It is a common belief that you must slow down – especially when it comes to doing challenging workouts and exercising hard after 40. However, according to experts, strength training becomes even more crucial as you age.
And to do that, you don’t need an expensive gym membership or fancy equipment. You can build muscles right at home, easily.
F most powerful home exercises that help you deliver better results than traditional gym workouts include:
Bodyweight squats
To do bodyweight squats, you need to simply stand straight and thereafter push your hips back and bend at the knees, lowering into a squat with a neutral spine. After driving your feet into the ground, try to push back up, tensioning the glutes, hamstrings, and quads at the top, and repeat.
Bodyweight squats should be done at least twice or thrice a week, and make sure not to round your back, but simply bend at the hips only.
Push-ups
Push-ups help build your upper body muscles, like the chest, shoulders, and triceps, as they provide resistance. However, if you are looking to build muscles, focus more on deep reps and slowly add variations as you become more comfortable doing them by adding more weights and doing slow-motion push-ups.
Since muscle growth comes with consistent efforts, you need to make sure to combine proper nutrition with exercise.
Pull-ups
Pull-ups help build muscles, as they engage a lot of upper-body and core muscle groups – which include your back, arms, shoulders, and core stabilisers. According to experts, pull-ups stimulate growth in a lot of areas, like promoting overall muscle mass and strength gains more efficiently than isolation exercises.
However, if you are looking to effectively build muscle, make sure to focus on controlled movements and gradually increase your total number of repetitions.
Step-ups
Step-ups are super easy resistance exercises that take care of your muscles in the legs and buttocks. According to experts, step-ups target your quadriceps and hamstrings – along with gluteal muscles in your back.
To perform step-ups, you need to first make sure to step onto a raised surface and slowly come down. With positive progress, make sure to increase the height of the step and then hold dumbbells to help challenge your muscles and promote growth.
Reverse lunges
Lunges are a popular, versatile exercise that helps strengthen your lower body. It helps work many muscles in one move and offers numerous benefits. It also varies your technique, emphasising different muscles or their parts. Reverse lunges help build muscles in your quadriceps and glutes.
To perform a reverse lunge, you need to stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and lower your hips until your front knee is bent at 90 degrees. Push off your front foot to return to the starting position, maintaining a tall, upright chest.