Fitness beyond the Forties!

Angshuman Dutta

They say life begins at forty. I would definitely agree on that.

By forty most of your delusions of saving the world are gone and you realize that rather than impressing the world around you, it would be better if you focus your energies on self development. This is also the best time to build lean muscle and get in shape-what? Yes you heard me right!

Of course forties are not the best time for your hormones, especially the big T or Testosterone. But I would say in spite of the declining T levels, one can safely build lean muscle and get in the best shape of their lives beyond forty.

Fitness beyond the Forties — Image: The Guardian

When I say muscle, I hope you are not imagining Arnold in his prime! No my good sir, that won’t be possible. And some of you might ponder-why even bother with muscle?

Well, the human body is made up of 600+ muscles controlling how you chew your food to how you eject it out of your body! So muscles aren’t just the show ones. As we age, our muscles atrophies, becomes weak. This is not good news for your back, knees and heart (the heart is also a muscle). We need to keep the critical muscles strong and able so that we can go out all guns blazing when the time comes!

While I am sure you all are aware of the benefits of walking/jogging, it is important to remember that the body needs to preserve as much lean muscle as possible which can be achieved by incorporating a strength training program.

Some pointers in the pursuit for the forty plus physique-

Short, Intense sessions– Keeping your workout sessions short and intense is the holy grail of training. Long workout sessions would release cortisol and that’s not something we want. Cortisol, for the uninitiated is the catabolic or stress hormone. While cortisol is not without its own uses, we don’t want too much of it around our workouts. Aim to spend no more than 60 minutes at a stretch, in the gym room.

Ideally we would also like to keep the weight and cardio training sessions separately. High Intensity Interval Training is already in vogue; it’s short and effective and extremely crucial if you want to burn fat while minimizing muscle loss.

And since lean muscle is at a premium for these particular demographics, it would be prudent to focus on intermittent cardio rather than the low intensity ones. It’s fun, effective and can be customized to suit the fitness and medical conditions of every individual.

Ditch the beer, grab proteins shake instead. You have to limit alcohol. Ideally you would want to cut it out altogether. Alcohol is calorie dense; 1 gm contains 7 calories which we often tend to ignore. Quitting alcohol totally is not necessary, but you will need to ensure that you do not overdo it.

Since you would need quality proteins to fuel your muscles, adding a protein shake to your routine won’t harm. Instead of the sugar filled mocktail, grab hold of a vegetable fruit juice instead. Getting in the right micronutrients can go a long way in fulfilling any shortcomings on that front.

Having said that it does not matter where you get your protein from; as long as you get the required amount on a regular basis. And protein is not for building muscles; it is required for every process in the body from building new blood cells to building immunoglobulin for the immune system.

Up your greens– We are so used to telling our children to eat their veggies; we sometimes tend to ignore it ourselves. When I advise my clients to eat vegetables some of them say they are not safe anymore- what is safe anyways?!

Chemicals and genetically modified food has become a part of life now. I would love you to have fresh organic vegetables and if you are in a position to do that, you should absolutely do it. If not make do with the best of what you got. But you need to eat at least 3 large servings of fibrous vegetables- it will go a long way in improving the way you act, think, function and look. Trust me!

Increase your NEAT– Urban life is mostly sedentary. In order to rev up your metabolism (which slows down with age), we need to keep the “motor” running literally for as long as possible. So walking, climbing up the stairs, carrying the grocery bags all help to improve your Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis or NEAT. NEAT is the most underrated fitness aspect; nobody talks about it, but it can change your life.

Lift heavy– The general tendency in gyms is to give light weights to the 40 plus crowd, assuming that it is the sensible thing to do. However in order to boost the muscle building hormones you need to lift heavy. By heavy I do not in any way mean that you should compromise on form or technique. Lift as heavy as possible and keep adding the resistance every session, no matter how small the increments might be.

Supplements– Ashvagandha, Zinc, Magnesium, Vitamin D3 and Fish Oil should be on your top list. They will offer multitude of benefits including good sleep, regulation of optimum testosterone levels, enhancing strength and inducing calmness.

Sleep– We literally need to sleep like babies. Sleep is powerful and an asset for anyone. Modern day lifestyles have relegated sleep to a secondary position; almost something which can be done without. Sleep more to live more. A regular sleeping pattern not only regulates your hormones optimally but also gives your brain and body much needed rest and recovery, strengthens the immune system and revitalizes you.

The important thing here is that if we treat these as tasks we are most likely never going to start with them or even if we start we won’t be able to sustain them. We have to make it a part of your lifestyle; and if it has to be part of your lifestyle the changes have to be sustainable.

There is no fitness fundamentalist approach that will work. It never does. If you love your sweets have them, if you enjoy your drink of course do; but do it in moderation. At the same time start moving, lift some weights, play some sport, walk about. We live once, so make sure you make the best use of your time here; which can be done only when you are physically and mentally attuned.

physiotherapy-weight-training-dumbbell-exercise-balls-39671.jpeg — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

(The writer Angshuman Dutta is a fitness educator, coach and consultant. He can be contacted at angshuman9@gmail.com)

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