Maintaining muscle mass while aging is challenging, but it’s one of the most important things you can do for your health. But if you’re looking for an effective old guy workout that will build muscle and burn fat, full-body resistance training using a push-pull-legs circuit is a quick and dirty way to do it—and see insane results.
Looking For The Best And Most Effective Old Guy Workout? Here it is!
We all know we should stay fit as we age, but staying motivated can be challenging when you’re not seeing the results you want. The stuff you’re doing used to work in your 20s and 30s, so why isn’t it now? Let me tell you something—men over 40 are subjected to a whole new roster of changes compromising their ability to effectively build muscle and burn fat. We’re talking about hormonal imbalances, metabolic issues, muscle loss, and so on.
But if you’re not interested in falling trap to the conventional “over 40 problems,” you’re in the right place. While you may not be the typical “old guy,” I’m giving you everything you need to know about the best old guy workout and to get strong and lean, even into your 70s.
What’s The Deal With Sarcopenia?
As much as we hate to admit it, building muscle while we age is hard. While that’s primarily chalked up to hormonal changes (i.e., low testosterone and GH) that interfere with your body’s ability to build muscle effectively, we’re also fighting something called sarcopenia head-on. That’s the word for age-related muscle loss.
Sarcopenia is classified as accelerated muscle loss that naturally happens with age. Unless you’re actively taking steps to maintain muscle, muscle loss occurs at a rate of about 1% per year after 30. While it may not seem like that much, that’s a pretty hefty loss if you add it up over several years.
Muscle is a metabolically active tissue with a long list of benefits to your body, ranging from metabolism and strength to fighting chronic disease. But if we don’t take steps to build or maintain muscle mass, it’s easy to lose it. It’s like that old saying, “use it or lose it.” But apart from losing strength, sarcopenia is also linked to an increased risk of falls, functional decline, frailty, mobility issues, disability, and mortality.
But here’s something that will blow your mind.
Most cases of sarcopenia go undiagnosed, which means there’s a good possibility you aren’t aware that your muscle mass is disappearing until a more serious problem happens. And worse, diagnosing sarcopenia isn’t very accurate. So, what’s the solution?
Resistance Training
Full-body resistance training is one of the best and most effective things you can do to fight the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. A 2020 study looked at the effects of high-intensity exercise combined with resistance training and protein supplementation and found that an 8-month periodized, HIT-RT protocol combined with whey protein supplementation led to an increase in lean muscle mass.
Whether you’re using dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, or bodyweight, resistance training has many benefits, even beyond fighting muscle loss, including:
● More strength
● Weight loss
● Fat loss
● Greater muscle growth
● Higher testosterone
● Higher growth hormone
Remember how I said hormonal imbalances are a killer of muscle growth? The last two points on that list—more testosterone and GH—are key for building lean muscle mass. So, with any resistance training old guy workout program, we want to focus on high-intensity, compound movements with heavy weights to maximize our hormone cascade and build lean muscle. It’s simple and effective.
The Benefits Of A Push-Pull-Legs Workout
If you’ve never split your training into push, pull, and legs, you’re in for a treat. Compared to the conventional bodybuilding splits that train specific muscle groups on particular days, we will break it down into muscle movements—those that pull, those that push, and then throw in a leg day to round it out.
One of the big benefits of doing a PPL workout is that you can train muscles more frequently, meaning you can burn fat and build muscle faster than you would with a traditional split. Because you’re training different muscles on different days—that is, if you split up workouts into push, pull, and legs—which allows the muscles you’ve worked a sufficient amount of time to fully recover before you pound them again. Because of this, you can afford to train each muscle group more often—twice a week if you train six days—without treading into the overtraining territory. The result? More muscle growth and more strength, faster.
And while most people love to train the muscles at the front of the body—the biceps, pecs, and abdominals—skipping leg or back day and neglecting the posterior chain muscles will only lead to muscle imbalances, which drive postural issues and overuse injuries. Essentially, we’re aiming for balance, not necessarily overload.
Simply put, here’s why PPL workouts are one of the best old-guy workouts you can get:
● Reduces overlap between muscle groups
● Accelerates recovery
● Easy to customize training frequency
● Allows you to focus on weaker muscle groups
● Accelerates muscle growth, strength, and fat loss
● Avoids overuse injuries
What kind of workout are we talking about?
Total Body PPL Workout
In this workout, we’re hitting a full-body circuit with 10 push exercises, 10 pull exercises, and 10 leg exercises. We’ll perform each exercise for 45 seconds, followed by a 15-second rest, one after another, for a full 30 minutes—I want you to feel the burn! Ensure you’ve done a good warm-up before starting this to get your muscles firing and avoid injury.
Exercise Overview
Pull exercises
● Single-arm dumbbell row right
● Single-arm dumbbell row left
● Alternating DB bicep curls
● Upright rows
● Lying DB pullovers
● Single DB crush curl
● Bent over side lateral raise
● DB cleans
● Alternating reverse grip DB rows
● Single lateral side raises
Push exercises
● Single-arm DB floor press right
● Single-arm DB floor press left
● Single-arm DB shoulder press right (heavy)
● Single-arm DB shoulder press left (heavy)
● DB skull crushers
● DB 1½ chest press
● Single DB shoulder press
● Overhead tricep extension
● Lying DB chest flyes
● Peekaboo shoulder press
Leg exercises
● DB single-leg static lunge
● DB squat
● Curtsy lunge to side lunge right
● Curtsy lunge to side lunge left
● Single-leg RDL right
● Single-leg RDL left
● Close-stance goblet squat
● DB swings
● DB calf raises
This workout isn’t easy, but it will fire up your entire body to build muscle, burn fat, and maximize strength.
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
