Building muscle with lighter weights?

I heard being closer to 50 it is better to do lighter weights with more reps for better for recovery. What are your thoughts and will lifting this way still add muscle?

Without operationalizing the terms, it’s not possible to have an effective dialog. How are we defining “lighter weights” and “more reps” here? 400-500 reps? Probably too much. 1lb pink dumbbells? Probably too light.

Like 65-70% of 1rm with a rep range of 15-30?

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Deep Water employs 70% of a 10rm for 10x10 and is one of the most brutal programs I’ve ever run, which absolutely generated hypertrophy.

That said, 70% of 1rm for sets of 30 is VERY ambitious. This would be an 800lb squatter squatting 560lbs for 30 reps. Or, even more pedestrian, a 500lb deadlifter pulling 350 for 30 reps.

But if we take these ideas in isolation: one can definitely generate hypertrophy lifting 65-70% of their 1rm, and one can absolutely do that with reps of 15-30.

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Wow…Deep Water sounds like something I would like to try.

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We had the author of the program here on the site once

You can still get the book with the program for free if you search for it online. A bunch of folks here have run it. It’s also on amazon, to make things easier.

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Thats great. Thank you Sir

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I did Deep Water Beginner along with the diet and it broke me through a plateau I had been in. I went from 184 to 193 pretty darn shredded in just the 6 weeks or whatever it was. Some of the best gains of my life in a short period of time, but you really really work for it.

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I am going to start this program on Monday. I just wanted your opinion on this much volume for a guy in his late 40’s? I will be eating enough protein for recovery, but I guess I’m just a little nervous about the 10x10 sets.

I’ve never been in my late 40s to be able to say. I turn 40 this year. This program is incredibly intense, to be sure.

oh ok,lol Thanks !

I’m in my early (right???) 40s, but I’d say I can still handle volume or intensity or frequency, but I have to be smarter about making sure they’re in balance.

All that to say, give it a shot. The nice thing with these very high volume/ high density plans is it will necessarily reduce the absolute load on your connective tissue.

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Yup! I always feel better coming out of Deep Water than I did going in. It’s hell on my soul, but the body gets a break.

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Awesome. I will defiantly do it.

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I think this is unnecessary as we get older. I’m 45 and have actually decreased most of my reps to 5 to 8 in most exercises, including isolation exercises and feel better.

What I don’t do anymore are exercises that make me feel like crap, compress my spine too much, or feel “off” (back squats and conventional deadlifts for example).

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@brickhead. Agree.
My rules of thumb is to stick to exercises/reps/weights I can recover from in 48 hours. Any more and I degrade and reduce sessions on the upcoming days.
Anything I am crap at and feel bad doing, esp BB squats.

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