Have you accepted that now you're in your 40's, the kids take up so much of your time and you're working your arse off professionally, that the days of feeling proud of your physique are behind you? Looking around these days it's easy to see that a lot of people have admitted defeat and are accepting their ever expanding waistlines and decreasing physical performance.
There is a narrative that this decline is down to age, is normal and to be expected. I am passionate about spreading the message that even if you've never been "into" health & fitness, starting training in your 40's is more than enough time to sculpt your best ever body, one you are proud of and your peers are envious of. A recent study has shown that the metabolism doesn't start its natural planned decline until your 60's and that it's our lifestyle factors that cause it to go downhill decades earlier.
Read on to learn why it is perfectly achievable to sculpt a fantastic physique in your 40's, how not to do it, and most importantly, the best approach to take for your mission!
Newbie gains & muscle memory
These are phrases you may or may not have heard of before, even if you have though the chances are they're not what you think. I'll start with 'newbie gains' as this is a little simpler.
For someone like me, who's been lifting weights consistently for 20 years, progress is hard to come by, my newbie gains ran out years ago. This is because I have subjected my body to so much resistance training, it has just gotten good at it. It's no big deal for my muscles to perform 5-15 reps of an exercise until I can't lift any more, rest a minute or two and repeat a few times. There's no novelty there for me and so my body doesn't need to adapt much to meet the demands of what I'm doing. It can handle the task just fine. This isn't to say I can't make progress, it just means I have to dig really deep in order to cause enough muscular stress and damage to elicit growth. I still manage this these days, the progress is just much slower and in smaller increments.
For someone who is new to lifting weights though it's a different story. Because the muscles in an untrained individual are not used to the novel stimulus of repetitions under resistance, it is very easy to cause enough damage to the muscle fibres to create the adaptations we want. Getting stronger muscles! Don't be put off by the term 'damage' here, it's just the result of progressive overload that elicits the adaptation of muscles growing in size and/or strength, no lasting harm is done. In fact, the process of stressing and repairing muscle tissue is one of the healthiest things a person can possibly do.
Also please don't be put off by the idea of growing strong muscles. One of the worst phrases in health and fitness is "I don't want to look bulky". This misnomer is most commonly, but not exclusively, uttered by women who desire a slim or petite physique. I am doing my best to spread the message that growing muscle size and strength actually reduces waistlines and dress sizes because of the dense nature of it compared to the body fat that was once in its place. To clarify, unless you set out hellbent on growing huge muscles, you won't. In fact most of the people who do set out to do just that can't even manage it without anabolic steroids.
Newbie gains are a wondrous wave, ride the life out of it, you'll miss it like hell when they're gone! They are a big reason why even if you don't start lifting until your 40's, you still stand a great chance of catching up with those who started years or even decades before you. Their results have stalled and they're often only turning up and putting in the work because they've learned to love the process & all that comes with it, and that dwindling flicker of hope for an extra inch of bicep or a slightly rounder rear.
Now muscle memory is a funny one because a lot of people when asked would describe this as being able to perform a learned skill years or decades after first picking it up. What it actually means in terms of muscular performance is that once you've created new muscle fibres through resistance training, even if you neglect them for years afterwards, as soon as you start stimulating them with the appropriate training again they fire back into life. This means that if you were once fit and strong in your 20's for example, before life took over causing you to lose condition until your 40's, when you start lifting again those muscle cells take a fraction of the time to start making themselves known. A huge win in your bid for a banging body in your 40's. Even though it might not look like it now, if you've already put the work in, you're in the fast lane to getting back to your best and now you have me as your secret weapon to surpass those early heights.
How to (and not to) do it
As well as being totally realistic to achieve the best looking and feeling body you've ever had in your 40's, it's a lot easier than you think. And actually it's often a case of cutting out some of the training you may be doing rather than upping your efforts.
I have nothing against cardio as a form of exercise. I do it and encourage everyone to in an appropriate amount. It's very valuable and everyone should perform some form of cardio for physical and mental health both now and in later life. However, it is not the best way to improve your physique.
A good looking, attractive body that performs well and feels great requires less body fat and more muscle mass. Yes you can 'lose weight' using cardio but what we're talking about here is getting in shape, not changing what you weigh. What you consider to be 'in shape' is subjective; bigger, smaller, leaner, stronger, narrow waist, wider shoulders, more defined etc. But that doesn't really change the principles that work, improving your body composition, or reducing fat and increasing muscle.
So you may be happy to hear that your park runs, boot camps, HIIT & bodypump classes etc simply aren't the way to get your athletic, aesthetic physique and can quite often make this harder to achieve. I'm encouraging you to stop hammering the cardio and high intensity stuff, and start lifting weights. A well planned strength/resistance training program will do a number of things that cardio and HIIT will not:
- Build muscle: muscle gives you shape, whether you're male or female the shape will differ, but in both cases it's a good thing aesthetically.
- Increase your metabolism: this allows you to eat more food without worrying about gaining fat and will cause you to burn fat steadily and consistently, even while you sleep.
- These two together, less fat & more muscle = better body composition. Your body is better looking.
- The down stream effects of this are better health; better skin, better digestion, better sleep, better hormone regulation, better libido, more energy etc.
- These become a positive cycle and lead to more of the same.
You really don't need that much to make significant progress. 2 to 3 well programmed strength training sessions per week, enough 'activity' (often around 8-10,000 steps per day) and the correct nutrition, and your 40's can become your super-era. It's up to you how far you take it, maybe you want to drop a few clothing sizes and not feel squashed in your plane seat next time you go on holiday, or maybe you want to push on and see muscles through your clothes, and everything in between. Health & fitness is individual and very nuanced and this is why hiring a good coach to help can be an invaluable investment.
I am passionate about people being fitter and healthier for longer and therefore living better happier lives. This is me telling you that wherever you are currently, and whatever your goal, it is possible and all you need to do is start. Be brave and ambitious, do something for yourself that will pay back the people around you. Let's do it!!!