Over 40 Fitness Guide » Fitness

Can You Be Too Old To Build Muscle?

Scott — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:49:46 +0000

Only 10-15 percent of elderly people perform structured strength training. What’s happening with the remaining 85-90 percent?

Are they too old to lift weights and hence build muscle?

Of this remaining percentage, a significant number still has mobility, and that includes those who use scooters but still can fully use their upper body.

Why Aren’t These Older Individuals Strength Training?

Even a person who uses a scooter can do dumbbell exercises. Many older people believe that it’s not possible to build muscle after a certain age. This assumption can have very costly consequences.

More and more studies are showing that “old people” indeed can build lean muscle mass with a strength training program, whether the resistance exercises are in the form of dumbbells, kettlebells, weight stack machines, tension bands or bodyweight movements like squats and wall presses.

Like the old saying goes, “The only people who can’t benefit from exercise are dead.”

Even a bedridden person, who has use of the arms, can gain some muscle (e.g., pressing light dumbbells above the chest, or pulling tension bands downward from an anchor point above the bed).

If older people with limitations (e.g., scooter) are capable of lifting weights, what about all the people of retirement age who golf, bowl and go for extended walks sightseeing? What’s keeping them from conducting weight workouts?

Not only is one never too old to build muscle, but there really is no excuse for why people over 60, and especially people over 40, should not strength train.

One particular study report appeared in the June 2011 Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.

Frank Mayer et al, from the University of Potsdam, literally showed that grandpa and grandma can gain muscle with resistance exercise.

The researchers found that in subjects over age 60, consistent resistance training resulted in improved muscle strength, decreased muscle shrinkage, and stronger bones and tendons. These improvements lead to a reduced risk of falling.

The study also showed that intensity makes a difference. Older people should not limit themselves to tiny dumbbells or the lowest weight amount on a machine simply because they’re over a certain age. The more intense the workout, the greater the results.

According to the study, an increase in muscle mass results when the intensity is 60-85 percent of the amount of maximal weight that a person can lift just one time.

So if a senior citizen can press a 50 pound barbell just once, then a weight load of 30-40 pounds (for repetitions) would be required to build muscle.

Often, people insist, “I’m too old to lift weights.” However, the opposite is what should be minded: You are too old not to lift weights.

Photos of “old-timers” who are strength building enthusiasts are spectacular. No, these aren’t images of men who are freakishly built up with stiff-looking muscle, or grannies who have chests and shoulders like their sons.

These are individuals whose bodies look 20 or 30 years younger than their chronological age. It’s not just about vanity, of course.

Older people who work out with weights simply don’t get sick as often as their sedentary counterparts; they don’t suffer the same degree of injuries, aches or pains; the rate of high blood pressure and brittle bone disease is markedly lower as well.

The body has the amazing ability to adapt to an unfamiliar work load. If this work load is repeated, the body will get stronger and more efficient, no matter what age.

Exercises For Building Muscle Need Not Be Fancy, Complicated Or Require Balance

Sticking with the classic basics is all that’s necessary, even though today’s personal trainers often have their older clients struggling to perform strange balancing moves.

▸ One form of strength training is simply standing up and down repeatedly from a chair: chair squats. The resistance is one’s bodyweight. At the gym, one can do horizontal leg presses, plus leg extensions and hamstring curls.

▸ Healthier older people can do dumbbell squats and work their way up to Smith machine squats.

▸ The effectiveness of isolation exercises for older people who wish to gain muscle pale in comparison to that of compound exercises.

Isolation exercises work only one muscle group at a time, and compounds work several muscle groups at a time. A person over 50 or 60 will benefit so much more from doing seated rows rather than standing around curling dumbbells.

▸ There is no practical reason for the older trainee to do triceps kickbacks, even though this is a common sight at gyms, especially among women.

The kickback is primarily done by older women to tighten and firm up the back of the upper arm. While only the back of the upper arm is getting worked, nothing else happens with any other part of the body; a waste of time for a minimal result.

The triceps area can be worked quite efficiently and more comprehensively, while other body parts get worked, if one performs the compound exercise of chest pressing.

This will work not only the back of the upper arm, but the shoulders and chest, thus burning much more fat and going a lot further as far as increasing lean muscle tissue.

▸ The older trainee needs to make sure that some of the routines are done while standing. Standing while maneuvering against resistance will dramatically improve stability, mobility and reduce the risk of falls.

So for instance, a standing barbell or dumbbell row can replace a seated row, and a standing lat pull-down can replace a seated one.

Shoulder presses with barbells or dumbbells can be done standing rather than seated. In reality, if one ever needs to hoist a load overhead, he or she will very likely be standing while doing this.

▸ Another great exercise for the older person, including very sedentary ones, is that of walking around while holding weights straight at their side: farmer walks. This will strengthen the entire body.

As the aging population explodes, more and more older people are realizing just how critical it is to hold onto muscle mass, and just how possible it is to build muscle in middle age and beyond.

To read about real life people in middle and retirement age who have dramatically transformed their bodies with strength training and other forms of exercise, check out “Fit Over 40 program.”

“Fit Over 40 program” also explains how anyone of any fitness level, even those with disease, can get started on a health-promoting program that will bring back life to one’s years.

Weight Training For Women Over 40: What Are The Best Bone Building And Fat Burning Exercises?

Scott — Sat, 05 May 2012 02:32:39 +0000

There are two ways to interpret “weight training for women over 40.”

The first way applies to women over 40 who began strength training many years prior to hitting age 40.

This group of women, when passionate about their fitness, usually knows all there is to know about the power and age-defying effects of working out with weights.

The second interpretation applies to women 40-plus who have either never before done any strength training, or, perhaps they’ve indeed been doing it since age 25, but non-fruitfully (e.g., minimally effective exercises, not enough resistance, improper form).

This second group almost always experiences minimal results as far as keeping a lean figure, and when workouts are non-fruitful, the bone building effects are marginal.

