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Originally Posted by burnin_vernon
How many here are 40 and over and lifting weights? I'm on the wrong side of 30 and after the single best year of my lifting that saw me beat all my PRs in everything, I'm starting to feel tendinitis in my left arm, sharp elbow pain on the right, and overall weakness in almost every exercise except deadlifts.
Granted this all started in the last month, when I began cutting calories and focusing on cardio more, but today, my squat was 25 lbs less than it was a month ago! Does cutting effect strength that much?
I am beginning to rethink weightlifting. I've never had the goal of being musclebound or anything but what keeps me motivated is besting the previous week's lifts. I've gotten noticeably more muscular in the last year but I think this is it for me. I don't believe I will hit anymore PRs, and that's okay, but I do have a need to constantly improve my fitness going forward to motivate me.
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I'm 37 and recently went through something very similar. I've always been in pretty good shape, but never completely looked it. I decided that I finally wanted to have a six-pack, so did a cutting diet and switch my workout routine from Crossfit (with an emphasis on strength training) to the Insanity:Asylum program.
Between the high intensity cardio and a strict caloric deficit diet I managed to lose 20 lbs over the course of two months. When I switched back to Crossfit I took a week to reacquaint myself with the barbell then tried a 1RM test on squat, deadlift, and bench press. Turns out I lost 30 lbs on squat, 50 lbs on deadlift and 25 lbs on bench press.
The good news is I got the six pack, and now with a stricter diet with a slight caloric excess it only took me a few months to get the strength back, and I've managed to hang onto the six pack as well. I think part of it was lack of energy from the lower calorie diet, and part was just not having the same muscle coordination after spending that much time away from the bar.
I know this is all anecdotal, but I hope it helps