Bodybuilding After 40 Men Nutrition Tips. Nutrition for gaining muscle mass for middle-aged people

You are over forty, and you have decided to go in for bodybuilding, especially since you have some sports experience in your youth. Then you should know that after forty you need to train in a special way. The way you trained when you were twenty, or even five to ten years ago, is impossible.

What, age takes its toll and you need to slow down? No, the point is quite different.

Remember why you trained young? It's understandable to please girls. Well, today you have different priorities - you need energy, frantic performance and absolute health. Indeed, after forty, it’s time to start a career. You have a lot of ideas, great experience, the ability to work with people. Well, a career is a grueling workday and often sleepless nights. It's a shame when health fails. And this happens in the fifth ten at every step. Those who do not go in for sports, by the age of forty, accumulate up to a dozen different kinds of chronic ailments, caused mainly by physical inactivity. The level of sex hormones falls by almost half. The bioenergy level decreases accordingly. What kind of efficiency is there if you want to sleep all the time! The best "medicine" here is bodybuilding. But it must be applied skillfully. It is no longer possible to fight only for strength indicators. A completely different approach is needed.

The devil is not so terrible ...

For the sake of truth, I must say that many age-related changes in the body are actually not caused by age at all. The real reason is a change in lifestyle towards an almost complete immobility. Indeed, with age, a person moves less and less. By the way, the long-awaited purchase of a car turns out to be not a boon at all, but a final rasterization of cardio-vascular system... (When you walked, she got some kind of stress.) Meanwhile, in a mature body, almost nothing happens that would interfere with playing sports and getting results. If the training does not go after 40 years, it is due to the accumulated "diseases of inaction" - high blood pressure, poorly functioning liver, low level of hematopoiesis. That is why, before starting training, you must definitely see a doctor. It may so happen that training will exacerbate painful symptoms, transfer a sluggish illness into a severe form. Here's an example. Let's say you have cholecystitis from an irregular diet. The disease itself is not so annoying. You may not even remember her. However, intense bending of the torso, bending forward and to the sides may well lead to an inflammatory outbreak when you have to go to bed. Hence the conclusion: before buying a subscription to an expensive gym, you need to go to the doctor and be thoroughly examined. Second, the load should be increased gradually. It is impossible to break into a quarry for an already known reason - detrained. For example, the heart is able to adapt to the most extreme loads, but only if this load does not fall on it like a hammer.

What can you count on in the gym if you have no direct medical contraindications to training? Oddly enough, even at 40, you can set the highest goals for yourself. Nothing terrible has happened to your muscles over the years. If they have reduced strength and volume, it is only because of your low mobility. Strength and volume is a profitable business for any age. Formally, muscle cells lose their internal protein contractile structures with age. The very ones that make the cell voluminous and "strong". However, these losses begin in earnest only after 60 years. But even among frank elders, they make up no more than 22 percent of the former "young" number. They are also frightened by the age-related reduction in joint mobility. Flexibility does diminish by the age of 40, but no one has yet figured out why. It is believed that age has nothing to do with it. The joints seem to adapt to the limited range of motion that is characteristic of modern humans. One way or another, but the connective tissues of the joints at any age can be stretched with varying degrees of difficulty. An extreme example: the crazy flexibility of old Indian yogis.

By the way, it should be said that, again, for reasons not understood by science, persistent stretching of the joints has a huge healing effect. By regaining its childlike flexibility, the body is almost as rejuvenated as it is. So, leaving aside any debate, after 40 years, it is imperative to do stretching exercises. The main thing is that the program is competently composed. Well, its very content, whether it will be "tailored" in a modern way, or you will undertake to learn old yoga asanas, does not really matter. The end result is important. Another thing is that stretching training should be regular and conscientious.

But the women were not lucky. After 40 and even after 30 years, their skeleton begins to gradually lose calcium. The reasons for this, too, have not yet been reliably clarified. Perhaps the female sex hormone estrogen is to blame for the loss of calcium. Perhaps with menstruation, women lose iron, and this somehow negatively affects calcium over the years. I think you can see the danger women who exercise hard but hardly consume dairy products are in danger because they are "too much fat." Only in the USA, at least 10% of actively exercising mature women have broken something for themselves only because they aggravated the age-related "withdrawal" of calcium from the bones with a rigid, necessarily dairy-free diet.

Another aspect of age is that you need more rest after exercise. However, not everything is clear here either. Perhaps age actually slows down the recovery process. But something else is also possible: we are all so overwhelmed. nervous stress that it negatively affects our physiology. In any case, after 40, it is difficult to find a man or woman without serious psychological problems related to work, family and children.

It's never too late!

The trouble with those over 40 and older is that they were born much earlier than the physical culture revolution. And now all that remains is to scratch the back of your head and lament: oh, if you had known earlier! .. And in fact, if you took up training at the age of 20-25, you would look and feel completely different today. You would not have any "extra" pounds, sagging belly and buttocks, carried down by the force of gravity, stoop and much more, which unmistakably betrays age. But most importantly, self-esteem would be completely different. What is there to hide: the years are very, very "pressure" on the psyche. Well, if thanks to sports you don't get worse over the years, why complain about your age?

By the way, what about the bodybuilders and bodybuilders of the 60s? Not all of them have retained good shape, and all because they quit sports, mentally tired of it. But the one who continued to train remained a "cucumber". It is clear that they made reasonable amendments to their training. As a result of studying their experience, universal "recipes" were formed, suitable for everyone who took up training after 40 ...

