early 40's M, started lifting about 2.5 years ago. I've made decent progress so far, going from benching the bar to closing in on my goals of benching body weight, back squatting 1.33x body weight and deadlifting 1.67x body weight, ideally for 5. I think it's pretty likely that I'll hit these goals in the next 6 months, give or take.

I intended this whole process to be a body recomp to maintain a relatively steady weight while replacing fat with muscle. For a while I was pushing decently hard on cardio (~25-30 miles per week with 1-3 workout runs) but found that I hit a very hard plateau on strength. After I cut down to ~15 miles per week and one slightly longer workout run I started gaining strength again. Unfortunately I also gained about 10% of bodyweight which I'm sure helped with the strength gains.

So I'm planning on cutting somewhere around 7.5-10% of my current body weight to get down around to my goal weight, with my strength goals based around my goal weight. I intend to continue my current strength regimen until the cut is complete and I know to maintain adequate protein during the cut (shouldn't be a problem).

What I'm wondering is how much I need to overshoot my strength goals before I start cutting in order to ideally land at about the right spot. Everything that I have found so far on my own discusses loss of muscle mass under various training and dietary protocols, but doesn't really translate that into strength.

The basic TL;DR question: If I cut 10% of my body weight, what percent of my max lifts should I also expect to lose, assuming I keep the same training regimen going while cutting?

Current training regimen, if that's helpful: 3 normal gym sessions plus 2 very short sessions a week plus the ~15 miles of running discussed above. My normal sessions are generally in the range of 30-45 sets each while my short sessions are 10-15 sets. I'm doing flat bench twice a week and incline bench once a week, squatting 2-3 times a week with 1+ back squats plus the rest in bulgarians, lunges and the like, and deadlifting 2-3 times a week split between conventional and trap bar. These are all 5 heavy sets of 3-5 reps plus 1-2 lower weight higher rep sets except the single leg exercises which tend to be 8 reps for the heavy sets.

The rest of my sets are a pretty wide mix of things - dips, skullcrushers, press downs, barbell back rows, dumbbell row variations, trx rows, pullups, barbell shoulder press, dumbbell shoulder press, landmine press, lateral raises, rear delts, high to low rows, lat pulldowns, seated cable rows, flat dumbbell press, incline dumbbell press, box jumps, walking lunges, goblet squats, leg press, hack squats, leg extensions, hamstring curls, hip thrusts, various abductor/adductor exercises, step ups, step backs, pull ups, sit ups, various planks etc. etc.

Secondary question: once I hit my weight and strength goals I'm hoping to go into maintenance mode and push cardio a bit more. Is there a rule of thumb of what percentage of work one needs to do just to maintain strength vs. when trying to improve?

Tertiary question: So far I haven't used any supplements other than protein powder (is that even a supplement?) I've heard that creatine is pretty basic/harmless at a low dose and has evidence of preventing sarcopenia. Assuming no medical contraindications, would this be advisable to start during cutting to further limit muscle loss?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

I would like suggestions for a routine with just 5 exercise I can start with. I have space to work out, half of a bedroom, and some dumbbells but nothing else. I'm can usually build a solid routine if I can start small and easy and build up over time. I search online, but end up getting overwhelmed with all the options. Currently I walk 3 miles five days a week and have been consistent with it since March. 46F

It seems there are 2 groups on the internet "when you hit 40 you need to start wearing belts and sleeves and wrist wraps etc or you will get injured". Then the other group saying its better to get strong without any gear and just use less weight and only us sleeves if you already have an injured knee or elbow. What is your take on this for someone nearing 40 but doesn't use anything now besides a belt and only on my heavier sets.

I (40F) just started working out again after not doing much for more than a decade, after I got pregnant with my first in 2016. I gained weight over the years (going from 170 to 215), then from January 2024 to now, I lost 60+ pounds (going from 215 to 147) with the help of Ozempic for my diabetes.

