The advantage of getting older is that you start to know what works for you, and where your body deviates from generally accepted consensus, say Starting Strength or whatever. For example, I know that squatting in the 2-5 range is the best way for me to build squatting strength, but I also know that benching at low reps does nothing for me, and that working in the 8-12 range, using dumbbells and weighted dips builds my max bench much faster. My bench gets better as my leverages get better. I already know how to strain. I also know that farmers walks and glute hams do more for my deadlift than deadlifting does. So I have learned to waste less time. I know what works, what hurts, where I start to fail and what helps me get past that.