Training methods

Before you are exact guidelines, on the basis of which you should build your training program.

Increase in the number of repetitions in the set. No one has yet reliably established which is better: more reps with low weights or few reps with submaximal weights. Nevertheless, from the experience of using both methods, it is clear: large weights are traumatic. Hence the advice - the number of repetitions in the set must be raised to 10-15. The weight will accordingly become less, and the load on the joints will be less. This advice even more applies to those who have trained regularly all these years, and not to beginners. The fact is that your joints have worked under significant stress for decades. Probably, there were minor microtraumas, the surface of the cartilage was scrubbed. Why risk it? Well, for those who have just taken up their health, the advice sounds unambiguously categorical: at least 10-15 repetitions in a set.

No plyometrics! Jumping over obstacles, jumping over obstacles from a spot, throwing heavy balls, etc., according to experts, can accelerate your progress in the gym three times. The secret is that this type of exercise effectively strengthens the ligaments - elastic "traction" of connective tissue, which attach the muscle to the bones. The ligaments are permeated with nerve "sensors" that control them "for break". Why this is done is understandable.

If the force of muscle contraction exceeded the strength of the ligaments, they would simply break. "Sensors" limit the strength of the muscle, "adjusting" it to the strength of the ligaments. Plyometrics fabulously strengthens the ligaments, but at the same time overloads them. This kind of shock stress is contraindicated in the musculoskeletal system after 40.

Stretching. To overcome some stiffness in the joints and develop their flexibility, before training, after warm-up, you need to stretch for 10 minutes. No jerky, ballistic movements!

Reducing the weekly training volume. To avoid unnecessary overload, reduce the number of training days per week and / or the total number of sets. Get more rest! Sleep during the day if possible.

Good technique. To avoid injury, do all exercises with great technical skill. Deviations from the correct form of performing movements at any age entail injuries. However, you need to be especially careful: injuries will knock you not only out of the rhythm of training, but also throughout your life. Losses at work or in business can become irreparable.

Good health is a trained heart. Aerobics after 40 years comes to the fore. It should be practiced for 25-40 minutes. three times per week. However, four or even five times is even better. If you already have serious sports experience behind you, you can bring your heart rate to 70-80% of the maximum. (The maximum is calculated as 220 minus your age in years. For example, if you are 50 years old, then your maximum is 170 beats per minute.) Actually, 119-136 beats per minute are considered the optimal "aerobic" heart rate. Beginners should approach this heart rate gradually - in 3-4 months. Aerobics can be anything. The main thing is to follow the rule: at least three times a week and at least 25 minutes!

Only pluses!

Weight training at any age will benefit your health. Here are the benefits of bodybuilding versus other sports.

Increase muscle mass... After 35 years, an untrained individual loses 150-200 years of muscle annually. At the same time, the fatty layer grows. Large-scale survey of 1132 men and women of different ages, who took up the training for the first time, showed that in the first two months of training, everyone, without exception, gained 1.5 kg of muscle mass. Another "experiment" showed an 11% increase in muscle mass with training in 90-year-old patients in a nursing home.

Decreased blood pressure. Blood pressure rises with age. Scientific studies have shown that weight training reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 3 and 4 percent, respectively. It would seem not enough, but even this is enough to reduce the risk of heart attacks by 40% and heart attack by 56%.

Improving digestion. The rate of advancement of food masses along gastrointestinal tract slows down with age. This leads to bowel cancer, hemorrhoids and other diseases. Scientists have found that after just three months of bodybuilding, the speed of food advancement increases by 56%!

Strengthening bones. With age, the skeletal system loses calcium. Bones become more fragile. Studies have shown that after 4 months of resistance training, the calcium content in the bones in men increased by an average of 2-3.8%. Bodybuilding also increases the absorption of calcium by the female body.

An increase in the rate of metabolism during rest, metabolism slows down with age. As a result, "extra" calories are formed, which are converted into subcutaneous fat. An hour and a half workout increases metabolism by 10%. The body maintains an accelerated rate of metabolism for another 15 hours after the completion of the last exercise.

Reducing the risk of coronary heart disease. Coronary heart disease is caused by a decrease in the lumen of the arteries leading to the heart. This narrowing is due to the adhesion of cholesterol "plaques" to the inner walls of the arteries. Special studies have shown that after 4 months of training, the level of the so-called. "good" cholesterol rose 13%, and bad cholesterol fell 5%. An important risk factor in coronary heart disease is age-related decrease in the sensitivity of cells to insulin. After 3 months of training, this indicator increased by 20%.

That's a success!

Monica Brand is a fitness star, multiple winner of fitness tournaments. She began her "lifting" career in early childhood, when she brought bags of oats to her favorite horses. When her mother Patti Renfro was 42 years old, Monica brought her into training with "iron". Although her mother was extremely busy in her long-term position as president of a trading company, she nevertheless included training and aerobics in her weekly schedule.

Over the past ten years, Patty has seriously improved her form, although at first she had a hard time - she was completely detrained. Today she is 52 years old and is a punctual and consistent bodybuilder. She keeps a calorie diary and builds up the intensity in a yearly cycle. However, she avoids squats. The training schedule includes 4 days of resistance training and 3 days of aerobics. After 50 years, Patti has increased the number of repetitions in sets and almost does not practice strength style. She considers the most important sports result to be high performance, clarity of mind and firmness of character.