Here’s The Ironic Thing About Weight Lifting For Women Over 40

Many of those in this age group, who have never performed exercises with dumbbells, barbells or resistance machines, continue to believe that this type of exercise is more suitable for men – even though it is women, not men, who are at higher risk for brittle bone disease as they get older!

Lack of weight bearing exercise is one of the risk factors for brittle bone disease (osteoporosis).

A postmenopausal woman, quite literally, desperately needs to engage in a weight lifting program.

A heavy-set woman may have read that being “thin” is a risk factor for brittle bones later in life, and thus may decide to embrace her heavy frame.

However, there is a difference between being thin and under-muscled, and being lean with shapely, firm muscles.

A thin woman with low muscle mass and a lean woman with developed muscle mass may both be able to fit into the same size 8 outfit. The difference is body composition and physical appearance.

The first woman will appear to be “skinny fat,” complete with a soft, flabby physique that shows age; while the second woman will be tight all over and still rock a bikini at age 50.

Vanity aside, the second woman is far less likely to suffer a bone fracture during her retirement years than is the first woman.

Aside from being stellar at building strong bones, weight lifting is the most spectacular way to burn body fat. Like most things in life, in order for something to work, it must be done correctly.

The reason so many women who do strength train yet maintain a lot of excess body fat is because of

not lifting heavy enough
doing the wrong exercises and
poor diet-though this isn’t necessarily always the case.

To build strong bone and slash body fat, a woman must embrace muscle building, and knock the idea out of her head that this is something only for men.

The top 8 weight training exercises for bone building are also the top exercises for kicking fat to the curb. Here they are:

Deadlift
Squat
Leg Press
Chin-Up
Lat Pull-Down
Lying Chest Press
Shoulder Press
Weighted Walking Lunge

This list may seem to have a few things missing. Where are the dumbbell kickbacks? Where are the inner/outer thigh exercises? Where are the biceps curls? And where on earth are the abdominal exercises?

The eight exercises all have one thing in common: They work several muscle groups at the same time; they are multi-joint, also known as “compound.”

Though none of these exercises have “triceps,” “biceps” or “abs” in their names, these small muscle groups get included in the recruitment!

For example, chest and shoulder presses work the triceps, and deadlifts, lat pull-downs and chin-ups work the biceps. And guess what: Squats, walking lunges and chin-ups work the abs!

There are more compound movements (such as bench dips and bent-over dumbbell rows), but these eight are a good start for women 40-plus who want to take their strength training to a new level, or begin a serious weight lifting regimen—“serious” as in promoting unprecedented fitness and fat burning.

Mechanism Behind What Makes Bones Get Stronger

Because more weight can be moved with compound routines (i.e., a woman can bench press more weight than she can triceps press with the rope on a pulley machine), this means more stress on the bones, plus more bones involved at the same time.

Stress on the bones forces them to get stronger.

When one pushes or pulls against resistance, the muscles tug at the bones. It is not the other way around.

This tugging or pulling at the bones stimulates them to increase in density, in “anticipation” of the next weight bearing session.

A lot more bone tugging happens during a lat pull-down (or seated row—another excellent compound move that’s similar to the pull-down), than during an arm curl that isolates just one muscle group, the biceps.

In summary, bones become stronger when stress (weight bearing) is placed upon them.

How Do You Maximize The Stress On The Bone?

In addition to performing compound exercises, one can optimize the stress by lifting moderate to heavy weight loads.

If you can do any of the eight exercises for more than 12-15 repetitions, despite having base conditioning, then you are not lifting heavy enough.

For maximal fat burning, rest 60-75 seconds in between sets. This will most likely necessitate reducing the weight load for subsequent sets.

Why Do These Particular Exercises Burn So Much Fat?

Compound movements, in combination with an 8-15 repetition max-out, plus the 60-75 second rest in between sets, is the perfect magnificent storm for maximizing your body’s fat burning system.

The max-out should top off at 12 reps for maximum fat burning.

However, for women over 40 who are in poor shape, a max of 15 reps may be more sensible, as this does not require as heavy a weight (i.e., to reach 15 reps, the weight can be lighter than what would be required to reach “muscle failure” by rep #12).

When these three factors are in place—compound movements, an 8-15 rep max, and the relatively short rest in between sets—something very amazing happens in the body.

This amazing chemical reaction does not occur with light weights!

“Light” is a relative term, of course. So look at it this way: If you can perform an exercise more than 12-15 times, the weight is too light.

The amazing chemical reaction also occurs with longer rest periods, but not as pronounced.

It also happens with non-compound moves but only when they are done with the absolute heaviest amount of weight for about 8-12 reps, but it still pales in comparison to the extent that it occurs with moderate to heavy compound lifting.

This chemical reaction is called EPOC: Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. It involves a significantly increased secretion of human growth hormone and testosterone (yes, women do produce testosterone).

These hormones are nature’s most powerful fat burners. With elevated levels of these fat-busting hormones, the body will burn up fat like never before.

The body is in such a state of oxygen debt following intense compound lifting, that the stored fat supply in your belly and waist will be used for recuperation fuel, even if your training session involved other body parts!

This means that an upper body compound workout will burn fat in the inner thighs!

Weight Training Over 40 Protocol For Beginners

Every beginner can perform all the eight exercises, though for some individuals, modifications will be necessary.

Start out with light resistance to get the tendons and other connective tissue used to the exercise, even if you think you’re “naturally strong” or “big boned.”

Muscles have a tendency to get stronger at a faster rate than do tendons, and getting ahead of yourself can result in tendon injury.

Get your body used to a high rep, light weight regimen (this will take several weeks) before you move on to a “rep max” approach, which means that the weight load makes it impossible to exceed a certain number of reps, yet possible to perform a minimum number of reps.

