Build LEAN MUSCLE Over 40 (Not Bulk!)

Are You Too Old To Train Hard?

Do you think that building lean muscle after 40 means risking your joints or living in the gym? For 25 years, I’ve helped busy people get strong, athletic bodies the smart way. So, in this video, I’m going to show you the simple science-backed workout and nutrition strategies that will help you build muscle without adding fat.

Should You Lift Heavy Over 40?

Lift heavy or not. We used to hear a cautious approach to training once someone reached their 40s, but we’ve seen top athletes in their 40s show us what’s actually possible. But don’t compare yourself to them or even your 20-some self. A fit, active person in their 50s is in better shape than most people in their 20s. And that’s what I want for you. You actually hit peak strength and muscles somewhere in your 30s or early 40s, depending on your genetics and training. Which is why I tend to laugh when people say a workout is effective even if you’re 30. I mean, you’re just getting started, kiddo.

Why Strength Training Is Non-Negotiable

Later in your 40s, sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass and function, can start to develop. We want to build muscle, that’s hypertrophy, and strength to defend against those potential losses. But what’s the best way to do that?

Does Rep Range Matter?

Maybe you’ve heard the old school rep ranges for hypertrophy, strength, and endurance, also called the repetition continuum. It’s what I learned in my sport science classes at university, and you’ll still see them around a lot. If you want to build strength, you do 1 to five reps. To get maximum muscle growth, you do 8 to 12 reps. To build muscular endurance, you use 15 or more reps. Over the last few years, the evidence has started to show that you can get equal hypertrophy with higher rep ranges. So, I could do a dumbbell chest press with 35 pounds for six reps. Or I could do a dumbbell chest press with 20 pounds, but do 20 reps and get the same muscle building result. You can build plenty of muscle doing 15 reps of an exercise as much as you would doing eight reps of that exercise, traditionally in that hypertrophy range. Probably up to about 30 reps, but for most people that’s going to be tedious and impractical. The one condition, you need to be close to failure. Meaning, if I use 20 lb dumbbells and just stop at 10 reps, even though I could have done 20, I’m not going to build much muscle. But I see this one in the gyms a lot.

Choosing the Right Rep Range for You

Now, I personally prefer to train with a 5 to 10 rep range. For me, it’s fun to feel strong, and I only go above 10 for like rehab and prehab exercises that use small muscle groups, like a seated dumbbell external rotation. Some people find that higher reps, say 12 to 20, are more comfortable for their joints as they’re getting older, and that’s definitely a valid consideration, but some people actually find lower reps with heavier weight, less fatiguing, and more joint friendly. So, test it out and see what works for you. Don’t push through pain, but don’t slack either.

Training Around Injuries

I have a lot of experience with injuries, both my own and dealing with other people’s injuries. As part of my sports therapy courses at University in England, I learned how to deal with both acute and chronic injuries in athletes. And one of my professors, a former trainer for several professional football teams in the UK, that’s soccer for us North Americans, would have us do clinics with student athletes. And one day, one of my fellow students, a university soccer player, came in with a broken arm that happened when he got knocked down in a match and at least one other player accidentally stomped on him. So, we had his right arm in a cast and I was supposed to do his sports therapy and his conditioning. And our professor said, “Get him on the bike to warm up, then put him through a heavy leg workout where he doesn’t need to use his arm for support, and then finish off with a hard workout for his left arm.” So, I was a bit shocked at first, but then I realized there wasn’t anything wrong with the rest of his body, and he could work really hard without using his right arm. Even if you’re not an athlete, you need to take this mindset to heart.

Adapt and Keep Going

Muscle building progress is about consistency. And if you keep stopping everything whenever you have a little injury or some pain with a certain exercise, you’ll never get the results you want. Years of wear and tear leads to micro trauma and overuse injuries. our tendons and ligaments over time do get stiffer and weaker which means they’re less likely to handle forces and you’re more likely to get injured than you were say in your 20s. And of course it’s important not to push through pain but you have to work around it. Yes, sometimes your joints will hurt. If you’re a former athlete like I am, you’ve likely done some damage to your body by the time you’re in your 40s. Even if you weren’t that active before, you’ll likely notice natural wear and tear is starting to kick in. Activity is actually good for your joints and ligaments and makes them stronger. So, you want to do it, but be smart. You can adjust your arm position for weight training exercises to make it more comfortable. I’ve been having golfer’s elbow tendinitis. I’ve been doing bicep curls in the neutral or semi-supenated hammer position so I don’t get the pain and I can still work my biceps with hammer curls. If your right knee hurts, you can still work out your upper body or do exercises with the other leg. It’s actually shown that you can transfer strength to that other leg.

