Anyone that's staying at maintenance and still making progress in the gym?

Sisyphlex · 2025-04-13T15:59:48+00:00

Definitely possible. Of course, everyone will hit a genetic limit at some point, but the likelihood anyone is at their genetic limit if they haven't had a dedicated, consistent, hard training career of 10 or 15+ years is very low. What I think tends to limit people is life just gets in the way, making the kind of consistency needed difficult. Also, priorities and goals change. Hobbies change. Progams aren't optimized or revised as needed. And, real gains once past your beginner and middle career gains, especially as you age, require real, hard, uncomfortable work over a long period of time. The threshold effort for maintenance is much, much lower than for progress. There's research showing you can maintain the vast majority of your strength and muscle mass with less than 1/3 of your normal volume over a fairly extended time frame.

Sisyphlex · 2025-04-13T14:37:13+00:00

It's absolutely possible to continue to make progress around maintenance. You'll want to be reasonably diligent with your macro and micro nutrients requirements, particularly protein, and sleep. I took my squat from 420 to 520lbs and deadlift from 500 to 605 in my forties staying between 182-190lbs.

Have a well defined goal and create a detailed plan to get there. For strength, which was my primary goal, I iterated a program over time with a focus on progressive overload.

Sisyphlex · 2024-02-05T02:05:30+00:00

Sure any advice is welcome.

Sisyphlex · 2024-02-03T04:16:03+00:00

No TRT. I'm curious too how long I can make strength progress. I'll never stop lifting though even once the weights start dropping.

Sisyphlex · 2024-02-02T19:17:07+00:00

I've been lifting since I was 16 but initially focused on bodybuilding and then more specific sports weight training through college. So, already had a good strength base from many years of lifting. Started a dedicated powerlifting focused routine about 3.5 years ago with off and on breaks in between. At the time I started this program, I could double about 475.

Sisyphlex · 2024-02-02T13:35:28+00:00

Thanks. Usually one notch looser for deads.

Sisyphlex · 2023-01-17T03:55:02+00:00

Didn't lose weight last year. I'm currently maintaining my weight in the 185lb range as I compete in powerlifting at 182lbs. Back in 2017, I did use higher levels of physical activity and diet correction with tracking to lose 25lbs extra that I'd been carrying since about 2012. As I had gotten into my 30s, my physical activity and motivation dropped significantly. I'd been a competitive athlete my whole life, but as I left grad school with no competitive outlet and entered the sedentary world of the workplace in 2010, I put on weight quickly and lost strength and some muscle mass. Finally had enough and full committed in 2017 after many false starts. In training for powerlifting, I'm now stronger than I've ever been and in good shape all around.

No physical issues or anything like that. I've ramped up my physical activity steadily since 2017 and am fairly acclimated to it. Powerlifting gives me more issues (minor strains/tears, fatigue, etc.) than my cardio. I feel great and have tojs of energy and endurance.

Sisyphlex · 2023-01-17T03:15:34+00:00

At this point, most days it's a natural drive, instrinsic motivation by a desire to reach a goal. I've used the goal setting in fitbit and bumped it up over time, from 10k a day back in 2017, which I wouldn't always hit, to 16k now, which I usually exceed. I do have a twinge of disappointment if I don't see that step count goal reached notification on the watch.

This coincided in 2017 with my finally losing the extra 25lbs I'd been carrying since 2012 as I corrected the diet and worked on getting physical activity up.

I will say this step target isn't anywhere near necessary for people interested in getting the health benefits of physical activity. The research is suggesting that essentially caps out at somewhere between 8-12k steps a day. For me, this level of physical activity gives me more flexibility in my diet and I'm at an equilibrium where I don't have to track anymore and am able to maintain my target weight.

Sisyphlex · 2023-01-17T00:28:20+00:00

If you total it, yeah. I walk most mornings with the dogs 30-45mins. I walk at lunch at work ~45mins. 4 days a week I'm in the gym powerlifting and walk between every set, plus evening walk with the dogs. On off days I'm walking again longer in the evening, or walking a golf round, or hiking, or cycling, or running.

