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Losing fat is a combination of factors and strength training is one of those crucial elements. The problem with losing “weight” without weight training, it’s that the pounds you lose won’t all be fat. When you eat fewer calories than your body burns per day, which is crucial for fat loss, you need to signal your body to maintain lean muscle through strength training. If you don’t, the weight loss will come from muscle, fat and water.. And sometimes you’ll lose MORE muscle than fat, which will downregulate your metabolism and make fat loss even harder than it should be.
I often see men over 40 doing a lot of cardio and dieting, but still struggling to lose belly fat. One of the questions I get asked is: “Anas, I’m in my 50s, I eat very well and I do cardio, I run almost every day, but I can’t lose my belly fat. ” Yes ! Start a reasonable and structured strength training program as soon as possiblere-examine your diet, your overall calorie intake and how it is structured.
If you have a strength, diet, and cardio program in place, you’ll lose fat and get the lean, nice look you want. If you rely on cardio and skipping calories to lose fat, you simply won’t get the same results as those who use strength training as a way to lose fat.
How to use weight training to lose weight
A reasonable bodybuilding program for fat loss should revolve around the main compound exercises that are safe and productive for men over 40. These are exercises such as bench press, pull-ups, pull-ups, squats, dumbbells, to name a few, as well as some isolation moves. No other exercise is more effective at building lean muscle and boosting hormone production. A productive weight training session should NOT be turned into a cardio type workout ! This is an anaerobic workout in nature, which means you should strive to beat the previous week’s workouts on a key set of compound exercises.
Noticed : cardio-strength circuits are an effective alternative to traditional cardio, provided you have set up your main strength workouts first. For example, if you got 6 reps with 60 kg in the incline dumbbell bench press last week, your goal this week would be to get 6 reps with 61 kg.
In getting stronger in key compound movements, you will develop your strength and muscle mass until you are 50, 60s and beyond! Staying strong and building lean muscle will make fat loss easier. And if you stick to the safest and most productive exercises for men over 40, you won’t hurt yourself, which is crucial as you get older.
Multiple sets of low reps
Multiple sets of low repetitions such as 6×4, 3×6 or 5×5 work well for men over 40. They much less strain on the recovery mechanism, allow you to focus on the reps that matter, spare your joints and keep workouts short. The problem with using lighter weights and higher reps for your main strength workouts is that they don’t have the same effect on lean body composition.
Strength training frequency
Three muscle workouts are the key to losing fat and getting super fit for men over 40. If you can’t build lean muscle using three strength training sessions per week, it is the basic combination of your training, your nutrition and progress that is at fault and needs to be corrected, NOT how often you traint. And the benefits of three workouts go way beyond the results you’ll get naturally, they fit right into your busy schedule, making fitness a part of your life, not an obsession.
The stronger you get, the less you need to do bodybuilding to lose weight. As of this writing, I maintain my strength and low body fat with only TWO weight training sessions per week. In summary, 2 to 3 strength training sessions per week are ideal for men over 40. As we get older, it takes us longer to recover between strength training sessions, and what works well for you at 40 won’t necessarily work for you at 55.
How many exercises per body part?
You learned that reasonable and productive weight training is one of the keys to fat loss, but how many exercises should you do per body part? One or two exercises are enough per body part. It may sound crazy, but if you only trained to do incline bench presses and pull-ups, how much better do you think your upper body would look?
The incline bench press with dumbbells will strengthen the chest, shoulders and triceps, while the pull-ups will strengthen the back and biceps. And since you’re training in the right rep ranges, you’ll look lean and defined, rather than fat and bulky. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the lean and defined look is much more attractive, especially as you age.