Nutrition: now it is!

Bodybuilding is only one ingredient for success. The second is proper nutrition and taking supplements.

Protein. Without adequate protein intake, the muscles do not respond in any way to physical activity. Unfortunately, with age, the absorption of protein deteriorates, so you have to eat more of it than at a young age. The minimum intake is 2-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.

Less fat! This is advice for all ages, but it is especially important for those over 40. By this time, the lumen of the blood vessels is sufficiently narrowed by cholesterol deposits. This process cannot be aggravated: the more difficult the movement of blood through the blood vessels, the higher the load on the heart during physical exertion.

Less calories! With age, the body's needs for food calories decrease, but the appetite by inertia remains the same. As a result, those in their 40s tend to eat more than they need to. The "extra" calories are "converted" into subcutaneous fat. So, a big belly and breeches on the hips are not an indispensable age attribute.

More creatine! Few people know, but creatine is the main component of muscle contraction. The more creatine you consume, the better your muscles grow. Well, each kilogram of muscle mass requires 70 calories for life. It turns out that muscles are a natural "fat burner" that you always carry with you. So after 40, creatine should be your must-have dietary supplement.

More water! Our cells lose water as we age. This is due to a decrease in the secretion of sex hormones. So, you can easily become dehydrated by exercise if you don't drink enough water. Drink at least one and a half litas of water daily. Avoid coffee and cola. These drinks have a strong diuretic effect.

Take supplements. The protein powder added to your morning oatmeal is a must for your progress. Creatine is also required. What else? Multivitamin complexes and multimineral supplements. By the way, pay particular attention to the adequate intake of vitamin D. This vitamin promotes the absorption of calcium. Its deficiency can exacerbate age-related calcium loss.

Age is not a hindrance!

Here are two bodybuilding contestants: 70-year-old Kelly Nelson (left) and her 42-year-old daughter Colin. Kelly began training at the age of 53 at home. She later went to a local gym. Kelly works out 4 days a week plus aerobics. She has 12-15 reps in the set.

Daughter Colin took up bodybuilding at 22. She won the US National Amateur Championship in the veteran category and has won countless other prizes.

Both train long enough to appreciate the changes that age brings to the sport. Kelly still does 2-3 exercises for each muscle, but admits that she needs more time to recover today. As for Colin, she says that her body is responding less and less to the usual training patterns. She explains this with a long training experience. To progress, Colin has to vary the exercises and methodology much more often. In particular, Colin actively uses such a seemingly purely masculine technique as supersets.

The example of Kelly and Colin proves: competent training, proper nutrition, support food additives and a passionate attitude to sports at any age will bring excellent results!

Many people in their 40s and beyond think it is too late to build any muscle. Luckily for them, they are wrong and bodybuilding after 40 is possible!

How to pump up after 40 years

Every week I receive messages by e-mail from at least a few guys who ask if it's too late for them to build muscle and if it is possible to build up after 40 years.

Many are pleasantly surprised when I explain that for many it is unambiguous NOT too late, and that I am constantly working with 50 and even 60 year old men who are rapidly gaining muscle and getting into the best shape of their lives.

How to gain muscle mass for a man in his 40s and after, how to approach muscle building? Surely bodybuilding after 40 should be different, they can't train and eat like 20 years old, right?

Yes, you might be surprised to find out that there isn't nearly as much change as people think.

Let's look at gaining muscle mass after 40 years.

Scientifically Proven That Middle Aged People Can Build A Lot Of Muscle

One of the first things I say to people who are worried that their age will not allow training after 50 is the results of a study conducted by the University of Oklahoma.

In this study, 24 college students (18-22 years old) and 25 middle-aged people (35-50 years old) followed the same barbell and dumbbell gym program for 8 weeks.

Researchers used DEXAscanners for pre- and post-workout measurements, and they found that middle-aged people gained as much muscle as their younger opponents!

In fact, middle-aged people have grown a little more average.

The increase in strength was also comparable:

• Middle-aged people gained an average of 6.5 kg on the bench press and 18 kg on the leg press.
• Young people gained an average of 3 kg in the bench press, and 25 kg in the leg press

Bodybuilding for those over 60 and after is also quite possible and should not be written off.

These studies clearly answer whether it is possible to build muscle at 50 for a woman or a woman. It has shown that people ages 40, 50, 60 and older can also build significant muscle size and strength, and doing this is actually in a great way in the fight against the deterioration of health usually associated with age.

These studies are consistent with my experience working with hundreds of men and women between the ages of 40 and 70. One by one, they are able to build noticeable muscles, improve their shape, and improve their overall health and well-being. In many cases, they can achieve better shape in their lives by gaining muscle mass after 40 years.

How to gain muscle mass after 40 - workout for older people

If you are middle-aged and excited to find out if you can pump up after 40, which is not too late, you may have wondered what is the best way to do it.

Fortunately, age makes little difference to your workout routine, but there are a few questions you should be aware of.

• While I am a proponent of high weights, you will have to be careful.

Working with heavy and medium weights is absolutely The best way to build muscle and strength. But it also depends on your body - it causes significant damage to your muscle fibers and puts tremendous stress on your joints.

You should not be afraid of heavy weights when exercising, even if you are 50 or 60 years old, but if you are not an experienced athlete, I advise you to start training in the repetition range of 8-10 and stay in it until you feel that you are exercising with this weight. come easy.

