r/fitness40plus

I'm on a journey to get rid of my Skinny Fat body. I'm 6ft tall for context I used to be 260 lbs, dropped to 180, started doing CrossFit dropped to 150 15 % BF. I looked super thin, almost sickly. Stopped CrossFit and transitioned into resistance training, hypertrophy focused using RP Strength. Bulked up to 180 probably around 22-24% BF. currently on a cut down 10 pounds sitting around 18-20% bf. Not sure pictures are allowed on here so not posting any. I still feel skinny Fat. I definitely have more muscle mass. I feel like it's an endless cycle of CUT, MASS, MAINTAIN. Trust the process though right! Currently doing a 4 day split Upper/Lower/rest/Upper/Lower. One day during the weekend I'll add in a cardio workout but nothing extreme.

In the last 6-8 months I’ve been doing 3 workouts a week for strength and cardio on non strength days.

Recently tweaked my back I think doing zerchers last week. Thought I was fine and then this morning when picking up a feather duster my back got re-tweaked! I’m so annoyed I’m lifting more than I have been in my life and get done in by a feather duster.

I think it’s more of a balance thing? Stupidest question ever: what exercises can I do to stop tweaking lower back by ribs when picking up stuff off balance?

There's no reason to pay for a workout plan in 2026. The best programs in lifting have been free for years and the apps that load them up are also free. If you're 40+ like me and just want a plan that works without buying anything, here's what I'd recommend depending on where you are.

If you're brand new or coming back from a long layoff: greg nuckols beginner program. It's three days a week, full body and simple linear progression. You can find it as a free pdf or run it on boostcamp where it's preloaded.

If you're intermediate and want strength: nsuns 531. Four to six days a week depending on the variant. It takes the basic 5/3/1 framework and adds more main lift volume. The 4 day variant is plenty for most working adults.

If you're beginner or intermediate and mainly want size: jeff nippard's full body or PPL. Free pdfs floating around or also preloaded on boostcamp. Solid hypertrophy programming.

If you have limited time, 3 days a week: 5/3/1 in any of its forms. Wendler made it free on his website years ago and it scales beautifully.

If you just want to lift and feel good: any of the above will do honestly. The "best" free plan is the one you'll actually run for 12 weeks straight.

For us 40+ folks, my advice is pick a 3 or 4 day program and stick with it. Recovery matters more than program choice. The plans above all work. The differences between them are smaller than people pretend.

Hi, Newbie here. 44 yr old male, I have worked out to some extent my whole life. I'm 5,9" 192lbs. I have lower back issues, so pretty much do light exercises to build my back. I only try to lift heavier for chest and biceps. I also walk on the inclined treadmill for about 10 min. My question is, what benefit would I get if I eat 175g of protein per day. I've never focused on protein before. Would I get fat? Bulk? Tone? Tia!

One phrase that annoys the F--- out of me is

"Slow down- your not X years old anymore"

My answer is always the same- "Actually I'm glad I'm not 25 as I'm stronger/faster than I was at 25"

Seriously I had some pretty good gains at 25 but who says at 45 you are don't have the energy, stamina or strength than you did at 45?

Part of it I believe is a mindset that if you keep believing you don't have the energy, trust me you'll find excuses to be tired, sore or unmotivated.

Yes I'm sure there are some medical explanations how body composition/cellular make up, etc changes as you age- but 100% all the time for everyone?

And don't even break out a chart or power point slide to illustrate your point!

Full disclaimer- I probably have more Testosterone currently than I had a 25 (no comment on that one) 😄

I swear something shifted once I hit my late 40s. For years I stayed around the same weight just by walking every day and keeping portions reasonable. Then over the last couple years it felt like my body completely stopped cooperating. I was waking up tired all the time gaining weight mostly around my stomach and constantly thinking about food even when I knew I’d eaten enough.

I kept blaming stress and hormones at first but eventually my doctor brought up insulin resistance and suggested trying tirzepatide. I put it off forever because the whole online GLP1 world felt kind of sketchy to me honestly. Started a few months ago and the strangest part is how quiet my brain feels around food now. I still track protein and try to stay active but it finally feels manageable instead of feeling like I’m fighting myself every single day.

