Less training as you age?

[Fast Twitch Fiber]

Is it better to decrease some volume and intensity as you get older? I'm on the wrong side of 30 and have just had my first lifting related surgery. I'm wondering if I should maybe not train to failure on every set? There's a powerlifter at my gym that will do something like 3 sets of an exercise, but only one of the sets is a ball buster to failure. I'm accustomed to taking all of my sets to failure or close to failure.

 

[EnderJE]

The wrong side of thirty and had a lifting related surgery? Yikes. I should watch it too because I'm also past 30.

As for your question, I guess it depends on your goals. My understanding is PL'ers do a single set to failure where your goals might be different.

As for me, I'm just getting ready for my midlife crisis.

 

[blut wump]

As you get stronger, those one- or two-rep max efforts take a lot more out of you. Certainly a lot more than a 20-rep muscle-pump set. You'll also find that the powerlifter spends a much higher percentage of his time doing the heavy compound lifts than trying to hit his biceps or lats from five different angles. The compound lifts allow one to work many more mucles in a single exercise under high load.

Age doesn't really enter into it. Most 40-50 year-olds I know reckon that they work harder now in the gym than when they were younger, just with less running around. Keep lifting and working out and, with luck, you'll never have a mid-life crisis, at least not one from slowing down and being unfit.