A 12-15 rep max (RM) means you can do 12 reps, but it’s impossible to do 16. The ideal rep range for optimal bone strengthening and fat burning is 8-12.

1. Deadlift

Can be done with a barbell, a dumbbell in each hand, or one dumbbell/kettlebell in both hands.

Practice first with a 20 lb. barbell to master the form, which is crucial.

2. Squat

Can be done with a barbell, a dumbbell in each hand, or one dumbbell/kettlebell in both hands.

More challenged women can do bodyweight-only squats. Proper form is critical.

3. Leg Press

This is done on a leg press machine. Legs should bend to at least 90 degrees.

4. Chin-Up

One can use an assist machine or a stool.

5. Lat Pull-Down

Various machines offer this movement. Keep forearms vertical at all times and pull bar only down to neck.

6. Lying Chest Press

This can mean a bench press or dumbbell press, on a flat or slightly inclined bench, or stability ball.

7. Shoulder Press

Can be done with a barbell, dumbbells or machines.

8. Weighted Walking Lunge

Can be done holding a dumbbell in each hand, or one dumbbell/kettlebell/weight plate in both hands at chest.

Bodyweight-only is a good start for those not used to this movement.

Weight Training Over 40 Protocol For Experienced

The goal is to get acquainted with these eight exercises, get your body tuned into them, and then go for it. Even with weight training for women over 50, the guidelines are the same.

Regardless of age, all woman need to master excellent form, not get ahead of themselves, and acquire base joint conditioning first, before using resistance heavy enough for the 8-15 RM.

There is really so much more to know about the wonderful world of lifting weights for women, especially for those over 40, which is why you’ll enjoy reading “Fit Over 40 program.”

This is a must-read for women who are ready to redefine themselves with stronger bones and a fitter, leaner and more energetic body.

“Fit Over 40 program” includes real life profiles of mature women who have achieved extraordinary levels of fitness.

Celebrity Secrets To Maintaining A Hot Body After 40

Scott — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:37:35 +0000

For years, top actors and actresses in Hollywood have held celebrity diet secrets and celebrity fitness secrets close to their hearts that they never shared.

Then something mysterious happened.

Divorce rates skyrocketed, even among religious groups of people who didn’t believe in divorce.

Possibly it was the breakdown of the family in society that led to the development of lawsuits against family members.

A son or daughter sued their parents for mismanagement of money the child earned as an actor or actress.

Another son took vengeance into his own hands and shot the mother or father to death for all the brutality that he suffered as a child.

Another daughter wrote a book on how bad Mommy Dearest really was.

As more and more of these family secrets came out into the public limelight, the philosophy to tell all seemed to spread to extended family members.

Celebrities usually had an entourage of staff with them at any time, and a butler or maid might write a book and tell all.

Secrets got out. Hollywood diet secrets of top stars, and celebrity fitness secrets of men like Arnold Schwartzaneggar, the Hulk and other top bodybuilders were shared in popular magazines.

Some of the celebrity diet secrets and workouts became well known from personal trainers of celebrities.

One personal trainer in Hollywood, Natasha Kufa, is telling all her secrets in her book released just this month. She’s the most contemporary of all those who are telling their secrets.

Google her name and find out more about how she whips the celebrity bodies into the fittest shape of their life and what celebrity diet tips she has to offer.

Celebrity Diets And Workouts: Some Don’t Diet And Workout!

And here’s one of the celebrity fitness secrets that you really need to know now if you want to get in the best shape possible with the least amount of work:

Use the Victoria Morton Suddenly Slender Body Wrap process.

Victoria Morton is an amazing woman in her own right. Now well past the age of 40 and into her 70s, Victoria still has a body of someone in their 20s.

She’s used the proprietary solution she created for the celebrities on herself for all these years. And it’s worked.

Her proprietary solution is a combination of minerals and other substances that penetrate into the skin and facilitate a detoxification to occur. When cells are detoxified, they give up their toxins.

In other words, the pesticides and chemicals we eat and breathe are trapped in our body until we physically do something to remove them.

The chemicals are associated with ill health, and the more toxic the cells become, the more sick we become.

Hollywood Celebrity Diet Secrets Are Often Ancient Detoxification Strategies

Detoxification and cleansing is a simple principle of natural health that has been identified since very early times, and early civilizations.

Loofah

Japanesse and Korean women scrubbed the skin with loofahs until the skin glowed, rubbing away all old skin cells and did so on a regular basis.

When they did, people felt better and their skin breathed.

It was easier for the body to eliminate toxins once the skin was cleaned in this manner.

Celebrities have also used loofahs to get their skin looking good, but now they’ve been replaced with exfoliation treatments and microdermabrasion at the spa.

That’s how they have always had beautiful, camera-happy skin that looks like peaches and cream.

Celebrity Fitness Secret: Carve Out A Body By Getting Mummified

Victoria’s body wrap process involves soaking elastic bandages in her proprietary solution, then applying the bandages to the skin.

In other words, the person is wrapped like a mummy. During the hour or so that the bandages remain on the body, it’s important to baste the bandages with more of the proprietary solution.

When the bandages are removed, then several inches are gone from waistline, hips, legs, and arms, as the skin tightened up.

The cells that lost the toxins suddenly became skinny and so did the person. This is a natural byproduct of the detoxification process.

If you have a series of wraps before a big event such as a wedding, awards ceremony, anniversary party or school reunion, you can expect to fit into a size smaller clothes in your closet.

There have been people who signed up for weekly wraps and slowly whittled down their size for 300 pounds to 170 pounds.

Slowly they forced those toxins out of the body and began losing inches, feeling better and better, and repeating the process again and again.

It’s important to repeat the process; since we all are constantly being bombarded from the environment with chemicals, we all have to constantly detoxify. It’s just the nature of life.

Victoria Morton’s body wraps can be found online by doing a Google search for her name and the wrap. She has a franchise chain of salons that service the world.

Celebrities have used her method for decades and it works.