You can then move to a 6-8 rep range and work that way until you feel completely stable and comfortable. Then you can move to the range of 4-6 repetitions, which I recommend in my program for gaining strength and muscle mass, but this is not necessary. You need to watch how the body feels.

• Don't ignore back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain or any other pain.

If you have back pain, don't do deadlifts unless your therapist has prescribed it for you. The same applies to knee pains and squats, and to shoulder pains and presses (we are talking about and the army press standing).

Work with these limitations - don't try to break through them, or you could get injured and leave the gym for months.

• Make sure you get plenty of rest and recovery time.

Recovery is a huge part of building muscle and working out in the gym - muscle and nervous system recovery. If you neglect this and try to give your best when doing mass gaining exercises 7 days a week, you will get overtrained.

While age does not actually impair recovery as much as some people think, research has shown that age can increase recovery time.

The solution is simple: make sure you sleep at least 7 hours a day, consume enough protein, and take a week off from your workouts every 6 to 8 weeks.

Nutrition for gaining muscle mass for middle-aged people

I have good news for you: don't worry about yours - he's fine.

(Do you keep spending money on fat burners that don't even work?)

A common concern among middle-aged people that they are losing weight or muscle growth almost impossible. It is not true.

It is true that age slows down the metabolism somewhat, but most of this is actually due to the loss of lean mass (muscle).

Muscle burns calories, and we naturally lose muscle as we age, as our body burns fewer and fewer calories over time. The good news is that you can completely reverse this process with constant hard training - this is NEITHER inevitable, nor "irreparable."

Therefore, if you are looking for a way to lose weight, and you do not have a serious metabolic disorder (such as metabolic syndrome), you will simply do what we all do to lose weight:

• Keeping yourself in a mild calorie deficit
• Exercise correctly
• Be patient

If you still have questions about gaining muscle mass after 40 years, ask them in the comments below!

If you liked what I told you about bodybuilding after 50, subscribe to my free newsletter and every week I will send you amazing, science-based health and sports advice. delicious recipes, motivational materials, and more.

Top 5 most beneficial exercises for men over 40

It turns out that a return can give you the body of your dreams. To build up, follow the set of workouts presented below.

• Duration - 45
• Exercises - 5
• Equipment - barbell and dumbbells

Toning (or maintaining shape) after 40 poses one paramount goal: to improve basic range of motion and body mechanics. In other words, giving your body back a sense of comfort and strength in the movements it should naturally do is key - and something that many men over 40 have never learned. In youth, this may not bother you, but by the age of 40 your ligaments and tissues are no longer so elastic, which leads to various disorders.

You need to master a few basic exercises allowing your body to be always ready for any movement. (This refers to training to help carry purchases or grandchildren, bounce during active outdoor games, or place a suitcase on the top shelf.) Five universal exercises that can prepare you for active workouts or just pump up are:

• box squats are a form of squatting in a forced position, and here you have to carefully control basic movement flexion-extension hip joint;
• front squats - require conservation direct position body and normal range of motion, here you develop athletic skills that will be useful to you in other sports;
• deadlift - allows you to pump the flexors and extensors of the hip joint while maintaining the stability of the spine in the slope;
• military bench press - develops the ability to do something, keeping our arms above our head, makes us group the body under the influence of weights, in addition, jerking movements overhead uses the muscles of the whole body;
• bench press - trains shoulder extension, which is the end point of amplitude for pushing, swimming, rowing, and a variety of other activities.

And while all these exercises are pretty mundane, with their help you are guaranteed to develop strength to the required level. In each of these movements, you can progress endlessly. More importantly, mastering them will help reduce the risk of injury, loss of muscle mass and regrowth of the notorious "beer belly".

You can perform this set in the gym or at home, main secret getting maximum results - in regularity.

And don't forget to dilute your workout with cardio exercises, other activities, and your favorite hobbies. Race your bike, go for a walk with friends, paddle, paddle in the pool, do whatever you want - then come home and start training. You quickly realize that your hips are working better after squats.

Training program

Perform three times a week. Start with an empty bar, 10kg kettlebell, and 10kg dumbbells. Each time you work out, add 2 kg for each exercise.

Warm up

Alternate jogging, jumping jacks, rowing, and stationary cycling until you sweat.

Lesson plan

A chapter from Fitness After 40 by Dr. Wright, an orthopedic surgeon and global authority on active aging.

Age factors

The first step to getting fit is understanding the many factors of age (such as heart, lung, and muscle strength) to help you take care of yourself and your family, and keep you active.

These factors include:

• the ability to exercise intensively, reaction speed and joint mobility;
• skeleton size;
• the amount of body fat;
• anaerobic and aerobic nutrition;
• ability to recover;
• strength, endurance and coordination.

According to Wojtek Jan Hodzko-Zaiko, professor of kinesiology at the University of Illinois, “Physiological changes alone are not enough to prevent an older athlete from achieving the highest results. This is not to say that at the age of 43 all forces suddenly disappear from the body.

Let's take a look at some of these factors.

Endurance: it's all about oxygen

Hold your breath as you read these lines. At first it will be easy, but then, turning the pages, you will feel a strong need for air - it is initiated by the brain stem. The sensation will intensify, and then the body will literally demand that you breathe. The brain makes sure that the body gets enough oxygen. If you do not inhale, you will lose consciousness: in this way the body is saved from voluntary oxygen starvation.

