Building muscle in your 40s

I'm almost 60 and quite well built for functional strength.

I keep it quick and simple: Very slow cadence (4 secs up, 4 secs down etc) until failure. Three sets with 1 minute rest between.

If you can rep until 90 secs - add weight.

I do one muscle group per day.

Minimum 1 week rest per muscle group.

Good luck, and keep at it!

A very interesting thread that's helped me consider what I've been doing.

Another thing to add- since a long line of aches/pains/pulls started affecting training (especially my lower back which has always caused me problems), I've been having a sports massage every three weeks. Since I started last year, I've had zero issues.

There are plenty of studies showing that increases in strength and muscle mass are the typical response to resistance training at almost all ages.

You can build plenty of muscle in your 40s as long as you train hard and are still a long way from your genetic limits. A guy who has lifted seriously for years and years cannot expect to be gaining muscle in his 40s, but a newbie should expect to.

The trick is to get the balance right. And don't stop, because its harder to start again!

I can very strongly recommend clubs, maces (overhead pulls, 360s and variations are a great exercise) and Kettlebells (Swings, Turkish getups and snatches give very good value) for back and core training. One handed and two handed variations, with challenging weight once the form is good.

The above can develop useful whole body strength.

It is well known, but rarely acted upon, that the "core" should be strong. That is not only about abdominals.

No problem.

Strengthening muscles and Improving patterns of movement with a relatively small number of compound exercises (with relatively small absolute weight by comparison with the usual barbells) is a great thing.

I would suggest initially doing a small number of reps throughout the day(s) to develop form, rather than doing long sessions.

Don't worry yourself. Barbells are obviously fine too, but this is a person who wants to squeeze in a bit of general strength training and kettlebells (and maces) for are ideal for that.

A couple of kettlebells, maces and the like take up very little space too, which I find very useful compared with my barbell set. I couldn't fit a barbell or weight bench setup in my home office.

ps. It doesn't have to be a black and white choice of tribe.

Fair weight. Can't think what good that is though other than for telling strangers on the internet.

How strong do you need to be?