And this Hollywood celebrity diet or fitness tip will still work, whether or not Hollywood goes away.

For more info on how to improve your health over the age of 40, and how to look as good as any celebrity, see the ebook Fit Over 40 program.

The Best Exercises For Men Over 40

Rodney — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:50:33 +0000

If you’re getting ready to start up on your workout plan, one thing that you’ll definitely want to consider is the best exercises for men over 40.

While many of the exercises that this group should be doing are fairly similar to those that younger males should be, there are some key differences that you must know about.

By selecting the right combination of exercise for men over 40, you can be sure that you’re maximizing muscle growth, without putting your body at risk.

Males of this age do have slightly different hormonal environments, recovery abilities, and other related issues that can factor into workout selection, so by noting these and then formulating your plan, you can be sure that you’re on your way to success.

Let’s go over some of the important factors that need to be assessed when looking at the best exercises for men over 40 and then give you a great list of movements to choose from.

Being Aware Of Joint Pain

The very first thing to think about when designing a workout program for yourself is that now that you are older, you are at a slightly higher risk of experiencing joint related pain.

While this won’t impact all males, many of those who do have a background of quite heavy lifting or other intense physical activity pursuits behind them (such as endurance running training) could be dealing with nagging chronic injuries that don’t seem to quit.

For this reason, it’s helpful to look at a few substitutions.

For example, rather than performing full front squats, which will place a great deal of strain on the back and knees, try leg press instead.

This way you’re supported by the bench the entire way through and it’s a lot less taxing on the body. As you can still lift very heavy when doing the leg press, it won’t hinder muscle growth in any way.

Likewise, rather than doing a standing shoulder press where you’re going to experience a very high amount of tension coming down through the spinal column, consider doing a seated shoulder press instead or consider doing upright rows if you are suffering from elbow pain.

Again, you’ll still get great strengthening benefits from both of these movements but won’t have the level of stress on the body that you would with that standing shoulder press.

It’s always important not to cut out any muscle groups from your workout plan but make minor adjustments that will keep the body safe and comfortable.

Factoring In Recovery

The next thing that you must take into account as well is your recovery ability. Many of the compound exercises will really place a high degree of stress on the CNS since you are lifting such a heavy weight and working so many muscle groups at once.

To help get around this, you may want to start doing some pre-exhaust isolation exercises first. What this means is that rather than going straight away into the bench press for instance, you should perform a few isolated chest fly’s first.

This isolation exercise will tire out the chest muscles so that when you do move to the compound lift of bench press, you require fewer overall sets to really fatigue the muscles and bring about that growth response.

You’ll still see great strength gains as you are doing the key compound lift, but the entire session won’t be quite as taxing.

Normally for men under 40 they would choose compound first and then move to isolation movements, but for selecting the best exercises for men over 40, the opposite is generally a smarter move.

Of course this doesn’t have to be the case in all situations, but for many it is. Especially when you are dealing with a chronic injury in one muscle group.

Hitting The Trouble Spots

Finally, last but not least, when thinking about the best exercises, consider your trouble spots. Typically males do tend to accumulate the most fat in the abdominal and lower back region as this is where your body naturally tends to store fat.

As such, you’ll likely want to be doing something to help you rid yourself of this. While getting down to a low body fat percentage overall is always the top way to reduce fat from the abs and ‘love handles’, you can also firm up the muscles underneath so that you look better in that area.

The plank is going to be great for this as it works the entire core as well as all the muscles that run along the spinal column as you try and maintain good balance while doing the movement.

Also remember to perform the side plank as part of your routine as well, as that will really hit those muscles on the side very well.

Another great movement for lower back fat will be weighted supermans, where you lie flat on a bench, have someone sit across your lower legs for balance, and then holding a weighted plate lower and rise back up again using the back muscles to guide you.

This is great for hitting those stubborn areas that many other exercises miss, especially if you are going to be doing more seated exercises as we mentioned above.

So there you have some of the key things to note when choosing exercise for men over 40. It’s definitely important that you do make a few adjustments to your workout routine as you go along so that you can see that much better results.

The one thing that puts a stop to many men who are seriously involved in their training is injuries, so this can help keep you injury free and ensure you stay the course.

For more help designing a fully customized workout plan that is targeted towards those over 40 looking to get fast results, please check out the Fit Over 40 program.

It has everything you need to make a dramatic body transformation.

No related posts.

Weight Loss For Women Over 40: Get Your Body In Shape Quickly

Rodney — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:26:36 +0000

As you go about the goal of weight loss for women over 40, there are a number of important things that you must consider.

Many women set the goal to lose weight but then become very confused over which program will be best for them to utilize.

It’s no secret that you must be following a good diet along with a sound workout program to reach this goal, but sadly, many women get led astray.

With all the fad diet plans out there or ‘quick-fix’ approaches, it can be hard to turn your head to these when they seem to offer such promising results.

But you can be guaranteed that if you fall for these gimmicky approaches, all you’ll be doing is wasting time and getting more and more frustrated that you aren’t going to see results.

Let’s have a look at some of the top weight loss tips for women over 40. If you follow these, you will be well on your way to seeing the fat loss results that you’re looking for.

Here’s what you need to know.

Create A Flexible Diet Plan That Works For You

The very first thing that you should be doing if you want to succeed with this goal is making sure that you choose a more flexible diet plan. If you go on a diet plan that’s very rigid and only allows for five different foods throughout the day, the chances of you sticking with that plan will be slim to none.

You have a life to lead and need a plan that can accommodate. The best diet plan to succeed with fat loss will be one that works with your body.

It’s important to realize that every woman is unique and how foods impact your body will differ from another woman. Some women will do great on higher carb diets while others will feel miserable.

By learning to recognize the signals that your body is sending you, you can create a more appropriate diet plan that will help you reach your end goal. A cookie-cutter, one-size-fits all approach is never going to yield the results that you’re looking for so make sure that you don’t start up a plan like that.

