Why Doesn’t It Get Any Easier?
It certainly doesn’t get any easier when it comes to lifting. In fact, if it did, would it be worth doing? Part of the allure of lifting is the challenge. This challenge may change as we age, but there are always going to be goals you can set and strive for.
Being in my mid-40s and having weight trained for over 30 years, I’ve definitely seen changes in the way I lift over time. When I was a young buck, it was all about going as heavy as possible. There were also instances where I tried something super intense, like a 40-rep set of squats. Needless to say, I’m not messing around like that anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like to train with high intensity. The difference is that each muscle group gets more rest and I try to get more rest overall. The weights are still pretty heavy, but now I prefer doing more reps as opposed to very heavy, very low repetition sets.
Over time, going hard and heavy at weight training will almost inevitably lead to some injuries. I’ve always been good about form, so any injuries I’ve incurred have been relatively minor. Bad form can certainly lead to major injuries, so no matter your age, you should always try to use proper lifting form.
Get More Rest and Recovery Time
When you weight train as you age, especially if you do it naturally, you need to know how much it really can take out of you. Building muscle comes from recovering from intense work done with weights. This recovery doesn’t happen as fast as you age. Whereas once upon a time I would train each muscle group twice a week or once every 4 or 5 days, I now hit every muscle group once per week.
Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep is also going to be important as you continue weight training into your 40s. I can remember being out all night doing god knows what and still hitting it hard in the gym. Those days are long gone, however, as now even a somewhat late night will negatively affect my entire day. This definitely includes my workouts.
In addition to enough sleep, naps can also be very beneficial. You don’t have to take a long nap either. I’ve found that napping for even less than half an hour can help me feel refreshed and ready for the rest of my day.
Use Proper Lifting Form
Yes, proper form is always important no matter your age. If you are weight training over 40 it’s even more important to keep good form when you lift. Recovery comes easier in your teens and 20s, so if you do break form and hurt yourself a little, you’ll come back from it more quickly. However, breaking form when you are approaching middle age can lead to more debilitating injuries.
In going with proper form, full reps should also be done to get the most out of lifting weights in your 40s. This means not stopping short or doing partial reps. Of course, this can be dependent on injuries. If you can’t do full reps because of range of motion issues due to injury, just do what you can.
Don’t get me wrong, a little cheating to get some extra biceps curls is fine as long as you aren’t overdoing it. The same goes for certain exercises. However, if you’re using very heavy weights for you, this is when you need to keep your form proper.
Free Weights Vs. Machines
To me, free weight exercises will always be king when it comes to lifting. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before, using free weights will hit more secondary muscles since they are forced to stabilize the weights. This is also true of bodyweight exercises. To this day, most of my routine still consists of free weight exercises, though a few more machine movements have snuck in.
The biggest reason to do more machine training comes down to again comes down to injuries. While it’s great for your stabilizing muscles to use free weights; if you have soreness in one of those areas you can use machines to isolate the muscles you want to train.
There are also some machine exercises that won’t take as much out of you as their free-weight counterparts. This is especially true of exercises like the leg press and machine hack squat when compared to the free weight squat. I’ve found that at this point in my life, I’d rather go hard at the leg press as opposed to beating myself up with squats.
If you don’t have issues with injuries, there’s no reason to not continue using free weights. If you find relief in performing machine exercises, then go with them. As long as you are still performing some type of resistance training, you will be doing yourself a favor.
Keep The intensity High Without Overdoing It
All-out training to positive failure on every working set was always my thing. Growing up with the bodybuilding mags of the 90s was my inspiration to always train with high intensity. In those days, Dorian Yates was Mr. Olympia, and the high-intensity philosophy of bodybuilding legend Mike Mentzer was very much in vogue.
Keeping up a very high-intensity level can be tougher as you continue weight training into your 40s and beyond. I can still muster up plenty of intensity, but it takes more out of me. I’m certainly not doing the same things I did in my 20s. However, to increase autophagy, which is shown to be great for longevity, high intensity is still the way to go.
Increase Autophagy
Autophagy is something I’ve been learning more and more about lately. It plays an important role in various cellular processes such as the removal of damaged or harmful cellular components, the regulation of cellular energy metabolism, and the protection against cellular stress. Impaired autophagy has been linked to various diseases and conditions, including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases.
It’s been shown that increased autophagy may positively affect longevity. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that this is something to pay more attention to. It’s also been shown that high-intensity exercise can increase autophagy. This is just another reason to keep the intensity level up.
Warm Up Properly
Warming up is always important no matter your age as well. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time to get warmed up, especially if you don’t plan on going super heavy. In fact, I like to do a little stretching and 5 minutes on an elliptical before starting my workout with a high-rep set. I’ll go close to failure on this set and count it as one of my working sets. Then, I’ll add some weight and lower my reps on the subsequent sets of my first exercise.
After the first exercise, I prefer starting with my highest weight and working my way down on my second. When I’m finished with my main 2 exercises, I’ll go for a drop set or some other type of superset. Usually, two of these are done to end my workout for that muscle group.
Be Consistent
As you can see, it doesn’t have to take a lot of sets and exercises to get the most out of weight training in your 40s. Be sure to work hard without putting yourself in the ground. The results you’ll see will make it worth it. Be consistent and your goals will be reached.
