How to start father out

[Enock]

ok finally well hopefully, I convinced my father to come to the gym with m tommorrow, hes about 56.

I told him give it only 15 minutes. A good number of his buddies from his work goto the gym. That may help him (they keep telling him he should goto the gym) but at the same time embarrass him as he starts out.

I'm not sure what I should have him do tommorrow. My idea is that I need to make the experience as easy as possible so that I'll be able to get him back the next day and eventually develop it into a habit. He is always armed w/ the usual excuses of being too tired too busy ect....

At the same time I would like him to do some work so that he gets the feeling of accomlishment that drives us back each and everyday.


Remember I'm trying to get him in and out of the gym as quickly as possible (so he can't complain about not having time for it).

I figured I just have him hit 2 muscle groups like a normal split setup but I'm not sure which to start him on, keeping in mind that while his friends won't make fun of him as he starts (they might try to egg him on a bit (hopefully that won't embarrass him so he won't come back again) or they might think that it would be counter productive I'm not too sure what they will do either way they will do nothing negative intentionally and only try to convince him to stick with it hopefully)

What exercises should I have him do? I'm not even sure where to start him on weights. He does factory work but hes certainly out of shape.

I figure no benching (at least not bar bench) as thats a huge ego lift which certainly won't help when hes starting out and no legs since there gruesome to do.

Any ideas reccomendations experiences with starting someone who says there too old too tired too busy.

 

[GRIMMER]

I agree its tough to get older people to the gym and have them enjoy it like we do. As a personal trainer i dealt with a lot of lazy, old , busy, you name it kind of people and the best thing to start out with was something easy. I would start out with a circuit routine hitting every bodypart twice all on machines that are not to complicatd or simple free weight movements. Chest ,back, legs ,shoulders ,bis, and tris maybe abs . But you want to keep it easy for the first coupole of times so it doesn't feel to acquard for him. Keep the reps around 12 or else he might get board doing 15-20. every other day three days a week. That leaves plenty of open days and he can do it all in less than a half hour. If hes enjoying himself than try to push the weights up a little.

Or you could just load it up and go at it. ( joking) Anyway keep it FUN. Good luck

 

[gymtime]

I gotta disagree with Grimmer. Two sets of seven body parts, especially for a 56-year-old man will take forever. I think it's way too much too soon.

The fact is that he's going to be embarrassed and intimidated at first, just like anyone else would be, especially with his friends there. The best you can do is minimize that as much as you can. And I think the best way to do that is to keep it as short as possible.

I'd start him out on a simple weekly split, two muscle groups per day, one large, one small. Something like one chest/tri day, one back/bi day, one shoulder/forearm, something like that. Then throw in a set or two of crunches one day per week.

Keep it real simple; curls, tri pushdowns, flies, cable row and bench. I think that despite bench an ego excercise, it's also a very basic excercise for beginners. I think db bench would be too demanding for him right now.

I wouldn't even consider the first week a real workout. I'd tell him that for now, you're just going to go through the excercises to learn correct form, to get used to the movements, and to figure out how much weight he can handle. I'd have him start doing more challenging weight (however much that is) in the second week.

 

[OMEGA]

KEEP IT VERY SIMPLE.

my FATHER is 65.

after a 5 minute warmup.....

4 exercises.

bench press.

dumbell laterals.

dumbell curls.

crunches.

4 times repeated.


GOODLUCK