Late 40s male- gym routine to tone up recommendation

dinneenp

Hi,

48 male, 6 foot, 93kg, have a spare tyre & no real upper body definition. I play astro football twice weekly, cycle (100km per week but haven't in a few months), just began gym twice weekly as I have knee issue (so doing a routine my physio recommended), walk dog almost daily.

Any specific recommendations to get upper body someway toned. Gym has full range of machines, weights & virtual classes. ATM I do 5 mins cardio (rowing machine or elliptical trainer) to get heart rate up/break a sweat, then plank, followed by leg exercises and some quiet random others- chest press machine, squat with kettlebell, dumbbells arm curls.

Any specific routine to tone upper body please? I'm planning on increasing cardio time & going more than twice a week. Is rowing machine the best cardio workout to begin with as it works upper body muscles?

For spare tyre I presume it's more diet than anything the gym can fix.

Thanks in advance!

djan

Considering you're already above average in terms of activity, in order to tone up, it's mostly tied to your calorie intake. A lot easier to loose weight and visually tone up than gain muscle. To be honest I'd focus on creating a set routine you stick to without going all guns blazing and burning out. This has to be accompanied by a thorough evaluation of your eating habits. Unless you're already lost or loosing a fair bit of weight, with your levels of activity calorie intake would be quite high to be overweight.

Specifically to upper body, could be an idea to do seated compound exercises such as chest press, shoulder flys/press and things like that in order to not put more strain on knees. In terms of cardio, and upper body workout, rowing is really great, just make sure to keep good form to not hurt your back.

GeorgeStobart2022

Id hire a personal trainer and tell him/her to go through a full body routine teaching you the best compound exercises like Squats Deadlift Bench Military press and Pull ups . You can in a Bicep and Tricep exercises too. Once you have learned the basics hit the gym 3 times a week . You should get a pedometer too and aim for 10k steps daily. If you have an active job you could get most of them at work . Regards diet its not rocket science . The drink is a big one to nip in the bud or to be very moderate . Eat lots of veg fruit and lean meats . If its a single ingredient food its ok

dinneenp

Thanks for the replies so far.

I WFH, sitting at a computer all day.

I have a fitness watch, get at least 10k steps most days.

I eat too much chocolate, cutting down.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121602458#Comment_121602458

I'm two stone up on you but I'm feeling inspired reading this

DilemmaDan

I'm late thirties, 6' 1" and find myself in a similar boat in the summer. I was 99kg and while I did a bit of running I raised I was heading in the wrong direction health wise.

I started doing Tactical Barbell conditioning (it's a silly name) with a base building block in August. As a programme I really liked it because it factors in both strength training and conditioning work. It also allows good amounts of recovery and tries to ensure there's a good progression. It's not going to make you jacked fat but it's very sustainable and after base building it was possible to work on calories. Since starting I'm down to around 92kg and hoping to be around 85 this summer.

Biggest thing I'd say is to start calorie counting, a 500 calorie deficit a day is manageable and gives you flexibility for days where you need a bit more energy. It's a slow process but it works!

AllForIt

At your age it's even more the case to sort this with your diet.

As for chocolate, think of it as an addiction to sugar and chocolate is your preferred choice of sugar flavor.

I find eating a lot of fruit for a few days is good for getting off my sugar addiction, instead of going cold turkey on it. Bananas paticulary but whatever you prefer.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121602458#Comment_121602458

10k steps will be harder if WFH. Even if I go to the office to sit at my desk all day, I'm +5k steps easily, just from the trip there and back, getting coffee/lunch and everythign being a little further away (kitchen bathroom).

But 10k is just an arbitrary recommendation. the actual calorie burn of hitting 10k (vs 5k) is not significant in terms of losing weight (maybe +100 to 200 calories).

This will complete come down to diet.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121602266#Comment_121602266

Single ingredient foods being ok is pretty bad logic for weight loss. There are tons of single ingredient food that are awful choices on a diet.

Black Sheep

Yes, I think the several replies above recommending addressing diet are completely on point. This also aligns directly with what the OP's goals are, also - more upper body definition.

I would say the activity levels indicated by the OP - even putting aside the cycling - are well above the average. There's no reason body composition can't significant improve if that is maintained, and calorie intake comes down.

This is simple but not easy. I would, personally, much rather train hard than actually have to eat in a calorie deficit, but that is definitely the best option on the table.

The good news is that when someone does eat in a deficit, and brings their weight down, calories can be increased then to maintenance, which is easier to sustain. Or even, at that point, go into a slight surplus and dial up the resistance training to add muscle mass.

There's this idea, in everyday Irish discourse, the the weight can "pile back on", after people lose weight, and it's like a mystery or some kind of inevitability. It reminds me of the myth that muscle tissue literally turns to fat if you don't keep lifting. People seem to be able to conceptualise that exercise and diet result in weight loss, but they imagine there's some elastic rebound effect that results in the weight being gained back. In terms of what really matters, there isn't - weight gain after weight loss is always just people backsliding into a heavy surplus.

As mentioned above by DilemmaDan, tracking calories, maybe via an app like MyFitnessPal, would be a good place to begin. It doesn't have to be a sustained thing, but if you are honest, then the tracking will tell you straight off whether you're actually eating in a large surplus, on a daily basis, which may be the case. Then you can taper that off. There's no need to go straight into eating in a big deficit, start small and see how you go from there.

You could benefit hugely from introducing resistance training, 2-3 days a week, I would opt for full body sessions. Doing that probably would result in building some lean muscle mass that might actually leave you "looking better" (and certainly feeling better). Even if your body fat % remained the same, adding mass in the chest and shoulders, for example, can help to offset a broad waist / thick midline. But if you really want definition, then dropping body fat % is the way to go.

Even for people who do a lot of resistance training, and have moderately good body composition, if they want specific things like arms and shoulders that pop, like the see in magazines and on instagram, there's a chunk of it which comes down to having low body fat, once you have the muscle.

dinneenp

Just to give an update-

I'm with VHI and they have free online physio service. So I had an appointment today and he gave me a routine & emailed me a list of each with images, video & description of each exercise.

Shoulder External Rotation with Resistance Band, press ups, chess press , seated low row on machine, shoulder press with wide over grip, Lat pulldown, bicep curls with dumbbells, tricep pull down in standing position with cable machine and lateral raise with dumbbell

I found that since I've been going to the gym regularly, that I'm much more conscious of what I eat and have definitely cut down on 'rubbish' food.