Ep. #208: Fitness at Any Age: Training in Your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and Beyond

Hey, this is Mike and welcome to another installment in my in five minutes or less series, where I answer one common question quickly and simply, because while long form content is great, sometimes it is also nice when someone just gets right to the point and tells you what to do and how to do it in five minutes or less.

And that’s what I do in these episodes. In this video slash podcast, I want to talk about fitness at any age. I want to talk about training and how things change, when you’re in your twenties versus your thirties, forties, fifties and beyond. And I want to start with some good news. And that is you don’t have to be in your twenties to be in amazing shape, to be muscular, to be lean, to be strong, to be healthy.

And for those of you out there who are currently in your twenties, You don’t have to lose it. As you get older, your muscle doesn’t have to wither away. As you get older, you don’t have to kiss your six pack abs. Goodbye forever. Your metabolism doesn’t have to crater. Your hormones don’t have to implode.

The bottom line is so long as you’re willing to put in the work and stick to the fundamentals. You can do just fine regardless of where you’re starting, regardless of your age or circumstances. Now you can absolutely get the body you really want and become a shining paragon of health and vitality. Your body’s machinery works in the same ways as mine, and it may work better in some ways.

It may work not as well in other ways, but it still works in fundamentally the same ways and it still responds in the same ways to the same stimuli. That said, things do change as you get older, but not in the ways that many people think. Really, when you boil it down, the major difference between, as far as fitness goes, between being in your twenties and in your fifties is not so much what you can do, it’s how much you can do.

It’s how much abuse your body can take. So let’s start this discussion with training in your 20s. Let’s start there. So if you’re currently in your 20s or even you’re younger and you want to get into working out, maybe you’re coming into your 20s. Let’s talk about the major things that you should be looking at in this phase of your life and in your fitness journey.

So the. And first thing you should know is this really is the time when you can push your body the hardest and you can demand the most of it. There’s no doubt about that. It doesn’t mean you are invulnerable though, which many people in their twenties think. And what you don’t want to do is you don’t want to leave your younger years hampered by injuries.

And over training and maybe metabolic problems, you really want to come into your middle years in as good of health as possible. So I’d say specifically the three big goals here are one, you should learn how to train properly because your average 20 something weightlifter is just an overzealous pile of injuries waiting to happen.

And so that means that. You want to learn your form and you want to get it down and you want to stick to it. You don’t want to try to rush the process. You don’t want to be one of those guys in the gym or one of those girls in the gym doing the wobbly knee squats where the knees are caving in and the scaredy cat hunched back deadlifts.

And the, behind the shoulder explosion presses because those kinds of things will come to haunt you one day. So stick the ego back in the box, learn proper form, especially on the big lifts like the squat, bench press, overhead press, deadlift and so forth and stick to it. And yes, that does mean slower progress because an easy way to get more reps or put more weight on the bar is to simply cheat your form.

But just remember. That it doesn’t matter how much weight you have on the bar, if you eventually slip a disc or, tear up your knees or screw up your shoulders. So you don’t want to be, chasing short term gains or chasing short term progress at the expense of long term health. So the big number two, I’d say in terms of importance, when you’re training your twenties, you’re training, I’d say also your thirties is this is the time when you should shoot for gaining all the muscle that you need to look the way that you want.

Now, of course, there are limits in terms of how much muscle all of us can build naturally, no matter what we do. But in my experience, what I’ve found is that the sweet spot, so to speak, is for most guys, let’s say anywhere between 30 and 50 pounds of muscle, I’d say 30 is on the lower end for guys that want to look athletic and fit, but not necessarily muscular.

Muscle bound. And whereas on the higher end, if you’re looking at 50 or 60 pounds of muscle added to the frame of a normal. So you start normal and then now you’re 50 pounds heavier. You are quite big. I’d say I’m actually somewhere probably upwards of 45 pounds. I’ve probably put on about 45 pounds of muscle since I started weightlifting.

And as far as women go, I would probably just have those numbers. I would say the majority of women that I’ve worked with want to gain about 15 to 20 pounds of muscle in the right areas of their body. And they want to be around 18 percent body fat. And that’s like the, the end game, and then it’s just maintaining that.