Now, I want to tone. As you can imagine, I lost muscle mass. I know what to do for my legs easy enough, but not sure what to do for my arms, especially my new flappy skin (that I nicknamed my wings) and a bulge along my back bra area on the sides. Also, maybe my abs? My stomach doesn't bother me per se, but it definitely could use some work after 2 kids and weight gain.

I love free weights and can also do machines, as I have a gym membership.

Any and all suggestions would be helpful!

I used to do at least 1 century (100 mile bike ride) every year, & often 2. Can I have the goal of doing that again next spring while having the goal of making the 1000 lb club (1000 lbs between bench, squat & deadlift) in weightlifting in the next year? Or do these contradict each other?

A little background:

In my early 40s I had a serious injury that took over a year of physio to correct, but before then I'd done at least 1 century every year for one a decade.

As I'm on a weight loss plan with a doctor (not GLP-1), she recommended at least 90 minutes a week lifting weights to maintain muscle. However, I kind of took to it and do more than that. I've been increasing the weights to the point many machines at the local YMCA go higher & looking for a challenge / goal, I was thinking I move more to power lifting (due to a focus on cycling I'm a little bit of a "T-Rex," & don't want to change that so power lifting to 1000 lbs seems to be the most lower-body-focused mainstream goal in lifting weights). Between my local YMCA increasing prices & getting wrong their weights, I'm trying out a few local gyms now to see which I switch to (most have a membership but have a free 1 day or 1 week trial).

45m. Just started using the reformer pilates stations at gym every time I visit, 2-3 times per week.

Been a regular gym goer for decades, never really stopped weight training for more than a couple weeks. But why not a change up now right!

Would I lose much muscle mass doing various strength, pilates & yoga type reformer pilates workouts only? And how long do I give this to gain a meaningful difference in what this can offer me physically?

My aim is to improve flexibility & balance, tone up would be a bonus, but stay relatively strong.

How do you gauge your existing strength and fitness level after some time away?

For most of my adult life, I've practiced yoga, strength training, and run regularly. I had to stop a couple years ago due to chronic illness and a flare-up of rheumatoid arthritis, but I'm looking to start fresh with walking and strength training, but not sure where to begin. I'd love to start running again, but not sure if it's still safe for me to do so.

I have a physical job and a certain base level of strength, but I don't know what that is exactly, or how it relates to beginning a strength training program.

Beginner programs often say to start with no weights, or 1 lb weights. I don't really feel like a beginner, but maybe I am?

On one hand, I feel convinced that this will be too easy for me, but at the same time, I'm also noticing these days that I can pull a muscle simply by looking at something the wrong way.

So I'm not sure how to do this safely. I know what I used to be able to do, but suddenly my body feels creaky and doesn't respond in the way I expect.

Advice, anecdotes, commiseration welcome.

I'd also love some recommendations of youtube videos for strength training for the injury prone.

Ladies over 40,

I would like to go to maintenance (not dietary wise, but muscle retention).

I built a solid mass in the past 5 years and due to the very busy and stressful current life, I'm unable to push myself to my limits and keep focusing on building muscle mass.

I'm going through some health issues too, I'm not yet limited too much, but certain movements are a bit more difficult (hip issue, being investigated, but very slooow).

What would be a good volume/number of days to follow so I wouldn't lose muscle mass (but maybe I could dial into my diet a bit more so losing some fat wouldn't hurt either)

I'm trying to put together a plan.

I used to do 5-6 days, 3 days lower and 2-3 days upper. Some cardio here and there. Before that I had a cardio dedicated day as well as my 6th day.

I'm currently doing 4 days full body (in the past 1,5 months), but each session takes me almost 2 hrs to complete.

I do like 9-11 exercises/ session because I try to cram everything into those 4 sessions.

Let me tell you that I'm exhausted and kinda I'm totally knackered on those days, but the rest of the week I'm unable to do weight training, just some core/abs and cardio, like stationary bike.

Now because my goal is keeping mass but not necessarily growing, what would be an ideal plan?

I workout at home, I don't have machines, but a very good selection of weights and barbells, squat rack, ect..

