The Ultimate Full-Body Workout for Men Over 40, According to Experts
Too busy to get to the gym after work? Try this ultimate full-body workout for men over 40.
If you can only use one exercise to work your full body, what would it be?
Whether you recently entered the workforce, got promoted, or became a new dad, life can bring swift changes to your regular routines.
A time slot once reserved for the gym and self-care is now dedicated to a different cause, per se.
One thing for sure is you don’t have the time for a full-body routine covering your legs, arms, chest, and back with different exercises.
Instead, you need an all-in-one full-body exercise that’ll cut to the chase and hit all your muscles in one move. It’s the kind of workout you can get your sweat on in no time and tone your whole body quickly without the need for a gym or equipment.
It’s the ultimate full-body exercise every man needs. Most importantly, it’s the type of workout that would fulfill your every workout need while saving time.
Each movement will engage and activate multiple muscle groups, especially the larger ones to boost efficiency. It’s also key to elevating metabolism and keeping your body fit and strong even when you are strapped for time.
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The Ultimate Full-Body Workout for Men
There are three best full-body workouts that fit the bill and meet the requirements. Each has a slightly different focus and emphasis, so I suggest you rotate them throughout the week or month.
1. Pushup
A pushup is one ultimate workout. It touches and engages almost every muscle in your body from your pecs, arms, deltoids, glutes, to calves. Not to mention, you don’t need to add any free weights for it to be a great strength-training move.
According to Cooper Institute, you carry over 69% of your body weight in the up motion of the pushup. In your low position, the weight even goes up to over 75% (1).
This is a tremendous amount of weight considering that’s 150 pounds of weight in the down position for any man weighing 200 pounds.
The only reason your body can bear the weight is to recruit multiple muscles in the body including the core, arms, chest, back, and glutes.
Though this is a full-body exercise, it places more emphasis on the upper body than the lower body.
How to Perform a Proper Pushup:
- Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart at chest level.
- Adjust your feet so they are just about hip-width apart and perfectly in line with the body. Don’t let your toes or heels point inward or outward. They should be parallel to each other.
- Form a straight line from your shoulders to the hips and pull your belly button in to maintain a natural curve on your back.
- Don’t let your head drop and keep it in line with the shoulders.
- Engage your core and squeeze the glutes. Bend the elbows to lower your chest and hips toward the floor (or any surface you are using) and stop when you reach as close to it as possible.
- Engage the chest, triceps, and core. Press through the hands to push your body up to the starting position.
- Repeat 7-10 times to start. You can increase the reps you improve your fitness level.
2. Dumbbell Squat Press
If you are looking for a more lower-body focused, functional full-body exercise, try the dumbbell squat press. First of all, the squat is a functional exercise that increases your daily performance. It’ll help improve your mobility, flexibility, function, and range of motion on top of strength.
Though squat’s primary target muscles are the hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexors, it’s a superb core exercise.
To maintain upper body stability, it engages your entire abs, core, and spinal stabilizing muscles.
By adding a shoulder press, you are also adding shoulders, lats, and arms to already a full-body squat exercise.
How to Perform a Proper Dumbbell Squat Press:
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand and bring them to your shoulders with palms facing each other. Get into a standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Tighten your abs and glutes. Hinge at your hips and squat down until your knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. Make sure your knees don’t pass the toes.
- Pressed through your feet and come up to the starting position.
- With your abs and glutes still engaged, press up the dumbbells over your head. Pause for a moment and lower the dumbbells to your shoulder level. Repeat the movements 10 times.
3. Burpees
Need to burn off calories while strengthening your full body? Try the burpee exercise. Burpees are one excellent anaerobic exercise that’ll make you exasperate for air in no time and raise your resting heart rate.
But the burpee is not just busy cardio. It’s a body-strengthening workout that combines a squat jump with a bodyweight pushup.
It’s fit for maximum calorie burning while activating your whole body and training your endurance.
How to Perform a Burpee:
- Bend over or squat down and place your hands on the ground in front of you, shoulder-width apart.
- Jump back so that you end up in a plank.
- Drop down to a pushup until your chest touches the floor.
- Push up to return to the plank again.
- Spring back, placing your feet back in the original position in line with your hands.
- Now jump explosively. Reach your arms overhead.
- Repeat as many times as you can for 30 seconds or complete 10-15 reps.