As the title suggest, its been a subject that got me putting on my thinking cap in the past year. There are 2 sides of the camp... in weight-centric groups there will be many from young to old that swears by going heavy to load up the plates. While some others will always champion lighter or speaks volume on bodyweight training.
After some reflecting- I find it boil down to identifying "WHAT I WANT" vs imagining what I will be. Adding on factors like age, present build and any lingering injuries to the bigger equation:
- An overall functional fitness package that comprises of good strength, stability, agility (which would require flexibility, sense of balance) and a decent cardio level to finish up the package.
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- Not looking into big massive build (aka bodybuilding)
- Looking for strength and strength-endurance
- All the things above to survive into old age independently without being a burden to others
Yes that sounds a lot like another new category of fitness training-- The Hybrid Athlete. However as I thought further, it's really no different to my army days... Log PT, unarmed combat, running, forced marches and so on...
In essence, yes, what I want in everything now was taken for granted when I could easily do all of them when younger.
When it comes to strength and strength endurance, its not looking to benchpress 300lbs or deadlifting 500lb day after day. Rather...
Strength functionality personally to me would be things like the ability to complete 4-5x on a monkey bar continuously without a break or doing 1 pullup going from one rung to the next on the monkey bar.
Strength-Stability: I prize the ability to get up on one leg from a full deep squat more than a barbell bell squat hoisting 300-400lb on my shoulder. Although I wouldn't mind able to do the latter :)
With those thoughts formulated around the start of 2023- I began to change up the way to train. Started doing a lot of things I would otherwise not be doing today.
Imp0rtantly, have also learned to slow down and train properly. Today is the start of another phase in my pullup training. Working towards that "perfect" L-sit PullUps which started about 15 months ago from the first crooked-legged L-sit ChinUps and arms with half-assed extension.
Max today was 2 of these in good form... but I have learned to be patient and certain that in time the reps will work themselves up any given set.
More importantly, what's gleaned from this past year doing things slow and deliberate in an attempt to improve form has an added bonus. It fixes or at least helps the recovery in many kind of strain injuries. This is "real-time" analysis having to live with a lot of stupid strain-injuries sustained which are really difficult to totally rid with daily workouts ongoing.
I hope this and "meditative" deadhang will bring a further improvement in enhancing the recovery of shoulder related strains/ issues.