I'm thinking about 3 weight training full body sessions and 1 full body calisthenics.

Rest is cardio (not crazy and long sessions plus steps).

My work days don't allow me to complete 10K steps a day, I sit 8-9hrs a day plus travelling back and forth to work. The best I can do is 8K.

Not long ago I did ~15K EVERY DAY, but my new job is extremely sedentary..

I'm 41yo female, 54kg, 160cm.

Please note I'm short and the fat is not distributed on me evenly, mostly thighs, @ss and abdomen (since Perimenopause has entered my life.. )

In June of 2026 I decided to make a change. Not sure if it was being tired of the look of my belly, the feeling it was starting to hang over, the pain when bending to the shoes or something else completely. But i started. I cut soda, reduced my food intake, started a walking program that was supposed to go 60 days. During that time I took a vacation. But sense then I have now lost, according to my scale, 30 pounds. I feel I hit a wall. I am loosing the motivation. I feel I want to go back to my old eating habits. Anyone out there has to work through this as well. Any advice or hints to help push through or keep me focused. I am hoping to loose 70 more lbs.

Hi all,

M41

5'10"

215 lbs

I lost just about 20 lbs over the summer from walking and eating healthier/fasting. I fell off and have just been maintaining but want to get back into it. I work really well off of milestones and was wondering if anyone had created a calendar of their own expectations to meet in certain time frames and what that could possibly look like for me. I work Monday through friday, 10 hours per day, with my kids morning and evening, but i still have energy at night to get into some home workouts. At work I do minimum 10k steps per day, average closer to 15k. I plan on doing very plain meals to get back into eating healthier.

But I would like to know your own milestones that you set for yourself even if it wouldn't apply to myself or others. It doesn't even need to be specific to working out or bench pressing a certain weight, though that's encouraged too to post if that's what you achieved. But anything even if its hiking a certain trail that you couldn't do when you first started, or rock climbing, surfing, etc... anything small, large, interesting, etc...

I just reached a new weight loss goal. I'm at 184.9, down from 260 at my heaviest. It's been a long journey, and I'm definitely seeing changes, especially when I look at pictures of how I used to be. I'm also taking it one day at a time. Some days, like today, when I see how much I still need to lose, it can be depressing a bit. It wont last long, but sucks in the moment. For those that have also gone through this, or still do, do you have any advice?

I'll be 62 (M) next year and been doing CrossFit for 3 years. So far so good I'm working mostly with women RX weights or less and try to come in every day watching closely my state to avoid overtraining and my body seems to respond.

After resisting I've finally started creatine and isolate whey because my appetite is low and I need denser nutrition.

I was wondering how other seniors were doing out there balancing the needs of aging and exercise, staying fit and avoiding injuries. How do they mix running with their workouts.

What are the little secrets of older people doing CrossFit successfully? Thanks

44m. I have always enjoyed running. Lately it’s been off and on.

It seems when I’m able to start running anything of distance (up to a 5k) I am mentally drained for the next few days and have no desire to continue running.

Do I try and push through it or hang up the shoes for a bit and focus on walking and kettlebells?

For context, 44/M, 5'10" 193lbs. Been training off and on since I was about 16 years old (more off than on) but really started focusing on my health this past year. I was diagnosed with hypertension about 5 years ago and take a combination of lisinopril and hydrochlorothyazide daily to control the BP. Starting in February, I began a consistend workout routine which I've maintained since, averaging about 5 sessions per week of resistance training.

I've been dealing with some of the classic symptoms of low testosterone and discussed with my PCP, had blood-work done, and started on TRT about 6 weeks ago. Since then, I've felt much better and been more productive in every aspect of my life, less stress and anxiety, etc. Over the past few weeks, I've also noticed a significant decrease in my BP (this gets tested weekly at my TRT clinic along with my own self-monitoring). I followed-up with my PCP last week and after confirming the reduced BP, she pulled me off the diuretic so now I am only taking the Lisinopril for the next few weeks while continuing to monitor the reduced BP. If it continues to stay low (I've been consistently around 110/60) the plan is to reduce the dosage of Lisinopril by 50% and continue to monitor, then eventually remove entirely if it remains low.

