LeanOver40ForMen.com
Hi,
It’s Rob Richley here, Personal Trainer, Over 40’s Fitness Model and
Founder of Lean Over 40 for Men.
For years I struggled to lose belly fat and get that lean, pleasing
appearance. In my thirties I was working a stressful job, making poor
food choices and had let myself get out of the shape.
I’d gained 30lbs of fat, felt tired, sluggish and would go to work feeling
miserable and kept telling myself I’d turn this thing around!
It wasn’t until my late thirties, that I finally pulled the trigger on my fat
loss journey, but with all the contradicting advise out there, I failed to
lose fat and get the body I wanted.
Finally, through years of trial and error I was able to find the training
and nutrition protocol that burns fat for men over 40.
I was so happy with my results that I entered a fitness modelling
competition at age 41 and rocked a set of ripped abs on stage! And
what’s even more incredible is I didn’t have to spend money on
supplements, eat very restrictive diets or spend my life in the gym to
get my leanest body.
I’ve made it my mission to help one million men over 40 lose belly fat,
get lean and transform their bodies.
Even if your goal isn’t to get abs, what I teach will help you lose fat,
look years younger and prevent disease.
Much of what I learned is the opposite of what the fitness industry and
Personal Trainers are telling you to do to get lean.
Let’s begin with the 40 Laws of Lean for Men Over 40.
LeanOver40ForMen.com
1. Train for Your Age!
The first mistake that men over 40 make when trying to get lean is
copying routines of younger men, doing crazy amounts of cardio or
entering “classes” at the local gym.
Stop right now! As a man over 40 you need training and nutrition
advise that’s tailored to a 40-year-old.
No longer can you tolerate excessive joint unfriendly exercises or
crazy amounts of cardio that has you in the gym every day, so don’t
even attempt it.
Training like your twenty-year-old self is one of the worst mistakes I
see men over 40 making when trying to lose belly fat!
2. Eat Fat
Sounds contradictory doesn’t it? But cutting out fat to lose belly fat is
a BIG dietary mistake especially if you’re a man over 40!
Our testosterone levels are already at least 10% less than what they
were when we were 30 years old and a diet too low in fat kills
testosterone production even further!
But before you start chowing down all these greasy foods, it’s healthy
mono-unsaturated fats you need to eat such as Avocados, boiled
eggs, extra virgin olive oil and fatty fish.
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3. Keep testosterone at peak levels
I mentioned dietary fat for elevating testosterone but why is
testosterone so important for men over 40?
Well, testosterone plays vital roles in the body and controls how well
we’ll build lean muscle, burn fat and look physically.
Unfortunately, after around age 30, testosterone naturally starts
declining by 1% every year leading to loss of lean muscle and
accumulation of belly fat.
And the more belly fat you gain, the less testosterone you produce!
It’s up to us to break that cycle and tackle it with the correct training
and nutrition. That’s why training and nutrition for men over 40 needs
to be geared with keeping testosterone at peak levels.
4. Strength train
Lifting weights will boost testosterone, build lean muscle and
ultimately rev up your metabolism permanently so that you’ll burn
more calories even at rest.
A mistake that men over 40 makes is lifting weights nearly every day
or using too many isolation exercises, placing massive stress on joints
and recovery machinery.
3 strength training workouts is the way to go for men over 40 and if
your goal isn’t to get big bulky muscles, don’t worry I can teach you
how to lift so that you build lean, dense muscle that gives you that
lean, athletic look.
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5. Stop dieting!
If you’ve been restricting calories too much, “dieting” or been in a
calorie deficit too long stop that right now! Not eating enough daily
calories is another one of the worst mistakes that men over 40 makes
to lose belly fat.
Too much calorie restriction for too long will cause your body to hold
onto fat.
If you’ve been restricting calories too long I recommend increasing
your daily calories to bring leptin levels back up in the body.
6. Use compound movements
Compound movements are resistance exercises that train more than
one muscle group at the same time. They’re especially beneficial for
men over 40 as they’re proven to boost testosterone AND are joint
friendly.
If you’ve never used weights before I recommend using compound
body weight exercises before moving on to a strength training
program. This is what I teach in my course, Abs Over 40.
7. Get enough sleep
If you short change yourself on sleep, you’ll make it harder to shift
belly fat. When you restrict sleep your body produces more of the
stress hormone cortisol that interferes with healthy fat loss.
