I’m already starting to notice serious differences between myself and my peers who don’t train — and I’m only 30.
I find it impressive as HELL when I see a guy who’s 50, 60 plus and in phenomenal shape.
Any secrets y’all can share? 
@bkb333 be very proud as you are doing something most people want to do but fail as they have other habits. If you keep in good shape as the decades roll along there will be a even bigger difference. I just turned 64 and am constantly told I look in my 40’s. I just turned 64 on April 1.
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Hell yeah brother, you’re the man!
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Its all about our habits and consistency!
Best advice I ever got was to train for a competition you’re entering in 10 years’ time. Keeps you from making short term decisions that might harm your long term aims (especially around injuries!) and reminds you that it’s consistency which counts most.
And also reminds you to find a level of sacrifice and effort that you can sustain indefinitely. In my case, that means allowing myself a fair degree of rope around nutrition. I can live with drinking and eating cheat meals only two days a week indefinitely - I couldn’t live with a massively strict diet for longer than a few weeks at a time.
So find a balance you can live with and make sure you find a training plan you actually enjoy. Not sure that’s a secret, but that’s my approach.
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Make your training as consistent as brushing your teeth. Try doing it as often for awhile and judge the results.
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This is so good!
That’s how it’s been for me from 20-30…but sure it’ll get harder as I age
Learn to balance everything and you’ll do well.
For me at 57, and after years of lifting, I realize for me to stay healthy I need to focus on volume and form to keep from getting injured. I no longer worry about numbers, or anything like that. I also find that a full body workout does a great job of keeping me in shape. My workouts keep my heart rate up for a steady 60 minutes. I don’t hang out at the gym all day. And I always have a rest day or 2 between workouts to allow for recovery.
When it comes to weight training focus on “stimulation not annihilation”.
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Couldn’t agree more with this. About 5 years ago I started finding that chasing PRs started to lead to injury on almost every cycle. So I swallowed my pride and changed to more of a maintenance plan. Luckily, that has really paid dividends in avoiding injury. Like the previous poster said, I tend to run a lot of circuits and keep the heart rate up. I’m only 42 so I guess I’m ahead of my time. 
I like this feeling (seems good for CV health) but a lot of the “muscle” advice is to rest longer between sets (2-3 mins). How long do you rest?
Depends on the set. For example, I do a complex of lifts that begin with seated lateral raises, then moves to dumbbell curls, followed by incline dumbbell presses, followed by dumbbell shrugs, followed by tricep extensions…all with no rest between the whole thing.
On things like pull downs, I start light and move pretty much non stop thru the stack without stopping. I may end up doing over 100 reps this way of progressive weight. On bench press, my only rest to to add more weight.
These are just examples, of course but they are working for me.
I will also add that I am on 200 mg test/week and 3 iu of GH daily.
Not sure if I should start a new thread but… are there any MUST do exercises that you HAVE to do every week to keep yourself out of pain?
I’m actually a dentist… not even 35 yet but I noticed a huge change after I crossed that “3” “0” line. Started having neck pain, upper back pain, lower back pain, and shoulder pain if I don’t stretch and make it to the gym at least once per week.
Last year work was so busy that I just didn’t work out at all for a couple of months straight. Started having neck pain and I couldn’t lean my head back and I would get periodic numbness in my left thumb every 30-40 minutes…
Nowadays I periodically go to physical therapy and work out at least once a week. I use to browse around here a lot more back in my younger days when I was doing more heavy lifting but my focus right now has completely shifted to body maintenance.
Sorry got side tracked but yeah any tips from you guys about MUST DO EXERCISES that if you don’t do you end up in some sort of brokeness or pain…?
For example, one thing I recently discovered were external rotation exercises with bands and dumbells. For the longest time I kept getting this dull burning sensation on the side of my delts. All the cable rowing and face pulls weren’t really helping at all. But then once I added in the lying dumbell external rotations, it just went POOF and disappeared.
Sort of looking for tips like that. Please and thank you!
It comes down to what works for you. Full body routines, regular low impact movement. Working around injuries, addressing areas of concern, etc.
Depends on one’s circumstances.
Reading your post, the lack of consistence for those few months straight may well have contributed to the issues?
Simply make it part of your routine, program it early in the day if you can before kids/work/life gets in the way…! Could be a 2-3 lift session a week, other days some conditioning, walks, weighted vest walks.
If you’re prone to twinging/injuring certain muscles during a core lift, then avoid those and find a machine that can work that muscle group instead.
fwiw I tend to Hex DL now and rarely DL with the straight bar (at 43).
I actually don’t lift heavy anymore and have moved most exercises towards the higher end of rep ranges.
Increasing frequency definitely would help… but just wanted to see if there were any exemplary exercises that I may have been missing.
I’ve experimented quite a bit over the years. I’ve completely eliminated benching and maybe only sporadically DL. Olympic style squatting is the only thing I’ve kept. The squats I try to do every week without fail because for some reason which I think is due to the glutes… seems to ward off lower back pain like a charm.
If I skip squatting, I will start feeling lower back pain. That connection I’m positive of.
In lieu of DL, I do a lot of low cable rowing, mid row machine and face pulls.
But dang… that was like a wake up call for me. Left thumb numbness every 30-45 minutes… was the most bizarre thing in the world. As you get older, your body seems to require more and more maintenance like an old car…
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Not workout related but you should consider finding a good acupuncturist. I get acupuncture twice a month and it does WONDERS for pain and stiffness of muscles.
BlockquoteNot workout related but you should consider finding a good acupuncturist. I get acupuncture twice a month and it does WONDERS for pain and stiffness of muscles.
I actually got that resolved from physical therapy. Basic rowing exercises and also thoracic rotation exercises seemed to have did the trick.
I kind of like it when they dig their elbows in between my shoulder blades lol… Hurts like hell though.
First time posting here. Don’t get bogged down trying to keep up with the latest lifts and exercises. I see new lifts on here all the time. If they fit in with your goals, fine, if not, move on. Most are just versions of the old ones. Stick with your lifts at least long enough to see if they’re working for you. Mix lifting with aerobic. Never stop moving or skipping workouts. Once you start stopping it gets real easy. I’ve always lifted fairly heavy but different strokes for different folks. Been moving towards high reps lately myself. Good luck.
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I just joined forum. I am 64 to and train 7 days a week. I have had a multitude of setbacks starting at 50. Hip and femur replacement, back and neck fusions, 3 shoulder surgery’s one being total reconstruct , close to death with double pneumonia, and a stroke. I still train as hard as I did when I was in my 20s. Lots of things I wished I did different when I was younger. That being said . I have conceded to the lift heavy notion and focus on eccentric training combined with moderate tempo.
I super set and tri set almost all body parts for 2 sets per exercise. Upper body one day legs the next. I do stair climber, abs, chin-ups, dips, and push-ups and facepulls everyday. This usually is my warm up of 30 minutes. Stairclimber is no hands on the toes with dumbbells for shrugs for 7 min. I am zoned in on training and reasonable diet not depriving myself of a piece of cake but being mentally aware of what I eat. If I have a burger with a bun I do not slam the fries too. I diet in moderation and total engagement in my time at gym. I am currently 190 around 8-10% bodyfat. Just starting a cut to try to get to 5% by my 65 Th birthday. We will see how it goes but live seeing the 8 pack. Advise be smart and research what exercises will keep your shoulders in good health. Mine wore out from being stupid over the years .
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