Hitting 50? Work out tips for the middle-aged

The older you get, the more susceptible your metabolism is to slowing down, making it difficult to lose weight or gain any muscle.

According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, we enter the premises of being called “middle-aged” when we begin to lose lean muscle mass from the body – this condition is called Sarcopenia.

However, what if you were told there is a way to reverse this peculiar reaction? Hollywood heavyweights Dwayne Johnson, Terry Crews and Hugh Jackman are prime examples of breaking the mold.

Hypertrophies

There are two types of muscle hypertrophies: Myofibrillar and Sarcoplasmic. The objective here is to concentrate on Myofibrillar exercises because it focuses on increasing fiber mass that is responsible for giving you that “pump” sensation when you finish training.

To delve more into it, you need continuously stimulate tension on the muscles so, when cellular fatigue happens, your fibers gets damaged. This ultimately results with it repairing itself to withstand bigger and tougher sets.

This is how most celebrities in their 40s and 50s stay in shape.

If you’re fairly new to the lifting scene, incorporate 10 to 12 repetition per set for the first week (regardless of the exercise executed) - just enough to get you warmed up. Then move into isometric, slightly heavier sets with 6 to 8 repetitions over a span of 4 weeks. Then repeat for another regimen (e.g. squatting, Barbell Row or Deadlift).

The whole point for this is to get your body out of that futile mode and into hefty training.

Rest Periods

Why is it important? As part of self-development, your body requires the adequate time to completely heal from the pounding that you’re putting it through day in, day out. Muscles become thicker when your growth hormone multiplies and it tends to be at its highest during resting periods.

Another reason would be to relax your nervous system. You don’t want to wake up feeling sleep deprived as this will consequently lower your Leptin (hormone) level. We don’t want your body to feel ravenous for fatty food, that’s not what we are after – unless it is a cheat day.

Nutrition

You will have to start eating fat. The good kind of course. So, what better way to take in raw omega-3 nutrients than from salmon and sardines. Aside from that, you’ll need to garnish your plate with vegetables. Every fitness enthusiast is big on consuming protein and carbohydrates, but what a majority of them fail to notice is having a considerable amount of Antioxidants post-working out. This is because Antioxidants minimize collateral damage that surrounds the tissues – oh, those fiber healing Samaritans.