This is how important oxygen is to the entire human body. Without oxygen, cells cannot generate energy. And then you, a powerful energy generator, weaken 16 times and begin to produce large amounts of lactic acid (it is this that accumulates in the muscles and causes pain). With a lack of oxygen, productivity drops significantly.
In order for oxygen to enter the cells, the lungs, heart, arteries and muscle cells that they nourish must work together. Over the years, the efficiency of oxygen delivery changes, as does the physical capabilities of a person. These changes are associated with decreased mobility, decreased lactate threshold and VO2 max. The last factor is the most important.

As mentioned earlier, VO2 max is the maximum volume (V) of oxygen (O2) that the body can absorb. VO2 max depends on heart rate, cardiac output and how much oxygen is absorbed by the tissues.

Age-related decrease in VO2 max is considered the main reason for the decline in endurance levels.... Interestingly, scientists associate this decrease with a decrease in the duration and intensity of training.

How do years affect the efficiency of oxygen exchange? Let's find out.

The heart is a pump that pumps oxygen

What an amazing device - the human heart! It consists of complex "pumps" that regulate blood pressure, blood flow and volume to provide blood to the entire body.

For 50 years with a heart rate of 80 beats / min. (average) the heart has time to contract 2.1 billion times. Unsurprisingly, things change with age. As you age, your heart adjusts to change, but it also becomes more vulnerable to disease.

Maximum heart rate, contractility of the heart muscle (the ability of the fibers of the heart muscle to contract) and the amount of blood that the heart supplies to the body in one contraction (systolic volume) - all these indicators decrease with age.

As a rule, if you do not take action, over the years, the heart will become worse and worse. Here are some statistics:

• Death in people aged 65-74 in 40% of cases is caused by heart disease. For people over 80 years old, this figure is 60%.
• As a rule, at the age of 20, the maximum heart rate during exercise is 180-200 beats / min. At the age of 80, it decreases to 145 bpm.
• As a rule, the heart of a 20-year-old man “throws out” 3.5-4 times more blood during exertion than at rest. For an 80-year-old, the maximum is 2 times.

Exercise, blood pressure control, diet, and stress management can insulate or minimize many heart changes. Helping the heart is one of the main reasons to continue or start playing sports after 40.

When the pressure rises, the heart, adjusting, begins to pump blood more actively. This is because arteries - the blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the body - lose their elasticity with age. Scientists have noticed that the wall of the left ventricle in the heart gets thicker over the years. Thanks to this, the heart can pump blood despite the hardness of the arteries.

However, by adjusting, the heart becomes more vulnerable. Arteries begin to react less well to changes in blood flow. Therefore, older people often have higher blood pressure than younger people..

Over the years, the heart begins to respond more slowly to brain signals. As a result, a person gets tired of physical activity much faster than in youth. One of the manifestations of this is shortness of breath with a relatively low load, which indicates that oxygen-rich blood moves through the body too slowly.

The heart of a healthy 70-year-old has 30% fewer cells than the heart of a 20-year-old. When some of the heart cells die, the rest of the cells have to stretch and grow. Therefore, the heart cells in an older person can be 40% larger than in a younger person.

In fact, not everything is so bad. Sports can rejuvenate your heart and improve its function. If we take an average heart rate of 80 bpm as a criterion, then at rest my 75-year-old father's heart beats like that of a 50-year-old. The better your physical condition, the lower your resting pulse will be, since the heart works actively and with each beat “throws out” a large volume of blood. Even in old age, dad helps his heart through sports.

Is your heart healthy?

In order to check if your heart is in good shape, you need to find out what the maximum amount of oxygen (VO2 max) your body can absorb and process. After 25 years, oxygen consumption decreases by 10-15% for every decade of life. This is largely the result of changes in cardiac output.

When physical activity drops, so does your VO2 max. (For men and women, this indicator decreases in approximately the same proportions.) This does not mean that the hearts of older athletes do not adapt to the load: for example, participants in a triathlon championship who have reached the age of 58-71 undergo the same heart changes ( decrease in pulse at rest, thickening of the walls of the left ventricle, increase in the volume of reverse blood flow), as in younger athletes. (Please note: the maximum heart rate is associated with age and after ten years it begins to decrease by one beat per year. The older we are, the slower the heart beats: its rate of contraction decreases, and the pauses between beats increase.)

But I also have good news: sport helps to stabilize cardiac output, promotes oxygen supply and absorption... Whether or not this help is significant depends on how much time you spend exercising. Intense and regular training has been found to halve the rate of VO2 drop. If you start training in old age, there is a chance to "slow down" the slowdown of the heart rate.

From all this, the following must be taken out: maintaining a "good shape" of the heart through regular aerobic exercise ensures the stability of the volume of blood that the heart throws out with each contraction and sends it to the tissues of the body.

Arteries: a line for oxygen

To understand why aging is so closely associated with cardiovascular diseases, and ultimately to find out the causes and find ways to treat this group of diseases, it is important to understand what happens to the arteries during "normal aging" (that is, in the absence of diseases) ... Many discoveries have been made in this area in recent decades, according to Richard Howdes, director of the National Institute on Aging.