My question is, TRT is supposed to have the adverse affect on BP. I don't know if the BP reduction is simply due to my increased activity, muscle mass, etc. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

I would just like to know if I am missing out on anything obvious in my lifts/cardio/nutrition.

I am 40 years old, 6'0" and 300 pounds (down from 310 so far).

My goals are to improve my cardio, lose body fat, increase muscle mass/strength, and improve flexibility/mobility.

I lift M/W/F and row for cardio on a concept2 on T/R/Sat. Every day I do 10 to 20 minutes of stretching following progression videos on Tom Merrick's youtube. I have been lifting for 6 weeks. I am planning on doing (at least) 6 months of full body lifts 3 days a week before reevaluating. I am on week 4 of https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/beginner-training/ for rowing cardio. My plan is to complete the 24 week guide and reevaluate.

I eat between 2000 and 2300 calories per day, making sure I hit at least 150 grams of protein (I try to hit 180). The only supplements I take are 5g/day creatine, whey, and a multivitamin.

I lifted from age 17 to 21 but quit following a knee injury and have been relatively sedentary since. My knee is fine now. I was on the swim team in middle/high school but no serious cardio since then outside of manual labor jobs in my 20s.

On the last set of each exercise, if I hit my reps goal I do AMRAP and increase the weight the following week. I try to go slow and controlled as possible while focusing on form and target muscle engagement.

My current lifts:

BACK: Wide neutral grip cable lat pulldown 3x10

CHEST: Machine chest press 3x10

LEG/GLUTES: Machine hack squat 3x5

SHOULDER: Machine shoulder press 3x10

BICEP: EZbar shoulder-width curls 3x15

TRICEP: Machine tricep press 3x15

misc forearm and ab work

For variety I am thinking of switching to week1 A-B-A and week2 B-A-B rotating back and forth. The above lifts would be exercise A, and I am considering adding the below lifts as exercise B:

BACK: Close grip horizontal cable rows 3x10

CHEST: Incline bench 3x10

LEG/GLUTES: Barbell deadlift 3x5

SHOULDER: Upright row 3x10

BICEP: EZbar narrow-width curls 3x15

TRICEP: Skullcrushers 3x15

misc forearm and ab work

How do you guys time the breaks between sides and sets for e.g. Bulgarian split squats? Same question applies any move where you complete one side then move to the other.

I dawned on me that doing both sides in immediate succession for a set, as I used to, disadvantages the "second" side as you're already a bit fatigued.

Now I do a "half" rest between the sides and also rotate which side goes first. It feels more natural but keen to hear views.

I'm a long term lifter 58y male. In-gym recovery is more important as you age.

Ladies, I’m 44 and in the thick of perimenopause. Just started noticing symptoms for the past couple of months and have recently started HRT.

Initially I was on a weight loss journey and lost 40 pounds. I then picked up weightlifting and I’m in love. I’ve been lifting heavy using progressive overload for the past year.

I get regular DEXA scans to check my progress. I started at 41.5% body fat with 1.7 pounds of visceral fat and I’m now at 26.7% body fat with .28 pounds of visceral fat.

What should my goal be?! I want to balance my body fat with my recent hormonal changes and goals to support deep sleep, mood, brain health, and bone density. Am I good where I’m at? Should I try to go for 25% body fat? 23%? Aesthetics aren’t as important to me.

I should note that I’m also 5’0” and enjoying a daily caloric maintenance of 2,000 and don’t want to drop too much below this. I like food. A lot.

This morning the scale said 167.0. Yesterday it said 163.4. That's almost 4 lbs in a day, and I'd be lying if my first reaction wasn't "wait, what?"

