This Guide Teaches You:
How to build muscle regardless of your age.
About age-specific workout challenges, and how to overcome them.
The steps required to improve your post-40 physique.
How to modify the major muscle building exercises to reduce wear and tear on the body.
Table of Contents:
1. Do you qualify as an experienced lifter?
2. The reality that is lifting past the age of 40
3. Steps required to improve your physique
4. How to modify the basic exercises
5. Sample experienced trainer muscle building program
Brad Borland is a strength & conditioning specialist, cancer survivor and the founder of WorkoutLab.

Staring down the barrel of 40-plus years of age brings along some feared and often misconstrued visions of hurt joints, bad backs and deflated fitness goals. “It’s time to accept the fact that you’re getting older and can’t do what you’ve always done in the gym,” says the little old man on your shoulder. Give up and let the stresses of life and age keep you from an active fitness plan?

Not so fast. Getting older doesn’t mean you need to cancel your gym membership and relegate your workouts to walking the neighborhood. There’s not only hope for less pain, less fat and more muscle but there is a road to a more well-rounded physique.

If you find yourself at MuscleandStrength.com reading this article then you’ve come to the conclusion that you have challenges, need solutions and want more regarding your physique goals. Forty is the new thirty, right? So, let’s define where you stand, what your true motivation is and where to go from here.

Do you qualify?
What is the big deal about forty anyways? Why is it such a negative milestone when it comes to staying lean, training hard and having enough energy in the tank? For you it may be that you’ve trained hard from your teenage years to now and simply find yourself at a crossroads regarding goals, motivation and health. Or, you may just be getting into the iron game as a newbie and are at a bit of a loss concerning getting started.

If you are a part of the “I’ve been at this for years” crowd then you should know it’s more about mileage than years. Training day in and day out for twenty-plus years can take a considerable toll on the body, especially when you are committed to a goal for a sport or other venture.

If you are new to training for whatever reason (fat-loss, gaining muscle or want to increase functionality) most of the advice out there can become a bit daunting. It also seems to be directed at young twenty-somethings chomping at the bit for more mass and superhuman strength. What is a guy in his forties supposed to do? No wonder so many take up running and golf.

Let’s look at a few challenges the average forty-something may encounter when it comes to motivation, training and life.

Seated cable rows

Now that your ego has left the building it is time to set some new targets – it’s time to find a new motivation and set up a new plan of action.

Comparing: Yes, forty is the sweet spot for mass confusion. You don’t think of yourself as old, but you’re not a spring chicken either. However, you may still find yourself comparing you to other younger lifters at your local gym. Besides, it wasn’t too long ago that you could throw up some pretty good numbers on the bench press or go full throttle for two or more hours at a clip.

Let’s be realistic, the old you is still whispering to you that you haven’t lost a single step, and just given the time and dedication, could smash some heads and get at it just like those millennials.

Here’s a trick: stop it! Stop comparing yourself to every young buck that walks in the gym door. Who cares if they can bench more, curl more or perform countless pull-ups and box jumps. Focus on your strengths, shore up weaknesses and form a sound plan that fits you and your goals. Speaking of goals…

Motivation/goals: By the time you’ve spent a decade or so pumping iron it can sometimes be tough to nail down a specific goal to gun for. When you were younger it was all about getting bigger, more muscular and stronger. Now that your ego has left the building it is time to set some new targets – it’s time to find a new motivation and set up a new plan of action.

Your goals, however, need to be specific. No longer can you just throttle-up and go ballistic toward arbitrary visions of bigger and bigger. You must define what you want, how to get there and how long it will take. What motivates you? What is your new vision of the ideal physique? Do you have any weak points or functionality issues that need specific attention?

Metabolism: Of course it’s not big news that your metabolism will potentially slow down a bit as you age. For a sedentary individual, your thirties are when you start to naturally lose muscle mass and subsequently strength. Kids, work pressure and other scheduled life events can make exercising and eating right take a back seat. Lack of activity, bad eating and stress can wreak havoc on your metabolism without your consent.

It’s not all downhill. Careful pre-planning and scheduling can do wonders regarding making it to the gym, eating a balanced diet and managing stress levels. There are tactics to help you with reinvigorating your metabolism regarding training strategy, nutrition timing and recuperation so don’t fret.

Recovery: Another wonderful perk of getting older is the tricky subject of recovery. When you were younger, it seemed like you could stay up all night, eat crap and still make gains in the gym the next day. The fact is that recovery just doesn’t come that easy any more. With the aforementioned list of stressors, recovery will further be stifled leading you down the road to failed attempts of reaching your goals.

With age and life working against you, there still are things in your tool bag that will help you with recovery. Not only will proper adherence to a sleep schedule provide a much needed recuperative ability, proper nutrition is absolutely paramount. Without a sound eating plan recovery becomes more of a challenge.

Time/balance: A significant player on the subject of recovery, time availability for not only training but for meal preparation and timing can have an impact on progress. In addition, if you are the average American, you are most likely juggling a work/life balance trying to divide your commitment for family, social life, job and yourself.

Again, careful planning will do wonders for not your progress in the gym but also your daily life schedule. Executing a sound eating plan, training on a weekly scheduled basis and getting in the proper rest and recovery are feasible with a little prep on your part.

Dumbbell bench press

The big, basic lifts are the absolute best exercises for packing on muscle, increasing strength and stoking your metabolism. Too many isolation moves will waste your precious time.

The reality of the over forty lifter
Yes, you are not the twenty-something run-and-gun lifter you once were; your strength, muscle mass and recovery have waned a bit, but there is a little secret. You are tougher and more resilient than you think. Of course, accept those “weak spots” but mentally shift your perspective toward improving what you have. Move forward any way you can and build on that discipline.

You still have the ability to pack on some serious muscle, get leaner and build a more balanced physique. Let’s look at a few things you can influence.

Steps to improve
Find your (new) motivation: What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you want to improve about your physique? Write it down on paper, don’t just think about it. Find what motivates you, write it down and read it every single day. This will affirm your purpose and feed your drive building your confidence little by little.

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