What would you do differently?

[dj181]

innumerable things... #1 by far would be not training so hard though.

pussy

[haider]

I was quite delerious when i posted the reply i just deleted. WTF 

[cephissus]

pussy

need i remind you what board you are on, sir

[dj181]

need i remind you what board you are on, sir

yep, you're right

sorry bout that my brother in iron

[P.I.P]

I would have incorporated the Adonis Principals earlier.

haha... I've only really been going at it for like eight years but I agree.  I use to try and eat plain chicken breast and brown rice. 

[oldtimer1]

I have been training for around 40 years.

1. I would have spent zero money on supplements. Back in the day weight gain supplements were insane in the amount of saturated fats. I used them for many years. I just wonder how much damage I did to my heart arteries. 

2. I would have still trained with low sets influenced by Mentzer/Jones during my 20's. During my 30's, 40's and 50's I wish I could have increased the sets and used lighter weights training for more muscular endurance type training.

3. I wish I wasn't so concerned about being big. Being a perma bulker makes you look great in a tee shirt but smooth when you take that shirt off. So I if I had to do it again I wouldn't panic when I lost weight on the scale.

4. I realize now in my 50's that being ripped and lean always looks better than big and soft.

5. Training to failure was always the goal every set. It's shear madness. It will lead to burn out and far to many days not training. Lets use one exercise as an example. I would always use one or two work sets back in the day. So it was a brutal one set to exhaustion or two.  Now I'm experimenting with 4 to even 5 sets. So 4 sets are not to failure. The 5th set might be.

[bass generator]

I saved up and bought a bench and some weights when I was 14 and all I did was sets of 10 reps on the bench and did an hour after school and an hour before bed for a year and a half, I never made it past 80lbs bench press and never gained an ounce, this presisted for a year and a half.

To start over I would do 5x5 on squats, deads, bench, overhead press and rows twice a week and eat plenty of good food and added weigt to the bar whenever possible. Would have been a far more productive start

[kevcat]

Im only in my 20s but been training 11 years without any breaks, and i have several aches on my shoulder, knee, and lower back that i constantly need to work round. I would definetly not be training for low rep sets every single session if i could change anything. Gained alot of strength but also not really worth it when you live most days with these injuries