How To Get Stronger In Your 40s, 50s, 60s… & Beyond!

Getting older does not mean getting weaker! Advances in healthcare are ensuring people can live for much longer than previously possible, so learning how to get stronger is paramount.

Whether you are 40 or 80 it is important to be fit and active; this will help you to enjoy life.

Although your metabolism slows as you age and your body changes, there is no reason that you can't continue to build muscles.

In fact, the question of how to get stronger as you age is a matter of discipline and knowing the right exercises.

If you want to get stronger and add muscle, without adding fat, check out our Kick-Ass Lean Muscle Workout For Men article that shows you just how to do it.

How to Get Stronger.

There are two core principles that you must learn to ensure your muscle building techniques are successful:

• • Your Form Should Be Perfect

There is a right way and a wrong way to perform any exercise.

The wrong way will place a strain on your body and is more likely to incur an injury.

The right way allows you to lift heavier weights and build muscle.

You can look at the 5 best muscle building exercises to understand the exercises you should be doing and how best to do them.

There is also useful video tutorials at:

http://www.youtube.com/c/Fitfatherproject

These can help you to understand the correct form you need to adopt.

• • You Should Progressively Increase Your Resistance

The answer to how to get stronger in your 40’s is by building lean muscle.

The lean muscle workout can show you the best way to build lean muscle, but the real secret is simply to increase the weights you are using whilst lowering the number of reps.

This will push your body to lift more and more; without risking an injury through extended lifting routines.

The key to how to get stronger is in pushing your muscles just past their limits and then giving them time to rest.

This is the reason you should only train three times a week.

As your muscles heal they will grow stronger and larger; ready to be pushed again.

Choose the Right Lifts.

You can be inspired by famous weightlifters, such as Arnie.

In fact, the lifts that I recommend below are those we use on our Old School Muscle Building Program, which is inspired by Arnie's mentor, Reg Park.

This will illustrate that the best exercises to build muscle and make you stronger are compound lifts.

Every time you perform a lift you must adopt the correct form and contract your core muscles; including your abdominal muscles.

This will build your core strength and help to ensure your whole body gets stronger and not just specific muscle groups.

Which Compound Lifts Will Help Me Get Stronger?

Compound exercises are simply any movement which uses at least two joints.

This ensures that multiple groups of muscles are being used and encourages strength building evenly across your body.

It has also been shown to help improve core strength and overall stability.

There are a variety of compound exercises that will help you to get stronger:

• • Deadlifts

You will have seen this used in weightlifting competitions.

It involves lifting a barbell from the ground to waist height and then back to the ground.

Speed and control are critical as is lifting properly.

The form guide mentioned above will help to ensure you get the lift right.

The deadlift involves a huge range of muscles across your body and is an excellent strength training exercise.

• • Squats

These are often described as leg exercise but they actually work the majority of your muscles.

It involves standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and squatting down until your knees are roughly in line your hips.

To start with you may wish to do the exercise without weights, but to really get stronger you need to start holding dumbbells as you squat.

• • Rows

This exercise strengthens your middle back, arms, shoulders and even your buttocks.

In this exercise, you adopt a position similar to half a squat and then lower your dumb bells or barbell.

The difference is your back moves with you as you lift up and down.

Although your movement is not huge, the effect is impressive and will definitely help to answer the question of how to get stronger!

• • Presses

You can do a press with a machine but it is not necessary.

Simply pick your weight and, holding one in each hand, lift them to shoulder level.

Your hand should be wrapped around it from the back with your fingers visible at the front.

Then, bend your knees and as you straighten them again, push your arms straight above your head.

Of course, these are just some of the exercise options. The attached guides will provide you more information regarding how to get stronger.

• • Pulls

Pulls such as pull-ups or lat-pulldown will work your outer back, shoulders and biceps.

The idea behind these exercises is to use your hands as hooks and draw your shoulder blades down first to switch on the lat muscle.

Pulling exercises will be essential exercises to learn if you want to know how to get stronger.

Working on these will give you excellent grip strength, shoulder strength and a wide taper to your body.

Tips to Build Strength.

Heavy weights and low reps will build strength fast.

However, there are a couple of extra tips you can follow which will assist you in building strength:

• • Keep Your Grip Tight.

Hold your weights as tightly as you can. This is not to prevent you from dropping them!

It places more stress on the joints and muscles in your arms and hands which, in turn, will encourage your muscles to grow bigger; improving your overall strength.

You will appreciate these muscles when you need to grip heavier weights!

• • Complete Your Hardest Exercise First

Lifting your heaviest weights or completing your most challenging exercise first will help you to complete it successfully.

This will then help to inspire you to complete the rest of your workout, safe in the knowledge that you have already achieved the most difficult.

• • Make Sure You Take Your Rest Day

Do not be tempted to skip a rest day and perform more exercises!

Your body needs time to recover between exercises; it is during this time that your muscles repair themselves and grow stronger.

Some Points to Remember:

Correct form and compound lifts will ensure you can achieve your how to grow stronger goals; then surpass them.

In this way, you will develop more strength in your 40’s and over than you ever had in your 20’s; when you thought you were in peak physical condition.

If you've found this information useful and think it might be helpful to others you know, please use the social media buttons on the left and below to share this with your friends and connections.

I would be very grateful.

I wish you every success on your strength journey and look forward to helping you further along the road of success.

Until next time!

Your new friend & health coach,

Small note about research cited in this article:

*Always remember: weight loss results & health changes/improvements vary from individual to individual. Just because these studies cite certain data does not mean you will experience these results/outcomes. Always consult with your doctor before making decisions about your health. This is not medical advice – simply well-researched information. Thanks for reading!