One thing is for sure, after you turn 30 it’s harder to retain or build muscle into your 30’s and after. You can lose muscle mass and testosterone will naturally drop by 1% every year. There are some things that us guys over 30 will need to do to
How do we Build Muscle after 30?
There are 3 possible things that can affect building muscle as you age. First is your insulin sensitivity, testosterone, and your production of aromatase increases. After you’ve eaten your body breaks down the food, the Glucose(Sugar) goes into your bloodstream for transportation and is sent to your cells. Glucose fuels your cells to give them energy.
Next, when our body gets the signal that we’ve eaten, the beta cells from your pancreas will then produce insulin. Insulin is a Hormone that will tell your cells to absorb the glucose to use as energy. As we age, the receptor sites on our muscles begin to not be as sensitive and will become slower to respond to insulin sensitivity.
Insulin Sensitivity is when your cells don’t respond well to the signaling of insulin. The pancreas can only keep producing so much insulin before it becomes too fatigued, this is how you can end up being diabetic or pre-diabetic. Which means that the leftover glucose will be converted into fat cells.
An excess of calories can lead to higher fat storage which can lead to an increase of another hormone called aromatase hormone. Aromatase is an enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen. This will decrease testosterone in your body and the ability to build muscle.
Training Tips
It’s important to train by how your feeling that day and not to load up the weights like your going to lift the gym. This is important because you will put less pressure on your body and joints.
It’s really important to build a relationship with your body and especially as we age. Following a standard program and not listening to your body is a quick recipe for injury while you age.
It’s still important to stress your muscles and try to stay within the 6-8 rep range. You should focus on the heaviest amount of weight but with form being the most important during your lifts.
There’s no need to be a hero if you start to feel your body tweak during lifts, simply go down in weight or stop the exercise altogether. While in my twenties I would push through exercises, even when I would feel some pain. Now I’m looking to train smarter and more efficient. The goal is to get the most out of your workouts while preventing injury.
Keys to Building Muscle into your 30’s and beyond
- While trying to put on muscle or getting lean, you need to be in a calorie surplus of 500 or a deficit.
- Rest is crucial because our bodies grow outside of the gym.
- Eating whole food for proper nutrition and energy, 80/20 rule when eating healthy versus processed foods.
- You must do all major compound lifts
- You need to be getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night for recovery and growth.
- DO NOT FOLLOW MOST MAINSTREAM WORKOUTS!!!
While in our teens and early 20’s we could just workout, eat whatever and our crazy young hormones would help build muscle for us. While that’s not the case anymore, it’s still possible to build muscle and stay in shape as we age.
Don’t follow mainstream advice for Workouts
I’ve been there and have followed a lot of the popular fitness experts and popular workouts. Only to leave me feeling left burnt out after my workouts and wanting to eat everything in sight to get my energy levels back up.
Unless you are on anabolic steroids you should not follow a lot of advice out there. The reason being is because when you are taking synthetic testosterone your body will recover much faster. Not only will it recover faster but you will be able to do more reps without less damage done to your body. A lot of programs and advice given are made by people who are not a natural lifter and are on anabolic steroids.
There are a lot of supplements I’ve taken over the years and few have worked so be careful what you are putting into your body. It’s important to try to find supplements that have GMP on them when you do buy them if possible. GMP(Good Manufacturing Processes) means that manufacturers ingredients and labels are accurate and safe.
Don’t start out Lifting too much Weight
One of the biggest reason guys and especially older guys get hurt it trying to lift too much weight. While the weight shouldn’t be so light it isn’t challenging there is an even balance. Remember, we are looking for 6-8 reps with good form and resistance.
Do not try to lift such a heavy weight that you are doing it with bad form. Trust me I know from experience and have injured myself with poor form on deadlifts. There is nothing cool about loading up the weights in the gym trying to show off and then injuring yourself.
