I have genuinely started to convince myself that the best exercises for middle aged men are muscle workouts. More specifically, compound exercises. As we reach middle age, we all start to lose a lot of muscles, most notably from your upper body, around your chest and shoulders.
Cardio Exercises – Pro’s and Con’s
Cardio exercises such as running, swimming and skipping rope are great for weight loss as well as to keep your healthy heart. So there are two “Pro’s” here.
However one thing about the cardio is that it’s getting harder and harder. And harder.
I hit the turning point of my life several years ago – the physical turning point. Until then, I had always tried to improve my running skills constantly. Faster, longer distance, changing the speed… When I was about 46,47, I found myself no longer able to go any higher. I had to admit I was old enough and from that point I was going downhill. I’ve had to reduce the distance a few times since.
Another “Con” is that cardio exercises no longer help you maintain great shape. Strong legs for sure. But as far as your upper body’s concerned, you shoulders and chest will become rather boney, while fat deposit on your stomach wouldn’t totally go away.
Rebuilding Muscles
The solution to that is muscle workouts, inevitably. Push-ups and sit-up crunches do the job up to certain levels. In fact I’d been doing those for years too. But what you could do by just using your own body weight is limited.
So this is where you need a gym equipment. Weight lifting – barbells and dumbbells, at least. For a regular gym user, that wouldn’t be a problem. All the equipment is there. You’d just change your routine. Less use of the running machine and focus on your muscles.
You know how time consuming that is!
What is? To go to the gym!
We Don’t Have Time To Do ANYTHING!
Time flies. The older you get and the harder you try, the faster the time accelerates. Do you agree?
“Go to the gym after work three times a week, spend 1.5 hours”, seriously? I need to get my car washed tonight. Fix the bathroom cabinet tomorrow, must get a WD40 on the way home, I’m too busy!
Total Exhaustion Before Going To Bed
You may have guessed where I’m going – yes let’s get a home gym equipment and spend a few minutes building muscles. It’s actually worked out great for me. Muscle exercises are so, incredibly intense. I don’t even spend more than 10 minutes and I get absolutely exhausted. It takes a lot of energy/calories. I’m 51, not 21. Not even 41. After 5-10 minutes of weights, I go mentally blank and am all ready for the dinner, shower, check my emails, and bed! And you know what, I sleep very well.
Best Exercises For Middle Aged Men – Compound Exercises
I have mentioned about compound exercises before, as recommended by my friend Conor (Men’s Fitness Clothing, December 2015). A compound exercise uses more than one major muscle group at a time. An isolation exercise on the other hand, uses one major muscle group like bicep curls and incline/decline flyes.
Jay from AWorkoutRoutine.com explains the difference between the two (Compound Exercises vs Isolation Exercises: Which is best?). Sounds pretty complicated, but he recommends compound exercises too. Isolation exercises should be avoided if (a) you’re a beginner or (b) your primary goal is performance related.
There are thousands of scary Rambo looking guys on YouTube showing compound exercise examples. I’ve chosen the most friendly, good looking man demonstrating what you should do. Five best compound exercises, here we go; (1) Bench Press (2) Deadlift (3) Squat (4) Pull-up and (5) Dips.
I couldn’t do them all at a time though. That would be reducing my life expectancy. When were the London Olympics…not the last Summer. About 2 years ago?
Let Your Arms Do The Jobs
I don’t believe in abdominal training machines on their own in order to get rid of your belly fat. All the sit-ups and crunching exercises help strengthen your gut, and I still do those myself. But it’s really the exercises of your chest, back and shoulders (compound!) that strengthen the core of your body, help flatten your stomach. I genuinely believe that.
Be Careful, Take It Easy
With all that said… I actually suffered from tendonitis last year and had to take a rest from weights, pushups and dumbbells for 9 months.
9 months! Physiotherapy never helped my wrist heal and, eventually a steroid shot did. “Tendonitis is common among athletic men in their 50’s and pregnant women”, OK if I hear that one more time…!
So be careful and don’t overdo it, take it easy. If you think you’ve overdone it (feel sore in your wrists), put some ice on them – actual ice cubes in a plastic bag, avoid a hot bath, take a cooler shower to stop them from swelling up.
Best Exercises For Middle Aged Men by Ray Alexander.
I totally agree with yout post.
As middle aged men exercise is probably THE most important thing we can do to stave off the effects of age.
We’ve got to keep moving or we’ll seize up!
