We all know it’s important to stay healthy as we age. Maintaining muscle is one key way to stay strong and flexible and help you keep doing your favorite activities.
People who continue to strength-train as they age can significantly improve their quality of life. That’s because age-related mobility limitations can lead to higher rates of chronic diseases, risk of falls, obesity, and early nursing home admission. And while it’s impossible to stop the clock, research shows that maintaining (and building) muscle can help people preserve physical independence and overall quality of life.
But how can muscle tone — meaning how firm a muscle is at rest — be improved after age 40? Here’s what experts have to say about sustaining and building muscle as you age, along with some exercises you can do at home to improve your strength.
4 Factors That Affect Muscle Tone After 40
Before diving into how you can increase muscle tone after 40, it’s crucial to understand the biological and lifestyle factors that can influence how well you can build muscle as you age. These four circumstances play key roles when it comes to building lean muscle and maintaining it.
1. Age
As we age, we typically become less active, and biology also makes it harder to build and sustain muscle. According to personal trainer, weight loss and wellness expert, and World Champion powerlifter Robert Herbst, the natural aging process and having more obligations as we age makes increasing muscle more difficult. “As people get older, they generally lose muscle mass and [at the same time] become less active,” he explains to DailyOM. Becoming more sedentary and having less time to work out as the years pass, Herbst says, will “cause muscle to atrophy and feel weak and flabby under the skin.”
This involuntary loss of muscle mass, strength, and function is known as sarcopenia. Research shows that after age 30, muscle mass decreases approximately 3 percent to 8 percent per decade, with a steeper dropoff after age 60.
2. Sex
Whether you were born a male or female also makes a difference when it comes to retaining and building muscle after 40. “Men can typically get stronger and denser muscles by lifting heavier weights,” Herbst explains. “Fortysomething women, who lack the testosterone that a 40- or 50-something man has, will not put on a lot of mass, but they can get toned and sculpted.”
Research shows that women and men can make similar muscle gains in their 20s. Perimenopause and menopause, however, cause hormonal changes in women, particularly drops in testosterone and estradiol, that make it easier to lose muscle and harder to gain it.
While men and women won’t see exactly the same results, Herbst adds that increasing muscle tone for both sexes centers around lifting weights and doing more repetitions of weight to build that density and tone. Besides, our muscles are important for more than just superficial reasons we age — they support the body’s bone structure. Building muscle over 40 is important, particularly for women, as they’re more prone to osteoporosis than men are. And postmenopausal women are more susceptible to osteoporosis than their younger counterparts, research shows, making exercise even more critical as they get older.
3. Sleep and Rest Days
Don’t skimp on rest, say the experts. Giving your muscles time to repair is crucial to your ability to maintain a strength-building exercise regimen and avoid injury. “The days of training hard, running around all night, and still making gains ends when you hit 30,” Herbst says. “Both men and women should incorporate two to three rest days a week to enable recuperation, as well as get at least seven hours of sleep a night.”
One study shows that poor sleep can be associated with reduced muscle mass and muscle strength, while other research points to a decrease in overall athletic performance when people get inadequate sleep.
4. Diet and Nutrition
Finally, what you eat matters when it comes to building muscle after 40. Matt Claes, head coach and founder of Weight Loss Made Practical, explains that getting enough protein, in particular, allows your body to repair and grow the muscles you work when you’re exercising.
“The older you get, the worse your body becomes in absorbing protein,” he tells DailyOM. For the average sedentary adult, the government suggests eating 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, though people who exercise require more protein than people who don’t, and seniors also have a greater need for protein.
Interested in learning more? Check out Fit and Fierce Over 40
Best Exercises for Building Muscle
Exercise is the main way to build muscle after 40, though there is no magic formula for success because everyone’s body is different. In addition, not everyone has the same fitness goal. Some people are more interested in toning, whereas others are looking to build muscle mass.
Achieving muscle tone requires consistency, dedication, and a well-rounded approach.
“The terms ‘toning’ and ‘building muscle’ are often used interchangeably, but there is a slight difference between them,” explains Grace Song, physiotherapist at Brentwood Physio, who spoke with DailyOM for this article. “When we talk about toning muscles, we refer to the process of increasing muscle definition and creating a lean, sculpted appearance. Toning involves reducing body fat while simultaneously building and strengthening muscles. On the other hand, building muscle typically implies increasing muscle size, strength, and overall mass. This is often achieved through resistance training and progressive overload.”
