Can You Build Muscle After 40? Expert Shares Exercise Tips

Can you build muscle after 40?

The answer is a loud ‘Yes’. The bad news is that muscle-building hormone testosterone starts gradually dropping in your 40s. As a result, you don’t have the same vigour, the same energy and more importantly, your body reacts slower than it did in your younger years. “But, that doesn’t mean you cannot build muscle after your 40’s,” says Varnit Yadav, Exercise and Nutrition Coach, Lucknow. “You have the power to slow this natural decline and maybe even reverse it. The solution is to lift weights, and a lot of them,” Varnit adds. Weight training is the best way to keep the muscle mass you have and even increase muscle mass you may have lost with ageing, research suggests.

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Five Tips For Men After 40s  

Varnit Yadav, a fitness expert shares five exercise tips for you to make the best out of your body after you turn 40: 

Trap bar deadlifts: 

After 40, conventional barbell deadlifts can place a lot of stress on the lower back and other joints if form is not perfect. The trap bar (or hex bar) allows the body to remain more upright. This means there's less stress on the spine and knees while transferring more load to the legs, glutes and back, which are typically the areas that begin to weaken as we age. Therefore, the trap bar deadlift builds full body strength and is easy on the body.

Leg up:

Although you should perform full-body workouts to work all the major muscles, older men should pay particular attention to leg muscles: quadriceps and hamstrings (in the thighs); the gluteals (in the buttocks); and calf muscles. These are all muscles used in many daily functional movements - squatting, climbing stairs, etc. Compound exercises that work more than one muscle with a single movement-such as squats, deadlifts and lunges, are excellent for building your leg muscles.

Find your Pace:

Lifts should be done at a 7-second tempo. That means 3 seconds to lift the weight, 1 second rest, and 3 seconds to lower it. You also want to use enough weight so that the last few reps are a challenge. If you can't lift the weight for at least 8 reps, go lighter. When you can easily utilize 8 reps without completely fatiguing the muscle, add more weight. Muscles only get stronger if you increase resistance.

Goblet squats:

Squats needn't be daunting or shattering to the knees! Holding one dumbbell close to your chest (like a goblet) will encourage better posture and improve balance. It does not only work out legs (hamstrings, quads, glutes), but really works out a very robust all-around movement/ the whole body, essentially firing up the core, glutes and stabilisers as well. This is a total body movement, not like the fuss of heavy bars. You can also try Box Squats, it gives a similar result for beginners trying to find a way around squatting movement. 

Resistance band rows

Resistance bands can produce a similar amount of growth as other traditional exercises but without the stress. Seated or standing rows with resistance bands can provide a deep activation of your back muscles. A very low impact movement, adjustable in intensity, and even a great postural exercise - something we all struggle with as we age. Plus you can do them anywhere, so there is no reason to stress about lugging around heavy equipment at the gym.

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Conclusion: 

Based on the input for our expert, it is absolutely possible to gain and build muscle after the age of 40. It requires grit, determination and a health conscious diet, and as our expert suggested, a lot of concentrated weight training.