At this stage in our life, muscle growth is slow. Newbie gains came and went many years ago and we’ve lived in this reality for quite some time.
Gains aren’t slow because you’re doing something wrong. They’re slow because you’ve already done most things right. 

We’ve all been training long enough to know the truth: there are no accidental gains left. Loading on the weight and throwing it around just to get it moving isn’t even on the menu anymore. Every pound of muscle, every strength increase, every improvement in how our body feels has to be earned deliberately.

That changes how training works.

The goal has morphed from forcing growth to creating conditions where growth is even possible, then staying there long enough for it to happen. That means training sessions stop being about chasing outcomes and start being about execution. We focus hard on:

Good reps.
Appropriate load.
Enough volume to stimulate, not enough to bury you.
Leaving the gym with something still in the tank (sometimes).

It’s not exciting—but it is effective. Especially for us. 

This is also where discipline gets quieter. You’re no longer proving toughness by adding weight every week. You’re proving experience by knowing when not to.

Most of the mistakes we see at this stage aren’t from laziness. Our generation was built with a drive that kicks laziness out the door. Most mistakes now are a result of impatience. We sometimes push volume when recovery is already strained. We find ourselves turning a session into a test instead of practice and we ignore early warning signs because “that’s just how it feels now.”

Slow growth doesn’t require extreme training. It requires repeatable training. So let’s talk about that. 

If you can train hard enough to stimulate, recover well enough to return, and stay consistent long enough to let small changes add up—you’re doing it right. There’s nothing wrong with slow progress. There is something wrong with constantly disrupting a system that’s working simply because it isn’t flashy. Without going into too much detail, below is my current training plan. I run it 4 days per week, with Wednesday and the weekend off. It keeps me fresh and growing. I’ll be breaking it down further in a future article.

Volume also works on a sort of rotation. The first time through the rotation, each muscle group gets 1 all-out set to failure. This does not count all the warm up and feeder sets.  Week 4 gets a 100% increase in volume with 2 all-out sets to failure. Week 7 kicks off 3 sets to failure, while week 10 is a deload week.  After the deload, it starts over again. Simple. 

The honest truth is that I completely despise a deload week but, when it comes down to brass tacks, it is necessary to keep the body fresh and feeling strong. 

If you would like to talk a little more about training programs, send us an email or drop a comment.  

For now, train intelligently and stay patient.
— Iron After 40