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- Dec 21, 2015
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My first post in this sub, and pretty much first real post on fitness forums in general, I lurk and read a lot but haven't really posted much.
I've been lifting for exactly ten years now, I started with P90X the first year and went through a variety of strength training protocols over time, with a ten month stint in crossfit sandwiched in between some three years ago. I went from being 200lb unfit at the outset, to 155 at my leanest at 25, to now being 215 and the strongest I've ever been at 33.
T-Nation, for better or worse, has been my Bible since 25, that place has encyclopedic variety of good content and training information and advice. They have a phenomenal crew of high caliber coaches well respected in the industry. Some of my favorites have been Christian Thibaudeau, Jim Wendler, Charles Poliquin, Alwyn Cosgrove, Chad Waterbury, Chris & Dani Shugart etc.
I've been thinking a lot lately about where I want to land with weightlifting - what's the end game. It started as means of getting lean, but then it switched to getting strong, and this is where the conundrum begins - where do you pull the brakes and start working on getting more well-rounded?
There's no error in picking strength as the primary goal - it's the hardest thing to get and the most meaningful, in my mind - but as I'm getting through my 30s, where do I start thinking about going a bit easier on my body? When do I say "this is it, this is as strong as you'll ever be, now maintain and/or work on physique" or whatever?
At 33 I got to a 435 squat, 475 deadlift and 255 bench. My sort of arbitrary goal back in the day was a 400 squat, 500 dead and 300 bench. I'm reasonably close to making this happen, so now my question is, given my age, should I push further, or hit these numbers and work on work capacity and body comp? More of a philosophical quandary than biological, perhaps.
Thoughts?
I've been lifting for exactly ten years now, I started with P90X the first year and went through a variety of strength training protocols over time, with a ten month stint in crossfit sandwiched in between some three years ago. I went from being 200lb unfit at the outset, to 155 at my leanest at 25, to now being 215 and the strongest I've ever been at 33.
T-Nation, for better or worse, has been my Bible since 25, that place has encyclopedic variety of good content and training information and advice. They have a phenomenal crew of high caliber coaches well respected in the industry. Some of my favorites have been Christian Thibaudeau, Jim Wendler, Charles Poliquin, Alwyn Cosgrove, Chad Waterbury, Chris & Dani Shugart etc.
I've been thinking a lot lately about where I want to land with weightlifting - what's the end game. It started as means of getting lean, but then it switched to getting strong, and this is where the conundrum begins - where do you pull the brakes and start working on getting more well-rounded?
There's no error in picking strength as the primary goal - it's the hardest thing to get and the most meaningful, in my mind - but as I'm getting through my 30s, where do I start thinking about going a bit easier on my body? When do I say "this is it, this is as strong as you'll ever be, now maintain and/or work on physique" or whatever?
At 33 I got to a 435 squat, 475 deadlift and 255 bench. My sort of arbitrary goal back in the day was a 400 squat, 500 dead and 300 bench. I'm reasonably close to making this happen, so now my question is, given my age, should I push further, or hit these numbers and work on work capacity and body comp? More of a philosophical quandary than biological, perhaps.
Thoughts?