Here's what he says: “While we already know a lot about cardiovascular disease and its associated risk factors, new research is shedding light on the links between aging, disease onset and progression. For example, scientists from the National Institute of Aging are closely monitoring certain age-related changes in the arteries and their effect on the heart. Many of these changes, once considered an integral and normal part of aging, can significantly increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. ”

Arteries are a kind of "tubes" through which blood is transported from the heart to the lungs and to all other tissues of the body. Arteries are made up of muscles and also lose elasticity over the years. This process accelerates the frequent consumption of fatty foods and smoking. In addition, blood vessels narrow over the years. This increases the pressure as the heart has to work harder to "push" the same volume of blood through a narrower "tube".

To compensate for this constriction, the heart expands. The hardening and narrowing of the arteries makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood. Soft, elastic arteries are not visible on x-rays, and hard arteries look like dark bones. Often, taking a snapshot of a patient's knee, I see their outlines. The hardening of the arteries can be avoided: Numerous studies show that exercise can help maintain their elasticity. It is important not only for heart health, but also for brain function and preservation of sexual function.

Lungs: the gateway through which oxygen enters the blood

Every athlete starts to choke when running fast. The speed with which this moment comes is an indicator of the level of your physical fitness.

I remember a very puffy patient named Donna. She hardly performed the exercises that we taught her - she was hampered by shortness of breath. But after a few weeks, the body got used to the new conditions, and it became much easier for Donna to train. Every week she slightly increased the distance of her jogging and after a while she was able to easily overcome a kilometer, then two, and then three.

The supply of oxygenated blood to the heart is essential for nourishing the tissues, but first you need to inhale to get oxygen into the blood. This is the task of the lungs. Having entered the lungs - into small alveolar sacs - oxygen is "sprayed" - directed to where it is needed most. Once in the body, oxygen, as it were, "sees" where it is lacking. It joins the red blood cells, which transport it to the tissues. Consequently, anything that deprives the lungs of elasticity (for example, old age, addiction to smoking, or asthma) interferes with the delivery of oxygen to the lungs, which is why less oxygen gets into the blood.

Over the years, breathing requires more and more energy. This is because the volume of air that the lungs can hold decreases by about 250 ml every ten years (about a teacup). Over the period from 20 to 70 years, the vital capacity of the lungs decreases by about 40%.

In addition, the elasticity of the lung tissue decreases, the number of pulmonary capillaries (small blood vessels) decreases and the quality of oxygen metabolism deteriorates. As a result, the lungs become "tougher", retain air worse, and remove carbon dioxide from the body worse. The most important thing that can be done for "middle-aged" lungs is to quit smoking.

Muscle: the strength of the machine

It is good that there is an effective system for delivering fuel (oxygen), but how the body uses this fuel depends on the condition of the muscles. Age-related changes in muscles and tendons have a huge impact on both daily activity and the ability to play sports. They affect both muscle strength (its ability to move quickly) and its endurance.

The changes that occur in muscles over the years are usually the result of loss of muscle cells, a decrease in the size of muscle fibers, and an increase in muscle stiffness. Most age-related muscle changes are caused by loss of lean muscle mass (sarcopenia). This process begins at about 50 years of age.

By the age of 80, we have already lost about 50% of lean muscle mass.. Sedentary people aged 50–70 lose 15% of lean muscle mass every ten years, and 30% after 70 years.

Age-related muscle atrophy occurs due to a reduction in the volume of so-called type II muscle fibers (fast twitch fibers responsible for explosive powerful effort). These fibers are responsible for muscle strength can decrease by as much as 30%. This is probably why the stride length of older sprinters is noticeably (40%) shorter than that of younger sprinters, and they need to take significantly more strides to cover the same distance.

Not only do we lose lean muscle mass, but research has shown that the muscles of sedentary people between the ages of 70 and 79 are actually replaced by fat. So it will be with you, if nothing is done.

With age, muscles become stiffer and lose mobility. Dehydration and thickening of the structural components of the tendons and ligaments cause hardening. It occurs due to changes in the structure of the muscle and due to the intersection of individual muscle fibers during the contraction process. Stiff muscles are more likely to be injured.

If you need more incentives to keep your muscles active, I can tell you about a study that has been conducted by Swedish and Finnish scientists. They took biopsies of the vastus lateralis muscle from male sprinters aged 18–84 years. Experienced sprinters showed a typical age-related decrease in the size of fast twitch fibers, which negatively affected the explosive power required for sprinting. However, even in the most elderly runners, the muscles have not lost their functions, and this proves that running is very useful for "aging" muscles.

Fortunately, over the years, the muscle does not lose the ability to increase in size (this is called hypertrophy). In a classic study of frail and sick older adults, Maria Fiatarone, then at Tufts University, found that strength training (eight barbell lifts three times a week; the bar was 80% of the maximum weight a person could lift) ) for the day of training, the subjects became 5% stronger.

Other scientists have found that after two weeks of moderate-intensity strength training, untrained older subjects gain muscle mass faster. If even frail 90-year-olds can get stronger, so can you.

Another reason we lose both type I (slow twitch) and type II (fast twitch) muscle fibers over the years is dysfunctional atrophy. Intense training in older athletes causes muscle hypertrophy (or growth) and an increase in the size of both types of muscle fibers.

Observing people who play sports to maintain their shape (running and swimming without strength training), scientists have found that their muscles have approximately the same structure as the muscles of their sedentary peers, while those who, among other things, are engaged in strength sports (for example, weightlifting), the condition of muscle fibers is about the same as in younger (40 years younger) members of the control group.

