The Problem with Most Workouts: They Work your Muscles but don’t build them

That’s a major problem. You work your muscles every week. They get sore and tight from the workouts. ‘Lather, rinse, repeat’… over and over…

But that’s about it; nothing else seems to happen.

“Where’s the muscle mass”, you ask? If you’ve worked out in a gym or at home for any length of time and asked this question, you’re not alone.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of guys asking the same question.

Even after they read books and magazines on the topic, they STILL don’t get the results they’re seeking.

So here are five tips to building muscle over 40. I’ve arrived at them based on 30 years of natural bodybuilding experience.

… And they’re 5 tips you probably won’t find anywhere else.

Five Tips for Building Muscle Over 40

1. Focus on Volume – Not Dead Weight

Let’s use bench pressing as an example. If you can bench press 250 lbs. for two repetitions, you can move 500 lbs of volume. If you can bench 50 lbs. for ten repetitions, you can, once again, move 500 lbs. of volume. But which one of these sets provides you a better route to bigger muscles?

What’s likely is that your muscles will only be bigger when you can move a greater ‘volume’ of weight. For example, if three months from today you can bench 80 lbs for ten repetitions, you’ll have moved 800 lbs. of volume.

That’s a big 300-pound jump up from the 500 lbs. you’d have moved using 50 lbs. of weight.

Compare this to getting one more repetition with 250 lbs. – you’ll have moved 750 lbs. of volume.

So your muscles will probably be a bit bigger if you can move 80 lbs. for 10 reps compared to 250 lbs. for 3 reps. But you’ll likely only be aware of this if you’re focused on volume…

… Which is what most every person “working out” is NOT focused on. They’re worried about how much dead weight they can lift.

But if lifting maximum weight for low repetitions were the key to muscle growth, we likely wouldn’t see so many power lifters with unimpressive physique development.

I’ve found that focusing on ‘volume’ makes a world of difference in building strength and muscle over 40.

2. Realize Muscle Building is Mathematical

Building muscle successfully is rarely done in an ‘open-ended, anything-goes’ manner. It looks more like a closed-looped mathematical equation, just like many things in the world.

Here’s what that means. If you bench press that 80 lbs. for 10 repetitions (800 lbs. volume) for three sets, you’ll have moved 2,400 lbs. of volume. Assuming you take 30 seconds to do each set and rest 3 minutes between sets, you’ll have moved that big volume within 7 minutes, 30 seconds.

If sometime in the future you can shorten your rest time to one minute between sets, you’ll move the same volume in 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

… And your muscles will probably be slightly bigger because of it.

3. Realize that Weekly Workouts might be Too Often

If you did that bench pressing workout today, you’ll have torn down the muscles of your chest, shoulders, and arms.

Those muscles won’t get bigger until that damage has been recuperated. Not only that, but some compensatory tissue needs to be added so you can be stronger on your next workout.

That’s how muscles get bigger (when they do). It’s because compensatory tissue was built. It’s extra fibers meant to compensate for the overload condition that was placed on the existing tissue.

But how long does that take?

Everyone assumes it will take more than a couple days and less than a week. But just because a lot of people assume something doesn’t make it correct.

Your muscles will recuperate and get stronger in their own time. They don’t know what the calendar date is and they certainly don’t care about the day of the week.

If you work the muscle again at any time prior to it reaching ‘compensatory recuperation’, it’s unlikely get any bigger. So taking more than a week between working each muscle could possibly speed up your progress.

4. Realize Muscles Need to be Coaxed – not Forced

Look around inside gyms everywhere and you’ll see guys trying to ‘force’ their muscles into growth. This can be counterproductive even when we’re young.

It can be disastrous once we’re over the age of 40.

Building muscle usually demands some work. But just because it requires work doesn’t mean that unbridled hard work leads to more muscle growth. It often results in over-training and setbacks.

There’s a balance to this. That balance is maintained with fine-tuned adjustment to the pre-mentioned time, volume, and rest days between the working of each muscle.

5. Maximize Your Endogenous Muscle Building Hormones

Once we’re over 40, we need to be strategic in order to maximize our anabolic and youth hormones.

Examples of anabolic hormones are testosterone and IGF-1.

An example of a ‘youth hormone’ is human growth hormone (HGH).

There are antioxidant supplements, like astragalus, that have been shown in some studies to boost testosterone over time.

There are techniques like intermittent fasting, and supplements such as GABA, that have been shown to enhance growth hormone release.

When techniques and supplements like these are successfully added to the four previous tips mentioned, a synergistic effect can occur.

… And bigger and stronger muscles over the age of 40 become much more achievable.

If you’re now realizing the potential you have for creating your dream body over the age of 40, you’ll love our FREE report: ‘Hard-Body Over 40’

It has even more tips and tricks for becoming better over 40 than you ever were while under 30.