Posted: 8/7/2025 11:27:38 AM EDT
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Almost all my life dating back to wrestling as a kid all my training was strength focused. Using power lifting type programming focused on getting strong without putting on large amounts of mass. This year at 51 years old I decided to change to a little higher rep sets and saw immediate muscle gains. Now I fully believe the foundation I built through power lifting philosophies along with just shocking my body by doing something significantly different is a large part of it obviously higher reps are better for hypertrophy. Current photo from this week… 
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Originally Posted By JoeDevola: I'm assuming you decreased the weight to be able to do more reps? What rep range, before, and now? Yea substantial difference in weights as well as a lot more isolation assistance work. Previously I was only doing squats, deadlifts, bench press, over head barbell press, dips, and very little assistance. Most of my working sets were 5 reps, but also lots of heavy triples, doubles, and singles. Now I do 8-10 reps on compounds and 20 reps on isolations with a lot more isolation assistance work. I do curls, triceps work, leg extensions, hamstring curls, etc that I never did before. Also a lot of light weight delt work. I’ll keep doing this a while and most likely transition back to power lifting type routines over the winter. |
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Looks like it's working for you. I'm trying to go from lifting heavy to more reps and cardio, but I'll be damned if I can stick with it. I go a week or so and then I'm right back to lifting heavy. I'm 53 (5'10, 190) and don't need to be putting on more mass, but I swear it's an addiction... |
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Originally Posted By OLO2: Looks like it's working for you. I'm trying to go from lifting heavy to more reps and cardio, but I'll be damned if I can stick with it. I go a week or so and then I'm right back to lifting heavy. I'm 53 (5'10, 190) and don't need to be putting on more mass, but I swear it's an addiction... The hardest part for me was learning to go slow with low weight and go to true failure. Teaching myself to go slow on the way down through the full range of motion was the hardest part. |
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Originally Posted By lefty-weaver-g19: The hardest part for me was learning to go slow with low weight and go to true failure. Teaching myself to go slow on the way down through the full range of motion was the hardest part. That's the key right there...it can be difficult (and downright scary) to judge true failure at 90-99% 1RM. |
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One of the best decisions I ever made was ditching powerlifting and chasing longevity and aesthetics. I can still do the big four, squat, bench-press, deadlift and overhead press. But if I do its in a 8-12 rep range. Shorter rest periods. Etc. For isolations I do 12-20 rep range typically. Feels fucking good to get a massive pump. It also feels good to be middle aged and to look better then most 'young' males these days. And even if you're not training for strength. You're still stronger then like 99% of males out there who don't train. |
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Originally Posted By ICEAGE: One of the best decisions I ever made was ditching powerlifting and chasing longevity and aesthetics. I can still do the big four, squat, bench-press, deadlift and overhead press. But if I do its in a 8-12 rep range. Shorter rest periods. Etc. For isolations I do 12-20 rep range typically. Feels fucking good to get a massive pump. It also feels good to be middle aged and to look better then most 'young' males these days. And even if you're not training for strength. You're still stronger then like 99% of males out there who don't train. Last week i pyramided up to a heavy single in each of the big 3. I was down a little bit on my max lifts but not by much. I plan to run starting strength again and bulk a bit over the winter then switch back to more of a body building routine. |