I'm 42, just getting back into the gym after a 3 year break and i have no idea what leggings are worth buying anymore

My old ones roll down constantly, aren't squat proof, and have zero pocket space, basically useless lol. I'm looking for:
- high waist leggings that stay up
- squat proof / no see through
- comfortable for long workouts
- phone pocket
- ideally around $60

Been looking at options for women over 40 returning to fitness but there's so much out there. What are you guys actually wearing to the gym? Budget friendly and premium recommendations both welcome!

I was talking with Dan John recently over a long conversation and he used this phrase that caught me off guard.

He said a lot of people train individual qualities now. Strength, mobility, conditioning, longevity...etc etc

But what he actually wants, especially as people get older, is for them to become “well knitted.”

What that means
everything works together. You move well.. recover reasonably well. you can carry things, AND you are well integrated with society, look after your neighbor's lawn (!) etc.

It surprised me but I also liked framing because it feels very different from how fitness is usually sold, and marketed, and adopted by me and most I know.

More of. build a body and life that still function together twenty years from now, rather than just look to optimize the popular health metric. Curious what folks think of this type of approach?

I used fitbod for about six months and never felt like I was actually progressing. Every session was different, weights kept resetting, I never got to push the same lift two sessions in a row. At 45 I want to see numbers go up, not play workout roulette.

I switched to running an actual structured program for the last month and weights are going up consistently, way more my speed.

What did you all switch to and how's it going

About 2 years ago I had a medical condition which caused me to lose significant strength and size in the upper left hand side of my body. Fortunately the situation was resolved and I have managed to regain my strength and musculature.

With this though, I still have quite visible differences between my left and right hand side, more so than the typical dominant / non-dominant differences and I want to dedicate some time and effort to reducing this.

I currently have a split which allows for two upper body days and I'm thinking of either:

A - dedicating one of the upper body days to a left hand upper specific day, with the other remaining a full upper day

B - continuing with two full upper days, but adding additional exercises targeting the main weaknesses in my upper left quadrant.

C - changing my routine to include more unilateral type exercises and doing with the right only what the left could do with perfect form.

I'm leaning towards option A, but would like to know if one day of full upper is enough to at least maintain the existing musculature in my upper right quadrant or whether the other options have a better chance of that.

hello! i'm 49 yo female, skinny fat with a super high body fat percentage and low muscle mass, just started working out a few months ago and i'm trying to understand what kind of adjustments i should be making to my workout routine to support my goals of increasing muscle mass and reducing body fat. i am currently doing orange theory 3-5 times a week and i walk a lot (average 10K steps per day). other than that my lifestyle is pretty sedentary. i have increased my protein intake to 80-100g/day and have reduced the amount of fat i'm eating in my diet. here are my two recent dexascan results 5 weeks apart. what should i be doing differently? should i be increasing cardio? increasing strength training? thank you in advance. i will post my dexascan results in a comment.

I'm feeling pretty low on energy and kind of stuck with my workouts, even though I try to stay consistent at the gym. Sleep is okay, but I still feel like recovery and motivation aren’t where they should be.

I started looking into supplements and found Beyond Alpha, not really sure if it’s legit or just marketing.

Has anyone here tried it or something similar? Any real difference in energy or performance, or just hype?

Which would give better results for someone trying to lose ~20 lbs - walking pad (with no incline) + weighted vest or ankle weights?

Hi all! I turned 41 back in February, and very recently have started attending practices with a Gaelic Sports Club that is local to me. I have been having a lot of fun having sports participation back in my life, running around, moderate physical contact, breathing hard, it’s all a great time. However, yesterday I felt a pop in my left hamstring while I was running upfield, I got it checked out later in the day, and they said it looked like a grade 2 hamstring strain. I’m taking it easy and starting the healing, but wanted to start looking for suggestions on how I can adapt my training schedule to help prevent injuries like this in the future, since I have a feeling this injury occurred due to me going to hard at practice too quickly.

For context, I have been very consistent in lifting weights for the last three years. I built a home gym, and on average I lift 6-7 days a week for about an hour a day, focusing on training to failure and muscle growth. My routine is to train legs one day, chest the next, back the day after that, then arms the next day, then cycle back through again. This gives each muscle group three days of rest between sessions. I also include core and grip work every session.

