Twelve and a half years later...

I've now surpassed 3000+ weight training sessions. I started 13th December 2012 with the sole goal of increasing my relative strength. I've transitioned from training 2-3 times per week to almost everyday since Jan 2018.

There seems to be a perception that as you move into your 40's that its all down hill for strength and aesthetics.. time will tell but so far so good, especially considering I only started 2 and a half months before i turned 30. I mangaged to get a PB of 145kg on benchpress the day before i turned 40 at a bodyweight of 81.7kg. Since moving into a unit in 2020 i don't get to do benchpress everyday because theres no room for the rack and plates, but most days I will do DB press & hammer press.

In this time I have discovered 3 successful ways for increasing my benchpress with respect to relative strength, each with different approaches to effort required.

By far the biggest surprise has been learning that I can often maintain 97% of my 1RM on benchpress with consistent DB Press.

I've had weeks where i haven't been able to do Benchpress and have returned and been able to still bench a 140kg single. Since changing my training at home with dumbbells from "maintenance" to "purpose" oriented I saw my 120kg benchpress leap from 5reps to an 8rep PB in a few weeks.

So far, early 40's hasn't changed the momentum of my training goals and there hasn't been any negative change to recovery or volume. Over the past 5 years a lot of time has been spent "maintaining" my strength whilst still living life; work, fam, friends etc. I enjoy the stages where i get motivated to increase volume or strength on a specific movement or goal. Something I have recently incorporated into a routine is walking, some outdoor, some on a walking pad and yes, i'm still chasing a two to one benchpress...

In the next few weeks I'll create a new block/phase of how I'm training as I want to get a new PB on bench and I will also be starting to get back into deadlifts as I want to increase my 1RM by 20%.