7 Things No One Tells You About Building Muscle After 40 (2023)

FAQs

7 Things No One Tells You About Building Muscle After 40? ›

Yes, you can build muscle after 40. It's not like the ability of your muscles to adapt and grow suddenly stops once you hit 40. In fact, if you're currently out of shape and unfit, you'll see relatively rapid gains in lean muscle mass when you start lifting weights.

Yes, you can build muscle after 40. It's not like the ability of your muscles to adapt and grow suddenly stops once you hit 40. In fact, if you're currently out of shape and unfit, you'll see relatively rapid gains in lean muscle mass when you start lifting weights.

You're not eating enough – one of the main causes of not being able to build muscle is not eating enough and more importantly, not eating enough of the right food. Everyone bangs on about the importance of protein, but carbs and fats are just as important when it comes to growing muscle.

Eat more fish, eggs, poultry, and lean red meat, and consider adding a protein supplement, like our TB12 Plant-Based Protein to your regular diet. Next, focus on strength training. A combination of increased protein and strength training will increase muscle mass and strength more than either therapy alone.

Building Muscle After 40: Tips and Ideas to Get Strong at Any Age. As we age, our muscles start to decline, making it harder to build and maintain muscle mass. But the good news is that there is always time to start building muscle, regardless of age.

Typically, muscle mass and strength increase steadily from birth and reach their peak at around 30 to 35 years of age. After that, muscle power and performance decline slowly and linearly at first, and then faster after age 65 for women and 70 for men.

You ask yourself, "Is it possible for me to regain the body I once had and put on some muscle at my age?" The simple answer is yes! You can put on muscle after 40, but you will have to take a completely different approach than when you weight trained and dieted as a youth.

“Protein is the most important and essential component of nutrition and the foundation of muscle gain,” he says. If you're wondering how much protein you need to build muscle, Dr. Graham recommends 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.

Building a lean body is often associated with high-intensity training. However, the truth is that even when you cannot hit the gym or undergo strenuous training, you can still build lean muscles. All you need to do is some dietary and lifestyle changes to get in good shape.

What is the best protein for over 40? ›

A good example of a protein-rich meal for someone over 40 years old would include lean meats, eggs, fish, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds, Greek yogurt, quinoa or brown rice, and leafy greens. This type of meal would provide a balanced combination of proteins that are beneficial for overall health.

“To achieve a six-pack, you'll need a low-calorie, high-protein diet coupled with a training program that includes core strength exercises at least three times a week,” says Stone. “To make the body leaner, a low-calorie diet coupled with regular general exercise is a must.

Vitamin D may be protective for muscle loss; a more alkalinogenic diet and diets higher in the anti-oxidant nutrients vitamin C and vitamin E may also prevent muscle loss.

It's never too late to build muscle and strength. You can build muscle no matter your age. A proven strength training program for building muscle after 50 is to lift two or three days per week, doing 10 sets per muscle and week, with about 8–15 reps per set.

Based on averages from evidence-backed recommendations, a general rule of thumb is to eat about 1.2g protein per kg of body weight to maintain muscle. This may increase to 1.2-1.6g/kg of body weight when looking to add lean mass or if you're a woman in midlife.

Calf muscles are also considered as one of the most difficult to grow in the gym, to the point where many people give up trying. It turns out that the lower leg muscles are not that significantly different from other skeletal muscles.

To Grow Muscle, Eat More Protein

Strength training breaks down your muscles, and protein builds them back up. The more difficult your lifting workouts are, the more important muscle-building foods become when weighing protein intake to solidify recovery, Fitzgerald explains.

Your muscles are their strongest at age 25. At 25, your physical strength is at its peak, and stays this way for the following 10 to 15 years.

If you are currently in your 50s or 60s and have been lifting weights for many years, then it is likely that you will be able to continue doing so for many years to come. However, if you are in your 70s or older or have not been lifting weights for very long, you may need to start considering stopping.

How to get super fit at 40? ›

Late teens and early twenties are the perfect age to start bodybuilding. Puberty and bodybuilding are closely related because this is the fastest time for muscle growth. Between, 17-25, you will experience testosterone driven growth burst in your muscles.

What muscles develop the fastest? Phasic muscles like the pectorals, rhomboid muscles, glutes, and the trapezius muscles.

According to the exercise physiologist Brad Schoenfeld, there are three primary mechanisms of muscle growth: Muscle tension, metabolic stress and muscle damage. Oftentimes all of these factors are correlated with the amount of weight you lift.

Avoid or limit alcohol, foods with added sugars and deep-fried foods. In addition to your diet, whey protein, creatine and caffeine can be useful supplements.

Depending on your goals, muscle growth does not depend on the amount of weight you lift. It is a myth that one must lift more weight to bulk up. If you're regular and patient with lighter weights, you can achieve similar results.

