You were the one suggesting genetics, whereas I was squatting almost double my body weight on my first set until the time I quit barbell squats when I was about 47. In my mid-40s, I was asked by another gym-goer if I was a competitive gymnast. (I'm pretty sure it wasn't a come-on.) Meanwhile, you're having trouble with 135-lb squats and 10 pushups in your early 30s?Quote from achilles28:
haha nice. But you were the one who doubted Barons natural gains. More than possible.
Quote from Brass:
You were the one suggesting genetics, whereas I was squatting almost double my body weight on my first set until the time I quit barbell squats when I was about 47. In my mid-40s, I was asked by another gym-goer if I was a competitive gymnast. (I'm pretty sure it wasn't a come-on.) Meanwhile, you're having trouble with 135-lb squats and 10 pushups in your early 30s?

Quote from Brass:
As for my remarks to Baron, it was not so much his physique itself as the idea that it was achieved from four 35-minute workouts a week. That goes against the grain of old-school thinking on the subject and was the reason for my question, which coincided with my recent experimentation with lower-volume workouts.
Because I had spent about 7-8 hours per week in the gym (which included 1.5 hours of cardio) until my mid-40s, doing the volume that old-school thinking insisted was essential. So imagine my surprise at the idea that I had wasted a lot of time and effort. Coincidentally, you will note that I have been updating myself on the subject and experimenting with lower volume routines since then. As I noted earlier in this thread, my current routine is far shorter than anything I had done since the '70s.Quote from achilles28:
If you really could squat twice your body weight, you would have looked very similar to Baron, or better. So why would you doubt Barons physique, to begin with? You should know that's possible, natural...
I'm not suggesting what you did was wrong by any stretch, but don't forget that you were at an age where you would have grown pretty much regardless of what you did. (As did I.) Ten years later, as you take it up again, you'll still grow fairly easily but not quite at the pace you did 10 years earlier. And so on.Quote from achilles28:
Albeit this was 10 years ago, me and my friends got big on high weight, low volume, short(er) workouts (<45 mins). 5-7 reps, maybe 4 sets? Anyway. Not sure what school your from, but that worked for us. So what gymnastics team were you on?