Training differences between me and my younger self

I get teased because I sometimes say I'm old. More chastised than teased, really. That's because me and my interlocutors both know I'm a pretty lean and cut "oldster" that is not really all that old. I mean, I do turn 63 in a couple months which in Twitter years is what? 400? That's a joke but it is true that I am not 25 any more. In my teens and 20s I trained very hard. I was a competitive swimmer, training up to 15k meters in the summer. I also lifted. Post swimming career, I lifted pretty hard. The goal then was to try to max out my shape and size and build max strength. You know, girls and all.  But my goals and body, like everything, have changed. You can't step into the same river twice (note the blog name...). I thought I'd bullet out some of the differences between age 25 and 63 that I see in my own program. I have done exactly zero research into physiology to back up my adjustments but I am comfortable with my mods. There are some legit guys on Twitter I follow in this area but I have not listed them here.  In no particular order, with no particular emphasis or "weighting:"

• I realize all real bros deadlift. Yeah, no. I don't, so I guess I'm not a real bro. But 1) I have not made a habit of it, and 2) I personally think my frame and back and spine and joints don't need extreme stress right now, and 3) a twitter guy once quipped that one trains deadlifts to get better at dead lifts. I'll not be adding this to my routine. Sorry. 
  
  
• I no longer try to shoot for a max brag weight. Yes at 20 when I weighed 145 I benched 300 and have bragged that ever since, but the reality is that no one cares or keeps track.  No one is watching you at the gym. Plus as one ages past 60 it probably makes sense to have age-group goals.  One last point, I have seen more dudes destroy the quality of their form, get injured, and take themselves out of more optimal set/rep ranges by over-reaching than anything else I've seen. No one in my garage can see that I am underweighted a bit on my incline bench. Maybe my cat is contemptuous but I don't speak his language.
  
  
• Related to the previous point, I am working with much lighter weight now in general. This allows me to optimize reps, avoid injury, work around pain, etc. I have hurt my elbows and shoulders and hips and am prone to inflammation. The lighter weight helps. I do try to progress though still.
  
  
• Over time, especially since 58, I have moved almost exclusively, not entirely, away from machines and bar work. I have been using mostly a set of dumbbells, an incline bench, and a jury rigged cable thing on a pulley plus bodyweight. That has been a beneficent change. A lot of flexibility and I like the physics. 
  
  
• I have moved my reps to the center away from tiny (2-4) and unnecessary (for me... 15-25) towards 6-12 depending on the movement and whether it is bodyweight or not. 
  
  
• Speaking of bodyweight, I have added quite a bit of this since my youth. Think pull ups and dips as examples. It is wise for an old dude to be able to throw his own weight around. Losing weight was helpful here. 
  
  
• I do fewer "stations." I don't do 10,000 esoteric odd isolation moves. I have an A day (dumbbell) and a B day (body weight) where both A and B are limited to 5 or less main movements, sometimes more. Simple. Relatively quick.
  
  
• I do quite a bit more recovery. In 2018 as I came out of my fat sedentary doldrums I went to the gym 7 days a week. While that was psychologically necessary maybe, it didn't do me any favors. I backed off to 6 and that was still too much. I now do A and B days with 1 or 2 days in between, sometimes more depending on circumstances and feel. 1) this is wise physiologically I hear, and 2) I've heard the older you get the more recovery get's important. idk, you tell me. In any case I think I have actually put on more size after backing way off, so there is that. 
  
  
• I no longer work through pain. I certainly do not work through joint pain but I also no longer work through soreness. Sometimes. But generally I either work around or quit a movement or I stop altogether for a while even up to a month or more. Seems necessary. I wonder if there is support for this? probably.
  
  
• I allow myself more time between sets to recover O2. Some bros insist on a death march or nothing. Unlike a lot of gym bros, I don't actually really like lifting all that much. Why add to the downer part of the training esp when I am not training for some functional purpose other than general fitness and old dude aesthetics.
  
  
• I switched from bench to incline bench. There are a lot of reasons for this. One was that I never really liked flat bench and the incline feels way more natural to me. Plus I wanted to work upper chest and shoulder. Not going back.
  
  
• I added a ton of core work. The list is not relevant here. Some of this just made sense since everything from the glutes up is the foundation of the body. Also when I was too heavy, my visceral fat sloshed over my belt. Gross. I made a goal to be jacked at least once before death and getting a ripped core was a path to that goal.  In this endeavor I need to say that the main influence on a good change was 75% my training in my teens and 20s, 20% based on diet, and 5% gym. or something like that. I feel pretty good now and when I walk I can feel it. It is so tightly wrapped it almost hurts to sneezed. That is half-joke and partly pleases me. 
  
  
•  I added more symmetry. When I was 25 it was a lot of front side and push. Now it is front and back push and pull. A particular focus right now is rear delt and upper back to help me with some irritation from shoulder bone spurs. Think face pulls or row or reverse fly etc. 
  
  
• Don't ask me about my pencil legs. Soon...
  
  
• I am way more invested in diet now: lean, clean, no or low ingredients, animal protein, 18:6 fast, calorie aware but not obsessive. This is not a differentiator between 25 and 63. It should have always been there. But at say age 19 when I was training 15,000 meters a day, how many calories was I burning? 10k? more? no idea but there was massive margin for error and even at 25 a young body can handle a lot of poor judgement. At 60+ those margins come in. The science says that everyone hits a fairly pronounced decay past 80 even if you live to 120. That gives me about 18 years to be lean, vigorous and strong. My ex gf tried to shame me out of this time-aware focus on diet and vigor. "Sorry, these are going to be my years. And anyway, where are you now?" ;-)