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Get Fit, Stay Fit, Feel Good - 2026

I suspect that no one or very few people actually need to cause soreness to make noticeable gains. Perhaps every person has their certain amount of workout that will cause gains with zero soreness. Maybe for a hypothetical person, they get 80% of their max gains for the day with zero soreness. Double the work gets them to 90% gains and some soreness. And triple the work gets them 95% gains with tons of soreness. (Fitness & gains tends to be exponential so this might make sense) Who knows what the ideal work is for that person, maybe it's somewhere between zero and some soreness. It probably highly depends on how often they want to workout.
 
I wonder could level of soreness be related to your fitness goal? For people who are looking for muscle hypertrophy soreness could be an inidicator that they are on the way to their goal as hypertrophy requires building moer muscle which from what I understand requires tears to develop in the muscles which are then repaired with bigger better muscle fibers. Whereas strength may not requier the same amount of tearing so soreness is less. But I could be full of shit and it wouldn't explain why I feel a ton of soreness after working out hard but yet it takes forevea for me to get muscle mass. been years and I am not even close to the mass I want and it doesn't seem like I will get there at all but could be I am not working out correctly to do what I really want but I do feel stronger and can do things I couldn't do before or they are easier now that they have ever been so who knows.

One weird thing I notices is that there are some big guys in my gym but yet I can do more weight easier than they can on certain exercises and they are way bigger than I am or conversely I see some guys with skinny ass calves doing the whole stack on the stand up calf raise but yet I find I get a great workout at half the weight they push and my calves are way bigger than theirs. Although I did get my big ass calves from riding my mountain bike in tenth gear for 18 miles a day in 9th grade and they haven't ever gone back down. Although my right is swollen now from a F'd up lymphatic system in that leg from a car accident but that is another story.
 
budman said:
Really thinking to maximize it I will need to go to the gym twice on leg days. I suppose I could take the time to 2.25 hours and get both in. :dunno
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I'd say that at our age, recovery is more important than more time under load. The hardest thing in the sphere of resistance training is being strict to one's recovery. It's sooooo easy to add another day, thinking more work is better gains. That's not the truth, sad to say. Enjoy the time off as just that; time off. Your body needs the downtime, desperately...just a note before you start blowing away gains with over training (which is super easy to do). YMMV Bud.

Sharxfan said:
I wonder could level of soreness be related to your fitness goal? For people who are looking for muscle hypertrophy soreness could be an inidicator that they are on the way to their goal as hypertrophy requires building moer muscle which from what I understand requires tears to develop in the muscles which are then repaired with bigger better muscle fibers
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Soreness is a tough measure for quality of workout as many things may opaque it or exacerbate it. Certainly Deca or Test may hide one's soreness (especially Deca), but also will receptive programs with little variation.Our bodies tend to adapt pretty well to routines, making us more efficient and less effective with each (same) workout. Confusion is where I see the most beneficial after affects of a workout, but I also am not able to run the same pace / intensity with a new workout and thus, I'll burn a day learning the pace of the new workout...which seems like it sucks. I've learned to use a new workout as a burner day (1/2 rest) and not push much, but go through the motions and pace. The next time I run the program, I can get soreness/ fullness from the areas worked. "No pain / no gain" is a stupid tern when applied to the weight used, etc...I've always understood the term to define the burn. Work through the burn as best you can, etc. Post workout soreness is great, but not consistent for me...so, it's working for the burn for me.
 
I am going to run the 4 day routine I have now for a couple of more months then will probably switch to something new like a push/pull set. Time to start searching the interwebz for the next one.
 
I've been running the same PPL set for awhile to the point where I've hit efficiency norms. I switched to a 4-6 count on the concentric/ eccentric and it's helped a ton to work the shit out the muscle. I'm also holding for a 4 count at the top of the movement for the first set...Seems to work well for now and I don't have to learn a new format...
 
