whether you've been Lifting for decades or just stepping into the weight room after 40 the lack of visual progression can be disheartening but being in your 40s 50s or even 60s doesn't mean you have to settle for mediocre results in this video I'm going to share five reasons you can't build muscle after 40 and how to overcome these hurdles so you can start seeing physical changes at an appreciable rate the bad news is getting older can come with a few setbacks making it a little more difficult to build muscle and lose fat the good news
however is that by fine-tuning your training nutrition and Recovery protocols you can still achieve impressive results so without further Ado let's dive into the five reasons you're not building muscle and how to fix it reason number one believing your best gains are behind you the fact is is your muscles don't know how old you are they only know the stimulus you provide them research consistently shows that older adults can still build significant muscle mass for instance one study from the Journal of Applied physiology compared two groups young men and older men both following a resistance
training program for 16 weeks they found that the older men gained just about the same amount of muscle as the younger men another study compared the effects of an 8-week resistance training program on middle-aged men and college-aged men not only did both groups experience similar strength gains but the older group gained 177% more muscle and these are just two of the many studies showing that older men can build just as much muscle as younger men while age may require a smarter approach to training it's not an excuse for lack of progress in the gymm reason
number two you're not eating enough protein one age related obstacle we face with age is known as anabolic resistance basically we experience a reduction in muscle protein synthesis rates in response to dietary protein and exercise according to the research older men require more protein than younger men to stimulate muscle protein synthesis maximally in one study researchers had middle-aged men consume different portions of cooked ground beef ranging from 0 to 170 G they found that the more protein they consumed the greater the Boost in muscle protein synthesis another study on whey protein where older men were
given 10 20 and 35 G found that the highest dose led to the most efficient absorption and use of amino acids for muscle protein synthesis simply put whether you're getting your protein from meat or a shake the right dose can make all the difference in maximizing muscle growth however the solution is not simply about increasing your daily protein intake rather it's about getting in higher amounts of protein per meal you see protein intake increases muscle protein synthesis in a stepwise manner so the more you consume the higher the rates of muscle protein synthesis thus I
recommend aiming for 40 to 50 g of protein per meal to maximize the anabolic response reason number three not tracking your progress Progressive overload is a Cornerstone of muscle growth it requires that you incrementally increase the amount of work you do over time without tracking your workouts you're essentially Flying Blind and while you might be pushing yourself hard enough in the gym to experience a good workout you may be doing absolutely nothing to stimulate New Growth the question then becomes should you lift heavier weights or perform more reps this 2024 study where participants performed unilateral
leg extensions with one leg focusing on adding weight and the other leg focusing on increasing reps found no noticeable difference in muscle growth between the two methods in a similar study researchers compared the same two Progressive overload strategies increasing weight while maintaining a consistent rep range and increasing reps without a change in weight again the muscle growth rates were nearly identical between the two approaches for long-term gains I recommend incorporating both forms of progression if you're training in the 8 to 10 rep range and can only manage eight reps per set focus on increasing your
reps before adding weight from there your only goal is to achieve the maximum number number of reps in this case 10 for every set once you're consistently hitting 10 reps then and only then you can increase the weight slightly and repeat reason number four not enough training volume as we age we tend to reduce our training volume perhaps to avoid overtraining or Aid recovery this reduction in volume however may be the reason your gains have slowed down this meta analysis examin 49 different studies found that workout programs with higher training volumes led to significantly greater
increases in lean body mass among older adults this 2012 study comparing resistance training variables in both younger and older men revealed that while increasing exercise volume had minimal impact on younger participants older men who doubled their exercise volume experienced a significant increase in muscle protein synthesis rates this suggests that upping your training volume is a powerful strategy to counteract the age related decline in muscle anabolism so if you've been reducing your training volume it's time to rethink your strategy to maximize muscle growth I recommend increasing the number of weekly sets gradually for example if you're
currently doing eight total weekly sets for your chest bump that up to 10 and so on and know this additional volume should not impair your recovery which brings us to reason number five inadequate recovery times as we age our body's ability to bounce back from intense workouts naturally declines so proper recovery isn't just about avoiding soreness or fatigue it's about how efficiently our muscles can rest and repair there are three important recovery times we must address the time we rest in between sets the time we rest in between training days and the time we spend
sleeping one 2016 study showed that participants who rested for 3 minutes between sets saw significantly greater muscle growth compared to those who rested for just 1 minute another study took a close look at muscle protein synthesis by comparing two groups one resting for 5 minutes between sets and the other resting for just 1 minute they found that the group with a longer rest period perod s experience double the muscle protein synthetic response compared to the short rest group and while we don't all have hours to spend at the gym I do recommend aiming for at
least 3 minutes in between sets for your big heavy compound lifts as for rest between workouts allow about 48 hours between sessions that Target the same muscle group and while some individuals can get away with less rest others may need a bit more a simple rule of would be this if you're still sore rest a little longer if you're not sore don't worry about waiting an extra day and last but not least sleep in this 2010 study with participants averaging 41 years of age those who slept 5 to 6 hours per night lost 60% more
muscle mass compared to those who slept at least 8 hours thus I recommend aiming for 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep sleep each night to summarize aim for 30 to 40 g of protein per meal track your workouts and aim to do more work over time increase the total number of weekly sets for each muscle and make sure you're getting adequate rest during and after your workouts did you find this video helpful if so click the like button below as it'll truly help out the channel also if you're a man over 40 who's looking
to maximize their results watch our video video on the five worst things to do after your workout there you'll learn five mistakes you might be making that could be sabotaging your ability to build muscle and if you haven't already make sure you subscribe for more videos and don't forget to turn on post notifications so you don't miss the next one peace
