Workout

My Fitness Journey: What Has Worked for Me in My 40s

I have been working out for the last couple of years, and I’d like to share what has been effective for me. This post is intended for people similar to me in age and lifestyle who are starting their fitness journey for the first time in their late 30s to early 40s. Please note that this advice may not be suitable for everyone.

What Has Worked for Me?

  1. Within 10-15 minutes of waking up, I go for a walk 5-7 days a week. I do a 5K weighted walk1 at a decent speed, preferring the same route every day.
  2. I’ve modified my diet to stop eating around sunset, with 7 PM being the latest. I start eating again at around 7:30 AM.
  3. My last meal is usually a warm salad consisting of boiled green and colored vegetables topped with a very small quantity of fatty sauce or dressing.
  4. I do a total body split workout 2-3 times a week.

My Workout

My goal is to compensate for muscle loss due to aging and potentially improve aesthetics.

  1. I focus on only a few key movements.
  2. The key movements I do in almost every workout are deadlifts, rows, bench presses, and squats.
  3. I include some isolation work for shoulders and arms.
  4. Total time per workout, including warm-up and cool-down, is approximately 60-70 minutes.
  5. I take plenty of rest between sets.
  6. I alternate between legs, push, and pull movements to provide additional recovery to movement chains.
  7. I do 2 warm-up sets with 3 reps at 50% of my working weight.
  8. I incorporate mobility exercises.
  9. I include some bodyweight exercises like push-ups and pull-ups.

What Has Not Worked for Me?

  1. Most content on the internet is about strength training, focusing on actively trying to build larger and larger muscles. I’ve found it best to ignore most of this content.
  2. Too much variety. Many exercises look fancy, but their incremental benefits are marginal at best.
  3. Splits such as PPL (Push, Pull, Legs) or “Bro” splits2.
  4. Too many sets. I started off doing 4 sets, increasing weight slightly every set. This is what I learned in my early 20s, but it’s not effective in my 40s.

Tips

To reiterate, these tips may not be suitable for everyone:

  1. Focus on a few key movements.
  2. Use unilateral exercises as much as possible, at least in the beginning.
  3. Avoid sets where weights keep increasing. Do drop sets only.
  4. Never skip warm-up and stretching.
  5. Don’t skip warm-up sets for compound movements.
  6. Keep strength training to a maximum of 3 times a week. Once you start lifting heavier weights, reduce it to 2 times a week.
  7. Take plenty of rest between sets. A minimum of 3 minutes for compound movements.
  8. Only do 1 set for isolation work (biceps/triceps/shoulders), but get close to failure on that set.

My Total Body Split

  1. Warm-up: 5-8 minute fast walk or slow run
  2. Dynamic stretching
  3. Deadlift or barbell row (3 sets)
  4. Flat or inclined barbell bench press (3 sets)
  5. Squat or Romanian deadlift (3 sets)
  6. Lat pulldown or pull-ups
  7. Inclined or flat dumbbell chest flys (3 sets)
  8. Tricep pushdown (1 set)
  9. Bicep curl (superset3 with triceps, 1 set)
  10. Shoulder exercise (rotate through Arnold press, unilateral cable lateral raise, and cross-body rear delt cable pull)
  11. 5-minute cool-down

Keep your workout consistent across multiple dimensions - movements, timing, days of the week. Keep the workout as simple as possible in the beginning. And do not over-workout.

Footnotes

  1. I carry 8-12 kg in a backpack. ↩

  2. Total body split works well. It gives plenty of time to recover. Even if you miss a workout, it doesn’t matter much. ↩

  3. No rest in between exercises. ↩