Apart from the obvious benefits of losing weight, and being fitter, a good regular dose of activity will…
Keep you flexible
Lower stress levels
Lift your mood
Increase your general energy levels
Increase Metabolism
Increase Oxygen take up
Strengthen your bones
Improve your sleep patterns
Hi Mario, thanks for the great comment, and the list of things that are improved by regular exercises. Increasing oxygen take-up is an interesting one. That on its own will improve your metabolism, lift your mood, energy levels and keep your brain cells alive too. Thanks again, I appreciate your input greatly!
Hi Raymundo,
What a good post about best exercises for middle aged men! Yes, Building muscle workouts like compound exercises will help middle men to improve appearance and sleep especially! I have friends been doing that and they look great. I also agree with you that getting a home gym equipment is a good choice for we are busy! Though this post is towards the middle aged men ,thank you for helping me to decide that cardio exercises will go harder and harder, I will only get strong legs but not a good body shape. I want to loose some tummy and shoulder fats and I think doing push ups and using dumb bells will be apt. Do you know which home gym equipment is good for ladies in their 30’s?I am about 5 feet tall and 46kg.
Hi Jenna, thanks for your comment. Actually until I was in my late 30’s I was swimming everyday and never needed to think about any other ways to keep me in shape or getting a gym equipment. I loved swimming, but switched to running for its handiness – step out of the house and straight for the exercise.
I’m not a fitness expert, so I don’t know about the women’s fitness unfortunately – sorry. One of my female friends is in her 30’s and she loves running though. Try skipping rope? That’s so powerful to get rid of excess fat in a short period of time. Thanks for stopping by!
Great article.
I’m well past middle age and I’ve found the best way to workout at any age is “Burst” training. It’s short bursts of high-intensity style exercise for 15 to 60 seconds followed by a short recovery period.
It’s the way we used to play when we were kids, we would run as fast as we could until we were out of breath and then we would stop until we had caught our breath, then run again.
Burst training works if you’re running, swimming or doing resistance training. The theory is that you can workout long or hard, but not both. If you’re working out for more than 15 minutes, you’re probably not working out at a High-Intensity level, and probably wasting your time.
Do you know anyone with Too Much Time? But, I’ll bet you’ve heard the excuse, “I just don’t have time to make it to the gym.” Everybody has 10 to 15 minutes three times a week, and that’s all you need.
Phil
Hi Phil, thanks for your comment. I just looked at your site. Yes it sounds EZ!
http://makeitez4me.com/benefits-burst-training
This is actually a great reminder for me. Although I didn’t know about “burst training”, I used to try that when I was younger while running. Run as fast as you can for 15 seconds, go easy for the next 15 seconds and repeat…I can’t seem to be able to (or not bothered to) do that anymore, I get too tired, so I’m running continuously for the same speed for 20 minutes. As you say I’m probably wasting my time.
Thanks again Phil, it’s great to know.
Ray, What you’re not doing is Burning Fat, or releasing Human Growth Hormone. (HGH) to be building as much muscle as possible.
Think of it as the difference between a Sprinter and a Marathoner.
Phil
I see, yes you need to be able to release adequate level of HGH, and if the burst exercise helps with that, it really is essential as we get older!
Essential at any age.
Yikes, reading this makes me not look forward to my later years. But I’m doing a lot of these compound exercises now at 27. Hopefully by continually doing these regularly, I’ll stave off a lot of the lost that most men experience at that age.
For cardio, have you considered HIIT? I think it’s the perfect cardio given the time it saves vs traditional cardio. It also PRESERVES muscle while attacking fat deposits.
Hi Wing, thanks for your comment. Yes I’m doing something similar to HIIT (High-intensity interval training), I naturally like running but I’m more focused on how I feel exhausted at the end of the day “effectively” – yes that’s right, the older you get, the more you feel tired to do anything in the evening after the workouts! Then I’d rather preserve my muscles and keep in shape by using less time.
No, never look forward to your later years lol!
Good article here, a lot of it made sense to me as I am approaching middle age…not quite there yet.
I know what you say about compounding weight lifting exercises. Actually they feel much harder to do than isolation exercise but I know I’ve had a good work out when I’ve finished.
Thanks for your comment! Yes compounding exercises are much harder, aren’t they. And it seems to get harder & harder every year to me! I’m not complaining, I think they key is to be persistent especially in my age. As I continue exercising on a daily basis I naturally find a way to ease off so that my body’s coping with the fair amount of sprints and pumps.
It gets harder & harder, but I never stop exercising. I need my adrenaline every day. I didn’t know about compound exercise. I must try.
Thanks Burke for your comment. It does get harder as you get older…! But like you say, physical exercises keep you mentally strong. I think the difference it makes becomes more dramatic as I get older too – if I don’t run & do my weights I do get depressed for the rest of the day. The best way to keep my sanity really is to exercise in the morning. Thanks for your visit!