Maintaining our youthful appearance and all the wonderful capabilities that come along with being young, is something that pretty much everyone around the world has chased at one point or another. Finding the fountain of youth within our nutrition, our training, our supplementation, and anything else geared towards improving or delaying the aging process, is a behaviour that will most likely never end; and why should it? We remember the years when we could eat anything and never gain an ounce of fat. We think back to the times when joint pain wasn’t even a thing. Those days when the weights felt like feathers and PR’s came regularly, yeah those were the days! However, for those of us who still have the mindset of a twenty something year old and maybe not the body to back that mindset up anymore, there are days when we wonder why we’re still doing this whole bodybuilding thing. Well, the answer to that is because we love it and by no means, will we allow our aging bodies to give up on us now. Does that mean we can still train and do the things we did in our previous years? Of course not, but there are still lots of ways we can improve and regulate regression or any loss of muscle as we mature into seasoned veterans of the sport, and here’s how.
#1: Don’t be Negligent with Your Nutrition
The main contributing factor in the demise of any great bodybuilding journey or career will be negligence with nutrition. As we get older, our ability to digest certain foods begins to diminish, our metabolisms slow down, our appetite decreases, our cravings for poorer options of foods may increase and our lack of dedication to fulfilling our nutritional needs goes by the wayside as more favorable options become more appetizing. Perhaps the drive to be the best bodybuilder possible also subsides as we get older which means the need to fulfill physical obligations in the gym become less a priority and therefore, the need to fuel our training lessens. Any of this sound familiar to you? If so, then yes, of course your physique is going to go downhill on you but you can stop it before it gets out of control and the next thing you know, you’re looking in the mirror wondering what happened? Instead of this scenario playing out, find a nutritional plan that allows you to enjoy life while at the same time, still supports your physique and what you have built. You can also start utilizing supplements such as Warzone Whey when your appetite is down. Use Athlete’s Superfood if you don’t feel like eating broccoli and asparagus and drink AMMO-8 while you train which will help support and maintain current muscle mass. The point here is staying close to where you were nutritionally doesn’t have to be hard and it won’t be if you include the products mentioned here in your daily regimen.
Chris at 31#2: Adapt Your Training
If you think that the way you trained in your teens and into your twenties, is going to be the same way you train while in your thirties and especially, into your forties, think again my friends. Perhaps, if you have always trained light and focused only on the pump, you might be able to get away with it for maybe a little longer. Even then, the wear and tear of overuse injuries, are just as prolific as injuries caused by overloading our structures, so regardless of what you’ve done, you’ll have to adapt at some point. What ends up holding people back, causing them to experience muscle loss, is the fact that they refuse to change the way they train because they’ve become hardwired to always do what’s worked for them. And I get that, why stop squatting when that’s what built your massive quads? But if that very same exercise (and this goes for any exercise you’ve used) that gave you all of your muscle mass in the past is the same exercise that is now providing you with more pain than gain, why are you being stubborn by sticking with it? Do you think it’s what’s keeping the muscle there? Are you afraid you’ll shrivel up if you stop performing those lifts? Well, I have news for you; you’re not doing yourself any favors by being stubborn and in fact, you’re doing yourself more harm than good. The fact of the matter is you won’t lose all your muscle over night and all you need to be doing now to maintain it is stimulating it on a regular basis and you can do that a whole host of ways, including different exercises, with varying levels of loads, with lots of different reps and sets schemes. So, stop enduring the pain for the sake of sticking with what worked, and start finding better ways to maintain your hard earned muscle, pain free.
Chris at 36#3: Act Your Age
Finally, think about how long you’ve been in and around this sport and then think about all of the wisdom you have accrued over those years. Then, think about your position within the bodybuilding community, your standing amongst your peers at your gym, what you’ve accomplished, the body you’ve built, the people you have helped, and then ask yourself these questions; do you really have anything left to prove? Will it bother you if someone uses heavier dumbbells than you while performing incline dumbbell presses? Can you give up your dead lifting title at your gym to the next guy coming up and be at peace with that? Do you need people to know how strong you are or once were? Come on, if you are still concerned with these things at our age (I’m in my early forties), it’s time to let it go. Sure, there are times when we get in the gym and think to ourselves, if these kids only knew how hard we trained compared to them, or I wonder what these guys would have thought had they seen me train when I was their age, or I’m feeling great today, let’s show them how it’s really done. Those thoughts are completely normal especially if you have a competitive spirt, but it’s time to act our age and instead, turn our focus towards being able to do what we love for as long as we want, which in my case is forever. Stop comparing yourself to the next generation and start acting in a manner that will support our efforts moving forward. Just lock into what you do for you, supplement with a healthy dose of Alpha and Testdex to keep those competitive thoughts coming to fuel your workouts and just be at peace with the bodybuilder you now are; that’s it.
Chris at 40
I’m playing the long game here, and I hope you are now too if you weren’t already. Being able to train and lift weights and enjoy being active, is a lifelong journey and a lifestyle worth living. The last thing you want to do to yourself after so many years of focusing on being healthy and strong and fit, is let it all go just because you’re getting older and can’t be what you once were. That’s a fool’s game and one I’m not willing to partake in and neither should you. We have learned so much over the years of bodybuilding we participated in that it would be a total let down to ourselves should we just watch it all go away without even trying to preserve it. Don’t do that, take the steps mentioned within this article to reduce regression and keep as much muscle as we can for as long as we can. That’s a much better way to approach things than letting it all go away for a different type of lifestyle. I plan on being muscular and fit for as long as possible, and I hope you do too so I’ll see you at the gym my old friends.
Author: Dana Bushell
Dana Bushell, a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University (BAHK, B.Ed) is an Educator, Writer, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Nutrition Advisor, Contest Prep/Lifestyle Coach and former competitive bodybuilder, who has been involved in the Fitness Industry for over 25 years. He has worked and written for major fitness publications and many popular bodybuilding sites, is a Gym Star Team member and works hard at teaching and promoting a fitness-based lifestyle in his career as a Physical Education Specialist.
Chris at 50