And as far as body fat percentage goes with guys, it’s usually about 10%. So most guys, if they gain anywhere from let’s say 30 to 40 pounds of muscle and they get down to 10 percent body fat, they’re going to be very happy with their physique. And you want to really focus on gaining that muscle. If you can do it in your twenties and thirties, because it’s going to be easier, both physiologically and logistically.

Now, in terms of physiology research shows that younger guys, so guys in their twenties tend to gain more muscle than guys in their forties and when they follow the exact same type of weightlifting routine differences aren’t huge, but they are notable. So you know, you’re just going to build muscle faster when you’re younger.

It’s that simple. And there are several reasons for that relating to hormones and so forth, but that’s the long story short. And in terms of logistically. It’s a bit easier in your twenties to put in the time and to get in enough sleep and just have your life. I wouldn’t say it needs to revolve around going to the gym, but as you get older and you have a family and you have more work obligations, it does get harder to be consistent in your workouts, be consistent in your diet, be consistent in your sleep and so And the third and final, I would say Big thing that you should go for when you are in your twenties and thirties is learn how to get and stay lean.

Because when most people get into weightlifting at first, it’s all about just adding mass, just gaining size. Who cares about body fat percentage? Because many guys and many girls as well start either, skinny, Or skinny fat or even overweight. And so in the beginning, it’s just gain muscle, gain strength and see a nice visual change in the mirror.

Now, as time goes on though, that focus usually changes because the more muscle and the more strength you gain, the more you want to get lean and, see what you’re working with. And this is generally easier to do. When you’re younger than when you’re older, really for the reasons that I just gave even less physiologically, because while younger people do tend to respond better to weightlifting in terms of muscle and strength gain than older people, I haven’t seen any research indicate that there’s any real significant difference in terms of fat loss.

So it’s more just logistically. It is easier to get really lean when you’re young. And then to stay there for a while and hopefully create a set point, so to speak. And I know it’s controversial and actually have research quite a bit and written a bit about it. And if you want to read about.

Body weight set point and some different theories in my take on it, head over to musclefullife. com and search for set point. But the bottom line is the longer you stay at a lower body fat percentage, the easier it is going to be for you to continue to remain at that body fat percentage over the long term.

Let’s say if you get into great shape in your twenties or thirties and you pretty much have the physique you want, you’ve put on a good amount of muscle, you’ve gotten If you stay that way, you’re going to find it very easy to continue staying that way over the longterm. So you can stay just as lean, look just as good in your forties and fifties and beyond.

Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. If you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it.

It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say, Thank you. You can find me on Instagram at muscle for life fitness, Twitter at muscle for life and Facebook at muscle for life fitness. Okay. So now let’s talk about training in your middle years.

Let’s talk about training in your forties, fifties and sixties and beyond. And many people think that once you’ve reached this period of your life, you’re basically face planting into a pool of quicksand and you’re on your way out. And the more you try to fight against it, the more you try to struggle, the faster you’re just going to be sucked into the abyss.

And again, this is nonsense. Yes, you do have some advantages as far as, especially as far as muscle and strength gain go when you’re younger. But if you’re middle aged and if you’ve never even done a pushup, If you’re willing to put in the work and you’re willing to be disciplined and be consistent, you can absolutely gain quite a bit of muscle and strength.

You can get lean, you can be healthy, you can look great, you can feel great. That said, there are two key difference between college aged and middle aged bodies. And that is Studies show that as you get older, your muscles are more susceptible to training induced damage. And also that repairing this damage takes longer when you are older than it did when you’re younger.

So your recovery isn’t as good. So this is why as you get older, you want to become even more of a stickler in terms of form because you just can’t get away with as much shenanigans as you could when you’re younger. You don’t want to be. deadlifting. You don’t want to be bowing in your knees when you’re squatting.

You don’t want to be flaring your elbows up when you’re bench pressing, making all the common mistakes that that people make, especially on the big compound lifts that lead to, if not injuries, just more wear and tear. And really this just comes down to being smart. Don’t sacrifice form for trying to hit PRs and listen to your body.

And if something is not feeling right, even if the weight is something that you’ve done before or you are usually comfortable with back off and don’t try to push through pain. Another thing that people in their 40s and 50s and 60s need to do is need to pay a bit more attention to their weekly volume and intensity than they probably did when they were younger.

I know right now the current obsession in at least at least on the Instagrams and on the social medias is like hardcore intense weightlifting where you are training six days per week and you are training at least all your major muscle groups at least twice per week with high volume or at least moderate volume, high intensity workouts.