Customization is key for success.

Assess Exercise Preferences

The next thing that you should do to experience fast weight loss for women over 40 is to think about what your exercise preferences are.

While it is true that there are certain forms of exercise that can be slightly more beneficial for fat loss reasons, if you absolutely hate doing all those exercise variations, how likely is it that you’ll stick with the program?

Not very likely at all. If you want to maintain your workout routine, you must be doing activities that you actually enjoy. If you enjoy them, you’ll put more effort into them and that’s what really counts long term.

So think about what you naturally enjoy doing the most and then structure your workouts around this. This way you’ll make fitness a part of your life for the long term.

Keep Exercise Moderate

Another important thing to note is to keep your fitness plan more moderate.

Now that you’re past the age of 40, your body won’t quite have the recovery reserves that it used to like when you were younger, so you’re going to have to be a little more patient with how often you workout and the volume that you use.

Give yourself that downtime to rest. By doing so you’ll come back to each workout feeling better and ready to put in more effort.

One of the biggest mistakes many women over 40 make is pushing too hard and doing far too much activity.

This can hurt you more than help you because when the body starts moving into overtraining, which is a state where you’re doing more work than what it can keep up with, you’re going to notice a reduction to your metabolic rate and your body may start to cling on to its body fat stores.

Learn to progress at your own pace so you enjoy the process more and feel great while doing it.

Choose Wholesome, Natural Foods For Better Energy

When it comes to your food selection, one thing you must do is choose natural. It’s very important for women over forty to pay special attention to getting in enough calcium and iron in their diet plan because these two nutrients are often ones that they fall short in.

If you’re not getting in enough, you could be setting yourself up for bone loss over time and lower overall energy levels. Iron-deficiency anemia is quite common, so choose lean sources of red meat at least once per week and then also choose higher iron vegetables such as spinach.

This will ensure that you can maintain your energy to get through the workout sessions.

Also, be sure that you don’t cut back on dairy products either. Dairy is vital to maintaining good bone health and it can also actually promote greater fat loss in the abdominal region as well. Many women believe that dairy will just cause them to gain weight, but this isn’t the case at all.

If you choose wisely and opt for lower fat sources, then it will definitely help you see faster and better overall results.

So there you have the main weight loss tips for women over 40 that you must keep in mind. With a properly structured workout routine and diet plan that is fully customized for you, you can move closer to your dream body. Don’t let yourself believe that it’s too late – it’s not, not when you have the right approach.

For more help getting started, you might want to consider The Diet Solution program.

It is one diet that is completely customized and will be sure to work for you to produce lasting fat loss success.

Fitting Fitness In Past 40

Rodney — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:25:44 +0000

If you’re over 40 and have the desire to get in shape, the great news is that it’s definitely more than possible to make some incredibly changes to your body and really get the results that you’re looking for.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that once they hit 40, it’ll be all downhill from there and it’s just too late to make significant body composition changes.

Nothing is further from the truth! If you’re dedicated and committed, your body has the potential to change just as much as it did at an earlier age as long as you use the right program for you.

It is true that someone past the age of 40 should be making a few minor adjustments to their overall approach compared with someone who was younger, so as long as you find a plan that has been designed for those over 40, you will be right on track.

That said, one thing that many of those over 40 struggle with is finding the time to get their workouts in. Life is very busy – you likely have a full-time career you’re passionate about and may still have your kids at home with you so between that and other obligations, gym time may be hard to come by.

Fortunately, with the following quick tips this doesn’t have to stand in your way of success. If you know these strategies to make fitting in fitness easier, you can move closer to the road to success.

Let’s have a look at what you should consider.

Divide Cardio Up

The very first thing that you might want to consider doing is breaking your cardiovascular time up.

It may be trying to get into the gym for a full 45 minutes, but if you can do 15 minutes first thing in the morning to jump-start your metabolism, another 15 minutes on your lunch break (walking to get lunch is perfect here) and then 15 minutes in the evening, you’ll have met your daily quota and be right on track.

Nothing says that the cardio training all has to come together and if the truth is told, often splitting it up is even better because then you’ll get three energy boosts through the day.

Or, if you’re really short on time and at a higher fitness level already, you might consider transitioning over to interval training instead. These workouts typically only last about 15-20 minutes total, so they’ll easily fit into your day.

Just be warned they are much more intense, so you need that physical conditioning base before doing them.

Focus On Short But Intense

The next thing that you should note is that when planning your strength training workouts, always focus on making them as intense as possible

You can really cut down on the overall workout time that you spend in the gym if you’re training as intensely as possible. Many people are going about their routine, really only giving 75% or so and this really holds them back from potential results. Not to mention their long rest times increase the duration of their workouts.

Shorten those rest times and lift with so much intensity that you can only complete just a few sets. You’ll actually see far superior results by lifting in this manner and dramatically cut back on the total time that you have to spend in the gym.

If you can, try and get your weight lifting workouts so fast paced that you’re struggling to keep up your breath. If you train in this manner, you’ll see cardiovascular benefits because of them as well, therefore reducing the need to add all that cardio training in the first place.

Always Turn To Compound Movements To Make The Most Of Your Time

Now, when it comes to the actual exercises that you choose to use as part of your workout program, drop all the isolation work you’re doing.

You really won’t see all that much benefit from doing isolated exercises and all they do is drain your time. If you’re struggling to fit fitness in, you want to make the most of every second you spend in the gym.

This means choosing movements that will work multiple muscle groups at once so that you can get in and get out in no time.

Perfect options include squats, deadlifts, lunges, leg press, step ups, bench presses, push-ups, lat pull-downs, pull ups, barbell rows, and the plank.

The more you tilt your focus towards these, the faster you’ll get results in a shorter period of time.

Tighten Up On Your Diet

Finally, the last must-do to consider if you’re struggling to fit in fitness is to make sure that your diet is really on track.