Aim for 7-8 hours of quality sleep and try to get into a good sleep
routine!
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8. Get enough carbohydrates
There’s so much confusion with carbs and men over 40 make the
mistake of restricting them to lose belly fat.
Limiting carbs too much won’t help you lose belly fat faster, not only
that, but your workouts will suffer, you’ll feel tired and it will encourage
binge eating as well.
With that said, avoid junk carbs such as processed white bread and
flour that wreak havoc with your blood sugar and put a brake on
getting lean.
9. Perform joint friendly cardio
Low impact cardio is joint friendly cardio that keeps your heart
elevated and keeps you burning fat.
This doesn’t mean being on the treadmill all the time, but properly
structured compound movements that are performed back to back to
boost testosterone and elevate your metabolism.
Too much steady state cardio can kill testosterone though, so practice
moderate amounts of cardio for the fastest fat loss.
10. Boost protein
One of the best ways to get leaner with your nutrition is to boost
protein, but excessive amounts aren’t necessary!
0.8 g to 1g of protein per pound of lean body weight per day is more
than enough daily protein to support lean muscle and fat loss.
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This is easily obtainable through solid food without the use of
supplements.
11. Eat the right foods
Men over 40 should have a nutrition plan in place that supplies enough
daily calories, adequate carbs, enough healthy fats AND supports
healthy testosterone production.
Cut out all refined carbohydrates, fizzy drinks and junk foods. Stick
with healthy complex carbohydrates such as oats, whole grain pasta,
potatoes, fruits and vegetables. Lean protein sources such as ground
beef, chicken, fatty fish and eggs.
Fats should be mainly mono-unsaturated such as avocados, coconut
oil, extra virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds.
12. Use multiple sets of low reps
Multiple sets of low reps are far safer and more productive for men
over 40.
Men over 40 are puzzled when I recommend using them over medium
to high reps, but they allow you to focus better on each rep, perform
the reps more smoothly and demand less of your recovery which is
especially important for men over 40.
They’re also A LOT easier on the joints than medium and high reps,
as we get older we can’t train with excessive volume, sets and reps
without wearing our bodies down too much.
LeanOver40ForMen.com
13. Perform proper warm-ups
When we were younger we could jump straight into a set of heavy
exercises and not have any problems, not anymore!
Properly structured warm-ups become even more important as we
age, to keep joints supple and protect against injury that could put you
out for months.
A properly structured warm-up routine is critical!
14. Keep a food log
To lose fat you need to be eating in a slight caloric deficit and maintain
it for at least 3 months. If you don’t record what you’re eating, you
might think you’re eating the right number of calories but in fact you’re
eating too many or far too little!
Record your daily calories in a food log and you can look back and
quickly adjust if needed.
15. Scrap eating 5-6 meals per day
The typical nutrition advice for men over 40 trying to lose fat is to eat
5-6 small meals per day. The premise is that by eating more often
your metabolism will run quicker and you’ll lose more fat, but studies
show that it’s the total number of calories eaten over the day that
counts, NOT how many meals you eat!
And eating fewer bigger meals has benefits on testosterone
production as your body will use more of the sympathetic nervous
system.
LeanOver40ForMen.com
When you go without food for many hours and then suddenly
introduce a big meal into your system, testosterone and growth
hormone go through the roof!
Not only that but sticking to 2-3 bigger meals per day and a few snacks
is much easier to stick with over the long term, leading to better
results!
16. Know your starting point
In my courses I talk about the importance of knowing where you are
i.e. scale weight and body fat percentage and provide a simple way to
calculate that.
Without knowing your body fat percentage, you won’t know how much
fat you’ll need to lose or how long it’s going to take you to get there.
Without this information everything is left to chance and you have no
way of knowing if you’re on track to lose that belly fat and get lean.
Getting lean is not about leaving anything to chance and hoping for
the best!
17. Never exceed your recovery ability
As you get older many training factors change and one of those factors
is your ability to recover from hard workouts. Not only must we pay
attention to what exercises you do but how often you do them is
crucial!
When you train, you tear the muscle fibres apart and place stress on
the tendons, ligaments and skeletal structure.
LeanOver40ForMen.com
Even when you’ve fully recovered from your training your joints might
need even longer to fully recover.
