Middle Aged Muscles

Tag: Lifting

  • Changing Programs for Short Periods: Why and How

    I mentioned in a previous post that when coming back from vacation I was temporarily moving from my conjugate style of training into something completely different. This is not a permanent change and is only scheduled for 6 weeks. While it seems odd to do, I have my reasons and I’m going to walk you…

  • What do you do if something isn’t working?

    My last post revolved around a small mistake I made in my programming and what I was doing to fix it. To refresh, I did very little low bar squatting and that which I did, was almost exclusively to a box. When I went to test my low bar squat without a box it didn’t…

  • Admitting Your Mistakes: Where I was screwing up my low bar squat

    When I started this blog I promised myself I was going to write about the good and the bad. The internet is filled with people that are willing to rush and out talk about it every time they have a good day or break a PR, there are very few people who are completely transparent…

  • Picking Your Secondary Variations

    If you’re lifting for strength, your main movers are easy to identify. You’ll never find a person who has a good squat, deadlift, bench and overhead press, yet isn’t strong. While some powerlifting programs will keep you doing nothing but the comp lifts, I’ve always been an advocate of using variations within your programming. Before…

  • Time Management in the Gym

    No I didn’t stop this blog, or go on another vacation, I’ve just gotten really busy with life and work. It happens and when it does, I need to prioritize. While I’ve intended to make a blog post the past few weeks, I had to manage my time in and out of the gym, which…

  • Shoulder Issues Update

    We talked about this a while back and I’ll be honest, we’ll eventually talk about it again. For those that didn’t read my first post I have a long history of shoulder issues that predate me ever stepping foot in a gym. I’ve came a long way just to get “functional” but am now in…

  • Training Recap, 5-2-23

    Last weeked I had a pretty good week in the gym, hitting a squat variation PR on my ME day and felt altogether good during the training week. Since then, not so much… No sweat at all, training isn’t linear and I’ve wound up doing some variations I’m not really used to or have experience…

  • Conjugate, How I Westside on the East Coast: DE Upper

    I saved this one for last for one really good reason: I find DE Upper Day extraordinarily boring… Boring or not, there is still a valid reason to do a DE (Dynamic Effort) Upper day and it makes a large impact for some people, myself included. In previous posts I talked about the value of…

  • Training Recap/Progress Update

    Going back two weeks I missed two sessions due to vacation and came back somewhat rested to start a new block. The block started a week ago Saturday with ME Lower day so currently I’m on the second week of it, so no comments on some of the little tweaks I’ve made just yet. What…

  • Conjugate: How I Westside on the East Coast, DE Lower

    Starting with the same disclaimer from my previous posts in this series. I do not compete as a powerlifter, I have competed as a strongman in the past and MAY do a powerlifting competition in the future. Still, I use my version of Westside template as I enjoy it and I think it is easy…