SO I’VE RESISTED POSTING MUCH ABOUT THE DETAILS OF MY OWN WORKOUTS, because I don’t think there’s anything exceptional about them beyond what you can get from Rippetoe, and there’s nothing more boring than a middle-aged man going on and on about his workouts. But people keep asking so here’s a bit of background.

I thought I was overtraining this fall — felt sluggish, tended to just run out of gas at the end on the heavy lifts, etc. — and so trimmed back to fewer exercises, jettisoning the deadlift. This turned out, after a couple of months when I finally developed noticeable symptoms, to be a sinus infection, not overtraining, so now I’m gradually returning to the full routine. But at this point my lifts (all for 3 sets of 5) are: Squats: 280lbs. Overhead Press: 140lbs. Rows, 200lbs. Bench: 160lbs. I also do shoulder lateral raises, currently with a pair of 50lb dumbbells. These are respectable, but not anything to brag about, but I’ve come up quite a bit in the year or so that I’ve been doing the Rippetoe method with serious intensity. I only recently switched from dips to bench presses (I tend to avoid those because of a rotator cuff tear many years ago, but so far so good) and the rows have just been kind of stuck. I’m in the process of switching from the rows to the power cleans. I found those intimidating at the beginning but now they seem less so.

I don’t drink a gallon of milk a day. (Sorry, Rip, I just can’t do it.) I do drink a glass of the Cruze Dairy unhomogenized pastured whole milk before a workout though. It tastes as good as ice cream, and probably has as much butterfat. . . .

Helen measured me a while back, and since starting last year I had gained 3″ around my shoulders, 4″ around my chest, 2″ around my biceps, and 1/2″ around my waist. We didn’t measure legs, but my thighs are noticeably bigger around, and my butt is both bigger and differently shaped, which is going to necessitate a new cut of jeans — the Bill’s Khakis jeans I’ve worn for years now feel kinda tight in the thighs when I cross my legs. I’ve also found that some jackets, etc., don’t fit right any more, but I can live with that. My weight is up about 15 lbs., but most of that seems to be muscle. Sorry, no Geraldo-style shirtless selfies, though.

As I mentioned earlier, my blood pressure has stayed low, my resting heart rate is 62, and at my last checkup in September, my doctor pronounced my bloodwork “terrific” and my EKG “pristine.” This despite the fact that I’m currently doing no cardio at all except, occasionally, running stairs for 90-second intervals. No guarantee that you’ll see the same results if you try the Rippetoe approach, but it’s certainly worked for me. In particular, the computer-related aches and pains in my back, neck, hips shoulders, elbows, wrists, etc. are all gone. It would be worth it just for that, given how much I’m on the computer. . . .

UPDATE: Link was bad before; fixed now. Sorry!