Exactly what I’m looking for! At this stage, it’s really more about staying amused than anything I think.
I will say, I’ve been wrestling with my son when I’m home (he’s about to try out for the school team, which is a huge step for him), and I’ve been pleasantly surprised I can still somewhat move!
Of course I don’t mind you asking! That’s what we do here.
As always, I guess it depends on what we mean by “respond to.” When I was trying to be more of an athlete, I did much better with a more abbreviated training style. We typically did an upper lower, and spend a lot more time on plyometrics and running stairs. That did wonders for me for speed.
I think the volume/ power building style of training for hypertrophy is just what “clicked” for me from an early age… so it’s what I’ve given the most time to really learn and make my own. Maybe I would respond to other training styles even better, but I haven’t given myself as much real-life practice with them.
For rapid gains/ growth, I actually did really well with DC training. There came a point where I just didn’t want to do that anymore - it’s super heavy, it doesn’t “travel” well, and there’s an anxiety associated with getting everything right so you can perform in the gym. If you’re not building your lifestyle appropriately around those programs, you have to be mature enough to temper your expectations/ response to the feedback you’re getting in the gym, and I didn’t want to do that.
I have also done pretty well with conjugate style training. I don’t know if the speed days actually do much for me on their own, but it’s a relatively non-stressful way to get in some weekly volume.
I do think it all “works,” depending on what fits your psyche and your goals. Like the Meadows programs aren’t a great fit when I’m also trying to do a ton of conditioning (although I try it sometimes) because my legs are always so sore and my nervous system fried. Backing off on the intensity and getting some volume in, though, always seems to work regardless of what else is going on.
Thanks man!
And thanks again! I know you know, but that stuff weighs on your mind even when you don’t think you’re thinking about it (for me anyway). Then every day I’m kind of doing the “is this getting me where I need to go” thing. Like you said, it’s just a huge burden off to know that, yep, it’s going the right direction. I’ve said before I hate thinking about my training; I just want to pick a path and execute… so it’s so much more comfortable to feel better about the path and to see which variables don’t really matter so we don’t have to worry about those.