Gay Fitness in Our 40s
40 isn’t fatal. You can be healthy, happy, and fit in your 40s and beyond, provided you prioritize wellness and make movement a regular part of your life. Look for a happier, healthier & wealthier life?
Gay Men Over 40 Should Focus on Movement
And much like investing your money wisely, the proper workout routine can help you burn more calories and get the most out of your time at the gym.
On this episode of Queer Money, we share our top five gay fitness tips for men in their 40s, discussing the benefit of supersetting weight-bearing exercises to get the best ROI on your workout.
We explain why it’s crucial to maintain a consistent, high-nutrition diet and how having a workout buddy can help you stay on track.
Listen for insight on controlling your cortisol level as you age and learn the five-step workout routine that’s working for us right now!
Listen to our 5 Fitness Tips for Gay Men Over 40:
Topics Covered
- Our top 5 fitness tips for gay men in their 40s
- The benefit of supersetting weight-bearing exercises
- How to get the best ROI on your workout
- Why it’s crucial to maintain a consistent diet
- What high-nutrition foods do we eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
- How having a workout buddy helps us stay on track
- What you can do to control your cortisol level as you age
- Why it’s essential to get adequate sleep
- The 5-step workout routine that works for us
Gay fitness for men 40, 50, and over
It wasn’t long ago in the club-thumping 2000s when we joined our people in a shirtless display of diva-house abandon. As the decade waned, we got too old for that to be our main merrymaking. Work and life happened, and working out six days a week turned into working out six days a year.
We’re now in our 40s and Linda Evans* has told us since puberty that “40 isn’t fatal.”
We argue that most Gen Xers have chosen their physical states. With advancements in technology and medicine and our greater understanding of anatomy and physiology, all the sexy excuses we manufacture don’t negate the fact that we have no reason to let ourselves go.
We’re not clinging to the gay fitness of our 20s like an aging pop star. We want to be in the top 20% of our cohort. That’s why we only buy organic, fair trade, and gluten-free food that never touches peanuts.
That’s also why we kicked our workout intensity up higher than Sally O’Malley can kick. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve seen good results.
1. Superset weight-bearing exercise
Muscles weigh more than fat, and bodies that weigh the same look better when they have more muscle than fat. So, gain more muscle and don’t worry about having too much. For most men in their 40s, too much regarding muscles is impossible.
We’re doing high-impact weight training for one hour a day, four days a week. This is helping us gain muscle and muscle strength. We started with low weights and are now using medium to heavy weights.
Because our legs are our biggest muscles, we’re lifting legs two of those four days a week. One day, we do arms and shoulders. The last day, we did lats and traps. We superset each exercise, so we never rest long.
In between each superset, we run as fast as we can on the treadmill for one minute and then stroll on the treadmill for another minute. This keeps our resting heart rate up during our one-hour, intense exercise.
High-impact weight training reduces the risk of injury, both exercise-induced and otherwise. It’s also making us metabolic. This means our caloric burn is increasing even when we’re resting.
So, lift weights, do yoga, and palates with a room full of hotties, and check out the bodies until you’re satisfied.
2. Stay consistent with both diet and exercise
There was a time in our 20s when we were more twinks than Twinkies and could “snap back into shape” in two weeks. Now that we’re in our 40s and want to resume our fabulous gay fitness bodies, getting back into shape requires more than a two-week attention span.
Consistency is key. We exercise six days a week, come hell or high heels (some would say that’s six of one, half-dozen of the other).
3. Double-team your gay fitness – get a workout buddy
Like sex and life, exercise is better with a partner, though neither of us would advocate for giving up solo satisfaction.
When our alarm goes off at 4:30 am, it’s easier getting up knowing that the other is getting up, too. It’s easier to bundle up to go outside during the winter when the other is getting dressed to brave the cold, too.
Having a workout buddy keeps us motivated during our 60-minute exercise regimen. It makes it easier to work out harder, and harder is always better. Both of us can easily phone in a workout. When we work out together, one picks up the other when the other’s slack.
4. Control your cortisol levels
Cardio is great, but the older we get, the more we must exercise in moderation. Rarely would we tell another man not to push it hard, but because of our propensity for increased production of Cortisol with increased cardio when we age, it’s important not to push cardio too hard.
That means long bike rides, long runs, long times in a humid, body sweat-infused exercise room with a dozen other fellow gay fitness fanatics should not be overdone. Intense cardio may have worked when we were kids, but during our adult years, these exercises increase our stress levels more than we need.
Stress increases the production of cortisol in our bodies. Cortisol converts blood sugar into fat, and fat is the enemy of gay fitness. Cortisol is a bitch for us, but it helped our cave brothers when they had to run from real bears.
5. Get enough good sleep
On the flip side, lack of sleep causes a shortage of serotonin. When we’re stressed or tired, we want comfort. What’s the easiest way to feel comfortable? Comfort food!
We want that breakfast donut, a plate of spaghetti, and a dessert cake because high-fat and high-carb foods produce serotonin, which makes us tired. This should cause us to sleep more, except that white, processed sweet stuff makes it hard to catch 40 winks and lose 40 pounds.
Linda Evans was right. Please support Linda Evans.
50-minute, 50-something intense fitness plan
Repeat 5 times:
- 5 minutes of intense cardio
- running around the block, climbing stairs, skipping rope, jumping jacks
- 25 pushups
- 25 crunches
- 25 squats (weighted or not)
- 25 lunges – works the glutes, which we love, and balance
3 ways to give your workouts some help
1. Don’t give yourself an excuse not to hit the gym
Hit the gym at home with the exercise program above when needed. You can put in a full workout at home for those days you don’t want to hop in the car and hit the gym with a room full of people you don’t know.
2. Stretch your muscles and your mind with yoga
If you’re lifting heavy and hearing, you want to stay limber. A great way to do that is yoga or basic calisthenics.
3. Eat healthy to get more out of your workouts
If you’re putting in all that time and energy for a good workout, don’t sabotage yourself with a lousy diet because, especially as we age, our diet significantly affects our fitness more than anything else.
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