And while you can get away with that when you are young. And eating a lot of food and sleeping a lot. If you do that, as you get older, you’re really asking to get hurt. And you’re also asking you to just run into symptoms related to over training. And it’s just not, it’s not a, it’s not a pretty picture.

Now, honestly, I could probably create an entire video slash podcast just on this topic alone. Which I probably should making a note, I’m just going to give you a quick and simple formula here. So for people in their forties and fifties and sixties, a good place to start, at least then, some, again, some people’s bodies just naturally recover very well and can still take quite a beating even as they get older.

And so this may be not enough for those people, but for most people, I’d say for a sweet spot is about 50 is 50 to 70 heavy reps per major muscle group per five to seven days. So by heavy, I mean working with anywhere from 80 to 85 percent of one rep max. So somewhere in the rep range of, let’s say four to eight.

So if you’re doing again. 50 to 70 reps per major muscle group, essentially per week, it could be per five days. And if you really want to push it, you could say maybe per four days in that heavier rep range, that is a very good foundation for your training. And to put that in perspective, that would be like, your average well designed push, pull legs program would put you around there.

Now, if you start there and you want to add some more, I would recommend adding probably no more than about. 30 reps per major muscle group per five to seven days. So if you want to start with your, core of heavier compound weightlifting, and then you want to add in some accessory work around it.

Again, as you look at it by major muscle group, I’d recommend starting with at least no more than an additional 30 reps. 30 reps per five to seven days. So in the end, what you’re looking at is let’s say anywhere between 80 and a hundred reps per major muscle group per five to seven days with most of them being heavier.

And and then the minority of them being the kind of lighter accessory work. You should also be taking at least one day off the weights per week, and you might want to take off too. You got to see how your body responds. Again, if you can train. Five days per week. That’s great. You don’t need to be doing any more than that period, regardless of what your goals are.

And if you really like training and you can get away with six days, that’s fine. But I would say in my experience working with people, most people in their forties, fifties and sixties do best with three to five weightlifting days per week. And then on the other days, they don’t have to, you don’t have to be sedentary.

You can still be active, but I would think of them more as like active recovery days. So maybe you’re doing some cardio, maybe you’re doing some yoga or doing some other physical activity that isn’t as strenuous as weightlifting and don’t make it, make no mistake. Heavy weightlifting is very strenuous.

It’s taxing on your body and on your nervous system, especially exercises like the squat deadlift in particular. And when you’re going heavy, they’re tough on the body. There’s a recovery debt to pay when you do these things. And that’s also why you want to make sure that you are taking weeks off so you can just be resting or you can deload.

It’s up to you. See how your body responds. And you should be doing these things more frequently as you get older than when you were younger. Again, in my experience, working with a lot of people that push themselves in their training, a lot of middle aged people that train hard, they tend to deload every four to six weeks on average.

Whereas the ones that have been training for a while when they were back in their twenties, they may have deloaded. In some cases they would never do load or they would do load once every three, four, five, six months. But now they’ve found that they, again, they have a recovery debt that just catches up with them.

And if you don’t know what deloading is, just head over to muscle for life. com and search for deal and you can read all about it. And one last little tip that’s worth sharing that has worked well with middle aged people is linear periodization. So what that boils down to is setting up your training in such a way where you’re training in a certain rep range for a period of time and then a different rep range, usually for the same period of time and a different and so forth.

Many different ways to do it. And the reason why I’ve found that this works well with. Middle aged people is it reduces the amount of overall strain that, the weightlifting puts on the body. And so here’s an example of how it could be set up. So let’s say you have a five week training block.

And in the first week you are going to train in about the 10 to 12 rep range. So it’s lighter weights, so heavy enough. To get the job done, you can still gain muscle and gain strength. It’s not a waste of time. It’s just not particularly heavy, which again means less strain on the body. And then week two, you are going to be training and usually you’re doing the same exercises.

It’s just, we are ratcheting up the intensity as time goes on. So week two is the eight to 10 rep range. Week three is the six to eight rep range. Week four is the four to six rep range, and that’s the heaviest. And then we usually would do a week five again in the four to six, and then week six would be a deload.

And then you repeat. Hey there it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick. Review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.

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Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. Soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically by flexible dieting cookbook, the shredded chef.

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