Look for a weight that you can’t lift passed 6-8 reps with good form. This has been the sweet spot for me, make sure you are focusing on the muscle group you are working as well.
Should I be doing One Rep Max?
Not necessarily, unless you are a competitive lifter or an athlete of course. If your not one of these the risk versus reward just doesn’t make sense. If you do a max and you hit that PR, then okay cool it inflates your ego for a bit and you feel good.
On the other hand if you hear something snap or pop, then oh okay not cool. See the risk versus reward? You do not have to do one rep max to build muscle or stay in shape.
Then how do I Build Muscle?
You will build muscle through Progressive Overload. This is simply increasing the demands on your muscular-skeletal system to increase muscle size, strength, and endurance. With each set, you should be increasing the weight and challenging your body.
If you are not getting stronger during each exercise you won’t be building optimal muscle. Get the most bang for your buck while your lifting and make sure you are increasing the weight! getting stronger equals building more muscle, which means less body fat.
How does Progressive Overload Work?
- One way is simply adding more weight during each set. This would be to increase the resistance. Let’s say you are curling 50lbs, you should be adding weight for every set. The second set you could add 5lbs to each or even less weight. The key is to keep going up in weight while trying to do 6-8 reps for each exercise. As you go up in weight it’s normal for the reps to drop, but it’s important to stay within the 6-8 reps. At the very least, you can do 4 reps.
- Another way to increase overload is through less rest time between your sets. This is simply doing the same amount of exercise but with less time involved. By doing this you will force your body to become more metabolically efficient.
- Training Frequency, by increasing the frequency in which you workout that muscle group will also put an overload on them. While you don’t want to target a particular muscle group every day because it will cause overtraining. You should be waiting 24 hours at the very least before targeting that muscle group again. There are some who also say you should wait for 48 hours.
I prefer to use to Progressive Overload by adding extra weight on each set personally. I will also mix it up by adding in less time sometimes as well but to the point of not overtraining. Especially if I’m on a calorie cut.
Cardio
The dreaded cardio, while it’s not a fan favorite we need it! Cardio works and will not eat away your muscle as long as you don’t do too much. It’s important because it helps burn fat or is great for weight maintenance. It’s also used to keep chronic diseases at bay.\
One study shows that by adding some cardio you can burn up to 600 calories a day. That’s a lot and if you throw intermittent fasting into the mix, that’s a recipe to melt fat build muscle and stay healthy as you age.
Improved Mood
Not only does cardio help with weight loss but it can also help with your mood. The reason being is that it boosts the happy chemicals in our brains, the feel-good ones called “Endorphins”.
I can tell a big difference when I do some cardio and when I don’t. You don’t have to run a marathon, it’s actually been shown that chronic long distance running is bad for your heart.
You should aim to do somewhere between 10-20 minutes of cardio. The intensity should be to where you can breathe through your nose comfortably and not through your mouth.
Improves your Immune System
This may come as a surprise but regular workouts can improve your immune system.
According to Pubmed” Ageing is associated with a decline in normal functioning of the immune system described as ‘immunosenescence’. This contributes to poorer vaccine response and increased incidence of infection and malignancy seen in older people. Regular exercise can enhance vaccination response, increase T-cells and boost the function of the natural killer cells in the immune system. Exercise also lowers levels of the inflammatory cytokines that cause the ‘inflamm-ageing’ that is thought to play a role in conditions including cardiovascular disease; type 2 diabetes; Alzheimer’s disease; osteoporosis and some cancers.”
The good news is you don’t have to run a marathon to reap the benefits. Just even moderate exercise can help. It’s been shown that 20-30 minutes of exercise is enough.
Why Mobility and sleep are Important for your Body
This is something I used to be better at but something we should all be doing. I really notice it after awhile if I haven’t done any mobility work or stretching. When we were young it wasn’t of importance to stretch but as we age and if you don’t, it’s only a matter of time before injuring yourself increases.
