Yes.

So, you’re still highly recommending power lifting—because you’re attributing all of your injuries and pain to martial arts and bad lifting form?

I do a comprehensive routine in the morning that involves:
1) 60-second hand from a pull-up bar with my feet touching the floor;
2) 10 bridges;
3) Glute medius stretches – 10 on each side;
4) Hip tilt fixes involving pushing the hip toward a wall past my elbow – 10 on each side;
5) Additional hip tilt fixes using leg raises while standing – 10 on each side;
6) Lower back hip thrust and raise – 3 sets of 15 seconds;

You can see all of this in these two videos from ATHLEAN-X, which is where I got them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SKuFe2SERs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmGArQBtFI

When I go to the gym, I do a shortened version of 1 and 6, and then add in some foam rolling and hip stretches, plus front goblet squats using kettlebells to warm up.

All of that has kept my back in reasonably good shape, though I do get tweaked lower back muscles from time to time. My disc issues have, thankfully, been kept largely at bay from following these protocols.

Yes I’ve seen that video too. The thing to remember is that those guys are juiced and roided to the gills, and this has some decidedly odd effects on their muscles and tendons. If you lift with good form, take care when moving weights around, and warm up properly with a good stretching regimen, then you’ll be fine.

I want to first try ‘pushing’ or ‘pulling’ the muscles on different directions to see if that theory holds true.

I remember seeing a video of a body builder ripping one of his pecs apart and it looks like it had to do with the above theory. That video was burned into my memory for good. I’m not paranoid and I don’t plan on going IFBB pro physique, but excessive stiffness also causes problems in social life and overall motivation in life.

Do you reduce the weights as you age, even if you don’t need to exert as much effort to lift them as before?

For my squats, yes, I’ve reduced the weights for my heaviest days. Squats really burn out the central nervous system and these days I need a bit more time to recover than I did 10 years ago when I started lifting. Hell, it takes longer to recover now than it did just 5 years ago.

I don’t know, but swimming always appealed more to me. I have really stiff muscles with poor rotation (which is probably 90% of my fault) so I found that with swimming I can stress my body with less chances of injury.

Swimming is great exercise – low-impact, easy on the joints (relatively speaking), and great for the body in general. Nothing wrong with it at all.

On the other hand, about a week ago, I found out that an old classmate has sustained disc injury from crosshit and took more than a year to recover and will never be able to pull off the things that he did for the rest of his life.

Yep. That’s one of the reasons why I hate CrossShit so much. It practically invites people to break their bodies in horrible ways.

Anyway, point is before I hit the gym again, I will have to do some sort of massage (honestly you have to run a buldose over my back to get rid of the stiffness).

Have you ever tried using foam rollers? I recommend any well-built deep massage roller, like this one. They are solid, long-lasting, durable, and really loosen up points of myofascial tension. I use one of these during my warm-ups before every leg day.

How are the older guys from 60 and above doing? Any muscle/joint or bone injuries?

I don’t know, but swimming always appealed more to me. I have really stiff muscles with poor rotation (which is probably 90% of my fault) so I found that with swimming I can stress my body with less chances of injury.

On the other hand, about a week ago, I found out that an old classmate has sustained disc injury from crosshit and took more than a year to recover and will never be able to pull off the things that he did for the rest of his life. He hasn’t even turned 30 yet. He said he didn’t have to go through surgery, but he will always have to look out for the possibility of fusing his discs if he is not careful. Ouch!

Anyway, point is before I hit the gym again, I will have to do some sort of massage (honestly you have to run a buldose over my back to get rid of the stiffness). There is so much tension stored that I get a ridiculous startle response at the slightest touch or loud noise.

Those deadlift numbers are enormous, are they bare-handed / with gloves / with straps?

Belt and chalk, no gloves or straps. I never use straps, don’t see the point of them. I typically deadlift up to 425lbs with a belt, and then for heavier weights I use powdered chalk to strengthen my grip.

My body structure is sufficiently “odd” to make my deadlift leverages very good – I have long legs and arms. But my lower back problems and hip and knee issues make my squat pretty precarious – I’m much more likely to hurt myself from squatting these days than from deadlifting.

God bless both of them for cutting through the fluff of the 2009 internet fitness world.

Exactly right. Both of them just get rid of the guff and get on with making people strong. It’s a tremendous public service that they do.

We know epigenetic changes are the body adapting to environmental stressors. We know these are inheritable. In a purely biological sense, does a strong father make stronger sons? If the answer is yes, and intuition says yes, then a man owes it to his forthcoming progeny to pick up heavy stuff.

StrongLift5x5 got me out of wasting time, Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength got me to put on mass to pick up heavier weights. God bless both of them for cutting through the fluff of the 2009 internet fitness world.