What is a good age to stop going "hard" before you start doing damage to your nervous system?
41 5"10 205. Pushing to hit 600 on dead's and 500 on squats for reps. Not recovering like I used to and getting new pains. Am I doing more harm than good at this age? Not on gear either, just TRT prescribed from after a motorcycle accident.
Big numbers on those deads and squats for a natural. Amazing even. Are these deads off the floor? Are the squats fairly deep? I have to ask because the last time a guy gave me deadlift numbers I later found he was deadlifting a bar raised in a power rack. If legit you are strong as hell.
I know you don't see it now but 41 is really young. It's old for a professional athlete but young for a gym rat. Damage to the nervous system is a new one on me. You can burn out from systemic fatigue from not giving your body a break but damaging your nervous system is new to me.
I noticed joint problems when I hit around 55. Prior to that for the most part my elbows, shoulders, back, and knees were bullet proof. Sure I would injure something on occasion. An acute injury but I'm talking about chronic problems. My shoulders and one in particular is shot. My elbow gives me problem from time to time. Now shockingly my knees are giving me trouble. I have been lifting and running hard for 46 years.
Most big bench press guys (over 400lbs) that I personally know who reach their 50's can't bench anymore due to damaging their body. I think the bench press has ruined more shoulders and elbows than any lift. I was never a big bench guy. My highest lift was 300lbs at around 175lbs. Now I can't bench. Every time I tried to get back into it my shoulder eventually goes south. I still think if I'm careful I can bench again with a bar but I've been down that road too many times. Dumbbells for some reason work well.
Couple of ideas for aging and longevity in training. Cut the amount of weight you can use by using a full range of motion and a moderate rep cadence. Sure you can sit and do dumbbell presses with huge dumbbells if you do half reps. You can use much less weight if you stand and go all the way down. Always think how can I make this exercise harder and it will cut the weight. Another thing I've changed is that I do deadlifts after the back/chest routine is finished. I'm completely warmed up and pre fatigued. It limits the weight so I don't have to pile on the weight making it safer. Learned that one from reading about why Yates put his deads in last instead of first. Another aging protection method is to test your strength for a single after the exercise is over. What I mean by that is lets pick the bench. If you are doing something like 2 sets of around 6 reps to failure then the time to test your strength is after the 2 of 6. Now load up the bar for a single. You are pre fatiqued and won't be able to pile on the plates as if you did a moderate warm up sets and dove into the that one single. I've used this method for decades. Using this method if I can do a single in a dead for 350lbs I know I'm good for 405lbs fresh. I don't powerlift. This is all part of my bodybuilding fitness routine. Another point as you age. If an exercise hurts then dump it. I know it's hard after getting good results from it your whole training career but never love an exercise over your joint health.
You are obviously very strong. If you are concerned about protecting your joints there is nothing wrong with training with high sets of high reps like 12. It hurts my ego to train like that because of the light weights I'm forced to use but truth be told from a joint health prospective it might be the solution. I was having elbow pain and I read about those feeder exercises on the main board. If you are not familiar it's using 100 reps for bicep and tricep out side of normal arm training on off days. The first time I did it the pump was unreal but the next day my elbow pain was gone. I guess all the low set to failure stuff I do was aggravating it and this high rep stuff flushed the area with blood and lubrication.
Anyway that's my bro science bro. Hope something I said struck a chord. This whole thing about how to train natural as we age deserves and encyclopedia of a book for info..
