If you want to lose body fat, build muscle, and move athletically, then you’re in the right place.
In this fast to read, yet valuable article you’ll discover some of the most potent exercises men over 50 should do, so you get in great shape and stay there.
Let’s take a look…
How Do Men Get Back In Shape After 50?
Before you do anything, go see your doctor and get a medical done. Get your blood pressure checked.
This is serious, men drop dead in their 50s from heart attacks. And more, many men over 50 have high blood pressure so don’t brush this aside, go see your doctor and get the all-clear first.
Once you’ve gotten the all-clear, you ease your way into exercising. Read that again, keywords are: you ease your way into exercise.
How do you ease your way into exercising?
You start by going for a walk every day, 30-60 mins. Start by doing some bodyweight exercises which I’ll get to in just a moment. And you need workouts for men which I’ll cover shortly as well.
Okay…
Now here’s a question a lot of men ask:
What Is The Best Exercise For A Man Over 50?
Hands down the best exercise for any man is strength training. Your exercise routine must include it.
Why?
Because muscle makes you look strong, athletic, and manly. Without adequate muscle, your body looks soft, weak, and fat.
As you age when you’re physically strong, you move around with ease, you can walk up and down stairs with ease, and strong muscles help with balance. And a strong body helps fight health issues.
If you only do cardio to lose weight and don’t do any resistance training, what happens is, you become a smaller version of your shapeless self.
So yeah, weight training is critical for you.
And here’s what else…
As you age, if you’re not doing any weight training your muscle mass shrinks. Yes, you are actually losing muscle. This is why you want to do everything you can to build lean muscle and maintain muscle mass as you age.
How Much Should A 50 Year Old Man Exercise?
There’s no reason why you can’t do some form of exercise daily. Walking is great exercise and when you combine walking with resistance training you get great results.
Maybe you love swimming or bike riding, both excellent forms of exercise. You could swim or bike a few times a week, and do strength training.
Exercise can be hiking in nature, playing in the backyard with the grandkids, walking to the shops to get your groceries, this is all part of a good fitness routine.
The key thing here is….
Strength training + some other form of physical activity you enjoy doing, then you spread it over 7 days.
What’s A Good Workout For 50 Year Old Man?
I’m glad you asked.
I’ll give you a workout you can do at the gym and one you can do at home.
Gym Workout For 50 Year Old Man
This is a full-body strength training workout routine:
- Dumbbell Flat Bench Press 3 sets of 6-8 reps
- Chest Supported Row 3 sets of 6-8 reps
- Lunges 3 sets of 6-8 reps
- Hamstring curls 3 sets of 8-10 reps
- Standing Hammer Curls 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Between sets time to recover is important. For example: With Dumbbell Flat Bench Press 3 sets of 6-8 reps.
You’d do your first set, then put the weights down and rest for 2 minutes. Then you’d go again. Why the rest? Gives your muscle time to recover which then means you can push hard on the next set.
Studies and sports medicine now show, rest between sets gets you stronger faster and helps increase muscle mass, whereas too short a rest equals less strength and less muscle gains.
At Home Exercise Routine With A dumbbell Or Kettlebell
- Push-up 3 sets close to failure
- 75 degree Row
- Lunges 3 sets of 6-8 reps
- Single Leg RDL
- Standing Hammer Curls 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Building Muscle Mass After 50:
When lifting weights, your number one focus is to do the movement with perfect form. The moment your form starts to falter, stop the exercise. Put the weight down. You want to get stronger but not at the expense of getting yourself injured.
Should You Train To Failure In Your Workout Routine?
You don’t need to train to failure. Here’s what you want to do. You want a keep a least 2 reps in you.
If you train to failure there’s a good chance your form suffers and you may injure yourself. The older we get, it’s about training smart for our age, we want the exercise to improve your health and life.
How Much Cardio Should You Do?
To lose body fat, you don’t need to do endless cardio. Remember weight training is the most critical and beneficial form of training for men of any age, and the health benefits you get from it are endless.
You don’t want to overdo the cardio at the expense of muscle loss.
What About A HIIT Workout? (High Intensity Interval Training)
HIIT training is short high-intensity intervals then going steady to get your heart rate back down.
Example:
Using an Assault bike you go hard for 20 seconds then rest for 90 seconds, then go again. The high-intensity interval can be 10-60 seconds with a rest period. If you’re going hard you need the rest.
Another example is sprinting for 10 seconds then resting for 90 seconds over 15 minutes.
This is important: To do HIIT training you’ve got to build up to it. If you’re unfit, haven’t trained for years, you don’t start with HIIT workouts.
Can A 50 Year Old Man Get Fit?
Yes.
Ease yourself into exercising. Simply start by waking every day. After a few weeks of walking find some streets or hills to walk up, this is harder for you and gets your heart rate up. If you have no hills walk up stairs.
Whatever you do, you slowly increase the intensity of your fitness routine over the coming weeks.
Can 55 Year Old Men Get In Shape?
