We've all heard the depressing news: You just don't lose weight or get in shape as quickly after 40. But as much as Father Time will eventually stymie the best of us, we can keep him at bay a lot longer than anyone thought. The bodybuilding lifestyle is typically a healthy one in that people who train and do cardio and eat quality food, are definitely leaner, fitter and healthier than the average person out there eating chicken wings and chili. There's no doubt that those last few pounds are harder to shed as we round the bend in our 30s and prepare to enter our 40s, but is it harder to get in shape too?
Most who have been weight training for any number of years, and keeping a fairly consistent diet, won't notice a big change at 40 right away. However, there are subtleties that show up around that time: Fatigue sets in more quickly, we seem to require longer rest times between sets, and rest times between workouts seem to make more sense when an extra day is thrown into the mix. Combating those things just takes a little creativity, and truthfully, a bit more work on your part. But it can be done.
Usually, that means that exercise needs to diversify. You may not have thought to include something like yoga into your week of workouts - preferring to just hit the weights hard and be done with it. But the truth is, flexibility is one thing that can go quite quickly after 40. Devoting even 30 minutes, three times a week, to yoga poses that help the legs and back remain supple and flexible will certainly help keep Father Time at bay during workouts. It can also help with injury prevention and fatigue. Watching diet more closely is just something you'll have to accept as you age, too. You could get away with a lot more as a youngster than you can now. But it isn't so much that you are trying to achieve a specific fat loss goal, it's that you are trying to keep fatigue at bay by eating a TRULY healthy diet. That means more fish, such as salmon, less saturated fats and more vegetables in your diet.
Anti-aging experts say that a diet like Perricone Prescription or the Mediterranean or South Beach Diets can really help an active person over 40. At this point, it isn't about tricks and techniques to get and stay lean, it's actually about better quality fuel translating into better results and sustainable workouts. Cardio should also increase as you age, but keep the mix lively. Get out of the gym more and walk stairs, cycle in nature, rollerblade or surf. These things keep typically inactive muscles - ones you don't train in the gym - working so that nothing is out of shape, or able to break down as you age.
Your hamstrings might be accustomed to being trained with a lying hamstring curl machine, but what they might need is the lengthening you get from some activity outside the gym. A slight boost in cardio also keeps your heart in shape and less likely to fatigue in the gym. Varying cardio, by including everything from sprints and other quick-burst activities, to low-slow-burning outings walking up stairs for an hour, and pool lap swims, can keep your heart fit in a variety of ranges that will suit your activities in the gym and optimize workouts.
Workouts should also change too, in that you change up the manner in which you execute movements and the routines you use. Injuries happen more often to older people, so make sure you have excellent form, are slow and deliberate, and are careful that you are not being hasty during workouts. Do at least one full body workout a week. The best case scenario would be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for split routines, Thursday off, and Friday a full body routine with the weekend as time for fun cardio outside the gym. Your body needs to be as adaptable to different training routines as possible so that injuries can't become opportunistic.
That means that you need to be able to train rapidly, with less rest, while doing a higher rep range, as well as being able to train in lower rep ranges, while maintaining poundages that optimize the building of lean tissue.
Lose the ability to move in and out of these types of training prescriptions and you'll open the door to fatigue and injury. Consistency is super important in all areas of your fitness program. You may have gotten away with a lack of consistency in your 20s and your body just naturally forgave you. But when you're 42, your body is far less forgiving. Losing a week or two where there are no workouts, or an erratic diet, will make it that much harder to gain ground back to even a maintenance level of fitness.
Do yourself a favor and map out workouts, diet and cardio each week so that you have a plan. The last thing you really need to do is probably the hardest: Accept that you're getting older. That doesn't mean lying down like a dog and just giving up - far from it. What it does mean is that for the first time in your life, like it or not, you're going to have to concede that you don't have total control over time. And that means cutting yourself a little slack. Not much, but a little. Since your body is breaking down each day you live and age, and optimal hormone levels decrease in both men and women as time marches on, keeping a good mental game is everything. Defeating behaviors, lack of plan and lack of consistency are your worst enemies. You may not WIN the fight over age, but you can certainly have it well within your control as you approach and weather your 40s. And the same goes for 50s, 60s and 70s.
Dane Fletcher is the world's most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more BodybuildingToday.com bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit BodybuildingToday.com BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.
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