How to Structure Your Workouts

Whatever exercises you do, you need to train with structure and purpose for maximum muscle building results. So, use a structured program that targets all major muscle groups about twice a week. Three to four times a week, maybe 30 to 40 minutes of actual weights and lifting can build you the lean muscle you want and fit into your busy schedule. With my clients, I give them short programs to follow that are fairly standard. Compound exercises like lunges, squats, and deadlifts are going to be staples for the lower body. Presses, rows, and pull downs for the upper body. It doesn’t take anything complicated to build muscle. You keep repeating the same exercises. You get stronger, you push harder, you get stronger, you push harder, your muscle grows. That’s progressive overload, and you’ll need it to keep getting muscle gains over time.

When to Change Your Program

Don’t change your workout program too often, but don’t do exactly the same thing for six months either. Every six to eight weeks seems to be what works for most intermediate and advanced lifters. Beginners can go for 3 months without making any changes and still make progress, but that gets boring. Remember that changing your program doesn’t mean totally blowing it up every 6 to 8 weeks. Most of the compound exercises I mentioned will probably stay in the mix, but you move on to a new variation. A goblet squat could become a dumbbell squat, then a barbell squat, a seated shoulder press to a standing shoulder press to a military press.

Why Gains Slow Down

Now, if you just kept adding weight, getting stronger, building muscle, adding weight, building muscle, after the 30 years of weight training that I’ve been doing, I would be the biggest mass monster on the Olympia stage. But it doesn’t work like that. Your weight training experience matters and you’re going to get the biggest gains in your first couple of years of training. Then between about 2 to 5 years, it’s going to be noticeably slower. And when you’re advanced, which is five or more years of training, the gains come very slowly and you’re just fine-tuning muscle parts. So theoretically, you would be close to your natural maximum muscle potential by the time you’re in that 5year range. But what I’ve seen with my clients is that many of them have been training for years, but never consistently enough and not with a proper periodized program to get them consistent results and maximize their natural muscular potential. So many people with over a decade of weight training experience see big changes when they start to follow a more optimized plan consistently.

Maintain Muscle or Lose It

It’s also important to remember that if you’re in your late 40s or 50s and you’re maintaining the muscle you have, you’re doing great because without that work, you’d be progressively losing muscle naturally.

Gradually Increase Training Volume

The safest approach is to increase your training volume gradually over time to reduce the risk of injury. Normally, we think of that per workout or per week. Our ability to recover from workouts and everything else tends to go down as we age. So, it’s important to prioritize recovery. Six weight training sessions per week, especially if they’re over an hour, might not go down as well at 50 as it did in your 30s. If you put those sessions on top of the stress of your career, maybe kids and other family responsibilities, you might put yourself into something called stress recovery imbalance. Your system is overloaded. You’re past your capacity. You’ll feel exhausted and sore all the time, and that’s not great for muscle growth.

Train. Rest. Grow.

Muscle building is the process of breaking down muscle through resistance training and rebuilding it stronger during that recovery period. That means rest in the form of time off between workouts and sleep. Walking and cardio, as long as you don’t overdo it, can help you recover from your weight training.

Don’t Forget Nutrition

The other thing that you need to recover and build muscle is nutrition. You’ll want to prioritize protein. This becomes more important in our 40s and 50s because our rate of muscle protein synthesis building goes down and muscle protein breakdown either stays the same or increases.

Healthy, active people like you who want to build muscle should aim for 0.7 to 1 gram per pound protein per day, which in the correct metric form mentioned in research is 1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per kilo per day. If muscle building is your goal, ideally you’ll include at least 25 grams in each meal to maximize that muscle protein synthesis.

I’ve got a free protein guide that gives you the best lean protein sources, and I’ve included a sample meal plan for a target of 150 grams of protein per day. 

What About Meal Frequency?

Now, this makes a small difference, if any. But if you want to do everything possible for muscle growth, then four meals might be a tiny bit better than three. It’s probably too hard to get enough protein into only two meals a day and certainly not one.

Build Muscle, Not Fat

And although protein is important to make sure you’re gaining muscle and not gaining fat, you need to eat enough but not too much. I should point out here that when we talk about lean muscle, it’s really just about adding muscle without adding fat or even losing fat. So, you have that defined look with your muscles. Muscle only gets bigger, stays the same, or gets smaller. It’s not really lean or not lean itself.

Can You Build Muscle in a Deficit?

And based on what you’ve already seen about the challenges of building muscle as you get older, you definitely want to try to build muscle. So, if you’ve been trying to lose fat by existing on very low calories, you’re not giving your body any material to grow muscle. You’re probably exhausted and not putting in the work in the gym to stimulate the muscles to grow either. It’s very hard to grow muscle in a calorie deficit. It’s not impossible, though, since muscle building and fat loss are two separate systems, but it’s more likely with beginners and people who have at least 30 lbs to lose. Some people can continue to eat at maintenance, just what they’re currently eating. They’ll increase their physical activity through weight training, some cardio, and maybe some added walking. And they’ll build muscle and lose fat.

Aim for Recomposition

And I still tell many of my clients to aim for body recomposition, losing fat and building muscle at the same time, because the training strategy is pretty much the same. But on the nutrition side, you have to be careful so that you can achieve both of those goals simultaneously. To learn how to set up your diet for body recomposition, watch THIS VIDEO.