Workouts for Men Over 60
If you’re a man over 60 and you need a workout that’s going to burn fat and build lean muscle you’ve come to the right spot.
While we can lose fat and still build lean muscle at any age, once over 60 you need to pay more attention to recovery and not use exercises that cause injury to the joints.
If you’re a beginner and you haven’t got access to a gym, help is at hand, my Abs Over 40 course now includes a full At Home Workout for men over 60.
Over 14 different joint friendly and safe exercises that burn fat and cover the entire body that can be performed from the comfort of your own home.
If you’ve ever tried burning fat by doing excessive amounts of cardio or going to gym classes then you’ll soon realise these exercises aren’t designed for men over 60, they irritate the joints and they give you mediocre results at best.
Men over 60 should stick to something called “compound bodyweight exercises” because they activate 2-3 bigger muscle groups at once, building lean muscle, elevating the metabolism and increasing testosterone.
With that said, what are some great exercise choices for men over 60 that can be done at home?
Table Press-up
The table press-up is the perfect starting point for men over 60 for training the chest, shoulders and triceps in one movement.
If you haven’t got a table of suitable height, that’s fine, any work surface will work if it’s comfortable and safe for you to grasp and perform the exercise.
Place your hands on the surface and lower yourself down, under control and using a smooth rep cadence. Then return to the starting position.
Once you have mastered this exercise you can move onto the regular press-up and then eventually elevated press-ups were your feet are elevated on a chair behind you.
Do this exercise for 3 sets of 10 reps.
Bodyweight squat
The body weight squat is a fine exercise for men over 60 as trains the muscles of the lower body, increases testosterone and burns fat.
Keeping the tension over your heels and a flat back with head up, lower your body under control until parallel and then return to the starting position.
Do this exercise for 3 sets of 10 reps.
Crunch
The crunch is a great exercise for men over 60 when performed properly to keep the tension off the lower back and where it needs to be, on the abdominals.
Sit on the floor with knees slightly bent, back straight and arms out in from of you. Lean back slightly feeling the resistance in your core and then return to the starting position.
Do this exercise for 2 sets of 15 reps.
Leg Raises
The leg raise is a great exercise for men over 60 because it’s very safe, keeps tension off the lower back and where it needs to be, on the core.
Lie on the floor with feet together, slight bend in the knees and arms at your sides flat on the floor. Bring your knees up towards your chest keeping the tension on the lower abdominals.
Do this exercise for 2 sets of 15 reps.
Seated curl
As well as compound movements you should also include a few strategic isolation exercises that build lean muscle and isolate individual muscle groups.
The seated curl will target the biceps and keep the tension off the lower back.
Sit on a chair, grasp two water bottles and keeping the arms straight bend at the elbows keeping the tension on the biceps.
Do this exercise for 3 sets of 10 reps.
Workout frequency for men over 60
The perfect workout frequency to build lean muscle and lose belly fat for men over 60 is 3 times per week on non-consecutive days.
For example, if you performed the workout circuit on Monday, you would do the same workout on Wednesday and Friday.
By following that workout schedule coupled with a nutrition plan as covered in my course, Abs Over 40 you’ll lean down nicely.
What about nutrition?
Men over 60 need to eat wholesome natural foods that help with fat burning and improve testosterone.
Some foods that should be included are eggs, avocados, fatty fish and extra virgin olive oil.
The nutrition plan should be balanced and not going too low in carbs or fats as these are essential for testosterone production and providing energy for your workouts.
You need to be in a calorie deficit for fat loss to happen but that doesn’t mean going too low in calories as that will encourage the body to hold onto fat, the last thing you want.
By eating 400-500 calories less than your BMR, which is the number of calories your body needs to sustain its weight you’ll be able to lose fat at around 1-2lbs per week, which is what you should be targeting each week.
What about cardio?
As mentioned, cardio isn’t the most efficient way of losing belly fat for men over 60, you’ll get far better results by following the workout plan in my digital course, Abs Over 40.
But cardio can be used strategically once the foundations are in place for heart health and to help you expend more calories.
I recommend doing two 30-40 minutes walks on your non-strength training days either outside or on the treadmill.
Walking has been shown to have a neural effect on appetite which is exactly what you need when you’re trying to lose fat.
It’s also very enjoyable.
A lot of men over 60 think that doing lots of cardio is the key to losing fat without doing any resistance exercise, but it’s simply not the case.
Too much cardio will supress testosterone post exercise and if you do cardio without resistance exercise you might lose weight, but you’ll be losing lean muscle as well.
Losing lean muscle is not what you want as you get older because it’s responsible for burning fat and elevating the metabolism permanently.
I hope you’ve found this article informative and if you have any questions please let me know.