Building muscle at 50 isn’t only for looks—it’s also essential to maintain your health and well-being as your age. And contrary to what most people think, age is not an obstacle to building muscle and gaining strength; you just have to know the safest and most effective way to do it.
Building Muscle At 50: A Total Body Workout Maximizes Muscle Growth
Most men believe building muscle after 50 is like pulling teeth—possible but not easy. And while you might be fighting sarcopenia, or age-related muscle mass, to some extent, you don’t have to let that impede your ability to get lean and strong. It’s possible to pack on lean mass well into your 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond, and I will show you exactly how to do that.
Starting today with this total-body workout, you can build a lean, mean, muscular physique that defies the boundaries of age. It’s never too late to get started. Let’s get it done.
Your Muscles At 50
Starting in your early 30s, your body starts to naturally lose muscle mass, strength, and physical performance as you get older—this is called sarcopenia, and most people think that it’s inevitable. But let me tell you, it’s not.
While there’s inherently no change to the structure and function of your muscles at and after 50, a change in hormones—specifically, a drop in testosterone and growth hormone—interferes with muscle protein synthesis, accelerates muscle breakdown, and increases fat mass. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that low muscle mass combined with high-fat mass increases the risk of adverse health outcomes.
But hormonal changes are also an uphill battle, making building muscle at 50 much trickier. Men naturally experience a drop in testosterone levels as they age, and studies show that total testosterone levels drop by roughly 1.6% per year, while free and bioavailable levels fall by about 2%–3% per year. The decline in free and bioavailable testosterone levels is higher due to increased sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) levels that happen with aging. This means less testosterone is available to support muscle growth.
The result of lower hormone levels and muscle loss is this:
- Impaired physical function
- Higher risk of disability
- Morbidity
- Decreased longevity
- Poor quality of life
If you’re not interested in going down this path, I don’t blame you! Fortunately, you don’t have to sit back and take what life naturally hands you—there’s something you can do about it.
Build muscle via resistance training.
It’s a simple and insanely effective solution, regardless of whether you’re 30, 50, or 85. Not only does strength training help prevent the loss of muscle during aging, but it can also help to reverse the process and build muscle and strength.
And if you can find a workout you enjoy, you’ll get a massive ROI.
Why Building Muscle At 50 Is Important
If you’ve been told that older men don’t need muscle, you’ve been told false information. Building muscle at 50 is just as important, if not more important, than building muscle in your 20s, 30s, and 40s. It has benefits beyond just aesthetics and strength, some of which include:
- Greater fat burn
- More strength
- More stamina
- Increased longevity
- Hormonal balance
- Less risk of injury
- Better mobility
Is It Harder to Build Muscle At 50?
If you’ve tried to put on muscle mass, you probably know that building muscle after 50 isn’t as easy as it once was. Hormonal changes as you age make it trickier, but it’s not impossible. And with the right combination of diet and exercise, it can actually be pretty simple without spending hours every day in the gym.
After 50, it’s about training smarter, not harder.
But some basic principles for building muscle and strength still apply after 50. As with any age, you must challenge your muscles enough to stimulate growth. But on the flip side, recovery from intense resistance training may not be the same as it was, which is where training smarter comes into practice.
Building muscle after 50 is harder, but they’re challenges that can easily be overcome with a solid training program and consistency.
How to Maximize Muscle Growth After 50
When it comes to building muscle and strength and burning fat, there’s one avenue I always go: total-body metabolic workouts.
They’re the perfect combination of full-body combination exercises that increase demand on the muscles to stimulate growth while simultaneously torching fat to help you lean out and lose weight. And while men at any age can hit a metabolic workout or go for the bro-split, muscle-building “compound exercises” are some of the most effective means to max out muscle growth.
Unlike isolation or single muscle group exercises, compound exercises work for multiple muscle groups simultaneously, helping to achieve increased muscle recruitment and demand and causing more damage, which ultimately turns into more significant muscle growth.
This Lean Metabolic Muscle Over 40 program is designed specifically for men over 40 to build lean muscle and burn calories and fat. All you need is a set of dumbbells, an area to perform the exercises, and a mind ready to conquer the beast.
Here’s what we’re going to do.
Perform each exercise for 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest, one after the other, for three straight rounds. Remember that because we’re following a full-body protocol, you still want to give your muscles time to recover, which is essential for muscle growth. This program can be done three times per week.
Total Time: 18 minutes
- Dumbbell Squat to DB Stiff Legged Deadlift
- Seesaw DB Bent Over Rows
- Legs Up Alternating DB Floor Chest Press
- Dumbbell Zottmann Biceps Curls
- Lying Single Triceps Skull Crushers
- DB Shoulder Shrugs
IF YOU NEED A PROGRAM SPECIFICALLY FOR MEN OVER 40, 50 & 60 TO HELP LOSE 7-20 IN THE FIRST
30 DAYS WHILE BUILDING LEAN MUSCLE, THEN CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW AND GET STARTED WITH THE ALPHA FAT LOSS SHRED PROGRAM