If you don’t pay attention to recovery and forge on regardless, not only
will you not get the best results from your training, but chronic
inflammation might result from not giving the body the time it needs to
recover.
18. Short workouts work best
Short workouts will allow you to train hard on the most effective
exercises and fully recover between workout sessions.
As a man, over 40 you want the most effective and most efficient
workout that gets you the body you want without sacrificing your
demanding career and family life.
Short workouts are the key to success for older men, in fact, you can
get an excellent workout in just 30-40 minutes provided you choose
the best exercises and make them progressive!
19. Avoid dangerous exercises
As we age, the exercises that worked well for us when we were young
no longer work well for us now we’re more mature.
Older guys need to drop exercises that cause joint pain and totally
avoid elevated risk and unproductive exercises all together.
For this reason, it’s important you choose productive and safe
exercises for YOU.
LeanOver40ForMen.com
Some examples of exercises to avoid for men over 40 are preacher
curls that place exaggerated stress on the elbows, stiff legged
deadlifts that risk lower back injury, any pull down behind the neck
that places enormous stress on the shoulder girdle and smith machine
presses!
20. Use refeed days
Periodically increasing your calories especially on training days will
bring leptin levels up and let your body know it’s getting enough
calories and to keep dropping fat!
If you’re in a calorie deficit too long and your body thinks a famine is
around the corner, it will hold onto fat as a survival response. By using
refeed days we can speed up the fat burning process.
21. Maintain good form
The best changes in body composition come from controlling the
weight during the lifting and lowering phases of each exercise. Never
drop or bounce the weight and make sure you maintain great exercise
form.
A good rule of thumb is to take three seconds for the eccentric (lifting)
phase of the rep, a brief one second pause and another three seconds
for the concentric (lowering) portion of the exercise.
LeanOver40ForMen.com
22. Enjoy your food!
A lot of men over 40 think that losing fat needs to be a very miserable
experience, restricting calories too much and eating boring, tasteless
foods.
This isn’t the best strategy for fat loss because it’s not sustainable. If
you can’t stick to something long enough to get results, then it’s not
going to do you any good!
This is exactly what I had in mind when I designed the cutting plan of
the Abs Over 40, nutrition that’s effective AND sustainable.
23. Avoid absolute failure
Weight training failure or pushing yourself to absolute exhaustion is
not only in-effective for men over 40, but the fastest way to burn-out!
When strength training, the last 2 reps of the set should feel
challenging, but there’s never any need to push yourself to absolute
failure to progress with your workouts.
Remember, men over 40 need to work within their ability to recover
from exercise.
24. Monitor progress
An effective workout and nutrition plan will work, but you need to track
your progress each week to make sure you’re on track.
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If done correctly you’ll be on track to lose at least 1-1 ½ pounds of fat
per week. Recording this transformation will keep you motivated and
on track!
25. Take advantage of coffee
Fresh coffee offers antioxidants and fat burning properties. If you
enjoy coffee use it to help motivate and focus before a workout for
extra fat burning effects.
Coffee is the only stimulant I have ever used to help me lean down to
the single digits of body fat. I don’t recommend drinking it late in the
day though, as it might interfere with healthy sleep.
26. Drink enough water
To perform at your best, you must stay hydrated. Dehydration makes
you physically and mentally tired.
Just a small water loss of only 4% is enough to cause a loss of
muscular strength and endurance. The more dehydrated you become,
the more strength you will lose.
To keep 100% of your strength you must keep hydrated, water plays
huge roles in the body such as digestion, transportation of waste
products and lubrication in the joints.
What I like to do is buy a 2-litre bottled water and make it a rule to
drink at least a bottle each day, that way I know I’m covering my water
needs each day.
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27. Cut out fizzy drinks
Want to lose 10 pounds of fat without doing anything? Just cut out
fizzy drinks and I guarantee you’ll be off to a flying start with your fat
loss journey!
Fizzy drinks are full of sugar and calories that quickly add up to stored
belly fat. And low-calorie alternatives aren’t healthy as they usually
contain aspartame that wreaks havoc on the human body.
28. Drink in moderation
Alcohol has 7 calories per gram making the extra calories quickly add
up and push you over your calorie threshold. It also lowers
testosterone in men, the last thing we want when trying to get lean.
It’s biggest danger though is how hungry it makes you, when you’ve
drank a lot of alcohol you’re much more likely to eat junk foods as well!
