For middle-aged clients, rotating through exercises with different implements and strength curves can be a good way to stay healthy and strong. Variety should not just be limited to exercise choice, but also exercise order.
Although a slightly more advanced technique once you learn the concept of keeping tension on a muscle , placing more stressful exercises such as squats and barbell bench presses towards the end of a workout means you can create a similar training effect albeit with less load.
As you age, periodization becomes more important — organising your training into blocks where you alternate or linearly move from accumulation muscle growth and intensification maximum strength phases is a great idea. For the older clients, keeping the ratio of accumulation to intensification at or would be wise, as their joints will not be as well suited to intensification protocols.
For over 40s, using one of these phases every 3 to 4 cycles, going no lower than 4 to 6 reps would be wise. Read how year-old Lisa got leaner, fitter and stronger than ever on her UP transformation programme. Building on the previous point, one of the best ways to train as you age is to find ways to increase time under tension on your muscles and the difficulty of exercises.
Besides adding reps, experimenting with different styles of tempos pauses, slow eccentrics, controlled tempos etc. Another concept, briefly introduced in our previous article, is the use of low-load, high-rep training close to technical failure. This is of particular relevance to older people, as they can utilise low loads even something like resistance bands to provide an introduction to resistance exercise, whilst also generating an anabolic stimulus and the beneficial impact it will provide.
Grouping lower back-intensive exercises into one day a week can be a great way to allow recovery for the often-vulnerable lower back structures. If training the legs every three to five days, an example rotation could be to do a squat or deadlift variation one workout, and train predominantly with unilateral and machine exercises on the next, before going back to a squat or deadlift workout. On this note, squats and deadlifts may not be necessary at all in their true form if you are a beginner with no movement capability, as this will often do more harm than good.
Read how year-old Surinder got in the best shape of his life at Ultimate Performance. When encountering new trainees in their 40s and 50s, one of the key issues we see at UP is a lack of stability in their joints. So, utilising isometrics, unilateral work and slow tempos initially can help bring up this vital aspect of fitness. Spending 10 to 15 minutes a day on mobility and flexibility will pay huge dividends when it comes to staying healthy as you age.
As stated previously, improving work capacity will enhance the sensitivity of the muscle hypertrophy signalling pathways. So finding an activity and sport you love and can enjoy with others will keep you active for decades, and help just as much as the three hours in the gym can. Whilst resistance training as a whole will benefit the conditions discussed, there are some subtle specifics that can lead to faster improvements. Generally, the differences in training are not significant, as a strong focus on the above 10 principles will lead to vast improvements themselves.
However, with menopause, the devil is in the detail. It is often the case that in these women, they will be more stress-sensitive, and as such, this should be factored into their exercise regime. During intense and long-duration exercise, cortisol is produced. In order to produce a positive adaptive response to exercise, cortisol is necessary and very beneficial. There are plenty of people out there who train extremely hard yet make little or no progress despite all they're effort.
If you keep on pushing your body to the limit in every workout, several things will happen. Trivial things that you never even noticed before will start to annoy you. Worst of all, your results in the gym will dry up and you will gradually start to get weaker. You need to train hard enough to stimulate progress, but not so hard that it has a negative impact on the quality of your other workouts. Hard work is a tool used to stimulate a physiological improvement.
It needs a rest now and again. In general, the closer you are to your genetic potential i. Those who are farther away from their genetic potential will be able to reload less frequently.
Static stretching has been heavily criticized in recent years. One stretch lasting 60 seconds or six stretches lasting 10 seconds work equally well when it comes to increasing flexibility. Regardless of the length of a single stretch, the key to improvement seems to be total daily stretch time.
Don't get discouraged if your flexibility hits a ceiling, though. Like most things, flexibility is influenced by your genes. A gene called COL5A1 is linked to your hereditary level of flexibility.
Which means that the rate at which your flexibility improves, as well as the point at which it stops improving, are not entirely under your control. There is no correct training frequency that works for all people, all of the time. Nor are there rigid guidelines that determine exactly what your training routine should look like at any stage of life.
You may be doing just fine on a program that involves lifting weights 4 to 5 times a week. If that's the case, keep doing it. However, from the studies I've read and my experience with clients, a program that involves lifting weights no more than three times a week is best for anyone in their forties.
It allows for more recovery time, and keeps big, demanding exercises like the squat and the deadlift away from each other in your programming.
Many in their late teens and early twenties will walk straight into the gym, do a few arm circles, and then jump straight into the heavy stuff. You have to make the time to warm up properly. The exact warmup that you do will depend on what your workout looks like. So let me walk you through how I do it. I like to start each workout with around 10 minutes of low-intensity cycling on an exercise bike.
A rowing machine will also do the job just fine. This helps to raise your body temperature, which appears to be one of the main reasons that exercise performance is better in the evening than it is in the morning. This helps to clear my mind and gets me focused on the workout to come. All I need to do is follow the plan and focus on training as hard as I can. Next, I move straight to my first exercise — usually one of the compound lifts, such as the bench press or squat — and perform 15 reps with an empty bar.
Then, I progressively increase the weight over the course of several sets. Our goal is to maximize muscle gain with minimal fat gain, so you will be eating at a slight surplus.
Cholesterol is also another big issue for many people over the age of Your diet should be rich is healthy fats. Check out my shopping list article to show you which foods you should chose from when you are at the supermarket. Below is a sample diet for a plus 40 year old weighing about pounds who is looking to put on muscle mass:. Preparation is going to be critical. Making all your meals the night before is something you should consider to help conserve time.
Bringing your meals to work will be a must, but what happens when you have a luncheon or big business dinner with clients? Don't fret, use your common sense. Order something that is similar to what you normally eat. Remember, life can not be restricted to chicken and rice, you can stray from the diet and still see results. Just don't make a habit of it. There you have it. No more excuses about being over the hill. You have all the pieces to the puzzle to increase your muscle mass after the age of Alex has a passion for bodybuilding and this has led him to a life in the fitness industry.
View all articles by this author. Day 1. Smith machine back squat. What comes with BodyFit? Instructional Videos Don't risk doing a workout improperly! How-to Images View our enormous library of workout photos and see exactly how each exercise should be done before you give it a shot. Step-by-Step Instructions Quickly read through our step-by-step directions to ensure you're doing each workout correctly the first time, every time.
Meal 1. Egg Whites. Meal 2. Protein Powder scoops. Peanut Butter tbsp.
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