@lurkerhasarisen I think your doctor is wrong and you aren't near your potential yet. What jumped out at me is that you were banging out sets of 5 with 300, which is over 85% of your max. That tells me one of two things: 1) your max is more than 350, or, more likely, 2) you aren't near your potential yet. Advanced lifters typically can't do 5×5 with 85% of max. I use more like 70% of max for that, and doubles and triples at 80-85%. As you get more advanced, reps translate into a bigger jump to your max. I think you have plenty more in you.

The key is to train smart. Some doctors are overly cautious and conditioned to think strength and masculinity are bad things. I don't advise maxing out very often but instead finding a sensible routine that works for you and making conservative yet steady progress. I know docs like you describe but also know some who aren't like that. My hip surgeon told me to go as heavy as I want as long as I use good technique.

@SeasonedRP

Honestly I’m not sure that I should try. I’m in my 60s, and when I discussed my fitness program with my doctor at my last physical he was mortified. His advice was to lift lower weights for more reps. His concern is that I’m going to injure myself by pushing my limits.

He said, “It accomplishes the same thing,” which isn’t true, of course. That helps endurance and hypertrophy, but building muscle strength and muscle power comes from working near your max. If you saw my legs you wouldn’t be impressed, but if you saw what I can do with them you’d be shocked.

(I had an amusing interaction yesterday at the leg press (for reference: the empty sled weighs 118 pounds). The gym was unusually crowded, and a couple of big black dudes in their 30s were doing legs, too. The bigger one was just finishing his sets while I was waiting for a buddy to finish up with a squat rack. Since it was going to be a few minutes, I figured I’d knock out my leg presses. The guy had six plates on each side (658 pounds), and was re-racking. I asked him if he was done, and when he said he was I told him that he could leave the plates on (he had already removed two of them by then). The look on his face was priceless. I do NOT look like someone who presses 568 pounds, but I assured him that it was fine. As I was about to sit down the other guy came back over and asked if he could use it when I was done. I offered to work in, and told him that I was going up to seven plates (748). Cue another priceless look. He said he only does five plates, so he went off to do something else. (No shade: 568 pounds is nothing to be ashamed of no matter who you are.) He came back over as I was about to do my final set at 800 and we got to chatting. To use the word “incredulous” would be an understatement. I love it when I’m able to inspire people, and I expect that he’ll be exceeding my lifts in short order.)

Back to my doctor: it’s not like I ignore endurance training, though: on Thursdays I replicate my Monday routine with much lower weights and much longer sets.

I’m not getting any younger, and my fear is that if I close off the possibility of getting stronger and just focus on endurance that I’ll end up losing functionality. Granted: nobody stays at their peak forever, but I potentially have several decades in front of me (my dad is still alive), and I think it’s too soon to throw in the towel and accept an ever-decreasing level of fitness. The farther “up” I get the more cushion I have to lose before I need someone to take care of me.

I’m very conscious about doing things safely, but I suppose he has a valid concern (he is an MD and I’m not, after all). On the other hand; he’s a VA doctor dealing with busted up old military veterans rather than someone who does sports medicine with serious athletes.

I have to confess that the idea of deadlifting four plates has a nice feel to it (410 with a hex bar). Not long ago if you’d told me that I would be lifting three plates (320) to warm up for a PR attempt I would have laughed. Shoot… I remember when the idea of hitting 300 pounds was a pipe dream, and I’m repping that now.

My dad’s birthday is coming up soon, and we had a small party for him after church yesterday. We had cake, and I had leftover cake today before I went to the gym today.

It must have been magic cake, because I was CRUSHING IT today. Mondays are “heavy day” for lower body exercises, and I went up on every weight, including blasting through a new PR on the DL.

I weigh myself pretty much every day, and I clocked in at exactly 148 pounds this morning.

Deadlift (new PR of 350 - up from my previous PR of 342.5). Then I did four sets of five at 300 pounds (up from my usual 280).

Leg press. I usually do 5x5x750, but I was feeling so good I added 50 pounds to my final set. 5x800 pounds. That’s nowhere near my lifetime 1RM of 1003, but I’m content to be where I am at my age.

Squats. My usual is 5x5x225, but I tossed another 30 on for my last set: 255.

I also upped the weight on abductors, adductors, leg extensions, and leg curls.

Magic. Cake.

@Typo-MAGAshiv

Dancing used to be sexually dimorphic: the man would lead and the woman would follow. Ballroom dancing… square dancing… salsa dancing… swing dancing… all of that reinforces sex roles. Unfortunately for me; I have absolutely no rhythm, and I haven’t even attempted to dance in years. I wish I could dance, in fact, and if I were single, taking dancing lessons would rocket to the top of my list of things to do. Being a good dancer who knows how to toss a woman around the dance floor is right up there with being shredded as a form of chick-bait.

I already spend a lot of time in the Iron Temple, which is practically obligatory in manosphere praxis, and the Pareto Principle applies to pretty much everything (you get 80% of the benefit from the first 20% of effort). By that metric, my ability to make major gains in the gym are past. If I’m already at 90% of my genetic potential for strength (which I probably am), and 10% of genetic potential for dancing (and I’m being generous here), the most efficient way for me to increase my SMV would be to reduce my lifting to maintenance level (I wouldn’t want to lose ground), and spend that time in a dance studio. Not only would my SMV shoot up, but unlike being at the squat rack, dancing requires interacting with women who are there specifically to interact with men. If you approach a lot of women in the gym you get labeled as a creep, whereas if you don’t approach women at a dance you’re labeled as a creep.

Not that it matters to me since I’m married and my wife has no interest in dancing, but for a single man…