I’ve also been working on losing weight, mostly through calorie tracking. Since September I have lost 37 lbs and am currently at 245, and am working toward a goal weight of 200. I’m a little bummed that being unable to work out for a couple of weeks while I am healing is going to impact my calorie deficit, but there isn’t much I can do about that now.

I’m looking for suggestions on how I can add more dynamic exercise, especially for my lower body, how much running I should be including in my routine, and maybe some advice on running programming. Really any help, online resources, YouTube channels, all suggestions are welcome. Thanks so much.

I am set at 7k steps currently. What is your daily step goal? I am curious if I should up it to 10k. Thoughts?

I am thinking of going back to morning coffee. The pre-workout powder does not do to much for me and I know its not good for my body in the long run. Especially my stomach.

Does anyone drink cold brew before you workout? If so how do you make it? I drank it years ago but it has been a long time. Thanks.

I came back to lifting two years ago after a long break and have tried most of the popular logging apps. At 47 I just want something that's easy to use, doesn't nag me with notifications and remembers what I lifted last week. Here's what I'd recommend depending on what you actually need.

If you want a log plus an actual program already loaded or customizing your own use boostcamp because the tracker is good and it comes with a big library of free programs (nsuns, 5/3/1 variants, GZCLP, PPL, beginner stuff from greg nuckols). For someone who doesn't want to design their own routine, this saves a ton of time.

If you only want a clean log and you'll bring your own program: hevy is the visually nicest one. The free version only keeps a few months of workout history though so you'll likely end up paying eventually.

Fitnotes is the no frills android option. It's free, offline and has been around forever. Some of the older guys at my gym swear by it. It looks like it was made in 2015 because it kind of was but it works.

Many people like Strong too but imo is similar to hevy and slightly less polished and the free tier is more limited.

If you're rehabbing or working around joint stuff (which I assume some of you are at this age), the program flexibility in boostcamp is actually useful because you can pick a lower frequency program and not feel like you're failing. I run 3 days a week now and it's fine.

I’m 43 and I almost stopped going to the gym because I constantly felt out of place there

I think people assume gym anxiety is something only younger people deal with but honestly starting again in your 40s feels strange in a completely different way

you walk in and everyone looks like they already know exactly what they’re doing

the younger guys move confidently between machines, people have routines, everyone seems comfortable there while you’re standing in the corner trying to figure out how to even adjust the seat on a machine without looking stupid

that was me for the first couple months

I’d stick to treadmills or the few machines I recognised because I was embarrassed trying things I didn’t understand. sometimes I’d wait for someone else to finish using a machine just so I could quietly watch how it worked first

and I know people say “nobody cares what you’re doing”

they’re probably right

but that doesn’t stop you feeling out of place when you’re the older beginner in the room

honestly I think that feeling nearly made me quit more than the workouts themselves ever did

because the gym wasn’t physically exhausting

it was mentally exhausting

every session felt like an hour of low level embarrassment and confusion

what changed things for me was making the gym feel simpler instead of trying to force confidence overnight

I started planning workouts beforehand. tracked basic progress. stopped trying to do overly complicated routines I found online

and weirdly one of the things that genuinely helped most was using the Gym AI app because I could literally take a picture of any machine and instantly understand what it did, what muscles it trained, and how to use it properly without awkwardly standing there googling things in the middle of the gym

sounds minor but removing that uncertainty made it way easier to keep showing up

and after a few months something shifted

the gym stopped feeling like somewhere I was visiting and started feeling normal

I stopped worrying about looking inexperienced

stopped comparing myself to everyone younger than me

stopped overthinking every little thing

and honestly I’m in better shape at 43 than I was through most of my 30s

I think a lot of people over 40 avoid gyms because they think they’re “too late” or they’ll feel out of place there

but most people in the gym are too focused on themselves to care

and confidence usually comes after consistency, not before it

I had a bod pod test done 6 months ago and another one today. I was a bit alarmed at the results and am wondering how accurate this test is. I dressed properly for it and had my hair pulled back as it was supposed to be. Is this test fairly reliable as a measure of body fat?