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I turned 40 this year and can confidently say I’m in the best shape of my life. I took a moment to reflect on some of the things that have changed/ remained the same. Be curious to hear if some of the other members have had similar observations.
Things that are DIFFERENT at 40
Things that are DIFFERENT at 40
- Less ego lifting – A greater emphasis on contracting the muscle than on moving weight. As an 18 yr old, I use to do rear laterals with 30lbs and never question why my erectors were sore the next day. Now I’m more likely to use 5lbs and feel them where I should; rear delts
- Less experimenting – I spent some time following fads (functional training, stability exercises, etc) after a certain number of years you know what works and just need to continue doing it.
- More Cardio - You learned about “heart health”. It's real.
- More Stretching – wish I had learned the value of this earlier.
- Training to failure – If I get 10 reps, it’s because I tried the 11[SUP]th[/SUP] and failed. I've always felt that anything less is going through the motions.
- Rest day after legs – If I’m back in the gym the next day after legs it must because I didn’t work them hard enough.
- Separate day for calves/abs - Always felt they deserved their own focus. Have tried tacking them on to other days, but was never able to give them the energy they deserved.
- Keeping a training journal – recording every set, rep, and weight to track progress. To this day, I still consider this the most valuable tool in my gym bag.
- Reracking weights – never have wanted to be the a-hole that expects someone else to pick up my sh*t.
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