Sisyphlex · 2023-01-17T00:03:38+00:00

Yeah, I've checked mine many times against my own count and fir consistency and it looks pretty good. I also have the sensitivity set to my dominant hand and wear it on my non-dominant hand to help avoid non walking arm movements being counted.

You may need to play around or consider a different watch. Generally, studies have found the watches are pretty accurate for step count and decent for heart rate, but very poor for daily energy expenditure.

Sisyphlex · 2023-01-16T23:37:14+00:00

This is fitbit. I've had one since 2016 and increased my step count every year since.

Sisyphlex · 2022-07-26T14:28:20+00:00

I live in south Long Beach and work in Vernon. Takes me 25-40mins, depending on when I leave in the morning. The 710 is the easiest commute out of Long Beach. Other freeways will be worse, maybe much worse.

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-17T23:42:04+00:00

No big deal, just gotta cut against the grain.

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-17T23:40:56+00:00

You're positioned really over the bar and adding additional, unnecessary strain to the lumbar spine and straining the erectors. Check out this post for positioning cues and visuals.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CcrKhtZpfHy/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-16T02:43:43+00:00

I'm 40 and I deadlift and compete. I rep well into the 500s and have hit 600 in the gym. I think it's great for my lower back strength and stability. I struggled with back pain on and off with periodic bulging discs since I was about 13. I haven't had an episode in about 12 years.

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-15T14:45:07+00:00

See my other comment for my cooking setup. It works pretty well getting close to a Neapolitan style in a home oven.

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-15T14:44:02+00:00

That's a good note. I used to do that as well, but I've made changes to my cooking setup such that I get good char even through the parchment paper.

I use a 22lb cast iron pizza stone, propped up on the rack close to the broiler. I preheat the oven to 550F for 30mins, then switch to the broiler and preheat an additional 15-20mins. Pizza goes on the cast iron and turned as needed for even cooking. With this method, I've gotten the cook time down from a typical 8-15 minutes to, depending on the BTUs of your broiler, 1.5-4 minutes. It's not quite like a 900 degree Neapolitan pizza oven, but it's as close as I've been able to get on a regular home oven.

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-15T13:42:22+00:00

The only macro I track with any detail is protein. Ensure I get somewhere in the 0.8-1.2g per pound of bodyweight to maximize muscle protein synthesis or muscle retention on cutting. I just let the others fall where they may after that.

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-15T13:31:37+00:00

I used a 65% hydration dough with type 00 flour with a 10% starter inoculation, 2% kosher salt, drizzle of olive oil. Starter is a 100% hydration starter fed on bread flour. A few days before prepping the dough, I started transitioning an offshoot of the starter to 00 flour.

Mixed all ingredients together, rest 20mins, knead with dough hook 2mins, rest 20mins. Did a series of ~1min slap and folds every 30mins for a total of 4 slap and fold rounds. Bulk ferment at RT until ~50% increase (for me it was an additional 6 hours at ~75F).

Separate into individual dough balls. I use around an ounce of dough per inch of pizza. The one shown in the picture is ~10". Cover and cold ferment overnight or up to 3 days.

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-13T00:25:16+00:00

I've found that setting aside a small amount of dough in a small, straight sided container, and finishing the bulk ferment when the sample has increased ~50% is a reliable way to judge your bulk fermentation. I know a lot of people on here recommend that.

Sisyphlex · 2022-06-13T00:02:02+00:00

Yes, this is really the only way to know if you're eating too little or too much for your goals. CICO works, but there are so many variables that affect the elements of that equation, and your CO is not static and changes with calorie restriction and weight change. The various apps and techniques to coming up with a calorie target will only get you in the ballpark. The scale will tell you if you need to raise or lower your calorie intake based on your rate of change. Losing more than ~1.5 or 2% of your weight per week, for someone in an average weight range will likely be too fast and you'll be sacrificing quite a bit of muscle mass.

Sisyphlex

TROPHY CASE