As mentioned, women can typically tone their muscles after 40, while men have more of an opportunity to build muscle, simply because of biological (namely hormonal) factors.
With this in mind, let’s evaluate three types of exercise for building muscle and how effective they are.
1. Weight Training
While different types of exercise offer unique benefits, not all exercises directly contribute to muscle growth or toning, Song says. The fastest way to tone muscles? Lifting heavy weights or using your own body weight. What’s considered “heavy”? Choose a weight that you can lift while maintaining form throughout all of your reps but that challenges you. If you find that you can speed through your reps with little to no exertion, you are lifting too light; if you’re struggling and bending at suboptimal angles in order to lift, it’s too heavy.
“Heavy weight exercises targeting different muscle groups are highly effective for building muscle tone,” she says. “Both weightlifting and bodyweight exercises help build lean muscle mass, strength, and definition.”
Herbst says that both men and women can do compound movements that combine bodyweight and hand weights (like squats and deadlifts) that use the major muscle groups, as well as smaller isolation movements (such as bicep curls with weights) to build up specific body parts. “You can also get more definition and mass by doing higher repetitions of heavy weight movements in the 8- to 12-rep range,” he adds.
2. Aerobic Activities
While aerobic exercise doesn’t get as much credit as strength training, it shouldn’t be discounted for its ability to help the body stay lean and toned. Song says that cardiovascular activities like running or cycling can support muscle building through calorie burning. “Cardiovascular exercise aids in burning excess body fat to reveal the toned muscles underneath,” she explains.
These activities also build endurance and longevity. A recent study found that people both under and over the age of 60 who do one to three hours of aerobic exercise per week and one to two strength training sessions per week have a lower mortality risk.
3. Yoga
While yoga may not be as effective for muscle toning as targeted resistance training, Song says it is beneficial for flexibility, balance (which is critical as we age), and overall well-being. “I always recommend doing a variety of exercises,” she explains. “Achieving muscle tone requires consistency, dedication, and a well-rounded approach.”
Research shows that for older adults, yoga may be an optimal form of exercise for maintaining strength, especially for those who are unable to lift weights. A study of people between the ages of 55 and 79 found that an eight-week hatha yoga program was just as effective in improving functional fitness as a training program that meets the CDC-recommended stretching and strengthening guidelines.
Muscle Toning at Home
You don’t need to join a gym to build or tone your muscles. Claes suggests the following three strength training exercises that you can do at home with no equipment required. These compound movements work major muscle groups and increase full-body strength. (If you’re interested in a more targeted approach or want to build up specific muscles, working with a personal trainer is a great option for creating a workout that’s tailored to your body.)
1. Pushups
This classic exercise is great for working your chest, triceps (back upper arms), and front deltoids (shoulders). “Even stronger people over 40 can make them challenging enough for muscle growth by elevating their feet on a stool or by wearing a weighted backpack,” Claes says, while people who are new to this exercise can start on their knees or use a chair for support. Holding a plank (upper pushup position) between sets can build abdominal strength as well.
2. Bent-Over Rows
This exercise works your biceps, trapezius (upper back), and latissimus dorsi (middle upper back) as you bend your knees slightly, tilt your upper body forward while keeping your spine straight, and then raise an object to your body and back down. You can raise a heavy backpack, a case of canned soda or bottled water, or another object that challenges you, if you don’t have weights at home.
3. Reverse Lunges
Claes explains that to grow stronger glutes (butt), quadriceps (front thighs), and hamstrings (back thighs), you need a relatively high amount of resistance, which is exactly what lunges provide. “Reverse lunges are great in the sense that all of your body weight rests on one leg at a time,” he says. “People over 40 may also like that reverse lunges are one of the better leg exercises for improving and preserving balance.”
The Bottom Line
Although building muscle after 40 can feel like an uphill battle because of biological factors, it is possible to sustain (and even gain!) strength. Taking care of your body with proper nutrition and focusing your exercise efforts on strength training are two key ways to improve muscle tone as you age.
Remember that everyone’s body — and fitness journey — is different. Keep the focus on how strong you feel, instead of putting pressure on yourself to make your body look a certain way. This will ultimately make the process of staying strong a positive, not punitive, one.