29. Visualise your success
Right now, you might think you’re a long way off getting that lean body
you want, but it all starts with visualising your success!
Whatever your goal, if you plant it firmly in mind and map it out
mentally, it’s just a matter of executing that plan on a consistent basis
with the right training to reach your goal.
Hold that image in your mind and then get to work achieving it!
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30. Don’t rely on scale weight alone
A mistake that a lot of men make when losing fat is simply using the
scale as a means of measurement.
When you lose weight, it can be from muscle, glycogen, water and
body fat. Therefore, measuring body fat is important as it paints a
much more accurate picture of body composition.
For example, it’s possible to lose weight, but body fat percentage
hardly alters. That means you’d be losing just as much muscle as fat
resulting in a drastically different look than someone who’s primarily
losing fat!
31. Avoid conventional bodybuilding programs
The problem with most programs geared towards men who want to
get lean is they’re typical routines designed to cause Sarcoplasmic
hypertrophy in the muscles.
This excessive volume creates a bloated and “puffy” look that isn’t
attractive. I always advise designing your training program to
stimulate more myofibrillar hypertrophy, which gives you that denser,
harder appearance i.e. a natural amount of muscle with minimal body
fat.
Looking bulky and carrying extra body fat might look fine in your
twenties, but once you’re over 40 carrying extra weight looks a lot less
appealing.
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32. Stick with the most productive and joint
friendly exercises
As we age, the exercises that worked well for us when we were young
no longer work well for us now we’re more mature.
Older guys need to drop exercises that cause joint pain and totally
avoid elevated risk and unproductive exercises all together.
Compound movements are the way to go for men over 40, but just
because an exercise has been listed as “productive” doesn’t mean it
will work well for you. Each of us have a different genetic inheritance,
limb lengths and perhaps injuries we’re carrying around with us.
For this reason, it’s important you choose productive and safe
exercises for YOU.
33. Use ground-based training
Ground based training is any exercise that gets you standing up,
working hard and forces you to train in an athletic fashion.
It’s particularly useful for older men as helps you fight to maintain more
strength, fight to build more muscle and mind-muscle connection!
Exercises such as squats and the standing press can be classed as
ground-based training and you should be doing at least one
groundbased training exercise per workout.
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34. Don’t fall for fads and fallacies
When it comes to getting a lean body, you should be aiming for a
gradual fat loss of no more than 1-1.5 lbs per week.
Those that try to lose fat any faster, will end up losing water weight
and lean muscle which leads to binge eating and a down regulated
metabolism!
When it comes to fat loss, it’s important to understand that the
relatively slow route, is the fastest route to a lean body in the long run.
35. Include estrogen removing foods
Not only do we need testosterone producing foods in our diet but
estrogen removing foods such as cruciferous vegetables will help
keep testosterone at peak levels.
We’re also under attack from estrogens found in plastics and
environmental factors as well, so drink water from glass bottles
whenever possible and choose organic vegetables and grass-fed
meat as preference.
36. Read labels
Get accustomed to reading labels and quickly sizing up portions of
food so you can stay within your calorie limit for the day.
With smart phone apps, there has never been an easier time to keep
a food log by reading bar code labels.
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37. Get stronger
The best way to get lean is to hold onto or build additional lean muscle
tissue and the best way to do that is to get stronger on the most
productive compound movements for men over 40.
But you need to make sure you’re getting stronger whilst maintaining
perfect exercise form and avoiding injury.
38. Set goals
Set yourself a goal over the next 90 days to lose at least 18-20 pounds
of fat and then get to work on achieving it!
By breaking that goal up into months, weeks and the daily units that
goal will become a reality.
39. Indulge without gorging
Completely cutting out the foods you love from your diet is the worst
way to lose fat over the long term. Cravings will kick in and you’ll
eventually resort to binge eating.
If you’re eating a properly structured nutrition plan, find a way of
including your favourite foods without exceeding your calorie
threshold.
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40. Don’t put off getting lean another day!
Life will always get in the way and there’s never a perfect time to take
charge of your body and get the lean body you truly want.
You owe it to yourself to stop procrastinating and take the first step
towards a much leaner, healthier future. Decide today and start on the
path to greatness!
You can Learn about my premium course, Abs Over 40, by
clicking here.
To your success!
LeanOver40ForMen.com