If you are maintaining a strict low calorie diet, you can reduce back on the total volume of cardio that you must complete as you will be creating such a large deficit through the diet alone.

While you should never cut out cardio training completely as it does offer key heart health benefits that you can’t neglect, by making sure your diet is in top shape you can reduce cardio back to just a few times per week.

Especially for those over 40 diet tends to play a key role in success, so double check that you’re eating right to lose weight.

So there you have the top things to know about fitting in fitness if you’re past 40.

It definitely is possible and getting in shape doesn’t have to feel like a second par-time job. You just need the right approach that will make the most of what time you do have and then need to put in your full effort to create the changes you’re looking for.

For more helping getting a full routine together, please check out the Fit Over 40 program.

Workouts For Men Over 40

Rodney — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:43:12 +0000

Finding the perfect exercises for men over 40 will quickly help to catapult your success so that you can reach all your fitness goals and develop the body that you’ve always dreamed of.

Far too many men who are over 40 incorrectly believe that it’s just too late to change the way they look.

They think that they’re just carrying too much body fat or that their body will be resistant to change, thus they choose to give up before they even start.

If this describes your sentiments right now, it’s time to really rethink this because the truth is that there is plenty that you can be doing to change the way you look and build a body that you can feel proud of.

The problem is that many people simple don’t know what to look for in workouts for men over 40 so even if they do get started on a workout routine, they’re literally wasting their time not seeing the results they had hoped for.

Let’s take a little bit of time right now to assess what any workouts for men over 40 should contain so that you can get on the path to success.

Compound Lifts

The very first thing that any workout routines designed for males who are forty years of age or older should have is compound lifts.

Just like when you were younger, these are simply the best movements to provide the greatest strength and muscle gains, and they’ll also help to keep you the leanest as well.

If you are someone who has already been working out for a number of years and does have a very good muscle base behind you, then you may want to start looking into more isolated movements instead to further refine the muscle that you’ve already built.

But, if you’re just getting started and want to make the fastest changes to your body possible, then compound lifts will be the way to do this. Hands down this is the best way to spend your time.

Plenty Of Recovery Time

Another thing that you’ll want to look for when seeking out exercise plans is that they provide ample recovery time.

Since you do still want to be pushing your body quite hard during the sessions you complete as this is what will bring about the best results possible, you need to also make sure that you are getting the recovery time to grow back stronger.

Now that you are in your 40’s or beyond, your recovery rates will be slightly slower so don’t expect to come back as quickly as you may have in your 20’s. Taking a much needed day off after each workout may seem like you’re slacking, but it really is the fastest way to keep yourself right on track.

If you want to do some light recovery cardio training on these days off that should be fine as it won’t impede your recovery all that much and will offer you the cardiovascular boost that you may be looking for as well.

Moderate Rep Ranges

Moving on, in workouts for men over 40 you will want to be focusing in the moderate rep ranges of 6-10 reps.

You likely won’t want to go much lower than this, down to 3-5 reps total as you may have in your younger years, due to the fact that this will call for more total weight lifted and that can place huge stress loads on your joints.

While weight lifting definitely will make your bones stronger, you don’t want to really overload yourself or you could start to experience shoulder joint, knee joint, or even hip pain.

Joint problems are quite common in men who are past the age of 40 and who are still lifting incredibly heavy weight, so save yourself from this.

Lift more moderately now so that you can ensure that you have a long lifting future ahead of you. It’s simply not worth sacrificing your potential long-term results just to add another 20 pounds of weight to the bar and crank out a max set of 3.

If you perform weight just under that for 7-8 reps, you’ll still be evoking a great growth response and be feeling a lot better while doing it.

Full Body Or Upper/Lower Split Design

Finally, the last thing that you should be looking for when seeking out workout routines that will help transform your body is one that utilizes either a full body or an upper/lower workout split design.

While those who are in their early 20’s may still decide to use the traditional ‘bodybuilding’ split workouts where you work just one or two muscle groups at once, these aren’t going to be the best option for you at this age.

Since you do have that slightly reduced recovery capacity and you still do want to be hitting the muscles with a high enough frequency, you should instead be using a full body or an upper/lower split design.

This will allow you to work each muscle group at least two times, if not three times per week, therefore making great gains without over-exerting yourself.

Some men may also choose to do one upper body day, one lower body day, and then one full body day throughout the week with one day off in between and this tends to work incredibly well for adding a bit more specialization, while still maximizing both rest and frequency at the same time.

So there you have some of the most important factors that you must be sure you’re taking into account and looking into as you search through workouts for men over 40.

Remember that there’s definitely no one best routine that you should choose to use but rather you should take into account your personal preferences, how your body responds to various workout program designs, and how much time you have available to devote to your routine.

When all of these are accounted for then you can feel confident that you’ve found a workout that will take you to your end goal.

For more quick tips and complete workout programs to get started with, please check out the Fit Over 40 program.

Gaining Muscle Over 40? Here’s How

Rodney — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:46:27 +0000

Many people often think that building muscle after 40 is next to impossible and not something that they should even consider attempting. But, is that really the case?

Or does it just take a certain technique to achieve success?

The fact of the matter is that it is perfectly possibly to build muscle past the age of 40 provided you understand what you should be doing with your workout program.

Let’s go over what you need to know about gaining muscle over 40.

Set Up The Right Exercise Selection

The very first step in building muscle past the age of 40 is making sure that you’re choosing the right exercises to perform.

If you go into the gym and perform exercises that won’t deliver much in the way of muscle stimulation or results, you’re going to be disappointed in the progress you’re making.

For best progress, you’ll want to choose three to four compound exercises per workout as well as two to four isolated exercises to target the smaller muscle groups.

So for example, if you were doing a full body workout approach you might perform squats, the bench press, as well as barbell rows, and then add to this some lateral raises, bicep curls, leg extensions, and hamstring curls.