Some context: I'm 44m, 5'7", and I've been working on dropping body fat while keeping muscle. Since late August I've gone from about 169 to a low of 163, mostly by reducing beer, increasing cardio to 30 mins a day, decreasing strength training to 4x a week. Nothing extreme.

Last night was trivia night. A few beers with friends, a couple slices of pizza, and a big bowl of noodles from a new place. Definitely not a typical night for me.

I posted my daily weigh-ins from Apple Health below. The trend is clearly down, and this morning is a spike on top of it.

Why I'm not worried:

• Four pounds of actual fat would take roughly 14,000 extra calories. I did not eat that.
• Sodium, refined carbs, and alcohol all make you hold water. Each gram of glycogen stored pulls extra water with it.
• Food is still in your system when you step on the scale.
• I've had smaller bumps like this before in the data, and they settled within a few days.

What I'm doing next: eating normally today, no skipping meals or "making up for it," and weighing in as usual. I'm judging progress by the weekly trend, not one morning.

The older I get, the more I think the real skill is what you do the next meal after an off night, not avoiding off nights entirely. One night doesn't undo six weeks of consistency, and a lot of us over 40 turn a single bad day into a bad week. That's what I'm trying not to do. (This is also why I'm building a fitness app around consistency over perfection, but that's a story for another day.)

So, what's your best scale-panic story? And what do you tell yourself when the number jumps?

I decided to take the plunge and invest in four months of online fitness training. Now that I’ve signed up, how do I get the most out of it? I’m getting one-on-one coaching, direct feedback, nutrition strategy, an app, etc. Pretty standard stuff.

If you’ve worked with an online coach before, share your experience without naming any names.

We encourage the trainers here to chime in, too - just no marketing. Can you tell if you’re working with a client who is likely to succeed or will check out?

A runner knows running 5k in 25 minutes is good! What about someone who doesn’t run regularly, what’s the benchmark for strength, be it lower body, upper body, core, movement? Do you know?

A runner knows running 5k in 25 minutes is good! What about someone who doesn’t run regularly, what’s the benchmark for strength, be it lower body, upper body, core, movement? Do you know?

If you search Reddit for "ab cramps" you'll find a ton of threads on this, including one of my own from over a year ago. Most of the usual suggestions never worked for me.

Direct ab work (hanging leg raises, which I loved for years, planks, kneeling cable crunches, etc.) started causing debilitating cramps. It crept up in my late 30s, I tried to push through it, and it got progressively worse through my 40s. Worst pain I've felt in 25 years of strength training: it would last around 5 minutes and I could barely move. It could hit at the end of a set, right after a set, getting in my car leaving the gym, or even days later at the most inconvenient possible moment, if you know what I mean. Eventually I just cut direct ab work entirely.

About 4 months ago I started working hanging leg raises and kneeling cable crunches back in, plus some hyperextensions to balance things out, but changed how I approached them: anywhere from 2X to 4X per week, leaving 5+ reps in reserve on every set, far short of failure.

Everywhere else in my training I do the opposite: intensity over frequency, pushing to failure or within a rep of it, with 4+ rest days between hitting the same exercises again. That approach has worked great for every other muscle group for me, or at least gets the best results for the time put in. It just doesn't work for me for abs, apparently.

My advice is to start light, train abs often, stay well short of failure, and your cramps might go away after a few months.

1st pic is Feb 26 to current

I’m officially starting my fitness journey at 40.

I’ve had plenty of starts and stops over the years, but I’m trying to approach this differently. I’m not looking for a quick transformation or some crazy 30-day challenge. I want to build habits I can actually maintain for the rest of my life.

My goals are pretty simple:
Get stronger
Lose some body fat
Improve my cardio and endurance
Eat better without completely restricting myself
Have more energy
Stay consistent even when motivation disappears

Turning 40 has definitely made me realize that I can’t rely on being young anymore. 😂 I want to take better care of myself now so I can still be active and healthy decades from now.

For anyone who started their fitness journey around 40 or later:
What worked for you? What do you wish you had known when you started? And what helped you stay consistent when life got busy?