March 8, 2024

Brother, let’s face it: Turning 40 can feel like a bit of a gut punch. The mirror might not reflect the same guy you used to be, and that youthful energy seems to be fading. But here’s Welcome to your blueprint for building muscle, boosting energy, and reclaiming your best self after 40. In this guide we will reveal the 5 secret tactics, that when applied with consistency, will allow you to build your best body at any age. What’s more, at the end we will expose you to our secret weapon in the battle to build the optimized male after 40! But first, let’s talk science: Muscle mass isn’t just about looking good (though who doesn’t love a sculpted physique?). It’s about health, strength, and resilience. Here’s why: Muscle burns more calories at rest, boosting your metabolism and keeping you leaner. Strong muscles support your bones and joints, reducing injury risk and improving balance. Increased muscle mass improves insulin sensitivity, lowering your risk of metabolic disease and diabetes. Muscle fuels your energy levels and boost your mood, keeping you feeling active, masculine and vibrant. SECRET TACTIC 1: TRAIN SMARTER, NOT HARDER Forget the endless sets of bicep curls. Forget the endless sets of bicep curls. Focus on compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once, like squats, lunges, rows, and presses. Leveraging the impact of complex compound movements allows you to get more “work done” for each session in the gym. More than that, these movements not only strengthen but coordinate our movement patterns, making us more resilient and resistant to injury. As you get more comfortable lifting weights and begin to train regularly, it makes a lot of sense to recruit the help of a professional trainer to ensure that your form is optimized and to help you learn more advanced compound lifts to add to your routines. Progressive overload is key to any training program. The goal of progressive overload is to continuously challenge the muscles, which in turn stimulates muscle growth, strength gains, and improvements in endurance. This can be achieved by various methods, such as increasing the weight lifted, the number of repetitions or sets performed, the intensity of the exercise, or reducing rest periods between sets. By consistently making your workout slightly more challenging over time, you encourage your body to adapt and become stronger, fitter, and more capable of handling physical stress. Ian general terms, you should follow a progressive plan. This can be spread out in several ways, but we have provided a sample training program for relative beginners with this blueprint to help you get started! Don’t neglect your core. A strong core improves stability, posture, and injury prevention. More than just a (perhaps deeply buried) six pack, our core consists of a number of muscles that wrap and stabilize our trunk from back to front. As such, training our core involves much more than simply performing endless crunches. When lifting weights we use our core consistently to stabilize and brace the loads we are moving. Exercises performed standing, hip hinged or overhead all require a great deal of core activation to perform properly. This again ties into the value of learning to safely and effectively perform compound movements in our weight lifting routines. Core becomes not only and area to train, but also and area to learn to use and activate. “Discipline beatsmotivation all thetime” Listen to your body Rest and recovery are crucial for muscle growth. Aim for 4 strength training sessions per week with rest days in between. While the focus of this blueprint is adding muscle, it is important to consider the health benefits of including several types of cardiovascular training in our programs as well. With the natural constraints of time and other life commitments to consider it can be overwhelming to try and “pack it all in”. It is important to remember that we provide the training stimulus in the gym, but we get stronger while we are recovering. SECRET TACTIC 2: FUEL YOUR ENGINE Protein is your best friend In the battle to add muscle mass after 40, few things are more important than insuring you are taking in enough of the building blocks required to form that muscle tissue. Training breaks us down and rest builds us back up, but only if we have the amino acids on hand to rebuild those muscle fibers. As the research in this area has evolved, so too have the recommendations for protein targets. Aim for 1.5-2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. So for an 80kg man that mean his target protein intake is 120g – 160g (or more) per day. Think lean meats, fish, eggs, beans, and tofu. Also think about protein shakes for days where you may fall short of your targets. Don´t fear healthy fats They keep you feeling full, support hormone production, and provide essential nutrients. Fat also makes up the membrane of each cell in your body – we couldn’t live a minute without them! Look for healthy, wholefood sources such as avocados, nuts, seeds, and olive oil to compliment the animals fats that your protein focused diet will require. Complex carbs are your energy source When it comes to rounding out the macronutrients, it is important to try and avoid simple and processed carbohydrate sources such as sugar, white flour and foods with low fiber. nstead aim to choose high fiber fruits, dark leafy and root vegetables and whole grain complex grains. In general refined carbs like white bread, pastries, candy and other treats are not in line with your goals and should be treated as genuine exceptions rather than rules. Stay hydrated. Water is essential for every bodily function, including muscle recovery. You’ve heard this a million times before. It was right each time. Just do it. Aim for 8 glasses per day. Or 3L per day. Or just have a bunch more than you are now. SECRET TACTIC 3: RECOVER LIKE A CHAMPION