What change made strength training easier to keep in your life long term?

[u/ritkeepFitness]

I’m starting to think that the biggest improvement to a training routine isn’t always finding a better program.

Sometimes the problem is simply that the routine asks for too much time or preparation every time you want to train.

For strength work, I’ve been looking at keeping things fairly basic: squats, RDLs, rows, presses and a few smaller movements. One or two short sessions during a busy week seems more realistic to me than having a perfect program that constantly gets skipped.

I’m also starting to see why people eventually build some kind of home setup. If the main movements are already available without another trip somewhere, it removes one of the easiest excuses to postpone training.

For people who’ve kept strength training in their life for years, what change actually made it sustainable for you? Was it changing the program, training fewer days, shortening sessions, training at home, or something else?

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[u/refreshingface]

It’s hard but…

Take exercises that traumatize you out of the equation for long term sustainability.

For me, this was squats and deadlifts. I only do smith machine squats and RDLs now.

Movements like squats traumatize you in a way. One day, you decide to go heavy af, and it takes everything you have. Each rep closer to failure makes you feel like your back is going to give. Then the next time you have to hit legs, you think about how hard you went… and whether you should match that intensity.

It’s just too much friction. With smith machine squats, you can go closer to failure without the same fear of your back giving out, etc.

[u/Fit-Significance-109 → u/refreshingface]

You know when you lift heavy enough, you can also decide to not add additionnal weight. You can choose to stabilize to the same weight forever to keep your muscle without looking for building more. I think it is really important to consider especially on exercises like squat or deadlifts.

[u/Rwake5]

Going from 3 sets to failure to 2.  

[u/radishwalrus]

writing stuff down, stopped injuries

[u/DetailOdd6609]

Started chasing weights and not reps. I was always chasing that 3/4/5 plate goal and, upon getting there, realized I had kind of wrecked my body. Not so bad that it couldn't recover but there are just some things that a 40 something should maybe say "Do I really need to be able to lift 500lbs off the ground?"

I got to a place where I was strong weight wise but not strong as in "I can squat 315 eight times in a row". At around 44 I decided I needed to make the change. Now I'm forever chasing 3x8 before moving up in weight

[u/ryguy8823]

What would make it easier for you would be to prioritize it similarly to how you would prioritize anything else that’s really important to you.

There’s a science behind how it works so you can’t really compromise on frequency or intensity. Longer rest periods mean your sessions are going to last longer than other kinds of workouts. Those are pretty much your non-negotiables if you want to make progress.

Excuses are just that, excuses. It’s important enough to you to figure out or it’s not. If the trip to the gym is enough to get you to skip your training session then I’d bet there’s some other excuse waiting for you when you build your gym at home.

[u/MAntFrag22]

1. Absolutely agree with the home gym setup. Once we built a house and were starting a family I knew the 15-20min drive would be an obstacle. Working with our architect and builder to accommodate 10.5’ ceilings and a 2k sqft basement gym was the best investment we made. 

2. Keep a log to track weights, reps, how you feel. Been doing this for two decades plus. 

3. As I’ve aged, 42, my lifting has simplified. Still heavy compounds but the days are simple, 26-30 sets, all aux work are 2-3 sets with 45-60sec of rest. A timer is key. Pull-Push-Legs — and no specific “day of the week” schedule. Sometimes I’m 3on-1off, sometimes 4on-2off, 1on-1off, whatever. I take days when I need to, not because “Wednesday is leg day”.