Holeshot said:
I've been running the same PPL set for awhile to the point where I've hit efficiency norms. I switched to a 4-6 count on the concentric/ eccentric and it's helped a ton to work the shit out the muscle. I'm also holding for a 4 count at the top of the movement for the first set...Seems to work well for now and I don't have to learn a new format...
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yup those 3 second neg sets in my routine really make me feel the burn.
 
I think microtears are correlated with hypertrophy but causation is not yet proven.

The only thing that seems consistent in research is that eccentric workouts are more likely to cause both hypertrophy and muscle damage than non-eccentric movements. Eccentric movements apparently engage fewer muscle motor units, thereby loading those more for the same weight. Some papers are saying like 1/2 the motor units, so 2x the load per unit.

And that begs the question - if eccentric loads work less of the muscle, how do they produce more hypertrophy?! I will continue to do more research.
 
Holeshot said:
I'd say that at our age, recovery is more important than more time under load. The hardest thing in the sphere of resistance training is being strict to one's recovery. It's sooooo easy to add another day, thinking more work is better gains. That's not the truth, sad to say. Enjoy the time off as just that; time off. Your body needs the downtime, desperately...just a note before you start blowing away gains with over training (which is super easy to do). YMMV Bud.
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I think the main thing is to not over due the leg and make sure recovery keeps it on task.

Adding some stretching and some core work should not over do me. I am actually going to talk with a trainer about that today.

Decided to chase some shockwave for the shoulder. I am finding the lat pulls while painful are slightly increasing the range of motion. I also believe that the additional muscle surrounding it is allowing me to actually sleep on that side a bit for the first time in a year or more.
 
stangmx13 said:
I think microtears are correlated with hypertrophy but causation is not yet proven.

The only thing that seems consistent in research is that eccentric workouts are more likely to cause both hypertrophy and muscle damage than non-eccentric movements. Eccentric movements apparently engage fewer muscle motor units, thereby loading those more for the same weight. Some papers are saying like 1/2 the motor units, so 2x the load per unit.

And that begs the question - if eccentric loads work less of the muscle, how do they produce more hypertrophy?! I will continue to do more research.
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A slow count on the eccentric (and fighting the weight on the way down) has the benefit of increasing size while concentric builds a power and strength, with quicker movement. Both Concentric and Eccentric cause hypertrophy almost equally, given a weight that can be fully utilized in the concentric movement. An eccentric movement has the advantage with a weight that's heavier than one can manage concentrically. The overloaded eccentric movement, when controlled, allows for greater weight to act on the fibers, etc. Eccentrics are more efficient, especially WRT communication (neural drive)...I suspect this has to do with the movement themselves: a concentric movement is an intentional movement from the person. An eccentric movement is unintentional resistance to gravity. As I see it in nominal terms.

As we get older, I see using more eccentric movements over concentric.
 
So tired yesterday. Half day at work then headed out with the daughter and wife unit to go do wedding stuff. Picked out grooms and groomsmen wear and also my suit color. Then went to try the food at the restaurant she wants to cater. Then on the drive home apparently a semi trailer caught fire on the east bound side of I10 so the westbound side obviously had to slow to a stop for 15 miles so they could gawk at the accident on the other side. But luckily still made it home in time to go to the gym.

It was upper day yesterday and on my way to the gym I was ready to close my eyes while driving but I managed to make it to the gym in one piece. Started hitting the wieghts and I perked up a little. Seems like Thursday is more shoulder centric so those were pretty wiped out by the end of the evening. track weight on my phone and apparently I made a misnotation between raised deadlift and military press. I had the bigger weight stack listed under military press and a low weight on deadlift. So I put the weights on started to do deadlifts and was like why is this so light and then went to military shoulder press and as soon as I got the hook rolled back on the smith machine I was like nope this is too heavy. Swapped numbers around and it got much better although I was struggling with the press but that was fine. Everything else was great and ended the night and went home. so one more gym night and then its the weekend which means doing interior trimwork on the house and if the outside is dry enough to mow the 2 foot tall weed/grass in the yard.
 
