Need some advice about beginning chest/arm/shoulder workouts.

GearSolidMetal

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I've been going to the gym every two days for nearly a month and I've just been doing exercises for my posture, balance, and hitting the treadmill.

My body is now acclimated to the posture and balance exercises, and I can easily run for 65 minutes at 6.3 MPH at a variable incline (1-4).

So I started working my arms today, and woah... I am shocked about how weak I am.

I thought doing five sets of twenty reps of only 90 pounds on a 'horizontal bench press' and I gassed out at fifteen reps.

In my prime (Army service) I could easily do all five sets when it was set at 120 pounds. I'm a bit paranoid about getting frustrated and injured while trying to push past my limit, so I'm clueless where I should begin.

This is literally my first time I've attempted to worked out my arms/chest/shoulders in over 7 years.

Any helpful advice would be appreciated, fellow fitness Sherbros.
 
I’ve returned to lifting after about 5 year break. Although I felt strong from doing just jiu jitsu, the strength didn't translate to the weight room. It took a couple months just for my form to feel good. I didn’t really start increasing weight by anything significant for like 3-4 months. I was trying to avoid injuries as well.

I would say, nothing wrong with taking a few months to ease back into things.
 
Too much cardio not enough lifting, start with low weight or better yet body weight exercises, some pushups, pullups... To get your muscle strong and not get injured.
 
Lifting weights is a specific form of strength and will take some adjustment. I remember my first day on site when I was 16 - I thought I was strong cos I did weights, swam and played some rugby but it killed me.

20 reps is quite high - its good not to go too heavy when you are starting but that's probably too much the other way. If you really haven't done any strength work for a long time (and you have shown you are patient) then I would actually start with bodyweight exercises first for 1 or 2 months, including using a suspension trainer if they have one.

https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/9-week-progressive-bodyweight-workout

https://www.bjjee.com/articles/10-best-bodyweight-exercises-for-grapplers/

After that try a basic routine of 3/4 sets of 10 with 1 or 2 exercises per main muscle group (and don't neglect DB/KB to iron out asymmetry) either on a daily legs/push/pull or on a lower body one session/upper body 2nd session split for a couple of months. Just try and avoid the bobybuilding style routines with loads of different isolation moves and concentrate on compound lifts like squats/deadlifts/bench/militray press and if you can olympic lifts (best to pay a PT to teach proper technique).

Something like this for 1 or 2 months:
4x10
Trap bar lift
Bench press
Barbell row
3x10
DB shoulder press
DB one arm row
Face pulls (cable machine)

Then once you have some proficiency in the movements and some good base strength move onto a proper strength routine like 5x5 or 5,3,1 etc. The first link has a lot of good routines.

https://legionathletics.com/strength-training-plan/

https://stronglifts.com/5x5/#gref
 
With where you're at I suggest starting a linear barbell program. Do 5x5 with the bar. Next time throw 5lbs on each side and do 5x5. Keep at that until you can only add 5 lbs to the bar total. Keep at it until you can no longer do linear progression, then come back and ask for more specific advice.
 
Make sure your technique is sound as well. People often think they're weaker than they are simply because they move the weight inefficiently or downright incorrectly. Start with push ups maybe to build up some strength and then switch to bodyweight dips and barbell work.
 
There is no hurry. Ease into it. You're not going to go back to whatever you were in a day. It's going to take time. Give your body a chance to acclimate.

Curious....why are you working on balance, posture movements?
 
Why are you doing only chest/arm/shoulder workouts? Are you training for arm wrestling or something
 
Why are you doing only chest/arm/shoulder workouts? Are you training for arm wrestling or something

Do you even Ultra V Neck bro?

JK, unless I’m reading Gear’s post wrong, that was just his first day workout.
 
If you can only bench 90 pounds 15 times that would lead me to believe that you are probably skinny as shit and dont need to be wasting an hour running on the treadmill.
 
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