Increasing strength / age effects on strength

I’ve built up quite a bit of muscle since adding these fancy anabolic “supplements” to my diet. But what I’ve noticed is that the strength to size ratio has decreased. Wheras 10 years ago, when I was 22, I weighed about 180 but could bench press 315lbs. And that was natty. Now, at 32, I’ll be lucky if I could pump out 260. And I have about 25lbs of added lean mass on my body (current weight is about 205lbs).

Legs are definitely stronger than when I was 22, I can pump out almost a 400lb squat. Could barely do 250lb squats at 22.

Maybe the strength loss can be attributed to various injuries I’ve had on my upper body over the years.

Has anybody had this sort of loss in strength as they aged? Or does anyone have any insight into what I can expect from my strength as I age, even with “supplements?”

I am currently training with low reps ~6, and 4-6 sets, heavy weights. Including the occasional high rep set to fully deplete the muscles at the end.

Personally, I took a break form lifting from age 26-30. I began at 15 so I was very solid at 26. Then I lifted here and there until this year at 32 years old. This year I started hitting it hard again, and up until a week ago I was still natty. On certain exercises I got stronger than I used to be. Particularly push exercises. My bench press and shoulder press went up. I remember at 22 I could shoulder press 95 lb dumbells about 10 times. I could do 115's 10 times now. On chest I could do 110's about 10 times, but now I can do 125's 10 times. And my numbers don't reflect what I can do fresh, I'm talking building up weight (65s, 85s, 100s, 125s). If I just walked in the gym I'm sure I could shoulder press 135's 10 times.

Now on pull exercises I got a little weaker, and partly because I have had elbow pains/tendonitis/bursitis. My right elbow hurts when pulling or doing curls. I used to curl 65's, but now only do 50's. Same with lat pulldowns. I used to pull the whole rack (300 lbs) about 10 times and now I do 250 lbs. And yes, my bodyweight has gone up. I weighted around 225 at 23 years old. I weight 250 now at 32.

I think the heavier you get the more you can push - at least that's been my observation. I've never liked to squat, it got me too winded. If I did a set of squats I'd have to call it a day. Always felt uncomfortable under the bar and hated how it compressed my spine. Now I do hacksquats on the machine at a 45 degree angle, without any weights, and I do deadlifts on this machine thing where you put on plates, but it's attached at a pivot so it's not a bar but has handles on it. I don't know wtf it's called. I don't like full body exercises though.

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Originally Posted by Mma67

I’ve built up quite a bit of muscle since adding these fancy anabolic “supplements” to my diet. But what I’ve noticed is that the strength to size ratio has decreased. Wheras 10 years ago, when I was 22, I weighed about 180 but could bench press 315lbs. And that was natty. Now, at 32, I’ll be lucky if I could pump out 260. And I have about 25lbs of added lean mass on my body (current weight is about 205lbs).

Legs are definitely stronger than when I was 22, I can pump out almost a 400lb squat. Could barely do 250lb squats at 22.

Maybe the strength loss can be attributed to various injuries I’ve had on my upper body over the years.

Has anybody had this sort of loss in strength as they aged? Or does anyone have any insight into what I can expect from my strength as I age, even with “supplements?”

I am currently training with low reps ~6, and 4-6 sets, heavy weights. Including the occasional high rep set to fully deplete the muscles at the end.

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I know exactly what you mean. When I was 17 y/o I weighed 130lbs and benched 265lbs nattty. Now I'm 205lbs and I can 1RM, while on Test/Tren/Mast, 425lbs. The strength/weight ratio's almost exactly the same and this is while I'm on AAS. Then again I'm old. lol

I believe it has to do with the combination of Test/GH/T3/T4 and other hormones that young people have that slows down as we get older. We always talk about Test as PED's but your body secreted almost 100 different hormones which work in sync to make you grow as a young man. We can't replenish all those naturally occurring hormones but we can take Test and other Test derived compounds. They work well, not perfect, but close enough.