I found another way to do hamstring curls yesterday. Lay on your stomach, grip a dumbbell between your feet, and curl. I did it off the end of the couch chaise with a 20lbs weight. I’m fucking terrible at it. My hamstrings felt like cramping in a 3x10 set, especially at full contraction. I can deadlift over 200lbs - how the f is 20lbs of this so challenging. No wonder why my hamstrings cramp during races.
 
stangmx13 said:
I found another way to do hamstring curls yesterday. Lay on your stomach, grip a dumbbell between your feet, and curl. I did it off the end of the couch chaise with a 20lbs weight. I’m fucking terrible at it. My hamstrings felt like cramping in a 3x10 set, especially at full contraction. I can deadlift over 200lbs - how the f is 20lbs of this so challenging. No wonder why my hamstrings cramp during races.
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I am not totally convinced regular deadlifts hit the hamstrings like they really say they do. I actually do a modified version of deadlifts in my routine called stiff leg deadlifts and you can really feel it hit the hamstrings and glutes.

On the leg curl machine I am doing 110 lbs with 3 second negatives and I can feel it after I get off the machine. Today was lower day so it is fresh in my mind.
 
Ya my straight leg DL is definitely not as strong as regular. The hamstring stretch during that does feel nice.

The coach usually has me do single leg deadlift. It more hamstring than regular but not as much as straight leg, probably because I'm trying to not fall over lol. I think the most I've done on that is 95lbs. Last night I did 40lbs at the coach's request to lift very light.

These deadlifts seem to be missing work in the contracted state. 🤔
 
Well start of another week and one more workout in the bag. Still trying to find the best weight for some exercises but feel I am getting close to being right where I need to be. Only thing that's weird is that I am starting to sweat like a madman when I do my routine. I look around and no one else is breaking a sweat but here I am looking like Leslie Nielsen in airplane and getting a little self conscious. started to grab some towels from the front desk to sop of the sweat but damn its no bueno. Threw in some light treadmill work last night to get body used to that again as I want to burn some more calories as it doesn't seem like its really coming off at all.

Hope everyone else journey is going well haven't seen some people post for a bit and want to make sure this stays near the top of new posts. :laughing
 
@Sharxfan, keep up the work. I’m a big sweater and absolutely love it. Although my wife isn’t a fan.

I haven’t posted much since my race but am still lifting weights and riding my bike. It’s been pretty warm lately. Last week one of my rides was a quick 17 miles in about 1:15 and when I got into my truck afterwards (it was parked in the shade the whole time) the temperature was 101 degrees.

On the recommendation of a friend I picked up some new Assos bib shorts. My bum feels like it being held by angles…soooo comfy.
 
Jeebus christ they hide that price pretty well. I am not sure I could spend that much on form fitting shorts and I am sure my neighbors would agreee with me not purchasing them but I guess if that's your thing.
 
I have a physical on Thursday.

Sort of looking forward to it. Mostly because I am a solid 30 lbs lighter and more if you include the fat I replaced with muscle. A small :wtf from the blood work seems like a no biggie according to Chat whatever.

Infection or stress or inflammation has a couple WBC #'s up or down, but overall it is solid. Makes sense given the leg and the shoulder plus the workout inflammation of those arthritic pieces. We will see what the Doc says.

Leg day today. Started some fast twitch PT exercises which is my PT lady thought was a great idea. She extended me another 3 mos of therapy and is super happy with my progress and attitude. She told me having people that really apply themselves is what makes the job satisfying.

Given the avg Medicare PT is 3 months I am more than double of that and headed to a full 9 months.

More work to do. :later
 
Sharxfan said:
Jeebus christ they hide that price pretty well. I am not sure I could spend that much on form fitting shorts and I am sure my neighbors would agreee with me not purchasing them but I guess if that's your thing.
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To be fair I did highlight the most expensive pair. Quality clothing that fits, lasts and gets worn frequently is usually worth the price, I just can't swing $400 on bibs.
 
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