Building Muscle After 40

They say age is just a number – or at least that’s what most of us hope for. But as people grow older, a lot of changes take place in their body. Most of these changes are inevitable and irreversible. However, even though these changes may not be obviated, they can be slowed down.

When it comes to physical health and fitness status, by the time you reach 40, your metabolism and the systems in your body are not as conditioned as they were when you were in your late twenties up to early thirties. Naturally, you are engaged in less physical activities and you most probably don’t follow a healthy eating lifestyle.

Muscle decline is very common in both men and women when they reach this age. And during these years, maintaining a physically fit body takes more effort than it used to. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible, though. Muscle gain is still possible with the right strength-training exercises, cardio activities, and proper diet paired with plenty of rest.

Cardio Exercise

Before focusing on building your muscles, you have to go through losing fat. This is what cardio is all about – it’s mainly for fat loss. Basically, a cardio activity is any exercise or routine that gets your heart to beat faster.

Its goal is to improve the amount of oxygen in the blood and burn the excess calories, eliminating the layers of body fat lying on top of the muscles. Some great cardio exercises include cycling, running, jogging, brisk walking, and jumping rope. Swimming is an excellent cardio exercise too.

Strength-training Exercise

After losing weight, the next order of business is muscle building. Regular exercise is an integral part of muscle building. Creating an effective workout schedule that you can squeeze into your calendar is very important. Some people do their Cardio exercise on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The other days of the week are for strength-training exercise, except Sunday.

• Squats – Using full range of motion that involves every muscle in the body and doing it at a higher rep is a good way to kick off your strength-training routine. This shall eliminate joint or form issues.
• Bench/Shoulder presses – If you’re after a strong and muscular chest, this is what you need to incorporate into your workout routine. You can also do dumbbell presses at a 45-degree angle or shoulder presses to make rounder, leaner shoulders.
• Dips – If you want to build real upper body strength, this is how you’re going to get it. If you’re not used to this workout, there’s an assisted dip/pull-up machine that gets you started with a counterbalance weight.
• Deadlifts – After going through the basics, you can start doing dead lifts. The goal of doing dead lifts is to increase muscle mass and, at the same time, give you full-body strength.
• Pull-ups – Giving more strength to your back and upper body. You can be creative doing pull-ups with all its variations. It is one of the most challenging exercises for weight lifters, but it works effectively in toning your upper body muscles.

High-Protein diet

Of course, exercise is important but it won’t be enough. It’s not just the physical aspect of the body that changes at this age, your metabolism will also slow down. This means that your diet needs to be adjusted as well. And since we’re talking about muscle building, you have to make sure that your diet is complementary to the kind of physical activities you are doing.

Muscle building requires more protein intake. Protein contains amino acids which are essential for generating strength, initiation repair, and rebuilding cells inside the body. Those foods that have high protein composition, such as eggs, milk, meat, tofu, nuts, are important in the muscle building process.

Foods that go with a workout program are infamous because they’re usually bland and unappealing. But, it doesn’t always have to be the case. There are recipe books for food that are excellent for muscle growth and burning calories. One example is the Anabolic Cooking cookbook. For less than 20 bucks you’ll have your own copy of around 200 quick and easy muscle building recipes that will change your impression of fitness diet.

This is the checklist for muscle building that you need to follow if you wish to maintain a healthy and fit body at 40.