class
- I have been dabbling in a martial arts class taught by a friend that combines BJJ, Judo, and some other martial arts. It is all very practical stuff and it is a hell of a workout. These classes are typically 2 hours on Friday nights. If I don't attend class, I do the shoulder workout below.
Day 6: Shoulders (if not done Day 5) OR general light weight high rep all body workout, Ruck (new addition as of 2019)
- I personally love smith machine shoulder press (5x5). I also do machine shoulder press and occasionally dumbbell shoulder press. Mix it up!
- Standing military press is also great here.
- Some type of should raise like a front raise, side raise, combined raise, etc.
- It doesn't take much to exhaust the shoulders, so this is also typically a short day.
- For can work in some forearm work and grip strength as well which may sound silly but will help you with other workouts as your hand and forearm won't tire out as much during other exercises.
Day 7: Rest
- Enough Said
For Days 1, 3, and 5/6, I chose two days to be heavier lifts (around a 5x5 or a 4x8 rep structure) and the third day is a more intense HIIT (something like 3x15 or 3x20 at much lighter weight).
Random notes.
- If you are unfamiliar with the workouts, you may want to start on machines to gain some strength first. When you move to dumbbells or some barbell movements, you are really going to work some stabilization muscles you never worked before and it will make you feel very sore (and also may cause you do much less weight than you did on a machine - THAT IS OKAY)
- General rule is low weight/high rep is best for most people. These are sets in the 12-20 range. These are also great for cardio and will put you in the fat burn zone if that is your goal.
- Moderate sets are like the 8-12 range.
- Heavy sets are either 6x3, 5x5, or going up in sets of 1 for a one rep max.
Again, my workout is going to vary soon as I try to shift into mostly the Julian Smith workouts, but this is my general workout structure for the past 2+ years.
And, for reference, here are some of my lifts. I don't put this down to brag because at my weight (~246) I should be doing better on most of these. I put this down so you can see the results of this particular workout model.
Deadlift - 1 x 470lbs
Squat - 5 x 315lbs (I don't go above 315 because I personally like my knees)
Bench - 1 x 315lbs
Leg Press - 5 x 1,030lbs (really only doing 70% of the weight on the sled)
Smith Shoulder Press - 5 x 200lbs
Lat Pulldown - 3 x 280lbs
Seated cable row 3 x230lbs
Box Jump - 46 inches
Once again, I am NOT a trainer. I mean I know them all at the gym and they taught me a lot of this but that doesn't make me a subject matter expert.
