Ask a person who didn’t begin training with weights till age 55 if 45 is too old to begin lifting weights.
If you’re around 45 and have never before strength trained, you still have SO MUCH to gain from picking up barbells and dumbbells!
In fact, the only people who don’t benefit from some form of weightlifting are dead or comatose.
Is your goal to win a Mr. Olympia and compete against 20-somethings?
Well, perhaps you’re a little late in the game to have any chance of winning.
But when a person wonders if mid-40s is too old to start a serious strength training regimen, I take it to mean that they’re wondering if their “old” muscles can be stimulated enough to grow.
Here’s How Muscle Growth Works
Muscle growth is triggered in EVERY muscle fiber, regardless of age, by a stimulus (e.g., lifting weights).
Imagine a building just sitting there nicely off the side of a road. An earthquake shakes it up and crumbles it.
A construction crew comes in and starts rebuilding. However, the crew is rebuilding the structure with a stronger foundation, thicker support beams, bigger nails, etc., in anticipation of the next earthquake.
The building is now stronger. A second earthquake hits, but this time, the building doesn’t crumble all that much and is still standing.
I just described how muscle fibers respond to a stimulus they’re not familiar with: lifting a barbell.
If you’re 45 or so and want to begin lifting weights for the first time, your muscles will be like that building, and the gym routine will be like an earthquake.
The recovery period will be like the construction crew.
Muscles have a predictable way of responding to a new stimulus. They break down, but then rebuild and become stronger!
And this is especially true if your weightlifting program is supplemented with proper nutrition.
For now, I just want to say that 45 is nowhere near too old to begin weight training. I recently saw a buff woman at the gym who appeared “older.”
She came over and complimented me on my leg curl amount. Within a minute, I knew her age: 68! But dang, she was ripped!
Now get this: She told me she didn’t start training until age 55!
If you’re 45, you’d be a spring chicken to her!
Start lifting weights. Stop making excuses!
• You’re never too old.
• You’re never too underweight or weak.
• You’re never too overweight.
• You’re never too this or too that to start lifting barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells and using other forms of resistance equipment.
Because I’ll tell you what. If you keep putting off weightlifting, then before you know it, you’ll be celebrating your 50th birthday.
And you’ll be wondering, “What if I’d begun lifting weights when I was 45? I would have had FIVE YEARS under my belt. Five years! That’s a lot of training! I could’ve been sculpted sitting here blowing out 50 candles! Instead I’m the same pile of flab I was five years ago!”
Okay, five years from now may seem like a long time, but it’s going to happen to you whether you like it or not, so you may as well add strength training to the upcoming five years.
And besides, even at age 45, a committed man or woman who’s new to lifting weights will experience dramatic results within six months.
In fact, you will begin noticing increased strength within several weeks. Stop waiting, start weightlifting!
