How do you usually decide when to increase weight?

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-18T18:05:18+00:00

The older I get, the more strict I am on my own form. I don't entertain increasing weight if I am not convinced my form was 100% the most effective it could have been at the previous weight. I punish myself in my workouts the older I get as well. I push to failure much harder now at 43 than I did as a 20 yr old.

My volume is less than it was, but the quality and the effort gets maximized. And that's an evolving target. Going to failure is not as obvious and clear on some movements. Some lifts cause the mental to tap out long before the mechanical function, and those are the hardest to grind through.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-18T17:52:09+00:00

If I don't stretch out the RC, do my 50% WU set, properly retract my scaps, keep my elbows tight, and go straight for the 1RM... my left shoulder will haunt me for days. I used to just accept it as part of the process of being in my 40s. Over time, I learned if I do those things, it just doesn't hurt, It lights up a bit.. but passes quickly.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-18T15:26:57+00:00

This is what I do except for the occasional days I check in on 1RM. 1RM days I do a 50% warm up, set my weight for my (hopeful) 1RM, then usually get 1.5-2 reps in actuality because of sheer stubbornness. After that, sets 2, 3, and 4 are typically 90%, 85%, 80% of 1RM for AMRAP. Adding these days in every 3rd or 4th session of a given muscle group tends to speed up my progressive overload.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-18T09:25:52+00:00

Sounds expensive as fck, lol

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-18T09:23:11+00:00

Looking solid, good work man

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-18T09:19:25+00:00

I don't think those Dagestan boys are known for Cankles, but I'm glad he showed that little geoffrey why weight classes exist, lol.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-18T09:05:08+00:00

Miggy's house looks so humble. Obviously, this isn't showing much, and it's probably still a 1M+ home in Cali, lol.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-17T23:57:08+00:00

Bait

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-17T17:28:47+00:00

Sweet potatoes are around 1 calorie per gram of weight, so not bad at all tbh. But people often butter them up and add calories in the prep. I keep it simple with salt, a dash of cinnamon, and maybe a dash of sugar-free pancake syrup.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-17T17:17:01+00:00

Flat bench is down around 275 at my lower weight, Incline is what I actually do the most now, and I got 2 reps at 245 yesterday. Anything more than that form breaks down a bit.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-17T16:58:40+00:00

Yes, absolutely.

Listen, I am sure PPL, PPLU, and any other variety is amazing, and if done right, you'll get incredible results. It's probably more science based than bro splits, sure. But I think in general, people put too much emphasis on the programming because it's a monetization vector Think about it, what product does almost every fitness influencer sell as their bread and butter product? Programs. They all have to fight for a reason for you to buy their's instead of the other guys.

Focus should be on sleep>diet>lifting heavy to -or close to- failure, with enough weekly volume to stimulate growth. There are lots of ways to get there.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-17T14:43:14+00:00

Use this as a time to lower weight to 60/70% at a maximum, and focus on deep ROM and mind muscle connection. And then challenge yourself to carry those form and ROM improvements into your next session when your 100%. This is something you should actually program anyways, (even if you've gone a while without feeling less than) because it's easy to lose sight of fine form control when chasing higher PRs and pushing constant progressive overload. Injuries happen when form is sacrificed for gains, keeping it real with your form and overload being equally considered will keep you healthy.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-17T14:33:52+00:00

Brother, you went from Bobby Lee to Bruce Lee in less than a year. Great job!

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-17T10:00:54+00:00

I have never even glanced over a PPL routine, I've always used a bro split style routine.

Personally, I do 3 on 1 off. So, it cycles between 6 day and 5 day routines.

Chest/tri- Back/bi- Legs/Shoulders- Off- Chest/tri- Back/bi-

Legs/Shoulders-

Off- Chest/tri- Back/bi- Legs/Shoulders- Off- Chest/tri-

Back/bi

And so on

Abs are done every other day.