Other studies show that differences in muscle fiber health between older and younger runners are due to differences in training programs. If the loads are the same, then the condition of the muscles is similar.

The main takeaway from all of this research is that sports are more than just fun and make your muscles more beautiful. Physical activity can help maintain or even restore youthfulness to the muscles.

I work not only with older athletes, but also in the laboratory, where we study the aging of muscles and tendons in order to learn how to heal them faster. My colleague Fabricia Ambrosio and I recently discussed a number of her experiments. Apparently, it is possible to "make" aging muscle cells behave "young" with the help of the simplest methods of rehabilitation, such as electrical stimulation.

Taking stem cells from the muscles of old mice that had previously been "exercised" by electrical stimulation (a very common rehabilitation method that stimulates muscle fibers responsible for both strength and endurance), Dr. Ambrosio discovered that these old cells now lead themselves almost like the cells of young mice. Incredible! Sport has actually changed the behavior of old cells!

Another colleague of mine, Yong Lee, found that muscle stem cells derived from the intercostal muscles of old mice also behave like young ones. And this is understandable, because the intercostal muscles are in a state of constant activity - thanks to this we breathe. It turns out, sport is a source of youth, even for cells!

Several years ago, my colleague, a traumatologist, and I were preparing to receive another patient. In his medical file, I read that he is 70 years old, he got into a car accident and now suffers from pain in his shoulder. And when I entered the room, I saw Hank - a man with muscles almost like Arnold Schwarzenegger's. Once Hank ran the company, and after retirement decided to pursue a "second career" in the field of health and activity.

I do not believe that we should all look like Schwarzenegger, but a conscious and responsible approach to health issues, in this case, the health of the musculoskeletal system, will help not to lose the ability to work at any age.

Hey Dear friends... This article will focus on the training of men of the older age group, we will answer the questions of how to train for those who are over 40 years old or more. Let's talk about the features of strength training for men in adulthood. The emphasis is on beginners and beginners who take their first steps at the age of 40+.

There are a number of features that distinguish the body of a forty-year-old man from an eighteen-year-old boy, they must be taken into account. The hormonal system feels serious changes during this period of time, which is commonly called the "midlife crisis"

What should be training after 40 years?

A characteristic feature and feature of this age is a decrease in the production of male hormones - growth hormone and testosterone. Such processes entail a number of other consequences - diseases become aggravated, sexual desire falls from which the quality of life, and the pleasure received from it decreases.

If we analyze the age factor in the plane of training and the influence on their effectiveness - it is a slowed down metabolism, a decrease in endurance, a deterioration in blood circulation throughout the body, ligaments and joints used by time. These were the biggest obstacles and set of characteristics that will inhibit the normal training process of a 40-year-old man.

We will try to tell you in detail and in detail how to get around all the difficulties mentioned above when training at the age of 40 and minimize their effect on your body, because for those who have clearly decided to take the path of a healthy lifestyle there is nothing overwhelming or impossible.

At stage 0 - 1.5 months - Improving blood circulation

Remember, the very first task that you need to set yourself in the early stages of training, from the first day in the gym, is to improve blood circulation in the body. What should you do? The first workouts should be voluminous, involving pumping. That is, the number of repetitions in the approaches should be in the range of 15-20, but with little weight. Also try to keep the rest between sets minimal.

The main goal is to start blood circulation in the body as much as possible. There is no goal to focus on the number of approaches in any particular exercise. It is necessary to proceed from the total number of sets per workout, this is 18-20 approaches. For example, 5 exercises of 4 sets is 20 sets per workout. It makes no sense to work in failure, to work with large weights, too, this is all in the background, even in the third.

After 1.5 months we increase weights

After the expiration of the "probationary period" for the body, you can begin to gradually increase the working weight. Your body will get used to it a little and get used to physical activity, the heart, the entire circulatory system will work. During this period, the weight of the weights in the exercises should fluctuate at 55-70% of the one-rep maximum.

If you can bench press a hundred square meters at a time, then the working weight for you is 55-70 kg. Consequently, the number of repetitions in sets is reduced from 15-20 to 8-12 times. The total number of approaches per workout does not change. If possible, do not neglect rest between exercises and repetitions, try to rest as little time as possible so as not to lose intensity. This is done with the aim of getting into the training time period of 50-60 minutes. Long workouts are fraught with the production of stress hormones, which adversely affect the training process.

You should not pay special attention to strength training and performance, this is not a priority, you do not need to press at a time, use close to the maximum weight of the projectile. Exception - if during this time you have not had any additional problems with ligaments, pressure and heart, you feel great, then deviations are possible. However, everything is within reasonable limits and under the control of a friend or coach.

When health is in order, then strength training should be given a couple of weeks in 3 months, no more. Working weight is 80-85% of a one-time repetition. The number of repetitions in approaches decreases to 5-8, but at the same time the rest between sets of 1-3 minutes increases. The entire volume of approaches per workout is reduced from 15-20 to 12-16.

Do not work with submaximal weights, the code of repetitions in the exercise 1-3 times. The risk of injury is high. And at the age of 40 and more, they heal for a very long time, you can leave the training process for more than 1 month.

What exercises to do after 40?

In short, most of the exercises that athletes use in the gym will work for you. The emphasis can be placed on increasing the amount of exercise when working with machines. This approach is relevant. It can be divided in half: 50% of the exercises should be done with free weight, the rest 50% should be given to the simulators.