Following this exercise selection pattern will ensure that you’re getting enough volume into the program to see good results, but not doing so much volume with that program that you aren’t recovering optimally.

Remember that there’s a fine line between enough of a stimulus to grow and too much that you become overtrained.

Be Sure To Provide Nutritional Support

The second thing that you need to do for gaining muscle over 40 is to make sure that you are providing yourself top notch nutritional support.

Building muscle is quite an energy intensive process so if you aren’t consuming enough calories, you’ll never reach your goals.

Remember that you need calories from all three main macronutrients – carbohydrates, proteins, and dietary fats, so don’t leave any out.

Some people over 40 who are very afraid of gaining body fat may choose a low carb muscle building diet. Unfortunately, this won’t produce nearly the same degree of results as a diet containing carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates will help to increase insulin in the blood stream which is one of the most anabolic hormones around. You don’t have to really overload on carbohydrates, but they must be in the diet, especially around the workout sessions.

Consider Supplementation

Another thing that you might consider as you go about your workout routine for gaining muscle over 40 is adding some smart supplementation.

While you should never rely on supplements to do the work for you or use them as a replacement for a proper diet, there are a few supplements that can help to boost your results.

First, glutamine is one supplement to consider as it will help to enhance your degree of recovery between workout sessions.

Since recovery is imperative to success with building muscle and many people who are over 40 do notice slower recovery rates, this can really have an influence on your rate of progress.

In addition to glutamine, a good quality whey protein powder will also be essential for those over 40.

Your appetite may not be quite what it was when you were younger, so without that you could potentially struggle to get enough calories and more importantly, protein into your body.

Protein powder makes this incredibly easy and to add to that, it also helps to promote faster recovery from your workout sessions as well.

Go Easy On Additional Activities

The next important tip to note for building muscle is that you should ease up on any other additional activities you’re doing.

If you’re someone who always stays very active in a number of team sports for instance, now might be the time to give yourself a bit of a break away from those.

While they are definitely good to do and have in your fitness plan, when the goal is to build as much muscle as possible, they may take away from how fast you recover as well.

If you are doing too many outside activities away from the gym, you may find that eventually you can’t keep up with the gym sessions you’re doing, thus progress really starts to stall.

Once or twice it may be alright to partake in some other form of exercise, but beyond that let the body rest and recover.

Have Patience

Finally, last but definitely not least, make sure you have patience. While it’s by no means impossible to build muscle once you’ve reached the age of 40, you do have to realize that it will progress slower than it did when you were younger.

If you’re brand new to fitness and working out you will likely see a sudden burst of progress right off the start as your body gets used to this new activity, but after that it will slow down.

Muscle gain rates of around one pound per month – possibly two for those who are training very intensely will be a realistic amount to aim for.

If you notice that you’re gaining much more quickly than this, then you will want to note that chances are you are gaining quite a bit of additional body fat as well, so you may want to back off your calorie intake slightly to avoid this.

So there you have the must-know pieces of information about gaining muscle over 40. With the right program, diet, and mindset, you definitely can make some significant changes to your body and increase your strength gains dramatically so that everyday activities become that much easier.

For more quick tips and complete workout programs to get started with, please check out the Fit Over 40 program.

Workouts For Women Over 40

Rodney — Mon, 30 May 2011 10:41:26 +0000

If you’re looking for workouts for women over 40, then it’s time to learn a few of the key concepts that you should know to make sure your chosen workout has all aspects of fitness covered.

Many women over forty who are looking for a good workout program tend to miss out on some of the elements that will bring them quicker success, thus they fail to make the progress they had hoped they would and quickly become frustrated.

Fortunately though, the search for exercise for women over 40 doesn’t have to be a struggle when you know precisely what you’re looking for.

Let’s have a quick look at what you should be looking for when choosing a properly designed workout program.

Three Resistance Training Days

The very first thing that you’ll want your workout program to have is a good resistance training component. Many women over 40 are very quick to gravitate to the cardio machines only, often because they are firstly scared of adding too much muscle bulk and second because they feel that it’s just too late to start weight training.

This isn’t the case. It’s never too late to start weight training and the fact of the matter is that it’s even better at this age than it ever was before. Now you’re at the primary time when you could start to see bone loss taking place due to lack of weight bearing activity, so weight training will completely help to reverse this.

In addition to that, you know that slow metabolism that so many women over 40 complain about? Weight training will take care of that as well. The metabolic slow-down that often accompanies later age is mostly due to the loss of lean muscle mass that takes place.

Since weight training will promote lean muscle mass building, it will help overtake this loss so that you maintain a higher metabolic rate and fight future fat gain.

Since you will have a slightly lower overall recovery ability however, limit your weight training workouts to just three days per week. This will still be a high enough frequency to see excellent progress, but not so high that you’re feeling drained at all times.

Progressive Cardio Training

The next thing that you want to have in your workouts is a progressively intensive cardio training regime. While if you’re first getting started you definitely won’t want to jump into interval sprints, that should be your end goal.

There’s no reason why you can’t see significant improvements to your cardiovascular fitness levels and interval sprints are the perfect way to accomplish this.

Being that you are slightly older however, aim to take your intervals to the 60 second mark, pairing them with an active rest period of 60 seconds as well.

This will allow you to go at a slightly reduced pace (but still quite intense) compared to if you were doing 30 second intervals. The intensity has an indirect relationship to the length of the interval, so 60 seconds will be perfect for your cardio sessions.

Some Form Of Relaxation Training

The fourth element that should be in place with your training session is some form of relaxation based training.

Chances are you’re at the point in your life where you may experience more and more stress on a daily basis due to a demanding career that you’ve worked hard for many years to achieve, which means finding a way to take care of this stress is imperative.

Relaxation based exercises such as yoga, tai chi, or meditation will be perfect for this and will really help to round out your workout routine.