As we age and we are lifting heavy or pushing ourselves with cardio, it’s very common to have some aches, pains, and to feel tight. While lifting, it can actually cause your muscles to become tight and shorten. Here are some good mobility and flexibility exercises to start out with.
If you can master these stretches you will be good. Although it would be ideal to do some Yoga on days you don’t work out. My twenty-something self would’ve smacked myself for saying that, but it’s true. Yoga is amazing for your body! It’s best to start out at a beginner level class because it can be a humbling and experience and is not easy.
The Benefits of Sleep
Another really overlooked aspect of health and keeping your testosterone levels optimal is getting good sleep. Let’s start with the most obvious is if you aren’t getting enough sleep, you probably don’t have the energy to workout.
While we are awake our mind and body are facing some type of stressors all throughout the day. Your body is constantly working whether it is your heart beating, your brain processing stimulus, it takes energy for all of these autonomic processes.
Sleep is to rest and recover and time to recharge our batteries. The brain undergoes some radical changes while asleep. Some intense neurological activity happens, like neurochemical cleansing, muscle recovery, and cognitive repairs.
If you are not sleeping enough you will release a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that is released during a stress response, why is this a problem?
Because it increases fat on your body and can make it hard to build muscle and lose weight. While all cortisol is not bad, elevated levels can decline your health.
Lack of Sleep Effects on your Body
- Cause bad health markers, with problems like high blood pressure, high-stress hormones, increased risk of diabetes, irregular heartbeats and even heart attacks can happen. Even on a bad nights sleep can make your blood sugar levels to that of a type 2 diabetic.
- Can make you gain weight, as mentioned earlier lack of sleep can raise your stress hormone cortisol. If raised chronically it can cause issues in losing weight.
- Increase the risk of disease, not getting enough sleep can weaken the immune system. This makes fighting off colds and other diseases harder.
- Lower Testosterone, this male hormone is critical in building muscle. It’s even more important as we age because it naturally declines. Testosterone levels drop by 1% every year after 30. HGH(Human Growth Hormone) is released within the first few hours of sleep which is of great importance because it repairs tissue and will help keep you lean.
There are a lot of thoughts out there on how much sleep we should get. It looks like 7-9 hours of sleep is optimal for most adults.
One of the Biggest Factors in building Muscle After 30
Nutrition
Eating a nutrient-dense diet is key to building muscle. Especially as we get older you should track calories to see how many work best for your body. You can exercise all you want but if you are overeating and eating a lot of processed foods it will be tough to see results.
I use the 80/20 rule because it will be almost impossible to avoid cake or pizza while out with friends and family. You should be eating clean organic vegetables and grass-fed meats 80% of the time when possible. You can indulge and treat yourself the other 20% of the time with fast food.
Your nutrition should be a way of living and not a diet. This is because most diets aren’t sustainable long term. We all know someone who has lost a lot of weight but gradually put it back on over time.
Figuring out your Daily Calories
Figuring out your macros and the calorie count is a huge part of this process. Here is a link to figure out your calories, you will want to subtract 500 calories from your maintenance if you want to lose weight.
If you want to build muscle you will add 500 calories from your maintenance. No diet is perfect for everyone, if that were the case we would all be on a diet that worked and we wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic.
Key Summary Points
- It’s very possible for men to build muscle and burn fat after 30, make sure you are training with Progressive Overload and you are becoming stronger-Most of your workout should be based around compound exercises
- When training it’s best to try to do 6-8 reps with a moderate weight that you can do with good form
- Sleep and recovery is often overlooked and is probably the first thing you should correct, try to get 7-9 hours of sleep each night
- As we age and workout our muscles can become tight and start to shorten, that’s why it’s important to do your mobility exercises to prevent injury and flexibility
- Your nutrition is probably the second most important behind sleep, finding the right amount of calories and protein, try to aim for .8 grams of protein per 1lb of body weight