Weight used

[mik1111]

Hey mik1111,

Would you care to elaborate a little?

Do you think one need to get to a certain strength level before he can volume train?

in principle yes. if no drugs are involved there's little use in gvt or others similar to that...
however I've witnessed cases of success with ridiculously low weight... so go figure

regarding my initial post -- if your objective is to maintain muscle imo you can take it slow... just keep enough nutrients coming and there's no way you need crazy weights and volume... just the necessary stimulus

[wes]

Yeah,I looked great at 40,now I`m just hanging in there!!   

[Donny]

35-40 are peak strength years as long as you`ve been training steadily for a long time.


After 40 or so in most people,you start to go a bit downhill and miss a few steps,but don`t ever stop training.......it`ll always be better than stopping!!

Words of Wisdom from the Wes .....NEVER stop. in a Month i am 46...do i care...NO. Always strive for perfection in your Training and Life.

[WOOO]

Words of Wisdom from the Wes .....NEVER stop. in a Month i am 46...do i care...NO. Always strive for perfection in your Training and Life.

good attitude, but it's important to be conscious of your limitations as you age

[chaos]

No limits, go big or go home!
 

[jpm101]

I can understand the "pry my gun from my cold dead hands" attitude from the long term BB'ers & lifters. Nearing 40 myself, I still share those feelings. But there will be adjustments made in life style, training and eat habits as getting older never stops.  Guessing that most older men here can't make love 5 to 6 times a day anymore , as we did in their 20's, should be the first clue that the body (and the chemical factory within) doesn't meet the same responses as it once did. So adjusting to the diminishing returns will be an important factor.

No self respecting weight lifter/BB'ers wants to be considered just another average older guy, and some are breaking their personal best after the mid 30's and up to the early 40's.  For the few lucky ones, genetics will have a strong bearing on this. Just suggesting to keep training with your original serious intent, but train smarter also. Briefer workouts and fewer per week can boost the recovery system very well. A simple adjustment, that can insure progress and perhaps avoid injury to joints, inserts and muscle. As with pure BB'ing, the skin and muscle attachments seems to always give a tell tale sing of aging, something very hard to avoid. Unless surgery being the last resort.

Working with a few men in their mid 50's to mid 60's, I have seen good strength and muscle gains. The body will get stronger and gain lean muscle mass at just about any age, it seems.  When the correct protocol is followed. None have any serious weight training background.

Lots of Pro's & Con's dept: Going to get a response from this, but using Creatine seems to indicates it's value to strength and mass when supplemented to older men's (and women's) diets. Around the world research suggested it's benefit with regards to the human brain also; memory, intelligence and performance. Creatine is a element made from natural amino acids in the body, though in minute amounts. Aging can reduce it's production, this is where supplements come in.

Athletes and weight trainee's use  Creatine stacked with a high quality whey protein. It will hold water in the muscle cells, but than again a muscle cell is 70% water.  It will encourage short burst of power and performance.  Not so much for endurance sports. Good or bad will depend on your individual response.  Good Luck.

[chaos]

I've said it before, my supplement stack is protein, creatine, gluc/chon, and a multi.
I'm getting old fast but I've always trained smart, at least I think.

[John O]

When I am in my 50s I plan to still have abs and good definition.

Very possible! But remember the older you get the harder you have to workout to stay in shape. What you did in your 30's won't cut it anymore. Thats why most give up. It's to hard to work  harder. I'll be 54 in a few months. I still compete in powerlifting. Oh and I don't have abs anymore LOL.

[wild willie]

Anyone reach the point where they truly don't care about the weight used?  It seems all through my training life if I was in a gym and not my basement I wouldn't be caught dead using a light weight. Now in my 50's I feel I don't care if someone sees me using a moderate weight. If I'm burning the muscle with a lot of sets I can't use a ton of weight compared to when I use to use a Yates type routine.  

Now I feel like I'm working the muscle and  going to the gym to do 400lbs deadlifts for reps is over for now or maybe ever. Doing sets with 225lbs to 300lbs is really burning out the legs and back. Using a moderate weight for flys really is burning and pumping the chest.  I only care now if I'm working hard.

Very good post.....I agree wholeheartedly with you! I always had my best workouts with moderate weights and feeling the muscle work versus heavier weight and not as much focus on the feeling of the movement.

[wild willie]

Truth be told.....many champs over the years have trained with moderate weights and slightly higher reps.....the magazines will convince you that you need to train heavy and with the big three......bench....squa t....and deads.....but many times the magazines put out utter rubbish. They don't really tell you that the champs train a completely different way.

Other than Levrone....Yates.....Fra ncois and Prince......many of the guys I have watched train.....used more moderate weights.


World Harris is not into ego training.....he uses rather moderate weights. But many blokes still feel like heavy weights and low reps will give them the development......not so.....imho.

[wild willie]

yeah i dont care about weight used anymore.but i had to learn the hard way.i only started using lower weights once half my bodys joints were chronicaly hurting(i actualy developped gout).
since then, the results are the same muscle-wise, and the joints are fine.

doesnt mean you have to train like a pussy, but just use enough weight to feel the muscle working and get a pump and then go home.

Agreed!!! X2

[jpm101]

Thing is is that most guy's who come on GB  can't seem to separate wanting to be a BB'er or a Pl'er. Too much attention on how much they lift , rather than how well they lift, in a workout. Have a lot of guy's who handle (not all that well) 400+ in the bench and still have under par chest, etc. And others who, maybe handle 230-250 in the bench, with outstanding chest, delt and triceps development. Not so much a matter of not carrying about the weight used, but how to get the greater benefit from the weight that is used.

As Wild Willie suggest, many, many top level BB'er (including some Pros) do handle moderate or down right light weights, going for that pump. Remember seeing a well known Pro, from the past, doing set after set of front, side and rear lateral raises with a pair of 20lb DB. Looked strange and funny at the same time, those DB's looked like toys and were almost buried in his large hands.. Told he rarely ever did anything else for the shoulders.

With pure BB'ing, there are many options offered in training styles, methods, protocols.....all aimed at working the actual muscle, rather than putting undo stress on the joint, etc.  Good Luck.

[Donny]

Thing is is that most guy's who come on GB  can't seem to separate wanting to be a BB'er or a Pl'er. Too much attention on how much they lift , rather than how well they lift, in a workout. Have a lot of guy's who handle (not all that well) 400+ in the bench and still have under par chest, etc. And others who, maybe handle 230-250 in the bench, with outstanding chest, delt and triceps development. Not so much a matter of not carrying about the weight used, but how to get the greater benefit from the weight that is used.

As Wild Willie suggest, many, many top level BB'er (including some Pros) do handle moderate or down right light weights, going for that pump. Remember seeing a well known Pro, from the past, doing set after set of front, side and rear lateral raises with a pair of 20lb DB. Looked strange and funny at the same time, those DB's looked like toys and were almost buried in his large hands.. Told he rarely ever did anything else for the shoulders.

With pure BB'ing, there are many options offered in training styles, methods, protocols.....all aimed at working the actual muscle, rather than putting undo stress on the joint, etc.  Good Luck.

Great post and straight to the point !