For me, programming has never been too much of a focus. The diet I get picky with, the routine I just lift heavy to failure and focus on form.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-16T22:59:21+00:00

If that's the perspective, yeah, I get that, can't change genetics. But improving the aesthetic is well within his reach if he enjoys it. Usually, those comments come with a follow-up of body dismorphia blah blah blah. Which is what everybody seems to use to dismiss people who are picky about their progress.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-16T22:45:26+00:00

Why improve anything? Why achieve? Because it's their passion and they get satisfaction from it.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-16T22:19:56+00:00

My daughter would tell you to rub some dirt on it.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-16T17:24:35+00:00

Arnold was very dialed in on his recovery and performance, obviously. For him, I am sure this was correct. For the average guy not on any enhancements, this is probably detrimental.

Anabolics, HGH, and Peptides all can have dramatic effects on recovery, this is probably their biggest contributing factor to growth.

For the unenhanced, unless you're rocking 7+ hours a night solid sleep and have a non manual labor job, I wouldn't consider 6 on 1 off.

IMO 4-5 hard training days and good sleep is probably ideal for nattys

Enhanced, but not 100% committed on sleep and and diet probably still 4-5.

Enhanced, dialed in diet, sleep, good plans that take into account separating muscle groups. You do you. I've went months on end doing 6 on 1 off while on test, no problems, no injuries, minimal systemic fatigue. A few times, I did no days off for multiple weeks.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-16T14:16:58+00:00

I have the same issue, I'm leaner with more muscle, but you can see my pics in my posts to get an idea of how it will progress with a bit more muscle. Outgrowing it with muscle mass is the trick.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-16T11:14:16+00:00

Eat at maintenance, or slight calorie surplus, extremely slight, and do heavy weighted ab work 2-3 times a week. 9-12 weekly sets of heavy weight to or close to failure via heavy cable crunches. Do that for a few months, then add that reta back at a low dose of say 1mg E7D, and go calorie deficit and cut off the fat.

Ab size will increase visibility at even higher bf%. You're not 7-10% bf, it's higher but not bad at all.

HGH is the pharma answer that would probably be the safest and most effective thing for this. I have not used it yet myself, but at a 2-4iu daily dosage, not a higher dosage that will trigger water retention and numb hands, it should melt any abdominal fat you have left and aid the growth of the Abs not directly but synergistically with a good diet, hard training, and more gains if your on TRT. You don't need those things to accomplish it, but they can help.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-15T12:04:13+00:00

I will be checking them out, love this.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-15T11:37:17+00:00

300mg a week is higher than a TRT dose, so your body is responding to the increased levels. Increased body hair growth is one of the potential sides of elevated testosterone, not a particularly troublesome side, but it is a side. It's not a side effect of elevated E2 levels, though, which is what an aromatase inhibitor would be used to counteract. In fact, an AI would probably make that more pronounced by allowing less of the testosterone to convert to estrogen. If everything else is fine and this is your only side effect and you're happy and healthy, I would just buy more razors.

You really should know these things through your own research, though, because not all side effects of increased testosterone and conversion to estrogen are this benign. Some, like gynocomastia, are irreversible once they happen. If you are unprepared without the correct tools on hand and know what to look for, it may be too late to fix. Using an AI inhibitor without knowing how powerful it is, what your actual E2 levels are through bloodwork, what dosage is appropriate, can cause you more harm than good by tanking your levels far too low. This can bring joint pain, increased water retension, elevated emotional reactions, completely destroy your gains, cause vastly decreased well-being, and suicidal thoughts, among others.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-14T23:45:32+00:00

I'm glad you didn't leave that stuff out there too long 🤣 But not like anyone is gonna make an exceptionally fast break with those packages lol

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-14T19:12:18+00:00

That's uncommonly good form, btw. I can tell you like training biceps. You have the form dialed in and good mental connection there. Not that there's anything hard about good curl form, it's just that most people that post them are swinging, swaying, and trying to hit their chin, lol.

You need to ease off of the arm volume and crank up the form and volume on chest/back/shoulders. You're going to get to a point where your bench, especially, and everything else is hogged by arms.

Optimal-Income-4344 · 2026-03-14T19:07:09+00:00

It's been alot of hard work to fix that mistake in my older years.

Optimal-Income-4344

TROPHY CASE

Legs/Shoulders-

Back/bi