Trainers for men over 40 years old can replace the maximum trauma dangerous exercise such as squats, deadlifts, and standing barbell presses. The above exercises are difficult to perform from a technical point of view, as well as from the point of view of preparing the muscles, joints and ligaments themselves for work. Those parts of the body that a man has up to 40 years old, that he did not take in his hands until that time, are very weak. High risk of injury, you don't need this.

Cardio load

In training after 40 years, it is necessary to include cardio loads different types... It is a good stimulation and training for the cardiovascular system. Put low-intensity cardio workouts first, but with longer durations. This can be walking at a moderate pace. Among intense cardio workouts, it is best to try interval cardio with a short duration. Remember also about the ligaments and joints. Before starting a workout - a mandatory stretching, warm-up, at the end - a hitch. If time and opportunity permits, sign up for Pilates.

Recovery after training in men after 40 years

Recovery processes after 40 in men decrease, it must be admitted. The reason for this is the weak production of the sex hormone testosterone. Not so much pressure-sensitive central nervous system, what does it mean? When we work in the gym, only those muscles get the load, but also the nervous system, which, with age, requires more time for recovery processes.

Training after 40. What is their feature?

I'm already 44. And I like it. Even though youth has already passed, but I do not grieve for it. Gray whiskeys have their own advantages, in my opinion. Meeting my classmates hanging out in discos while I was turning iron in the gym, I understand what I did. right choice... You have to pay for everything. And the period after 40 years is exactly the time when you realize this very clearly. I am deeply convinced that with each passing year, physical exercise should be given more and more attention. To plow, not decreasing, but only increasing the momentum. But to do it very competently and accurately. What you need to know when doing strength training in the gym after 40 years, and my story will go. The most interesting about training and sports nutrition on my telegram channel https://t.me/bestbodyblog

Bodybuilding for adults

My story today is a continuation of an article I wrote earlier. After its publication, I realized that the topic of bodybuilding in adulthood is interesting to many, in addition, you cannot tell everything in one separate article. So the idea was born to write a sequel.

And if the first article was general, then this one is devoted to more local problems faced by people who practice strength training in the gym after 40 years. Is a great way to improve your health and slow down the aging process, but you need to understand that physical activity for mature people has its own characteristics. I propose to watch a short story, where the doctor of biological sciences and a regular at the gym, Vladimir Tyunin, expresses his opinion on this topic.

bodybuilding after 40

And one moment. The recommendations that I make in this article are based on my own subjective 26 years of experience in strength training in the gym and are not the ultimate truth. So don't throw a broom at me.

It's just that I train my gray-haired students this way, and I consider this system physical exercise optimal. For the main idea of ​​training for any person who comes to the gym can be summed up in two words: DO NOT HARM. So…

Bodybuilding and heart

Strengthening the cardiovascular system is the most important task for every person who decides to go in for sports in adulthood. But in my opinion, in strength training in the gym after 40 years, there are two important points that can affect the work of the heart, both positively and negatively.

Point 1. Be sure to do cardio exercise

Deadlift is a key but very dangerous exercise for gaining mass.

And the deadlift performed in the Smith machine is far from the classic basic exercise. This is all absolutely true. These two hard exercises actively stimulate the blood supply to the lower half of the body, causing. In addition, these barbell exercises have a beneficial effect on strengthening the pelvic bones, increasing their strength.

But these and other basic exercises also have their negative:

• All multi-joint movements (involving 2 or more joints in the work) have a long trajectory of movement and a complex execution technique. And the harder the exercise, the higher the risk of injury.
• Basic exercises use the heaviest weights. This means that ligaments and small instep muscles such as the wrists, abdominals, back extensors, psoas, and shoulder rotators are subject to significant stress.
• The movements performed with the barbell have a linear trajectory of movement and, in comparison with exercises in the simulator, load the joints more strongly.

But what about other basic exercises, different presses and rows, how essential are they for muscle growth? But here the situation is completely different. Most of the exercises performed in simulators are in no way inferior in their effectiveness to exercises with free weights. Especially if free-weight machines are used as simulators. The same Hammer Strength, for example.

Studies show that the press on the chest in such a machine is not only not inferior to the classic bench press with a barbell, but even surpasses it, because the trajectory of movement in free-weight simulators is not linear, but arched. This means that the load on pectoral muscles perceptibly increases due to the possibility of peak muscle contraction at the end point and strong stretching at the beginning.

Personally, I specifically go to another, less comfortable gym, where there is such equipment and pay for one-time visits, because in my cool gym, there is no such thing. In my opinion, bodybuilding after 40 is not a straightforward increase in the total muscle mass of the body, but the harmonious development of all individual muscle groups, and here you cannot do without simulators. I touched on this topic in more detail in my book, I highly recommend reading it.

Although I must admit that not all exercise machines are completely harmless to our health. But you better read about this in my article. However, when choosing between exercise in a simulator and a barbell, I advise people over 40 to choose a simulator, or even better, a free-weight machine.

Output: if you are in adulthood and the last time you played sports in school, then most of the training is spent on simulators and in free-weight machines.

It is quite possible to build muscle in the gym after 40 years without heavy presses and deadlifts. And the most dangerous barbell exercises: squats, deadlifts, or vertical presses, perform at the end of your workout. By this time, the muscles will be thoroughly tired, and you will no longer be able to use traumatic weights.

In the second part of the article, read about how to maintain the health of your joints, about hypertension and changes in the hormonal system. Continuation