Originally Posted by
bblair
For ME, I am not worried about muscle soreness. I have been riding a very long time and know what that feels like. My knees never, ever hurt after a difficult ride. But I do worry about joint damage when lifting.. Hips, knees, shoulders. I probably should use bigger weights, but it worries me, so I go with 10-20 reps.
That's a factor of 2 between those. Be consistent. Big difference. As I said somewhere, the winter I did 3 sets of 30 reps was before my strongest summer. I was squatting 20 lbs less than bodyweight on the last set. The important thing was that I could "only" do 27-28 reps on the last set.
Yes, increasing max force by a factor of maybe 30 could sure make a mess of one's legs unless one gradually adapts to the greater force over a period of a few years. I've missed whole winters of lifting. Then I'd try to squat 20 reps unloaded and my quads would cramp. Gradually, gradually. One of my early revelations was that I once took a winter off from cycling and the following summer I was worthless. Similar with lifting. It was different in our teens.