If you're lifting weights but not gaining muscle, you might not be doing enough accessory work. “When we're talking about building muscles, specifically in hypertrophy, you really want to target more isolation exercises,” says Rodonis.

Most beginners will see noticeable muscle growth within eight weeks, while more experienced lifters will see changes in three to four weeks. Most individuals gain one to two pounds of lean muscle per month with the right strength training and nutrition plan.

Whey protein isn't just for athletes and bodybuilders. Whey supplementation has now been shown to help prevent several common effects of aging, including loss of lean muscle mass and excessive weight gain. It also lowers cardiovascular risk and blood pressure.

Should you eat more or less protein as you get older? ›

As you age, your body requires roughly 50% more protein than a younger adult to better preserve muscle mass and strength to maintain a certain quality of life. Having sufficient protein also helps to increase the body's immune functions and reduce recovery time from illness.

Once you reach ages 40–50, sarcopenia, or losing muscle mass as you age, begins to set in. To prevent this and to maintain independence and quality of life, your protein needs increase to about 1–1.2 grams per kilogram or 75–90 grams per day for a 75-kilogram person.

If you're over 40, you may think you have no shot at six-pack abs. But the truth is you still do—but a rippling washboard stomach should only be one part of your goal. There are more important factors for you to think about when it comes to your core training.

Yes, it is possible, you can get a six-pack even if you're over 45 and have never had one. It means that your overall body fat percentage must go down and make you look lean enough. “Of course, always do a clinical assessment of your body and set the limits that it can take with medical advice.

No matter what your age, you can improve your fitness.

If it's been a long time since you've exercised and you're feeling less than fit, you might think that it's too late to make a change. But you're wrong. You can improve your fitness at any age.

A high whey protein, vitamin D and E supplement preserves muscle mass, strength, and quality of life in sarcopenic older adults: A double-blind randomized controlled trial.

Vitamin D deficiency is also known to lead to muscle atrophy both in animals and humans (8, 16–18). Muscle wasting results because of an altered balance in the protein degradation and synthesis rates (19).

Vitamin B6, folate and B12 are arguably the most important B vitamins when it comes to muscle growth and recovery! Both vitamins B6 and B12 have a direct role in protein metabolism.

Does walking build muscle? ›

While walking builds some muscle, it isn't the big, bulky muscle mass that comes from spending a lot of time in the gym. Rather, walking creates a leaner muscle tone throughout one's body, particularly in lower muscle groups. Muscles grow after being stressed enough to break down in the first place.

Weight Train Three To Four Times A Week Max

Regardless of whether you're new to weight lifting or are already quite experienced, as someone who is over 40 you really want to consider the total number of days you're hitting the gym for weight training.

Taking two to three days off from intense exercise each week while engaging in some form of active recovery will allow you to get your blood flowing to help facilitate muscle repair.

Your body needs protein to build and repair tissues, so if you aren't eating enough, your muscles won't have the material they need to grow. You could feel “punch drunk” after working out, your arms and other muscles might ache more than usual, and your body may even feel generally weaker.

A 40-year newbie (i.e. someone who hasn't lifted weights before) with good genetics can expect to gain upwards of 20 pounds of muscle mass after several years of hard, consistent training. How often should a 45 year old lift weights? As a general rule, somewhere between 2-5 days a week is about right.

In one study, high reps and light weights (3 sets of 30 to 40 reps) stimulated just as much muscle growth as heavy weights and lower reps (3 sets of 10 to 12 reps). Doing 3 sets of 10 repetitions to failure promotes similar gains in muscle size as 7 sets of 3 repetitions with a much heavier weight.

One of the most striking effects of age is the involuntary loss of muscle mass, strength, and function, termed sarcopenia [1–3]. Muscle mass decreases approximately 3–8% per decade after the age of 30 and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60 [4,5].

While the number will be unique for you, many people can expect to gain between 0.5 to 2 pounds of muscle in a month. To do so, you will need a targeted resistance training program and correct nutrition, usually including a surplus of calories.

What deficiency causes muscle loss? ›

Recent studies show that vitamin D deficiency may be responsible for muscle atrophy.

After age 30, people tend to lose lean tissue. Your muscles, liver, kidney, and other organs may lose some of their cells. This process of muscle loss is called atrophy. Bones may lose some of their minerals and become less dense (a condition called osteopenia in the early stages and osteoporosis in the later stages).

You gradually begin losing muscle mass and strength sometime in your 30s or 40s. This process picks up between the ages of 65 and 80. Rates vary, but you may lose as much as 8% of your muscle mass each decade. Everyone loses muscle mass over time, but people with sarcopenia lose it more quickly.