This is a great thread. But instead of saying “bro science” (what meatheads claim), Imma gonna just say what I believe.
There is value in holding heavy static weights. Unracking a ridiculously heavy squat bar and holding it for time. Doing the same on a Smith machine with arms extended overhead. It’s ego lifting. But it’s not just ego lifting.
Using bumper plates if not O-lifting makes Baby Jeebus cry. If deadlifting in a commercial gym, one pair is permitted.
Apart from lunges and bodyweight stuff, unilateral lifting is a waste of time unless there is an obvious imbalance.
Foam rollers are only useful if painting.
Well chosen personal music improves effort and endurance up to 10% except when maxing out. Whatever marginal music the gym plays cannot substitute.
Underrated: floor press, Gravitron, pelvic bridge, wall push-ups, jumping before heavy legwork, rope climbs, three second holds, sprints, ab wheel, creatine, GHR, volume dips and pull-ups, 6:1 principle, GVT, prowler, overhead farmers, woodchoppers, front squats, trap bars
Overrated: neck and wrist work, wrist straps, belt for submaximal lifts, long warmups, split squats, burpees, jogging, volume jumping, most stretches, enormous water bottles, gym selfies, TRX, air bikes, cookie cutter trainers, “gym boxing” and O-lifts (as practiced by marginal athletes), some curls, good mornings
Doesn’t matter if EMG shows a muscle at 50% or 80%. Just matters if you work it in the gym.
As you age, you should not change exercises or intensity or even stop lifting heavy. Change as little as possible. But don’t go above 90% as often, and if an exercise hurts your joint for over three days pick a different variation.
Don’t drink bottled water. Fill your bottle with a Rusty Nail like a real man.
(Drinking postclub at the gym is said to be popular with bros. But you probably won’t hurt yourself if you can only bench 95…)
All visible gains happen during recovery week.
It doesn’t matter as much as you think it does what plan you follow. Working hard the whole workout and consistency matter more. Unless the plan is stupid, or never changes. High volume, high speed, high weight; high variation works. Even within the same workout.
Intermittent fasting. Keto. Don’t work very well. It’s hard to lose weight dieting over a long term. It’s not worth losing muscle. Or even being focused on the number instead of fitness and comp.
You get a lot of burpees if you drink too many Rusty Nails at the gym.
A relic from my Crossfit years. The good: O-lift mechanics, TGUs, trainer had taken Poliquin’s course and understood lifting. The bad: Easy to hurt joints mixing high pressure, volume and weight. The ugly: there is probably a reason so few powerlifters move on to gymnastics.
Oh man, I have not found a leg exercise as effective as bulgarian split squats for me in terms of packing meat onto my legs and glutes. Lunges are cool, but have always felt more conducive to muscle endurance or conditioning for me since you lose time under tension if you’re alternating legs.
Seriously never thought about this but totally right. It’s during my deload week where I switch to DBs, cables, and machines that I have those holy shit moments when I wake up and look in the mirror and think “where did that come from?!”
Bulgarians work for you, have at it. Some Internet advice is worth what you paid for it. Leg extensions and presses worked better for me. For calves, jumping and (cough) tiptoe dumbbell carries (cough) worked better than machines, though I prefer to do mincing tiptoe stuff in the privacy of my home gym. Why do the best exercises look weird?
That’s around my age, with about 25 years of regular lifting. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be careful to avoid injury, and if going very heavy it takes longer to recover. But I still lift harder and heavier than 95% of people in the gym. Maybe my numbers aren’t what they were ten years ago, but they are within 85-95%; and Covid happened too. I’m not gonna hurt myself, and I’m not gonna slow down much given any choice.
These days I get good results from doing volume at 60-85%, and doing strength cycles slightly less often. Though I have avoided injury, I’ve learned to love the floor press. I don’t want a young’un who knows nothing about lifting or aging telling me old people shouldn’t lift heavy if they can handle it. Avoid any exercise that casts a shadow? No. Sorry, buddy, using all the 45s…
(One concession to age no one discusses or wants to hear: Studies suggest heavy lifting increases your odds of later getting osteoarthritis in the knees and hips (for professional powerlifters, up to six times risk). This is worth trying to prevent when younger, long before symptoms might occur. Consider anti-inflammatory foods in your smoothie and medicines like glucosamine (unexpectedly, also greatly reduced stroke in a big British study) in your forties, long before pain occurs. Don’t avoid baby aspirin or occasional NSAIDs if you have mild DOMS since you read it “affected muscle growth” in one badly done study of seven young people that means funk all. It doesn’t. Naproxen just ain’t that strong.)
I’m big into backpacking, and read a study that showed most Appalachian trail through hikers lost a huge amount of fat in the first 30 days, then fat loss and muscle loss became equivalent.
Admittedly it’s difficult to eat high protein in that situation, but maybe there is a case to cycle cardio instead of making it a mainstay.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but it’s not one of the main selling points: it gets you to good enough shape, gets blood flowing, etc.
You can progress it with inclines or even weight to keep getting a CV training effect, though.
Or progress it. In the case of the trail, they likely got more efficient at finding routes/ packing, so we’re actually regressing the muscular demand after getting fit enough to handle it whilst on low protein. Tons of variables. Still an overall interesting point.
It aids in nutrient patitioning, improves insulin sensitivity and blood sugar levels, generates restorative bloodflow and engages in mobility. This is, of course, when compared to: not walking.
I talked about similar things recently in my log. I spent a long time thinking along a sort of “muscle group twice a week”, “gotta hit X amount of sets” line. Does something magical happen or not happen if you extend that to 8 days though? Of course not. Some of my best progress has come with every other day programming.
And if on a Full Body 3x/week program where you for example rotate Bench and OHP. You can still hit adequate volume on both, it just might be over a few more days than a traditional “week”. You’ll still progress. The extra recovery in some cases may actually help you be able to hit it harder and progress faster.
not sure how old you are. But it gets a little annoying hearing supposive expert act like your eldery at 50 .