Yes.
What do you think at 55 your body stops working?
If a 55 year old man works out correctly he can get in great shape.
Here’s the best way to go about it. You’ll need to get your nutrition sorted out. Because what you eat plays a critical role in the shape of your body.
Next, you want to make sure you’re training to build muscle because muscle has a significant impact on how you look.
Can A 55 Year Old Build Muscle?
The good news is…
Yes, you can build muscle at any age, and studies prove this. How do you build muscle? Strength training. I bet you knew I was going to say that. And the other important factor is you want to make sure you’re eating enough protein each day.
Eat Protein
When it comes to daily protein amounts there are all sorts of numbers thrown around. If you work on 0.8g to 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight this will assist with muscle growing.
A 170 pound man, would eat 170g of protein a day.
Understand, without adequate protein intake your muscles struggle to grow.
How Do I Get Back In Shape At 55?
Okay, here’s how you go about it…
- Monday Strength Training full body workout
- Tuesday Walk 10,000 steps
- Wednesday Strength Training full body workout
- Tuesday Walk 10,000 steps
- Friday Strength Training full body workout
- Saturday Walk 10,000 steps
- Sunday Walk 10,000 steps
If you need longer rest between your strength training days, you could do this:
- Monday Strength Training full body workout
- Tuesday Walk 10,000 steps
- Wednesday Walk
- Thursday Strength Training full body workout
- Friday Strength Walk 10,000 steps
- Saturday Walk 10,000 steps
- Sunday Strength Training full body workout
- Then your next strength training day is 2 days later. All your doing is giving yourself a 2-day gap between strength sessions.
Simple Way To Dial Your Nutrition In So You Lose Fat & Build Muscle
You want to make sure you’re nutrition is dialed in, so here’s what you could do to make it quick simple, and easy to lose fat and build muscle.
Eat Similar Meals
Your lunch and dinner are similar each day.
Why eat similar meals?
Because boy-oh-boy it makes it so easy to make any adjustments as needed, and you don’t need to continuously weigh all your food. And it’s a healthy diet.
Here’s an example of similar meals:
Lunch: Protein source with some veggies and sweet potato
Dinner: Protein source with some veggies and rice
If you asked me, “what’s a stupidly easy way to eat healthy and get in the best shape of my life?”
I’d tell you what I just told you above, and that’s… eat similar meals and pump iron.
Is 55 Too Old To Start Exercising?
Start immediately.
Whatever age you are, please start exercising right now. I mean, after you’ve gone and got the all clear from your doctor, then start exercising.
At 55, you’d like to think you’ve got years of life left in you, so get bloody exercising. You’re never too old to start exercising. Stop looking for excuses and get moving.
The 3 Biggest Mistakes Men Over 55 Make With Exercise
Mistake #1 Don’t Train With Weights
For whatever crazy reasons a lot of men just don’t understand the anti-aging, fat-torching, muscle-building benefits that come with getting stronger and building muscle. Physically and mentally pumping iron does wonders for you.
Mistake #2 Don’t Lift Heavy Enough Weights
If you lift light weights and do high reps you can expect jack-shit to happen. To get stronger and build muscle, you’ve got to increase the weight or reps. When it comes to reps, once you’re doing 10+ reps, you need to go up in weight.
Why?
Because high reps mean more wear and tear on your joints. Remember when I said you want to train smart for your age? Well, this is one of those smart ways. Keep your reps in the 6-10 bracket.
If you can get great results from 3 sets of 6-8 reps. Why do 3 sets of 12-20 reps? (Which is more work for your joints.)
We want to get you strong, fit and healthy without busting up your body.
Mistake #3 Do Too Much Cardio
Most people believe cardio is the answer to fat loss. Cardio is not the answer and I’ll explain why.
If you only do cardio and no weight training you become a smaller shapeless version of your current self.
Using aerobic exercise trying to burn off fat, you have to do endless hours of it.
Why Cardio Sucks For Weight Loss
Let’s say a burger has 550 calories, 34 g fat, 13 g saturated fat, 1.5 g trans fat, 1,180 mg sodium, 35 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 8 g sugar, 28 g protein.
To burn that one burger off you’d have to jump rope for exactly 61 minutes. That’s to burn the burger off. Which means you’re not burning off any of your stored body fat, which means you’re not losing fat
If you want to lose body fat you’ll find it quicker, easier, and lasting to adjust your nutrition and start pumping iron.
Summary Exercise For Men Over 50
If you want the combination for getting into and staying in the best shape of your life at any age, training with weights, nutrition, good sleep, water, reduce stress, is the secret.
If you’ve been doing a tonne of cardio and you’re not happy with your body shape, stop doing cardio. Start lifting weights.
Doing full body strength training workouts 3 days a week is a good number to aim for. If you like doing upper body and lower body splits, days a week works well.
Eating similar meals makes it easy to lose weight and build muscle.
If you have not worked out ever, or in years, go see a doctor and get a check-up, then ease your way.