In addition to this, these forms of training tend to further improve your overall recovery ability between those intense workout sessions as well, so that’s yet another reason to add them to your program once or twice a week.

Even if you just prefer to devote 20 minutes to lying quietly and practicing some deep breathing – just make sure you get it in there. Do what works best for you and what you feel helps you handle your stress.

Female Specific Exercises

Finally, the last thing that you’ll want to have in place when designing a workout routine is specific exercise for women over 40.

Most women of this age group tend to experience the greatest problems with their lower abs, under arms, as well as upper thighs, so you’ll want to be sure that you have some exercises in the workout program that will tone these specific areas.

The top choices that you should consider including will be tricep kickbacks, overhead tricep extensions, push-ups, shoulder presses, lunges, step-ups, let presses, squats, lying leg raises, reverse crunches, and the plank exercise.

Each of these exercises is really going to zero in and target those specific areas of the body while helping to build up some firm muscle tissue.

Remember though that much of improving the look of these areas will come down to reducing your body fat level and the best way to go about doing that will be through using a properly planned diet.

When you’re eating right to not only fuel your workouts but also burn fat faster, that’s when you’ll really see the most remarkable changes in the body while doing these specific exercises.

So there you have the top tips to remember for choosing workouts for women over 40.

If you are serious about reaching your fitness goals and improving the way your body looks, make sure that you do spend some time thinking about the workout design you’re going to use as it will play a key role in allowing you to maximize progress.

For more quick tips and complete workout programs to get started with, please check out the Fit Over 40 program.

How to Maximize Your Workout Recovery Over 40

Rodney — Sun, 29 May 2011 10:29:42 +0000

If you’re someone who’s starting to get involved in fitness training and are at the age of 40 or beyond, there are a few adjustments that you’ll want to make to your program plan in order to ensure you see the best results.

While the overall way you train your body at or above 40 isn’t much different from how you train your body during your younger years, there are still notable differences that you should be aware of.

Failing to recognize these differences and just training the way you see younger individuals training or how you’ve trained in the past could lend to you quickly becoming overtrained.

One of the biggest differences that you’ll notice now that you’re 40 and over is the fact that you just don’t have the recovery system that you used to.

Back in your younger years you may have been able to perform a very intense workout and be fine to go again the next day, but now that you are getting older, this won’t be quite as possible.

You may take more time after each individual session to fully heal the body once again so you feel ready to hit the gym for your next scheduled workout.

Fortunately, there are few things that you can keep in mind that will help you maximize your recovery so that you can get back into the gym sooner and feel a great deal better on a daily basis as well.

Let’s take a brief look at the best ways to maximize your recovery when you’re 40 years of age or older.

1) Keep Your Volume In Check

The very first and possibly most important tip to remember in order to maximize your recovery over 40 is to keep your total workout volume in check.

Think of it this way, you only have so large of a tank of ‘reserves’ of which you can recover each day. Recovery is a very intensive process and the more damage done to the body, the more you’ll drain that reserve tank.

If you go into the gym and are performing 50 sets per workout, you’re really going to be totally depleting that reserve take so it could take days to start feeling better again.

But, if you go to the gym and only perform 20-30 sets instead, you’re only half draining that reserve tank therefore you’ll recover in half the time.

Since one of the most important characteristics of a good workout program that will bring you progress is working out at a high enough frequency rate and by cutting down on the total rest time required you will see better overall progress.

So, two workouts at 25 sets per workout will be a lot better than one workout at 50 sets that takes you a whole week to recover from.

Mind your volume per session and you’ll not only feel better between workouts but perform better as well.

2) Be Sure You’re Sleeping Enough

The second important thing that you must do to promote better recovery is make sure that you’re sleeping well. Many people often find that as they grow older their sleep quality and quantity tends to decline.

You’ll find yourself getting up earlier and earlier in the morning, therefore reducing how much total rest you get.

Since sleep is so imperative in the recovery process, you have to find a way around this. Start going to bed earlier to be sure that you get at least seven hours each night. As older adults this may feel like a struggle at times and not something your body easily does, but if you can work at getting more sleep, you’ll adjust.

3) Practice Foam Rolling

Foam rolling is one of the best recovery techniques that more and more people are starting to get into and for the adult over 40 working out, it’s one of the best.

You’re more likely to experience a high degree of muscle tension after each workout you do as you’re starting to notice a slight loss in flexibility with age.

Foam rolling is perfect because not only will it help to relax this built-up tension, but it’s also going to help to relieve muscle pain and lengthen the tissues as you roll over the cylinder of foam.

Perform some foam rolling for 10 minutes each night, especially on those days you do a strength training session and you’ll notice a difference in how you’re recovering.

4) Know Your Body

Coming to learn your body is also imperative for success for those getting into fitness past 40. Learn the warning signs that you’ve had too much and when your body is telling you to back off.

While when you’re younger you may have been able to push past the point of fatigue and bounce back fairly quickly, that likely won’t be the case right now.

Instead, when your body is telling you that it needs rest, that means it’s time to relax and provide it. There’s a fine line between when you’re pushing hard to see progress and when you’re pushing so hard you’re risking overtraining, so learn what this line is for you specifically.

5) Get In Proper Nutrition

Finally, last but not least, make sure you’re getting in good nutrition. Many people over 40, particularly women who are worried about the weight gain that is much more common at this age, start dramatically reducing back on their calories.

Often this means going without proper post-workout meals. Don’t make this mistake. You absolutely must feed your body the nutrients that it requires after a workout so that it can build and repair itself again.

If you don’t, recovery will be extremely slow to take place. Make sure that you get both proteins and carbohydrates in during this post-workout period and you’ll be making far better progress over the long term basis.

So there you have the top things to note about recovery after the age of 40. As long as you take care to make a few simple adjustments to your program, this does not need to be something that gets you down.

For more workout advice to help you see fast success, please see the Fit Over 40 program.