Finding the Optimal Training Effort for Muscle Growth Without Premature Facial Aging

[Deleted member 137443]

Think of it like this: a car is meant to be driven. A machine is built to perform. If you leave your car sitting in a garage for years, its engine parts will rust, and when you finally start it, it won’t run smoothly. On the other hand, driving it 20+ miles every single day will require intense maintenance and servicing. The sweet spot? Driving it around 10 miles daily.

Your body follows the same "use it or lose it" principle. Not training at all leads to severe lifestyle-related issues as you age, while overtraining may come with its own downsides.

I’m 21 and have been going to the gym for almost 2 years, though inconsistently. If I compress all my actual training days, it adds up to roughly 8 months of working out 4x per week for an hour per session. Despite this, I’ve never felt like the gym aged my face—if anything, it had the opposite effect. I also maintained a good skincare routine, ate and slept well, and consumed a lot of meat.

Lately, I keep coming across discussions claiming that "the gym ages you faster," which made me wonder: what’s the optimal level of effort to train at to build muscle while avoiding premature aging?

If we define training effort on a scale from:

• 0% (no training at all)
• 50% (half-ass)
• 100% (training to failure every session)

I personally believe that staying in the 60-70% range (training a little harder than half-ass) with progressive overload 4x a week for 3-5 years, followed by maintenance, is ideal. It allows for muscle growth without excessive strain that could contribute to premature aging. For example, if you can perform till max 15 good-looking reps in a set, then stop anywhere between 10-12.

What do you think? Is there an optimal balance between building muscle and minimizing long-term wear on the body?